The Consolation of Philosophy by Boethius
City of Illusions by Ursula LeGuin
The Odes of Horace
Seneca’s On the Shortness of Life
Buddha by Karen Armstrong
Good Omens, any Dicworld novel or selected bits from LotR. Every time I move I seem to wind up reading Watership Down. I own almost all of tamora Pierce’s books, so they’re nice for a quick YA-fantasy kick.
Winnie the Pooh makes me happy, The House at Pooh Corner makes me cry. Go figure.
Um, that would be a Discworld novel. But you guys already knew that, right?
Anything by Daphne DuMaurier. (Remind me sometime to start a thread on enduring non-masterpieces. DuMaurier has written a bunch – not immortal prose, but compelling, readable stories.)
Kurt Vonnegut’s small anthology, Welcome To The Monkey House, espeically the stories, “Who Am I This Time?”, “The Foster Portfolio”, and “Miss Temptation”.
The Chronicles of Narnia (excepting The Last Battle).
Heinlein’s The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress.
The Annotated Sherlock Homes.
Highsmith’s The Cry of the Owl and The Talented Mr. Ripley.
Stranger
A CALDWELLITE!!!
I got into her back into my Birch days (she was actually one of us) in the late 1970s-early 1980s- I remember when bookstores would have entire racks of her stuff & now only CAPTAINS & THE KINGS and her reincarnation book with Jess Stearn are still in print.
My absolute favorite is DEAR AND GLORIOUS PHYSICIAN, with CAPTAINS AND THE KINGS & BRIGHT FLOWS THE RIVER next. I did not like I, JUDAS which was in her religiously-agnostic/NewAge phase. presenting JC as just a master metaphysician. But I see in BRIGHT and ANSWER AS A MAN a return to her Christian faith, tho not as hardcore Catholic as in her 1950s writings.
Never read MELISSA tho.
My own list- Taylor’s DEAR & GLORIOUS PHYSICIAN
Lewis’s NARNIA, THE GREAT DIVORCE
Ayn Rand’s ATLAS SHRUGGED
Bram Stoker’s DRACULA
Walker Percy’s LOVE IN THE RUINS, THE SECOND COMING
Scaramouche and especially Captain Blood by Raphael Sabatini.
Anything by Diana Wynne Jones, Daniel Pinkwater (esp. the Snarkout Boys books), or Jane Austen. Or Connie Willis’ To say nothing of the dog. I’m another Anne Shirley fan, too.