Top Ten Tuesday: Best Recommendations

This week - Ingrid's Top Ten Books I'm so happy were recommended to me!

1. Swann's Way by Marcel Proust. This book was recommended to me by my husband, Derik before we got married or even started dating. He had an old girlfriend that gave him a copy. I went on a roadtrip with a group of friends and Derik brought it along. He was fascinated by this book and constantly talked about it. I eventually read it too and loved it. 

2. Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy. My mom recommended this book to me. I first read it in high school and absolutely fell in love with Konstantin Levin. I read it again a few more times in college and it's still one of my favorites. 

3. The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath. Once again, recommended by my mom. I read this book staying up ultra late during finals week my freshman year of college. Didn't do that great on my finals ... but I loved this book. 

4. How to Read a Book by Mortimer Adler. This book was recommended to me by a guy I met once at a party. We were both floating awkwardly in the background of all the activity of this party not really talking to anyone. Being the two quiet ones we kind of by default started a conversation. We discovered that we both loved to read and he recommended this book to me. I read it a few years later and really liked it. One of my nerdy moments. 

5. The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood. One summer while I was in high school I lived in California with my grandparents and worked at a restaurant and spent a LOT of time at the beach with my friends. My friend Laura brought this book to the beach with her one day. I read the first few pages while she was in the water. I promptly bought my own copy and read the whole thing in 2 days. Does that count as a recommendation?

6. Slaughter-House Five by Kurt Vonnegut. A recommendation from an old flame. That's all I'll say about this one. Love Kurt Vonnegut's humor. 

7. Snowflower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See. My mom and grandma read and loved this one. I borrowed my grandma's copy and also loved it. 

8. The Birth of Tragedy by Friedrich Nietzsche. My husband has a BA in Philosophy and is an avid Nietzsche fan. Back before we were dating and I had a crush on him I told him that I wanted to read something by Nietzsche to see what all the fuss was about. He said that this one was a good place to start. I loved it at the time, but I think that was strongly influenced by the fact that Derik recommended it to me and I wanted to seem cool to him. :)

9. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. Another recommendation from mom. Surprisingly I read this one when I was in middle school before I was into reading anything but YA. Still one of my favorites. 

10. Dubliners by James Joyce. A friend and I once went to a used bookstore together and he bought an old copy of this. I opened it up and read just one beautiful line - I bought a copy for myself and, you guessed it, I loved it. 

That was a fun list to make! I would recommend all of the above books ... except maybe The Birth of Tragedy ...