I was talking with a friend about curriculums and unit studies and books for children and it got me thinking…

Here is a partial list of books that changed not only the way I think, but the way I read and write. They are in a category all by themselves. Stories I’ll never forget, images that will never leave. Here they are in roughly the order I read them.

Nory Ryan’s Song – Patricia Reilly Giff

Israel, My Beloved – Kay Arthur

Johnny Tremain – Esther Forbes

The Zion Covenant [Series] – Bodie Thoene

The Killer Angels – Michael Shaara

The Murder on the Orient Express – Agatha Christie

The King of Torts – John Grisham

When Knighthood Was In Flower – Charles Major

Rainbow Six – Tom Clancy

Captain Blood: His Odyssey – Rafael Sabatini

A Tangled Web – L. M. Montgomery

Gone With the Wind – Margaret Mitchell

Timeline – Michael Crichton

I may update this list if I think of others, or want to elaborate on why these books affected me so, but at the moment it is quite conclusive.