Here is part of the press release announcing the list.
PBS is hosting a series of tie-in events of book discussions and presentations, including reader perspectives aired on San Francisco's KQED radio station. I was honored to be invited to record a perspective which aired this morning. It is about a life changing book that I didn't think was so great--Ulysses by James Joyce.
Click here for my radio review:
The Great American Read: The Book of Books, will be released next week (available from Amazon). It includes information about the 100 novels, author profiles, rare images of original manuscripts and more, plus a foreword by THE GREAT AMERICAN READ host Meredith Vieira
The top 100 book list is based on a public opinion poll, conducted by YouGov on behalf of PBS for THE GREAT AMERICAN READ, that asked respondents to name their favorite novel. An advisory panel of book industry professionals compiled the results. Each author was represented only once, and series such as the Alex Cross Mysteries were included as one entry.
The chosen books span five centuries, from Don Quixote (1603) to Ghost (2016). Authors from 15 different countries are represented, with genres ranging from beloved children’s classics such as Charlotte’s Web to modern best-sellers such as Twilight.
Note that the novels do not have to be written by American writers (Cervantes and C.S. Lewis are here)--they just have to be novels that Americans love to read.
Below is the full list of America’s 100 favorite novels, in alphabetical order by title:
| 1984 | Hatchet |
| A Confederacy of Dunces | Heart of Darkness |
| A Game of Thrones | The Help |
| A Prayer for Owen Meany | The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy |
| A Separate Peace | The Hunger Games |
| A Tree Grows in Brooklyn | The Hunt for Red October |
| The Adventures of Tom Sawyer | The Intuitionist |
| The Alchemist | Invisible Man |
| Alex Cross Mysteries** | Jane Eyre |
| Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland | The Joy Luck Club |
| Americanah | Jurassic Park |
| And Then There Were None | Left Behind |
| Anne of Green Gables | The Little Prince |
| Another Country | Little Women |
| Atlas Shrugged | Lonesome Dove |
| Beloved | Looking for Alaska |
| Bless Me, Ultima | The Lord of the Rings** |
| The Book Thief | The Lovely Bones |
| The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao | The Martian |
| The Call of the Wild | Memoirs of a Geisha |
| Catch-22 | Mind Invaders |
| The Catcher in the Rye | Moby Dick |
| Charlotte’s Web | The Notebook |
| The Chronicles of Narnia** | One Hundred Years of Solitude |
| The Clan of the Cave Bear | Outlander |
| The Coldest Winter Ever | The Outsiders |
| The Color Purple | The Picture of Dorian Gray |
| The Count of Monte Cristo | The Pilgrim’s Progress |
| Crime and Punishment | The Pillars of the Earth |
| The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time | Pride and Prejudice |
| The Da Vinci Code | Ready Player One |
| Don Quixote | Rebecca |
| Doña Barbara | The Shack |
| Dune | Siddhartha |
| Fifty Shades of Grey | The Sirens of Titan |
| Flowers in the Attic | The Stand |
| Foundation | The Sun Also Rises |
| Frankenstein | Swan Song |
| Ghost | Tales of the City |
| Gilead | Their Eyes Were Watching God |
| The Giver | Things Fall Apart |
| The Godfather | This Present Darkness |
| Gone Girl | To Kill a Mockingbird |
| Gone with the Wind | Twilight |
| The Grapes of Wrath | War and Peace |
| Great Expectations | Watchers |
| The Great Gatsby | The Wheel of Time** |
| Gulliver’s Travels | Where the Red Fern Grows |
| The Handmaid’s Tale | White Teeth |
| Harry Potter** | Wuthering Heights |
