Top Ten Tuesday - Ten Books I'm Thankful For

This week's Top Ten Tuesday topic from The Broke and the Bookish is a Thanksgiving Freebie.  My take on this topic this year is the Books that I'm Thankful - books that have somehow been pivotal in my life for whatever reason.

1.  The Boxcar Children by Gertrude Chandler Warren - This was the first series that really captured my imagination.  I loved how resourceful the kids were and how they were always solving mysteries and having adventures.  This series has kind of come back around and there are a ton of new books that are modern but they didn't come out until well after I grew out of the series.  These books have gotten extra special lately because they've become the Tornado's favorite books to read at bedtime.

2.  The Secret of the Old Clock by Carolyn Keene - This was the first real mystery series I ever read and I remember searching the shelf at the library for ones I hadn't read.  Later on I was fascinated to learn that Nancy Drew was the first of the more adventure stories that were written just for girls as they hadn't existed prior to Nancy arriving on the scene.  I thought it was interesting to see too that at the time the books were first published (1930) it was not typical to see a girl in her late teens not only being as independent as Nancy but also not portraying her as someone more focused on more of a career than a future as a wife and mother.  Plus, I just love the cover art!

3  The Shell Seekers by Rosamunde Pilcher - This was pretty much the first adult book that I ever read that wasn't a classic and I think I reread it a few times a year for more than a decade - each time getting something a little different out of it than I did the time before.  I read through the binding on three different copies.  It's also really the first book that I enjoyed that my Grandmother did as well starting off a conversation about books that is permanently ongoing. I don't read it as much as I used too and I don't think it would make it into my top ten favorites anymore but it'll always be special.

4.  Cruel and Unusual by Patricia Cornwell - This was the first adult thriller I ever read and it scared me half to death in the best possible of ways.  I went on to read her other books until around 2000 or so when I realized that I was no longer enjoying where she was taking the story.  I still remember that feeling of holding my breath while I waited to see how it would all work out.

5.  The Secret Adversary by Agatha Christie - This was the first Agatha Christie I fell in love with.  Prior to that while I had enjoyed the ones I read they hadn't really stuck with me.  Then I discovered Tommy and Tuppence's first adventure and I fell completely under her spell!

6.  Devil's Bride by Stephanie Laurens - I was very anti-romance for a long time before a friend (Lisa from Books Lists Life) challenged me to try one.  This is the first one I read and I loved it and it opened up a whole new genre to me.  I reread it not too long ago and didn't think it stood up well to a reread but I loved it at the time.

7.  The Mother Tongue: English and How it Got That Way by Bill Bryson - I was reading this book when my husband and I had just started dating and when I mentioned it to him he expressed such interest that when I saw another copy of the book at a used bookstore I bought him one.  We had a good time discussing this one together.

8.  Southern Living: 30 Years of Our Best Recipes - When I got married I couldn't cook at all. Either my husband would cook or we'd go out to eat ever single night.  The first summer he was out of town for a business trip that ended up being several weeks and the fact that I could do nothing to feed myself other than go through a drive-thru began to irritate me.  I was reasonably intelligent - surely I could figure out how to cook something.  This book kind of saved the day - not only being full of recipes that looked good but being simple enough that as a complete novice I could attempt them with mostly successful results.

9.  The Four Story Mistake by Elizabeth Enright - This was one of my favorite books as a child and when my Mother was moving I discovered my copy among a number of other books.  I took it home and reread and then discovered a tiny little sentence that I had never noticed before - Part of the Melendy family series.  With the help of Amazon I quickly acquired the rest of the books and it's what really made me reconsider picking up children's literature again which is now one of my favorite genres.

10. The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin - When I picked this book up I was in a big memoir phase and this one seemed like my kind of book - until I discovered it felt much more like self-help than a memoir.  I'm not a big self-help fan and I almost put it down because what do I need help for?  Reading this book was fascinating.  Yes things are good but am I as happy as I can be?  Am I needlessly putting off stuff that will make me happy or be fun for the family in favor of doing what I feel like I should?  This book caused me to reevaluate how I was doing things and I think my whole family has benefited from that.

What books are you thankful for?