Great works of literature — plays, poems and books — have the power to transform us: our outlooks on life, our perceptions of others and our understanding of the human heart and nature. I have been an avid reader throughout my life (well, since the time I knew how to read), and have gone on to declare a major in English at Washington and Lee University. So it is a wonder to me that I have never sat down and written an article about those plays, poems, and books that have inspired me, brought me to tears, or dramatically impacted my ways of thinking. Until now. I’m not going to give all of you an opinionated review of each work; however, I will include a quotation from each that always has a particularly poignant impact upon me as I read it. And so, below is my comprehensive, must-read, could-not-do-without list of 11 truly remarkable literary works that have shaped me as a reader, a friend, a daughter and as a person who is just trying to make sense of this crazy world around me.
1. “The Prince of Tides” by Pat Conroy
“My soul grazes like a lamb on the beauty of an indrawn tide.”
2. “After Apple Picking” by Robert Frost
“And there's a barrel that I didn't fill/Beside it, and there may be two or three/Apples I didn't pick upon some bough./But I am done with apple-picking now.”
3. “Beloved” by Toni Morrison
“Then there is the loneliness that roams. No rocking can hold it down. It is alive. On its own. A dry and spreading thing that makes the sound of one's own feet going seem to come from a far-off place.”
4. “The Sound and the Fury” by William Faulkner
“Some days in late August at home are like this, the air thin and eager like this, with something in it sad and nostalgic and familiar...”
5. “To Autumn” by John Keats
“Sometimes whoever seeks abroad may find/Thee sitting careless on a granary floor,/Thy hair soft-lifted by the winnowing wind…”
6. “Fern Hill” by Dylan Thomas
“All the sun long it was running, it was lovely, the hay/Fields high as the house, the tunes from the chimneys, it was/air…”
7. “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” by T.S. Eliot
“Shall I part my hair behind? Do I dare to eat a peach?/I shall wear white flannel trousers, and walk upon the beach./I have heard the mermaids singing, each to each.”
8. “Plain Truth” by Jodi Picoult
“A world that was crowded with people could still be a very lonely place…”
9. “King Lear” by William Shakespeare
“We two alone will sing like birds i’ th’ cage./When thou dost ask me blessing, I’ll kneel down/And ask of thee forgiveness. So we’ll live/And pray, and sing, and tell old tales, and laugh/At gilded butterflies…”
10. “The Lady of Shalott” by Alfred, Lord Tennyson
“Lying, robed in snowy white/That loosely flew to left and right –/The leaves upon her falling light –/Thro’ the noises of the night…”
11. “To Kill A Mockingbird” by Harper Lee
“‘First of all,’ [Atticus] said, ‘If you can learn a simple trick, Scout, you'll get along a lot better with all kinds of folks. You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view…until you climb into his skin and walk around in it.’”
