Here are my top ten books that make me want to quit writing — because I’ll never write anything this good, so why am I bothering?
| 1. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen I know, kind of obvious, but I defy anyone — whether they’re reading it for the first time or the fiftieth — not to have at minimum twenty laugh-out-loud moments. We are most seriously pleased. | |
| 2. Monte Walsh by Jack Schaefer A new addition to my list, and please note how far up. Phenomenal prose style (by page 30, I was reading aloud to people), delightful characters, and you can smell the dust on the trail. And if you don’t cry at the ending, you’re simply not human. It says a lot about frontiers and what gets left behind when they’re gone, too. | |
| 3. The Daughter of Time by Josephine Tey A British policeman flat on his back in a hospital solves a double homicide four hundred years old. Terrific on every level — characters, plot and setting(s). | |
| 4. Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ’s Childhood Pal by Christopher Moore This is the first time Jesus ever died that I felt like I’d lost a friend. There are entirely too many great scenes to recount here, beginning with Jesus resurrecting his brothers lizard. Later, a jittery Jesus on a caffeine high buzzes around Antioch marketplace healing everybody. A funny book, yes, but also very, very smart. | |
| 5. A Civil Contract by Georgette Heyer Actually, I like pretty much anything by Georgette Heyer, who wrote the best dialogue in the English language. I love this book because its her most realistic novel, but I also love The Unknown Ajax  , Frederica, The Foundling, Venetia, Cotillion, Fridays Child… Okay… I’ll stop. | |
| 6. Trustee from the Toolroom by Nevil Shute You’ll know Shute from On the Beach  and Town Like Alice , but this was his best story, about engineer Keith Stewart’s round-the-world journey to recover his orphaned nieces inheritance, and the adventures he has along the way. Illiterate heart-throb sailor Jack Donnelly is one of my all time favorite characters. | |
| 7. The March of Folly by Barbara Tuchman This book informed my entire world view. In it, Tuchman posits the existence of folly, or the pursuit of public policy contrary to self-interest. In other words, why nations keep shooting themselves in the foot. She uses the Trojans taking the Greek horse inside the walls of Troy as her template, and then goes on to talk about how the Renaissance popes caused the Reformation, how the British lost America, and how the US lost in Vietnam. It has a lively, engaging prose style with a hint of “Lord, what fools these mortals be!” | |
| 8. The Lions Paw by Robb White I grew up on a fish tender in the Gulf of Alaska, and I was always looking for books about other kids on boats. In this one, Ben, Penny and Nick run away on a yacht called the Hard-A-Lee. They’re not coming back until they find a rare sea shell called a lions paw, because when they find it Bens father will return from the war in the Pacific. Great details, great characters, and I wish the White heirs would get it together to bring this book back into print. See also “The Pearl Lagoon”  by Charles Nordhoffand The Sea Flower by Ruth Moore. | |
| 9. The Gate to Women’s Country by Sheri Tepper In post-apocolyptic America, the women have a plan to study war no more. Tepper doesn’t chicken out, either. She’s got an idea and she sees it through to the bitter end. Or as she puts it, the Damned Few. | |
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10. The Seersucker Whipsaw by Ross Thomas A couple of American politicos go to the African nation of Albertia to run the election campaign of Chief Sunday Akomolo, and there is nothing they wont do to win. Funny, smart as hell, and an ending that will knock you sideways. |
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Lamb
by Chris Moore is among my top ten books, too. What a wonderful book! I’ll check out the rest of these, thanks! 
Moore’s got a new book coming out in February that looks pretty good, too: Fool: A Novel
Truth & Beauty: A Friendship
by Ann Patchett is one of my favorite reads. I love to write and she inspires me to keep going. Just sit myself down and begin. Don’t listen to those inner voices that say this stuff I am writing doesn’t matter or I have nothing to write today or whatever that crabby critic says in your ear. You love to write, so write. Thank goodness we have found a passion that is just with ourselves for now. Natalie