Lit of Awe List

1. The Alchemist. Cliché? Maybe. But this book is beautifully written. It connected to deeper themes that resonated with me in a way that caused me to think differently about my life.

2. The Hunchback of Notre Dame by Victor Hugo. The prison scene and the "sanctuary" scene. The way Hugo describes light, darkness, silence, and beauty is profound, and the emotion in these scenes is palpable.

3. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte. I started this book with a set of expectations that Bronte quickly turned upside down. I hit a spot halfway through where I couldn't believe what I was reading, and I couldn't put it down.

4. I Am the Cheese by Robert Cormier. This book also surprised me. Everything I took for granted while I read turned out to be wrong.

5. Mister Pip by Lloyd Jones. Of all the literature I've read that deals with the subject matter of war, cruelty, and inhumanity, this was the most horrifying. The scene in question was short but unexpected. Maybe the shock of it created the awe?

6. The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. Terror and awe of human biology.

7. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling. I chose this one for two reasons: 1) Before reading this, I'd never read any book that made me sob during a scene before. 2) I was in awe at Rowling's ability to weave details into the series and pull it all together at the end.

8. Two for this one, because I don't know if they count as literature: 1) The tiny, red book about a Catholic saint in the HBLL and 2) the cover of a notebook I found in China. I was mostly in awe at their existence and placement based on the events happening in my life at the time.

9. "Our Journey Through Mortality" by J. Matthew Shumway. It was awe-some and meaningful to me because of the events happening in my life at the time.

10. The Good Earth by Peal S. Buck. This book introduced me to old China, a world I'd never thought about before reading about it and one that was so very different from my own experiences. I've had a fascination with that place ever since.