by Joelle Steele

Here are some of the novels I’ve read that are among my top favorites, along with a list of some authors for whom I have read most or all of their titles. I’m not recommending these books, because I have no idea what other readers might like. These are just representative of the kinds of books I most enjoyed. I have read more than 800 novels, and I gave at least 100 of them five stars on Goodreads.

I read a minimum of two books per week, fiction and/or non-fiction, sometimes poetry. I read a lot because I watch a lot of international TV but not much of anything else except for General Hospital and Jeopardy, and so I always have time to get into a book. I tend to read more in the summer, and when I was bedridden for three months prior to back surgery in 1984, I read a book a day – almost 100 books.

Growing up, my parents had thousands of books, my mother read to me regularly, I loved going to the library, I started reading very early, and I was reading at 8th grade level when I was in 4th grade. I love to read, my reading tastes are extremely eclectic, and I have an enormous list of books I want to read. That list grows by leaps and bounds because I’ll be reading something and it mentions a book I’ve never read or never heard of and it goes on the list. There is almost no author or genre that I haven’t read, and when I read novels, it isn’t to escape, but to be entertained.

So here are just a very few of my favorite novels, followed by a list of some of my favorite authors.

A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle (I was already a sci-fi fan when I read this in 8th grade)

Black Water Lilies by Michel Bussi

Bruge-la-Morte by Georges Rodenbach

Feint of Art by Hailey Lind

Felidae by Akif Pirinçci

Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell

Marjorie Morningstar by Herman Wouk

The Gauguin Connection by Estelle Ryan

The Knowledge of Water by Sarah Smith

The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley

The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco

The Other by Thomas Tryon

The Paris Wife by Paula McLain

The Peat Cutters by Alphonse de Châteaubriant

The Thorn Birds by Colleen McCullough

Timeline by Michael Crichton

Zoli by Colum McCann

These are some of my favorite authors for whom I have read most or all of their titles. I don’t usually like books written in series with the same characters, but I made exceptions with Stephen R. Donaldson, Alexandre Dumas, Diana Gabaldon, Winston Graham, Anne McCaffrey, Jean-François Parot, and Anne Rice.

Asimov, Isaac

Bradbury, Ray

Bronte, Charlotte

Camus, Albert

Christie, Agatha

Dickens, Charles

Dinesen, Isak

du Maurier, Daphne

Flaubert, Gustave

Follett, Ken

Hardy, Thomas

Hoag, Tammy

Hugo, Victor

Kafka, Franz

King, Stephen

London, Jack

Michaels, Barbara

Michener, James

Niven, Larry

Siddons, Anne Rivers

Steinbeck, John

Stevenson, Robert Louis

Straub, Peter

Tan, Amy

Tolkien, J.R.R.

And that’s about all I have to say about the kinds of authors and novels I read.