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The Best Hundred Novels Challenge

June 15, 2020 by Jenn Leave a Comment

Created by Nathan Bransford

The rules: There’s only one. You can only name books you’ve actually read. So there goes a huge chunk of the literary canon. I graduated with an English degree but was never assigned anything by Dickens, Austen, either of the Brontes, none of the Russians… There was some Faulkner and Hemingway in there, but I never read more than a few paragraphs. The rest of the stuff held little to no appeal.

Unless you’re teaching, an English degree’s little more than a license to bullshit, and in five years of studies, I got really good at it. I did get around to reading Austen at some point; ain’t no way she’s making this list, but God love her for paving the way. I spent freshman and sophomore year at a small women’s college in the middle of nowhere. Sure, we read. We read smut. And as I got older I graduated to good love stories and discovered I liked writing those as much as I enjoy reading them, so yeah… there’s gonna be a lot of love on this list.

Thanks to the obsessive-compulsive streak my father gave me the list is alphabetized by author; if there’re multiple works by an author, they’re either listed by preference or series order.

Of the books I have read, these are the ones that I think are the best. Those in bold are the best of the best.

  • Love Rosie. Ahern.
  • P.S. I Love You. Ahern.
  • Thirteen Reasons Why. Asher.
  • A Man Called Ove. Backman
  • A School for Unusual Girls. Baldwin.
  • Dandelion Wine. Bradbury.
  • Fahrenheit 451. Bradbury.
  • Best Kept Secrets. Brown.
  • French Silk. Brown.
  • The Good Earth. Buck.
  • The Perks of Being a Wallflower. Chbosky.
  • Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist. Cohn and Levithan.
  • More than Friends. Delinsky.
  • Coast Road. Delinksy.
  • Suddenly. Delinsky.
  • For My Daughters. Delinsky.
  • Our Mutual Friend. Dickens.
  • The Language of Flowers. Diffenbaugh.
  • If I Stay. Forman.
  • Where She Went. Forman.
  • Just One Day. Forman.
  • The Saving Graces. Gaffney.
  • Caraval. Garber.
  • Something Borrowed. Giffin.
  • Something Blue. Giffin.
  • I See You Everywhere. Glass.
  • The Princess Bride. Goldman.
  • One Wore Blue. Graham.
  • One Wore Gray. Graham.
  • And One Rode West. Graham.
  • Straight Talking. Jane Green.
  • Bookends. Jane Green.
  • Jemima J. Jane Green.
  • The Fault in Our Stars. John Green.
  • The Rainmaker. Grisham.
  • The Maltese Falcon. Hammett.
  • Red Dragon. Harris.
  • The Silence of the Lambs. Harris.
  • Splintered. Howard.
  • The Duff. Keplinger.
  • The Secret Life of Bees. Kidd.
  • A Separate Peace. Knowles.
  • A Wrinkle in Time. L’engle.
  • A Wind in the Door. L’engle.
  • We Are Okay. Lacour.
  • Love Only Once. Lindsey.
  • Tender Rebel. Lindsey.
  • Gentle Rogue. Lindsey.
  • The Truth About Alice. Mathieu.
  • Whitney my Love. McNaught.
  • Once and Always. McNaught.
  • Paradise. McNaught.
  • Something Wonderful. McNaught.
  • Almost Heaven. McNaught.
  • Gone with the Wind. Mitchell.
  • One Day. Nicholls.
  • The Time Traveler’s Wife. Niffenegger.
  • All the Bright Places. Niven.
  • 1984. Orwell.
  • Wonder. Palacio.
  • Finding Paris. Prebel.
  • Redeeming Love. Rivers.
  • Daring to Dream. Roberts.
  • Holding the Dream. Roberts.
  • Finding the Dream. Roberts.
  • Born in Fire. Roberts.
  • Born in Ice. Roberts.
  • Seaswept. Roberts.
  • Rising Tides. Roberts.
  • Inner Harbor. Roberts.
  • Tears of the Moon. Roberts.
  • Heart of the Sea. Roberts.
  • Honest Illusions. Roberts.
  • The MacGregor Brides. Roberts.
  • The MacGregor Grooms. Roberts.
  • The MacGregors: Alan and Grant. Roberts.
  • Landline. Rowell.
  • Eleanor and Park. Rowell.
  • Attachments. Rowell.
  • Fangirl. Rowell.
  • Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. Rowling.
  • Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. Rowling.
  • Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. Rowling.
  • Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. Rowling.
  • Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. Rowling.
  • Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Rowling.
  • The Lovely Bones. Sebold.
  • Right Before Your Eyes. Shanman.
  • Love is a Mix Tape. Sheffield.
  • The Notebook. Sparks.
  • A Walk to Remember. Sparks.
  • The Gamble. Spencer.
  • Separate Beds. Spencer.
  • The Help. Kathryn Stockett.
  • Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. Thompson.
  • The Lord of the Rings. Tolkien.
  • In Her Shoes. Weiner.
  • The Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood. Wells.
  • Refuge. Williams.
  • The Book Thief. Zusak.

Originally published May tenth, ‘seventeen.

Filed Under: books, reading

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