Bookshelf Snooping - Heidi Sutherlin

1. Your Childhood Favourite 
Lloyd Alexander's The Chronicles of Prydain series. 

2. Your Current Favourite
Nora Roberts' Sign of Seven trilogy.

3. Your Top Five Authors
Nora Roberts, Jayne Ann Krentz/Jayne Castle/Amanda Quick (her pen names), Marion Zimmer Bradley, Christine Feehan, Linda Lael Miller

4. Book(s) you are reading now
Lisa Jackson SHIVER

5. Book(s) you've pretended to read
I've never pretended to read one. Was tempted in college a time or two.  

6. Book(s) you've bought for the cover
Oddly, I've never bought a book for the cover. Hmm. Weird. 

7. Book(s) you're a champion for
SISTER CARRIE by Theodore Dreiser. It's not a happy or easy read, but it's an important piece of early American fiction. It was written during a time of self discovery in literature and was one of the precursors to contemporary fiction as we know it today. There are other more interesting novels from that period, but SISTER CARRIE is a powerful example of the impact of portraying life as it is, even when it's painful to watch. No happy endings there. A close second to this would be WHAT MAISEY KNEW by Henry James. He wrote this before Dreiser wrote SISTER CARRIE, but it is another Early American novel in the literary realism genre that was instrumental in grounding literature and paving the way for contemporary fiction. Okay...stepping away from the soap box slowly. 

8. Book that changed your life

A THOUSAND WORDS FOR STRANGER by Julie E. Czerneda. In short the main character has part of her memory blocked. While she learns who she is all over again, she realizes in the end when her memory is restored that she's had the opportunity to grow as a person in ways she would not have without her memory loss. The lesson? That nobody is cemented into the path that they are on, that you can truly be whatever you set your mind to and that relying on "your nature" as an excuse is not necessary. There's a lot of hope in that. 

9. Book you most want to read again for the first time

The entire Darkover Series by Marion Zimmer Bradley (can you sense a pattern here...?)

10. Book you turn to for comfort

Nora Roberts' Three Sisters Island trilogy.

11. Favourite line from a book

"Ickle Me, Pickle Me, Tickle Me too
Went for a ride in a flying shoe." - Shel Silverstein, WHERE THE SIDEWALK ENDS

Thanks! This has been interesting. I've learned a bit about myself doing this. What a lovely exercise.