Books have a beautiful way of making you see things that aren’t really in front of you. Unlike movies, where you just watch and listen, books give you mental stimuli, visulizations, and the characters take on their own form particular to your mind’s eye. Books are really the help guide to an imagination exercise.

Because I’m a book junkie, here’s a list of some of my favorite highs, er, books in no favored order. The opinions expressed here are strictly mine and I make no claims that you do, will, or should feel the same way about any of these books.

The Help by Kathryn Stockett
Opening this book, I had no idea what it was about. The cover has a picture of birds on it, for crying out loud. I didn’t know that I was delving into the lives of three individuals—two African American maids and one young white woman fresh out of college—and their accounts of African Americans working in white households in Jacksonville, Mississippi in the early 1960’s. It cracked open the inside workings of post-slavery that really wasn’t quite so different than slavery. I was embarrassed to be white as I read the book. I was embarrassed to be associated with these people who were so awful.

This is Stockett’s debut book and I can’t imagine how she’ll ever be able to top it. It’s so beautifully written, so rich and full and heartbreaking.

Series: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played with Fire, The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest by Stieg Larsson
I was told to read this series by a good friend of mine who is also a reading machine. I completely trust her reviews because she has never given me a bad book idea, but when I started reading the first book, I forced myself through the first several chapters and still didn’t get it so I took it back to the library.

A year later, I picked it up again, determined to give it another try. I will say this: it’s not a pick-up-and-read kind of book series. It takes a certain level of intelligence and stamina to read it because it was originally written in Swedish and then translated to English—fantastically translated, I will add—but it’s really deep, graphic political stuff within the Swedish government and there are lots of characters involved. The first book gives a lot of background and so it took me about 1/3 of the way in (on my second try) before I was like, “Oh, okay…” And then I couldn’t lay it down. In fact, because the waiting list at the library was so long, I had to start reading the second and third books online while I waited for the printed copy to become available because I am too impatient.

It deals with a lot of sick crap like drug trafficking, sex trafficking, and mafia-within-the-government stuff. It’s definitely a thriller/mystery type novel series and I commented while reading it that it is gory enough that I’m not sure how I would make it through if it were a movie. (To date, the first book has been released on film in Sweden and met with great reviews; the American version is currently being filmed.)

Series: The Hunger Games, Catching Fire, and Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins
I caught wind of these books and thought, Uh, not my style of books at all. But I picked up the first one anyway. And there was no turning back from there. Katniss is my superhero. And though the books are written in the future (The United States, as we know it, is turned into 12 Districts), I found myself feeling like it was in the past due to the extreme poverty and harsh conditions of the poor districts and the Nazi-like ruling of District 1.

Book 2 was on such a long waiting list at the library that I just went out and bought it, which is something I rarely do. To make matters worse, book 3, Mockingjay, wasn’t released yet so I promptly pre-ordered it and had to wait three months until release day to get it in the mail at which time I stuck my nose in it and paid little-to-no attention to regular daily activities. Since then, I’ve read the entire series through again and purchased the first book to complete my in-house set.

The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
Having lived in Uzbekistan, I was deeply moved by Hosseini’s writing because I could visualize the places, the people, the language, the culture. The book is based in Afghanistan and Pakistan, but the similarities are remarkable, though I’ll be the first to not link The ‘Stans together. At points, I cried and at points, my heart burst with joy when I read words I knew like, assalomu alaykum.

There was a library near my job at the time of my affair with this book and, on my lunch breaks, I would sit by the window in a comfortable library chair, eat ramen noodle soup, and read this book. Though I ended up liking his second book (but not a sequel), A Thousand Splendid Suns, better, this book will always remain a favorite because of the poise, detail, sorrow, sadness, and redemption…and also because a little piece of my heart will always live in Uzbekistan and, being neighboring countries, it is easy for me to fall in love with any narrative, especially positive, about the people of Central Asia. There are good people and kind hearts who are overlooked in most writings, but not in this book.

A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
Having loved Hosseini’s previous book, The Kite Runner, I picked this one up right away thinking it was a sequel of sorts. It is not. It is, however, in my opinion better. I had more heart-involvement with the characters of this book, Mariam and Laila. They are the wives, one old and one young, of a viciously abusive Afghan shoemaker.

