These are some of my favorite books:

ADULT CONTEMPORARY FICTION

Queen of Dreams by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

Girl With a Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier

The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion

The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini

The Third Angel by Alice Hoffman

Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier

The Help by Kathryn Stockett

YOUNG ADULT CONTEMPORARY FICTION

Dairy Queen (and sequels) by Catherine Gilbert Murdock

The Sky is Everywhere by Jandy Nelson

The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell

Jellicoe Road by Melina Marchetta

Hope Was Here by Joan Bauer

Hold Still by Nina LaCour

ADULT FANTASY FICTION

The Palace of Illusions by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

The Curse of Chalion by Lois McMaster Bujold

The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss

Paladin of Souls by Lois McMaster Bujold

Daughter of the Forest by Juliet Marillier

The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller

The City of Brass by S. A. Chakraborty

YOUNG ADULT FANTASY FICTION

Daughter of Smoke and Bone (and sequels) by Laini Taylor

The Raven Boys (and sequels) by Maggie Stiefvater

A Court of Mist and Fury by Sarah J. Maas

Harry Potter (and sequels) by J.K. Rowling

Graceling by Kristin Cashore

CLASSIC LITERATURE

Lady Chatterley’s Lover by D. H. Lawrence

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith

Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

A Passage to India by  E. M. Forster

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

The Good Earth by Pearl Buck

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

BIOGRAPHY, MEMOIR, & NONFICTION

This Is Woman’s Work: Calling Forth Your Inner Council of Wise, Brave, Crazy, Rebellious, Loving, Luminous Selves by Dominique Christina

Women Who Run with the Wolves by Clarissa Pinkola Estés

Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates

Let’s Take the Long Way Home by Gail Caldwell

A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway

John Adams by David McCullough

Mere Christianity by C. S. Lewis

Zeitoun by Dave Eggers

Just Kids by Patti Smith

Wild by Cheryl Strayed

WRITING INSTRUCTION AND INSPIRATION

The Fire in Fiction: Passion, Purpose and Techniques to Make Your Novel Great by Donald Maass

Writing 21st Century Fiction: High Impact Techniques for Exceptional Storytelling by Donald Maass

The Plot Whisperer: Secrets of Story Structure Any Writer Can Master by Martha Alderson

Writing Down the Bones: Freeing the Writer Within by Natalie Goldberg

The Artist’s Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity by Julia Cameron

Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life by Anne Lamott

On Writing by Stephen King