Top Ten Tuesday (8-23-11)

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly feature hosted by The Broke and The Bookish. Each week, they post a different topic and you get to create your own top 10 list. It's a great way to meet other bloggers and check out new books! This week's topic: 

Books You Loved But Never Wrote a Review For

1) A Tree Grows In Brooklyn by Betty Smith - this is my favorite book of all time. I love the story of Francie growing up in Brooklyn with immigrant parents. I haven't read this book since I started my blog, but I think that it would be too hard to write about a book that I love so much (it would be like reviewing a family member - something that I love too much to critique).

2) Harry Potter series by JK Rowling - once again, I haven't read any of these books since I started blogging, but I don't think I would be able to write a review for something that I love so much (this post shows how much this series means to me). That, and the story is so fantastic that I don't know if I would be able to review it because I get so swept away in the story.

3) Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk by David Sedaris - I love Sedaris' work and think that he is one of the greatest writers out there. His work is funny and so sharp that you wonder how you haven't noticed some of the absurdities that he writes about. This book was just a little too weird for me, though. I read it right when I started my blog and didn't think that I would be able to write anything about it. I have reviewed some of his other books (Me Talk Pretty One Day and Barrel Fever), but this one was just a little too odd for me.

4) An Irish Country Doctor series by Patrick Taylor - besides Harry Potter and this series, I prefer to read books that stand alone. It just becomes too much trying to keep up with the books that come out and I feel that nothing can ever compare with the first book in a series, the one that hooks you. This series is my reading guilty pleasure ... it's series, but it's so well written and so comfortable. It's like reuniting with an old friend from college for drinks and I feel that if I reviews these books that I would be betraying a friendship (sounds weird, I know).

5) The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo series by Steig Larsson - I read these books this past fall and they were so addictive! I read them all in a week, staying up late and night trying to finish them! I wish that I had read them while I was blogging to write reviews for them ... Lisbeth Salander is one of my favorite female characters!

6) Night by Elie Weisel - this is Weisel's story of life in a concentration camp. It's haunting and has stayed with me for years (I read it almost 10 years ago!). If you haven't read this book, then you need to read it right now! Maybe I will reread it sometime this fall.

7) The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand - I read this book back in high school and loved it. I have tried to read Rand's other books but haven't been able to get into them. This book was magical and filled with meaning and symbolism. It's long, but well worth it.

8) The Art of Racing In the Rain by Garth Stein - I read this book about a month before I started blogging. If you are a dog person and you haven't read this book, then you need to. Written from the dog's point of view, it's a simple story, but a beautiful one.

9) A Reliable Wife by Robert Goolrick - another book that I read last fall. It was such a good book and was completely different than what I expected it to be!

10) The DaVinci Code by Dan Brown - while some consider it controversial because of the religious issues discussed in the book, it was so good! It was such a page turner and had me on the edge of my seat the entire time I was reading it!

Now that I list them all out, there are a few of these books that I want ot go back and reread! What's on your top ten list this week?