Kill a Mockingbird

I never understood how someone could read a book they loved just *once.* I love rereading certain books; I always feel like I get something different out of them at each stage of my life. I'm an impatient reader and frequently skim; as I reread, I find things I never noticed before. I feel differently about the characters whether I am reading them as a teenager or a lonely twentysomething or an expatriate or a mom and wife. A few of my favorites to reread:

- Gone with the Wind. I read it first when I was in grade school, and at every stage of my life I feel differently about Scarlett, Melanie, Rhett and Ashley.
- Tam Lin and Juniper, Gentian, and Rosemary. Pamela Dean's fantasy novels are like intricate works of art; every time I examine them, something new unfolds. There's something otherworldly about that; only a magic book could do that.
- To Kill a Mockingbird. Atticus Finch - 'nuff said.
- Dune. Again, read it first when I was in grade school so experiencing it as an adult was like reading it for the first time.
- Trixie Belden & Laura Ingalls Wilder. When I need comfort, I turn to the books of my childhood that never change; like crawling into a well-worn pair of old pajamas you will never part with.
- The Stand. Despite my newfound ambivalence about the end of civilization as we know it, sometimes you just need a good post-apocolyptic tale to make you think, 'life really isn't that bad.'
- The Secret History. Almost a perfect book; something about the ancient Greek magic and the descriptions of a private Northeastern college combined in just the right way.
- The Lord of the Rings trilogy plus The Hobbit. When fighting Sauron and Saruman in Middle-earth is infinitely preferable to getting out of bed and going to work.