My Top 20 Book List

I'm a reader. Not much of a TV watcher, but I love reading!

Before I get to my top 20 book list, I'd like to make note of something that made me really happy this week. I discovered that one of our favorite family sayings has its origin in Shakespeare's "The Merchant of Venice." My dad is fond of saying, "It was so good I almost wet my pants."  In fact, the very first time my parents bought a brand new vehicle, Dad drove it home. When my mom asked him how he liked it, he said something like, "It's great, except for the seats."  My mom, wondering what's wrong with the seats, asked for clarification. "They're wet," he said. "I couldn't help myself. It was just so nice that I wet my pants." Of course he was joking, but now you know the "gold standard" for my family.

So this week as I'm reading in "The Merchant of Venice" Act IV, Scene I, lines 50 thru 53:

"And others, when the bagpipe sings i' th' nose,

Cannot contain their urine; for affection,

Master of passion, sways it to the mood

Of what it likes or loathes. . . ."

There you have it. Unable to contain urine because of affection. ("It was so good, I wet my pants.")

Christie's Top 20 Book List (20 fave books, not in exact order)

1. The Unthinkable: Who Survives When Disaster Strikes - and Why, by Amanda Ripley
2. The Killer Angels, by Michael Shaara
3. Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Bronte
4. I Am a Mother, by Jane Clayson Johnson
5. Exodus, by Leon Uris
6. 32 Third Graders and One Class Bunny, by Phillip Done
7. The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency (series), by Alexander McCall Smith
8. Maisie Dobbs (series), by Jacqueline Winspear
9. Team of Rivals: The political genius of Abraham Lincoln, by Dorris Kearns Goodwin
10. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, by Mary Ann Shaffer
11. Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl
12. The Penderwicks: A Summer Tale of Four Sisters, Two Rabbits, and a Very Interesting Boy, by Jeanne Birdsall
13. Anne of Green Gables (series), by L. M. Montgomery
14. A Long Way from Chicago and A Year Down Yonder, by Richard Peck
15. Moonraker's Bride, by Madeleine Brent
16. The Story of My Life, by Helen Keller
17. Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen
18. Gift from the Sea, by Anne Morrow Lindbergh
19. The Adams-Jefferson Letters: The Complete Correspondence Between Thomas Jefferson and Abigail and John Adams, by Lester J. Cappon
20. Stargirl, by Jerry Spinelli

Keep in mind that I'm always reading a book. This list ebbs and flows.