Erin Blakemore's The Heroine's Bookshelf HarperCollins, 2010 Have a favourite book that you tend to revisit when times get tough? Or maybe at just any ol' time that you find yourself missing the characters therein? Perhaps you have a fondness for Jane Eyre, or you can't help but re-read Little Women over
Mildred D. Taylor's The Gold Cadillac (1980) Illus. Michael Hays Dial Books for Young Readers, 1987 Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry (1976) won the Newbery in 1977 and it remains Mildred D. Taylor's best known novel. But the Logan family was actually introduced in her first novella, Song of the Trees
Elizabeth Vonarburg's Reluctant Voyagers (1995) Trans. from the French Jane Brierley Does sci-fi reading use a different muscle? If so, mine is out of practice. And no wonder. With exception of a handful of fantasy novels and one speculative fiction novel, I've been decidedly rooted in realism this reading year.
Muriel Spark's The Driver's Seat (1970) Putnam Publishing, 1984 In between, I forget how chilling they are. Muriel Spark novels. Somehow I mix them up with other skinny reads (like Penelope Fitzgerald novels) and other UK authors (like Penelope Lively), and they don't seem so upsetting, sitting there tidily pressed between
Nathanael West's Miss Lonelyhearts (1933) New Directions, 1946 My friend Margaret put me onto Nathanael West, which is ironic because it was by virtue of her not having recognized his name in a discussion of literary masterpieces; she was relieved that I hadn't heard of him either. Ignorance loves company, even
