“Illusions” by Richard Bach. I still read it every few years and have given a copy to both my kids to read.l It reminds me that I have created the “movie” I am in, and only I can change it…and that it is a “choice” to be where I am or to be somewhere else. No one does it for you. It is a wonderful, wonderful book! If you haven’t read it, you should.

“The Diary of Ann Frank” when I was in high school. “The Feminine Mystique” when I was 24 with 2 kids. “Wifey” by Judy Blume, about the same time. Turned me into the cool grandma I am today.

If you haven’t read Jane Juska’s books, you are missing a brilliant writer. “Unaccompanied Women,” and “A Round-Heeled Woman.” Explores issues of finding sex after 60…in first-person stories. Funny, sad…opens your world. It opened mine…at least on paper.

TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD. I can still remember coming to the end and then rereading the final chapter. I was in the tenth grade and had never experienced anything like it …

As a teenager ~ “Mrs. Mike” by Benedict and Nancy Freedman, about a 16 year old marrying a Canadian mountie and living in the Northwest Territory. Right now it’s “A New Earth” by Eckhart Tolle.

Gosh…I’m SO late to this party…GRIN!!…but it’s opened a floodgate of memories for me. I read at a very early age…4 or 5 I imagine. My mother would wake at dawn and find me curled up in the corner of a chair thumbing thru her childhood books (mostly Gene Stratton Porter). We had a ‘discussion’, she moved the ‘adult’ stuff to higher shelves (the bookcases framed the windows, floor to ceiling). Which meant I spent all my mornings reading cookbooks; I still consider them great reading…LOL!! I then ‘graduated’ to reading Erskine Caldwell, John Steinbeck…what wonderful stuff! By the time I was in 7th grade, with access to the high school library…I was in Heaven. The first time I tried to check out Mila 18 the librarian refused it to me, said I had to ask my mother (living in a small town, there were ‘parental controls’ hidden around every corner…LOL!!!). I proudly brought a note back the next day that said ‘if she can carry it out, she may read it’. So….I tore thru The Diary of Anne Frank, Exodus, War and Peace, Gone with the Wind. Ayn Rand spun my world around in Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead…and then there was The Story of O. I think I became older and wiser waaay ahead of my peers, still thirst for the ‘truths’ I’ve found on the printed pages. Wonderful, joyous moment a few years ago. My best friend and I are poring thru a used book store, I find a collection of Travis McGee stories and am doing the Happy Dance in the aisles (ALL my lunch money went to buy James Bond and Travis McGee paperbacks…LOL!!!), she glances over, her mouth falls open…we look at each other…turns out SHE adored the stories too!!!! Since we’ve know each other forever, with few secrets or unknowns between us….what a magical moment when we discovered we’d both devoured the same stories in our respectively restricted girlhoods. We just hugged and jumped up and down in the Happy Dance…in the aisle.

In terms of today’s world “The Nine” opened my eyes to the importance (in my case) of voting for a Democrat for President to avoid having another conservative put on the Supreme Court. If John McCain is our next President, say goodbye to Roe v. Wade and a lot of other important decisions. (Of course, all of the Ayn Rand readers would be thrilled.)

When I was in the third grade, the teacher read the Narnia books to us after lunch. The concepts were life changing for me. I was caught up in an abusive family. And this book told me there was another way to live one’s life. I was set free! Other books….the one I loved the most War and Peace. I cried at the end because I wanted to keep reading and I ran out of pages.

I can’t remember the name or the author of the book and have been looking for it for years. I was about 8, sick, and got a stack of books from the library. One of those books hooked me on reading and opened a whole world of wonder. It was a child’s mystery (possibly the Boxcar Kids), and there was a poem with the clue - I still remember the poem (in fact, I could just about tell you the whole story): Not so high as the sky; Not so deep as a well; Somewhere in between; I know but I won’t tell. Anyone heard of it?

Most definately the Bible, ever so life changing. A Christmas carol,Charlotte’s Web & I know why the caged bird sings.

It’s a tie ladies! Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak and The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein.

Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson. It’s definitely a “young adult” I read it in middle school and it’s geared toward that age group, but I read it at least once a year. I don’t know what I would do without it. It helps me remember how good I have things and that I am so blessed.

Shirley MacLaine’s OUT ON A LIMB when my first husband was leaving me and our three very young children. Her book gave me a sense of spirituality through rough times, a sense of fun and clarity and encouragement to keep moving forward with spirit. Thanks, Shirley!!!!!!

The right words at the right time volume two your turn by marlo thomas it gave me the strength to run my own racre my freshman year of high school