We’ve asked about your top three movies, and I’d love to know your top three books. As of this month, I have a new all-time favorite…
Olive Kitteridge. Have you ever read it? Even though Elizabeth Strout is one of my favorite authors, and this particular novel won the Pulitzer (no biggie), I had somehow never found my way to it, but I picked it up this summer and never put it down. The story features Olive Kitteridge, a crotchety retired schoolteacher in Maine, and the townspeople around her, who are just trying to get through life (easier said than done). I adored the lines that echoed her no-nonsense personality, like, “The girl was neat as a pin, if plain as a plate” and “She didn’t like to be alone. Even more, she didn’t like being with people.” I absolutely fell in love with Olive and her brutal honesty — she calls people “nitwits” and “flub-dubs,” but she’s deeply caring underneath it all and touches many more people than she realizes.
Oh, how I loved this book! When I finished it, I lay in bed and hugged it for 10 minutes. I now have that sad, nostalgic feeling after ending a novel — there should be a word for that — and miss living in Olive’s windswept world.
Since it’s often hard to name your #1 favorite book — people seem to freeze and forget every book they’ve ever read — I’d love to ask about your top three. My list would also include Dept. of Speculation and An American Marriage. And if we’re allowed to include short stories, Away From Her.
Tell me! What are your top three books? I want to hear…
P.S. Our top three movies and what’s the most beautiful line you’ve ever read?
426 COMMENTS
So many mentions of A Little Life – it’s decided, that’s my next read!
Current Favorite Non-Fiction:
1. Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson
2. Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson
3. The Color of Law by Richard Rothstein
Current Favorite Fiction:
1. Middlesex by Jeffrey Euginedes
2. The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt
3. The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab
just finished olive kitteredge! loved it. it reminded me of jhumpa lahiri (which reminds me, jhumpa lahiri should be all over this list), how she cored through each chapter and character with respect and beauty and economy and smarts. also loved gentleman in moscow, more of a charming, lighter read, and a nice one in pandemic.
thanks so much for the recs, cup of jo! can’t wait for more!
I love these posts and lists! I’ve read so many great books from these comments over the years!
I, too, loved Olive Kitteridge and all of Elizabeth Strout’s books.
3 of my favorites:
Bel Canto by Ann Patchett
Atonement by Ian McEwan
A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving
love all three of these. we must have the same taste!
What an incredible list this all is!
Some of my favorites:
– Writers & Lovers – King
– Lincoln in the Bardo – Saunders
– Dept of Speculation & Weather – Offill
– All the Light We Cannot See – Doerr
And some older faves:
– White Teeth, NW & On Beauty – Smith
– Visit from the Goon Squad – Egan
– Poisonwood Bible – Kingsolver
If you loved Olive Kitteridge that much you should read the other books by her that include characters in Olive. For instance Amy and Isabelle, the Burgess Boys, Olive Again, Abide by Me. They are all good
In no particular order…
Born to Run by Christopher McDougall
A Little Life by Yanagihara, Hanya
The Hours by Cunningham, Michael
Hi Jo!
Would you consider doing more posts with Top 3 Books such as:
1. What are your top three favorite COOKBOOKS?
2. What are your top three favorite KIDS CHAPTER BOOKS?
3. What are your top three favorite MEMOIRS?
4. What are your top three favorite SELF-HELP BOOKS?
5: What are your top three favorite POETRY BOOKS?
This is such a well-read community and I’d love to share, hear and exchange favorites from these categories. Thanks so much for creating this beautiful space.
I just love this idea, Grace.
Non-fiction:
Be Here Now – Ram Dass’ world-altering guide to spiritual awakening.
Poetry:
House of Light – Mary Oliver. I can’t believe I lived half of my life without knowing about Mary.
Fiction:
In The Distance – Hernan Diaz flipped the typical Western novel on it’s head in this absolutely beautiful meditation on loneliness and isolation. Perfect for the times.
Amazing post!! Just ordered 3 books from this list! (Middlesex, Olive Kitteridge & A little life).
It’s too hard to pick just 3, so I’ve decided to go with a theme. And because this is a community of wonderful women, here are my top 3 novels portraying women in an haunthingly beautiful way.
Nothing Holds Back the Night – Delphine de Vigan
Blonde – Joyce Carol Oates
Three Women – Lisa Taddeo
Men without Women is wonderful! Murakami for the win.
Fave by far is Crocodile on the Sandbank by Elizabeth Peters – along with the full series
The. Magnificent Spinster – May Sarton
The Color of Water – James McBride
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings – Maya Angelou
The Golden Notebook – Doris Lessing
Man’s Search for Meaning – Viktor Frankl
More than three I know, but it’s election time and I needed this! Also, I couldn’t forget The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion. My Amazon wishlist is now filled with so many of your recommendations – thanks to all!
Tell The Wolves I’m Home
Pillars of The Earth
Tell Me More
Untamed
Children of Blood and Bone
The Blue Shoe by Ann Lamott
A Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley (really anything by her)
The World According to Garp by John Irving
This is my LIST! no one has ever heard of Blue Shoe! we are twins.
Into Thin Air
Never In My Wildest Dreams: A Black Woman’s Life in Journalism
Born A Crime
Kind of impossible to pick three – I have a small shelf where I keep about 10-12 of my favorite books, and these are probably the top three.
Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell (I have read this many times and just love it-such a great story)
The Sunne in Splendor by Sharon Kay Penman (her first book that I ever read, and which led to me reading all of her books – I re-read Sunne in Splendor and Here Be Dragons frequently)
Watership Down by Richard Adams (my favorite book as a child and one I have read over and over)
So hard to pick! But:
Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi
In the Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado
Recursion by Blake Crouch
Recursion is one of my favourites EVER!!!!! It DEEPLY affected me. I’ll look at the others you like too!
Adding because I’ve SO enjoyed reading everyone else’s, but I couldn’t just do 3!
-Shantaram (Gregory David Roberts)
-All the Light We Cannot See (Anthony Doerr)
-The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime (Mark Haddon)
-Johnny Got His Gun (Dalton Trumbo)
-A Little Princess (Frances Hodgson Burnett)
love love love a little princess. love!
I read Shantaram over a decade ago and I love being reminded of it here. Such a wonderful book!