A Few of My Favorite Reads

I want to be the kind of writer who makes kids and adults alike tired in the morning.

Because they secretly stayed up all night, under the covers with a flashlight, reading one of my books. Because their nose was glued to the pages. Because they were lost in another world, unable to find the portal back to reality. Because they simply could NOT set the book down.

I've read books like that.

Ella Enchanted is one of my favorite books, by far. And Gail Carson Levine is my hero. I want to be like her when I grow up. I burned through these pages, caught up in the magic of the "true" story of Cinderella and her despicable curse of obedience.

Louis Sachar is a master. His prose isn't complicated or fancy. But his plot is. Every plot element weaves seamlessly throughout the story, and he ties every loose end together neatly at the end. Peaches. Onions. Zeroni. Yelnats. Past. Present. All fits neatly together, like one fantastic puzzle.

I wish I could travel back in time and meet Lucy Maud Montgomery. Each and every one of her characters fairly leap from the page. Especially Anne. I forget Anne isn't a real person and that she never actually walked the face of this Earth. I think, "Anne and I would have been kindred spirits, had we met." L.M. Montgomery has captured human nature perfectly.

When I read Francine Rivers, I forget I'm reading. The words melt away, and I'm standing on the bustling, dirty cobblestone streets of ancient Rome. She doesn't use excessive descriptions but simple choice words to paint a perfect and exact picture.

Suzanne Collins made me a very tired hairstylist for many weeks. She has the art of suspense down to a science. At the end of every chapter, I was forced to continue. Who would live? Who would die? I burned through the pages, thinking,  "Just one more chapter, and then I'll go to bed."

Eight chapters later...