I found this meme on Facebook and thought it might be fun to create my own list. It was actually sort of painful.
I used my database on Goodreads to compile this list and some letters had so many books I’d rated with five stars, I had a hard time choosing just one. But in the spirit of not frittering away a good portion of my day and yours by creating a list with a hundred alternates, I stuck to one book for each letter of the alphabet. In most cases, I went with the emotional choice, the book that hit me the hardest and held on the longest. I also tried to avoid repeating authors and series so that my list would span a wider range of authors and books.
Toward the end, I had to get a little more creative—within the bounds of the guidelines set out for the meme—and choose books featuring that letter of the alphabet rather than starting with it.
Agincourt, Bernard Cornwell
Best Served Cold, Joe Abercrombie
Captain Vorpatril’s Alliance, Lois McMaster Bujold
Dune, Frank Herbert
Ender’s Game, Orson Scott Card
Fear City, F. Paul Wilson
Glasshouse, Charles Stross
Hawk Quest, Robert Lyndon
In Me an Invincible Summer, Ryan Loveless
Jhereg, Steven Brust
Kushiel’s Dart, Jacqueline Carey
Legend, David Gemmell
March, Geraldine Brooks
Night of the Hunter, R.A. Salvatore
Old Man’s War, John Scalzi
Paradox, John Meaney
Red Rising, Pierce Brown
Something like Autumn, Jay Bell
The Time Traveler’s Wife, Audrey Niffenegger
Ubik, Philip K. Dick
The Valley of the Horses, Jean M. Auel
Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang, Kate Wilhelm
A Talent for War (Alex Benedict, #1), Jack McDevitt
All the Weyrs of Pern, Anne McCaffrey
Breach Zone, Myke Cole
If you post your own list, put a link in the comments so I can check it out. 🙂
Kelly Jensen 
5 responses to “The A to Z of Favourite Books”
Reblogged this on eileengriffin and commented:
Such a cool idea!
[…] Jensen posted a list of her favorite books from A to Z after she saw this […]
Thanks for posting this, Kelly! So much fun! Here’s my list:
https://eileengriffin.wordpress.com/2015/05/01/great-reads-from-a-to-z/
We share a few favorite authors, but I will call shenanigans on utilizing “All The Weyrs of Pern”, not because I don’t believe it is worthy of note, nor do I suggest the world shouldn’t mourn the passing of the Great Anne McCaffrey, but because you did not hunt for a novel starting with the letter Y. But then again, when faced with the challenge myself…I drew a complete blank. Therefore, I withdraw my complaint. Perhaps we should each vow to read such a book. Oh wait, “You Suck” by Christopher Moore. I can actually recommend this, even though it is book two. Highly entertaining. Fun list, hope you don’t mind the blathering commentary.
I did hunt for a book beginning with the letter Y, but couldn’t find one I had read that had impressed me enough to take that spot on the list – and since I had not managed to include a Pern novel up to that point, it seemed a worthy choice. 🙂
I was trying for maximum representation, which is why an Alex Benedict novel nabbed the spot for X rather than Xenocide, which is a fantastic book, but I already had Orson Scott Card listed.
Thanks for the comment, blatherings and all! 🙂