Since posting a list of some of my favorite short stories back on June 2nd, my mind clicked to some of my favorite novels. Many of these books inspired me to write fiction. These are favorite novels, not a best novel list.
In no special order:
The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger
The Case of Charles Dexter Ward by H.P. Lovecraft
Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut
The Light in the Forest by Conrad Richter
Nineteen Eighty-four by George Orwell
Goodbye Mickey Mouse by Len Deighton
The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett
The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien
The Shoemaker's Wife by Adriana Trigiani
Pronto by Elmore Leonard
The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah
Fin Gall by James L. Nelson
New York by Edward Rutherfurd
Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry
The Shrinking Man by Richard Matheson
River Girl by Charles Williams
The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury
A Soldier of the Great War by Mark Helprin
White Fang by Jack London
The Cocktail Waitress by James M. Cain
Night and the City by Cornell Woolrich
The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway
Standing in the Rainbow by Fannie Flagg
The Maddest Idea by James L. Nelson
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
A Bullet for Cinderella by John D. MacDonald
Kazan by James Oliver Curwood
Dune by Frank Herbert
Ramage by Dudley Pope
His Majesty's Dragon by Naomi Novik
The Snow Goose by Paul Gallico (novella)
Tourist Season by Carl Hiassen
From Here to Eternity by James Jones
The Killing Circle by Chris Wiltz
Fortune's Fugitive by Linda Crockett Gray
The War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells
When Gravity Fails by George Alec Effinger
The Bolitho Novels of Alexander Kent
The Ramage Novels of Dudley Pope
Non-Fiction Novels:
In Cold Blood by Trume Capote
The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson
The Foundation Trilogy by Isaac Asimov
Foundation, Foundation and Empire, Second Foundation
The Century Trilogy by Ken Follett
Fall of Giants, Winter of the World, Edge of Eternity
I have to stop or I'll go on and on.
That's all for now –
www.oneildenoux.com
O'Neil, I finally meet someone who's read Kazan! And possibly Baree. (Technically my father read them to us, but it still counts.)
ReplyDeleteI haven't read Devil in the White City by Erik Larson, but I must. I wrote a short story centered there. I recommend a documentary film The White City narrated by Gene Wilder.
Two books on there by women, I have not read! Thanks for this list, O'Neil. I'll be looking both up, and a few others. Melodie
ReplyDeleteGlad to see the brilliant Naomi Novik's Her Majesty's Dragon on the list. The whole Temeraire series stands up to leisurely rereading straight through. And the dragon protagonist offers one of my favorite examples of an utterly distinctive voice in fiction of any genre.
ReplyDeleteGreat list. I've read a lot of them, and I consider Gatsby to be one of the most perfect novels ever written.
ReplyDeleteLove this list. Some of my favorites are on here, and many of my favorite authors. And I agree completely on your selection of non-fiction novels (creative nonfiction?).
ReplyDeleteLeigh, you would love The Devil in the White City.
Great list. My favorite novel is The Wolves of Memory . It is truly awesome meaningful
ReplyDeleteThe Wolves of Memory is an awesome novel
ReplyDelete