1. The Road by Cormac McCarthy
  2. Peace Is Every Step by Thich Nhat Hanh
  3. The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen
  4. Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter
  5. The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky
  6. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
  7. Uniformity With God’s Will By Saint Alphonsus de Liguori
  8. A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson
  9. Daring Greatly by Brene Brown
  10. They Call Me Coach by John Wooden
  11. The Winner Within by Pat Riley
  12. In My Own Words by Mother Teresa
  13. The World According to Mister Rogers by Fred Rogers
  14. “Surely You’re Joking Mr. Feynman!” by Richard P. Feynman
  15. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
  16. Freakonomics by Steven D. Levitt & Stephen J. Dubner
  17. Ready Player One by Ernest Cline
  18. Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Patterson
  19. My Side of the Mountain by Jean Craighead George
  20. Four Miles to Pinecone by Jon Hassler
  21. Runaway Ralph by Beverly Cleary
  22. Skinnybones by Barbara Park
  23. Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi
  24. Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell
  25. At Home by Bill Bryson
  26. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis
  27. Broken Monsters by Lauren Beukes
  28. The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins
  29. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson
  30. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
  31. Furiously Happy by Jenny Lawson
  32. Shane by Jack Schaefer
  33. Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer
  34. Adventures in the Screen Trade by William Goldman
  35. The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson

recommended reading

 

Bridge to Terabithia

 

by Katherine Patterson

 

I don’t recall how old I was when I first read this book, but it made quite an impression on me. I must have been a young boy of 8 or 9 when I first picked it up. Bridge to Terabithia stirred a sense of wonder in me that many books seemed to have done before it, but it also stirred a sense of loss and compassion that very few books before it had done for me. It opened up a new window into stories and what they can be. I loved this book from a very young age and I don’t think I entirely knew why. To be honest, I still don’t know if I totally know why I love this book. I’ve just always identified with it, which I guess is the entire point of Sticky Books. Bridge to Terabithia has always stuck with me.

 

“Sometimes it seemed to him that his life was delicate as a dandelion. One little puff from any direction, and it was blown to bits.”

 

“It was up to him to pay back to the world in beauty and caring what Leslie had loaned him in vision and strength. ”

 

“Shh,” he said. “Look.”
“Where?”
“Can’t you see’um?” he whispered. “All the Terabithians standing on tiptoe to see you.”
“Me?”
“Shh, yes. There’s a rumor going around that the beautiful girl arrving today might be the queen they’ve been waiting for.”

 

“You never know ahead of time what something’s really going to be like.”

 

“That was the rule that you never mixed up troubles at home with life at school. When parents were poor or ignorant or mean, or even just didn’t believe in having a TV set, it was up to their kids to protect them.”

 

“It’s like the smarter you are, the more things can scare you.”

 

“Everybody gets scared sometimes, May Belle. You don’t have to be ashamed.”

 

 

Find more writing and publishing tips at Nothing Any Good.

 

Sticky Books are those that you just can’t get out of your head. They stick with you long after you have put the book down and have moved on to something else. These are some of my Sticky Books. I don’t enjoy reviewing books myself. I find I am either full of far too much praise for the book because I know how difficult it can be to write a book, or I am far too negative about a book because, well, I guess I was just in a bad mood. So instead of reviews, I have pulled some of my favorite quotes from each Sticky Book.