My List of Ten Most Memorable Novels

How many books have you read in your lifetime? I'd have an impossible task to think of a number. Some books, though, remain firmly entrenched in my memory, from Strawberry Girl from my childhood,  to a more recent book, The Help. This list contains some of the most memorable ones. I'm sure I could think of so many more, but for now...these make up my list.

#10--TABLE FOR FIVE by Susan Wiggs: Sometimes it takes a leap of faith in order to soar...gifted teacher Lily Robinson's best friend and her husband are killed in an accident, leaving their three young children orphaned. Sean McGuire, a playboy golfer who plays by his own rules, finds himself in the role of guardian with the death of his brother and sister-in-law. Lily and Sean work together in grief and their mutual love for the children, in order to keep them together.

#9--THE HELP by Kathryn Stockett: Stockett writes about a troubled time in American history without resorting to depressing or controversial clichés. She portrays fascinating and complex relationships between vastly different members of a household. It's a compassionate and funny story.   

#8--HALF BROKE HORSES by Jeanette Walls: A true-life fictionalized version of Jeanette's no-nonsense, resourceful, and compelling grandmother, Lily. Lily broke horses by age six, rode five hundred miles on her pony alone to get a job, learned to drive a car and fly a plane. She survived tornadoes, droughts, floods, the Great Depression, and a very heartbreaking personal tragedy. She bristled at prejudice of all kinds. Written in a simple classic manner, much like Lily herself spoke.

#7--RAINWATER by Sandra Brown: This novel is a departure from Ms. Brown's usual romance novels. The year is 1934, and the country is in the stranglehold of drought and economic depression. Ella Barron runs her Texas boardinghouse with efficiency, ensuring her life will be kept in balance. Solly, her sweet son with his misunderstood behavior is Ella's greatest love and challenge. David Rainwater arrives looking for lodging. He moves into her house, and impacts her life in ways she could never have foreseen.

#6--THE LAST TRUE COWBOY by Kathleen Eagle: A cowboy is as good as his word, but what if the words are "I love you?" K.C.Houston is the last of a breed of untamed men who live by their word and love by their own set of rules. To Julia, K.C. is a dream come true--he can tame a spirited horse with a single touch, he offers to help save the ranch, and he awakens in her a need she thought she'd lost. Even though he fills her days and nights with loving and passion--he never said he'd stay forever. (Note: I have read this book probably six times.)

#5--THIS CALDER RANGE by Janet Dailey: Chase Benteen Calder was bound to wrest a fortune from Montana land, where the whisper of riches swept across a sea of buffalo grass. With Lorna at his side, a woman who took the tough ways of the land as her destiny, he would breathe life into his dream.

#4--SONS AND LOVERS by D.H. Laurence: This novel is a highly autobiographical and compelling portrayal of childhood, adolescence, and the price of family bonds. Repelled by her uneducated and sometimes violent husband, delicate Gertrude Morel devotes her life to her sons. But conflict is inevitable when Paul seeks relationships with women to escape the suffocating grasp of his mother. As profoundly affecting today as it was nearly a century ago, this is the peerless Lawrence at his most personal.(Note: this story is far more complicated and intriguing than this short description.)

#3--MORNING GLORY by LaVyrle Spencer: The story of Ella Dinsmore and Will Parker. Ella, widowed at 26 and with two small children, advertises for a husband, through which she meets Will, a drifter. The time is during the Depression, and Ms. Spencer writes every scene with vivid description and compelling emotion.

#2--THE OUTSIDER by Penelope Williamson: After Rachel Yoder's husband is murdered by outlaws in an act of outrageous greed, she must raise her 10-year-old son alone on the Montana Plains. One day, a handsome stranger dying from a gunshot wound walks into her ranch. With simple kindness, she treats his injury and nurses him back to health. Soon Rachel finds herself drawn to this mysterious outsider with a violent past--and must put her future on the line for a last chance at happiness.

#1--INTO THE WILDERNESS by Sara Donati’s epic novel sweeps us into another time and place…and into a breathtaking story of love and survival in a land of savage beauty. In this ambitious and vibrant sequel to The Last of the Mohicans, Elizabeth Middleton, a well-educated spinster of 29, journeys from her home in England to her father's lands in upstate New York in 1792. It is a place unlike any she has ever experienced. And she meets a man unlike any she has ever encountered—a white man dressed like a Native American: Nathaniel Bonner, known to the Mohawk people as Between-Two-Lives. Determined to provide schooling for all the children of the village, Elizabeth soon finds herself locked in conflict with the local slave owners as well as with her own family. Interweaving the fate of the Mohawk Nation with the destiny of two lovers, Sara Donati’s compelling novel creates a complex, profound, passionate portrait of an emerging America.
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The authors of these novels have become some of my favorites. I've read many, if not all, of each author's books.

Which book that you've read would you have placed at the #1 spot?

Thanks for visiting...I hope you enjoy some of the stories.

Celia Yeary