Today, January’s Featured Author Wendy Russ stops by to share some of her favorite books with us. Read on!
I’m a huge fan of “world building” and well-drawn characters. So the books I tend to gravitate to are books exceptional in that regard. For example, the Harry Potter books and the Tolkien books are a quintessential.
The first book to make me fall in love with language is THE PHANTOM TOLLBOOTH by Norton Juster. I read it when I was around nine. My parents had just divorced and my mother and I moved to a big city that had a library. That was the first book I ever checked out and was enthralled by both it and by the concept that you could have a whole building of books people could borrow for free. The experience made a big impact on me.
A series I love is the one that begins with Margaret Atwood’s ORYX & CRAKE. Atwood is a wonderful world builder and in her books manages to weave her philosophy and politics into an entertaining story.
Neil Gaiman is a fascinating world-builder. I love NEVERWHERE as well as many of his other novels.
In my teens I loved Ray Bradbury’s THE MARTIAN CHRONICLES and Orson Scott Card’s ENDER’S GAME series. When you’re a young person raised in a small Southern town there is not a lot of possibility of adventure. You don’t get to see much of the world outside the borders of your town. Opportunities are few and far between.
Great examples of characters and/or circumstances that stick with me… THE ROAD by Cormac McCarthy, THE GRAPES OF WRATH and OF MICE AND MEN by Steinbeck and LORD OF THE FLIES by William Golding.
Thanks for sharing your list with us, Wendy. I’ve added a few more titles to my tottering Mt. TBR… 
What about y’all – are there any new-to-you titles on Wendy’s list?
Here, here to the Phantom Tollbooth, Of Mice and Men and The Road! Still have not gotten around to the Grapes of Wrath! Maybe I’ll move that up on my to read list!
When I meet someone who has read The Phantom Tollbooth I always feel like I’ve met a kindred spirit!
THE ROAD is so hard to recommend because it’s such a horribly grim book. But I’m amazed at what a great job the author did on it.
I re-read Of Mice and Men just a couple years ago. Haven’t read that Atwood, but loved The Handmaid’s Tale.
I added Oryx and Crake to my TBR pile, I hadn’t read it either, and loved The Handmaid’s Tale too.