The BooksThat Matter Most
Since August, when The Book That Matters Most was published, I have visited over 60 book clubs. I have met so many great people, had so much good food, drank lots of good wine, and enjoyed wonderful conversations about my novel. One question I got over and over again was how I chose the books that Ava's bookclub reads in The Book That Matters Most.
The answer is simple. I asked everybody I ran across for about a year what book mattered the most to them. And it became clear very quickly that the same 24 books were far and away The books that mattered most to so many people.
As you know, if you read The Book That Matters Most, Ava's book club read:
Pride and Prejudice
The Great Gatsby
Anna Karenina
Catcher in the Rye
Slaughter House Five
The Unbearable Lightness of Being
One Hundred Years of Solitude
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
To Kill A Mockingbird
And Ava's choice, From Clare to Here (total disclosure: I invented this book!)
The number one book selected by the people I asked was To Kill a Mockingbird.
The next question every book club ask to me, was what were the other books that mattered most to people, the ones I didn't include in The Book That Matters Most.
Here are the 24 books that mattered most in my informal survey. To add to this list, send your title to:
Pride and Prejudice
The Great Gatsby
Anna Karenina
Catcher in the Rye
Slaughter House Five
The Unbearable Lightness of Being
One Hundred Years of Solitude
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
Rebecca
Gone With the Wind
Wuthering Heights
Great Expectations
Cider House Rules
The Outsiders
War and Peace
A Separate Peace
Old Man and the Sea
Marjorie Morningstar
Little Women
Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant
Heidi
A Wrinkle in Time
The Biography of Helen Keller