The Top Ten: Writers Pick Their Favorite Books

The blog of The Top Ten author J. Peder Zane.

Katharine Weber's Top Ten
Sunday, March 4, 2007

Space constraints meant I could only ask 125 writers to contribute to "The Top Ten" - leaving me to wonder about the picks of many authors I admire.

Now I have one less writer to puzzle about. Katharine Weber - whose novels include "Objects in the Mirror," "The Little Women," "The Music Lesson," and most recently, a reimagining of the 1911 shirtwaist factory fire that killed 146, most female workers, "Triangle" - has posted her list on my website:

From Katharine Weber submitted 03/03/2007

Edwin Mullhouse by Steven Milhauser
Ulysses by James Joyce
Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
The Comforters by Muriel Spark
A Severed Head by Iris Murdoch
The Eighth Day by Thornton Wilder
Lucy Carmichael by Margaret Kennedy
The Painted Veil by W. Somerset Maugham
The Custom of the Country by Edith Wharton
Portnoy's Complaint by Philip Roth

The 125 writers listed 544 separate works on their lists - an average of four unique titles per list. Weber is above average, including six unselected works - the Milhauser, Spark, Murdoch, Wilder, Maugham and, Kennedy (she's news to me, but not for long).

Posted by J. Peder Zane at 9:37 AM
Permalink Digg this Post Email this Post

1 Comments:

Lisa Guidarini said...: I think Steven Milhauser isn't appreciated enough, so I was pleased to see him on Ms. Weber's list. I read a novella of his once called 'Enchanted Night' that was just gorgeous. It's about residents of a small CT town who walk around one night, encountering varying degrees of "magic." Really great stuff.

I noticed Portnoy also made Ms. Weber's list. I make no bones about my feelings on that book, but I have bought his 'The Ghost Writer' and will give it every chance. Giving it the old college try (whatever that is).; March 5, 2007 11:26 AM