15 Books in 15 Minutes

So, many of you are likely familiar with the meme that is currenty passing through Facebook. I've yet to post this note there, as I thought I'd work out my list here first. As far as a list, however, I'm unable to make decisions about the order of the 15 books I've posted, and I of course found it hard to narrow the list to 15, so I've included honourable mentions at the bottom that just weren't able to make the cut!

If you're not familiar with the 15 Books meme, it is as follows:

Rules: Don’t take too long to think about it. Fifteen books you’ve read that will always stick with you. First fifteen you can recall in no more than fifteen minutes.

So, here are my 15:

• Love you Forever (Robert Munsch)
• The Secret Garden (Frances Hodgson Burnett)
• Anne of Green Gables (Lucy Maud Montgomery)
• Jane Eyre (Charlotte Bronte)
• A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (Betty Smith)
• Fall On Your Knees (Ann-Marie MacDonald)
• The Lovely Bones (Alice Sebold)
• A Fine Balance (Rohinton Mistry)
• Roughing It In The Bush (Susanna Moodie)
• The Birth House (Ami McKay)
• The Red Tent (Anita Diamant)
• A Handful of Time OR The Sky is Falling (Kit Pearson)
• The Giver (Lois Lowry)
• The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales (Jon Scieszka and Lane Smith)
• The BFG or James and the Giant Peach (Roald Dahl)

With close cuts made to:

• The Stone Diaries (Carol Shields)
• Life of Pi (Yann Martel)
• My Name is Asher Lev (Chaim Potok)
• The Cider House Rules (John Irving)
• The Secret Life of Bees (Sue Monk Kidd)
• The Number One Ladies Detective Agency (Alexander McCall Smith)
• Memoirs of a Geisha (Arthur Golden)
• Bridge to Terebithia (Katherine Paterson)
• Fahrenheit 451 (Ray Bradbury)
• 1984 (George Orwell)
• Two Solitudes (Hugh MacLennan)

And next on the reading list (already purchased, just a matter of time to read something other than children's books) is The Time Traveler's Wife (Audrey Niffenegger) which I noticed was on many a list, as well as My Sister's Keeper (Jodi Picoult) because my students are obsessed with her so I want to see what the hype is all about...

I'm not going to tag anyone as you'll then feel more obligated to do this, but if you do complete a list of your own I'd be interested to know your top 15! I'm amazed at how many pieces of literature from studies in high school made it on the list... maybe I was early inspired to be an English teacher?!