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