Their stories are so well-told first in Miriam’s hatred of Laila, the new, young wife who was able to produce a child and, in the end, their almost mother-daughter relationship and love as they fight together to save themselves against their abusive husband. I can’t put into words the love I have for these fictional characters because of my love for the real people I know who have been in these situations. It’s a hidden secret, a closed doors topic. Men are allowed to beat their wives and their daughters; sons are the crown jewel of the home, raised with more respect and honor than is given their own mother. I know this is true. I’ve seen that this is true. And I commend the courage of women who stand up to that and say it’s not right.

(Addendum: So as not to confuse people, I must say that the Uzbek family I lived with was a huge exception to the general rules of old Central Asian culture. I have much love and respect for my Uzbek father. He is kind and smart and loving and very protective of his daughters. As for my Uzbek mother, she is courageous and wise beyond belief. Of them both, I do not and will never speak bad things.)

The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd
This book has been around since 2002, but I didn’t read it until 2010. I hadn’t really heard about it before then. (How is that possible? It got so many great reviews.) Like other favorites, i.e. The Help, it is set in the early 1960’s in the Deep South and revolves around African American women and a white girl. With those similarities aside, the story is entirely of itself.

The Boatwright sisters (August, May, and June) are a force to be reckoned with and the young white girl, Lily, falls under their wings in the most peculiar way. When a book makes me sob or laugh out loud, I can automatically dock it onto my favorites because it’s a rarity and a wonder when an author can put together words and sentences so well that one’s heart becomes involved in the story. My heart was definitely involved and this book captured me fully.

And for the record, I both sobbed and laughed out loud while reading this book.

Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank
In many ways, this book was my first glimpse into history that I actually wanted to read. In probably 5th grade, a teacher read us this book during Reading, which was a very short period right after lunch. It was also during this time that he educated us on the correct pronunciation of her name: Anne Frank is pronounced AH-na Fronk (like “honk” but with an “fr” at the beginning).

After reading the book all the way through to us, he switched it up and got the play scripts and assigned us each a character. I was Anne. I took my role very seriously and, as I sometimes was in school, became an overachiever in Reading.

When we completed reading through the script, we were rewarded with the best Reading field trip ever: tickets to the theatre for the stage adaption of The Diary of Anne Frank. I got to meet the actress who played Anne and had her sign my playbill. She wrote, “Reach for the stars.” I could’ve touched the moon that night I was so elated. During intermission, I leaned over and told one of the chaperones that this is what I want to be, I want to be an actress. Hollywood and Broadway never panned out for me, but I’m still inspired by this book in so many ways. I have read it many times since 5th grade and I never tire of it.

(As a side note, on our way to the theatre, Ramona and I made up a little jingle that went like this: “The diary of Anne Frank, of Anne Frank, of Anne Frank. The diary of Anne Frank, of Anne Frank, ah-Frank.” To this day, whenever I see that title, I hear that jingle in my head. So right now, for example, it’s going around and around in my head like an old record that won’t stop spinning.)

Series: Twilight, New Moon, Eclipse, Breaking Dawn, and The Second Short Life of Bree Tanner by Stephenie Meyer
Before these books became wildly famous and international bestsellers, a coworker of mine said that her friend had given her a copy of this book, Twilight, to read. She thought it would be crazy and was not into vampire-style reading. Her friend told her to read the first two chapters and then give it back if she didn’t like it. She read the first two chapters and didn’t put it down until she’d read the last page.

Her presentation to me was the same, “Read the first two chapters before you make your judgment.” And, just like her, I was extremely skeptical and reluctantly took the book home. I couldn’t put it down.

Now, admittedly, had all the hype happened before I started the series, I probably wouldn’t have enjoyed it so much because much of the sincerity and sweetness, the rivalry and the bitterness were stripped down and pummeled by movie critics once the films were released. And can we all agree that the films did not do the books justice? In fact, the films really do deserve the reviews they got. I love Edward Cullen just like the rest of you, but the movies just don’t capture the books in their true form and take away much of the credibility of the original writing. That being said, the books still stand as some of my favorites and I have no problem being called a Twi-hard because of that statement.

Series: Black, Red, White, and Green by Ted Dekker
Absolutely mesmerizing. I read these books several years ago (in fact, it’s time for another go-round with them). The series begins strangely, shifting back and forth between two different worlds and the evils therein, but then you see how the worlds run on a similar vein of catastrophe.

Thomas Hunter is the main character and when he sleeps, he goes into this “Other Earth”. He morphs between being an integral part of this world and an integral part of that world. At first the Other Earth feels like a foreign place, then after a while, it becomes more real than Earth. As always with Dekker, it’s thrilling and strange at the same time while being so riveting that I can’t stop reading.