Andrea's Top Five Awesome Books

July 06, 2010

Check out her list...

1. The Scarlet Pimpernel - by Baroness Orczy - The title character is an undercover English aristocrat who outwits French authorities to rescue families from the reign of terror. The book has humor, adventure, romance, and suspense. The 1934 film with Leslie Howard is great, but view it after you read the book--I mean it!

2. The Best Christmas Pageant Ever - by Barbara Robinson - I still love this children's book. The outrageous Herdman kids are gems and their reinvention of the Christmas Story hysterical. Check out the sequel, too, The Best School Year Ever.

3. The Maisie Dobbs series - by Jacqueline Winspear - The series follows British female private investigator and former WWI nurse Maisie Dobbs. Her cases are often related to the former war or to events preceding the next. The cultural elements are well-done and the mysteries aren't overdone.

4. Everybody Was So Young - by Amanda Vail - Technically, it's a biography about the prestigious American couple Sara and Gerald Murphy, but really it describes a circle of cutting-edge international artists, musicians, and actors during the early twentieth century.

5. A Tale of Two Cities - by Charles Dickens - Despite the flimsy female protagonist, I've loved this book since high school when I read it three times consecutively and cried my eyes out every time. It's a farfetched but moving and beautifully written story set during the French Revolution.