On my teacher's bookshelf

Snap a picture of your bookshelf and show off your favourite reads. 
Some of my favourites here are The Count of Monte Cristo, The Three Musketeers, and True Grit.  The Art of War is also here, the writer Tsun Tsu, once decapitated 20 of the Emperor's concubines in order to make a point about discipline when they failed to follow instructions!

My top three are:

3) Carroll’s Through the Looking Glass
2)D H Lawrence’s Women in Love
1) Woolf’s To the Lighthouse

 I love the complexity of Woolf’s narrative in To the Lighthouseas time passes and jumps throughout the story, allowing us to see the nature of relationships and how some friendships change rapidly over time (as we change), and how some friendships will never change no matter the time that passes or the circumstances that we’re faced with.
 
The Old Man and the Sea (Hemingway) - poignant and beautifully concise. A classic. Prose at its best.

English Passengers (Matthew Kneale) - a bit of swashbuckling, very funny and a unique take on the Aboriginal experience during the British settlement of Australia. 

Anne of Green Gables (L.M. Montgomery) - a childhood favourite, a proper classic that's been read over and over and feels like an old friend.

My Sister’s Keeper by Jodi Picoult explores some challenging issues. Basically, it’s about a couple who conceive a child who is a perfect genetic match for their other daughter, who is dying.  This child will become an organ donor for her sister. The book made me think about the moral dilemmas that this situation creates, especially as the younger sister grows up and begins to want to choose for herself whether she should continue to donate parts of her body to her sister.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is the first book in a trilogy by Stig Larsson. The plot of this gripping thriller is complex, and the main characters are fascinating and well-drawn. The book is rich with suspense and intrigue, but is definitely not for the faint-hearted!

For One More Day by Mitch Albom examines the idea of being able to spend one more day with someone you have lost, because they have died. It is a touching and emotional book; it taught me never take my own family for granted. Ultimately, a thought provoking yet uplifting read.

1) On the Road - Jack Kerouac - makes me want to pick up a suitcase and go travelling, every time!

2) Selected Poems of Thomas Hardy - Hardy always wanted to be known as a poet, not a novelist; plenty of justification why here.

3) Another Country - James Baldwin. Baldwin at his angry, emotional, explosive best.