15.     The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson. Often cited as sporting the best first paragraph in all prose, this story is still as paralyzingly scary as it was the day it was written.

16.     Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy. My mother said that this novel of prewar Russia and the foolish and beautiful Anna was a story that “took all the fun out of adultery.” So true.

17.     Red Dragon by Thomas Harris. Having read this book before the amazing characterization of Hannibal Lecter by Anthony Hopkins, I was the only person on earth who thought that this prequel to The Silence of the Lambs was even more gruesome and terrifying.

18.     The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara. Another Pulitzer Prize-winning novel of the Civil War? Yes! This is the story of the longest days of our nation’s lives, three hot sunsets in Gettysburg, and why even the beautiful and brave can be wrong, and the glum, stubborn and foolish as right as dawn.

19.     Crossing to Safety by Wallace Stegner. The story of two couples growing “up” together is as true a story about loyalty and its limits as any I’ve ever read.

20.     The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. Often described as the chronicle of the so-called Jazz Age, this is really a story about the haves and how they think of the have-nots, because they are helpless to think of them any other way. You might call it a 1920s tale of the 1 percent.

21.     Charlotte’s Web, by E.B. White. Those who think of this small book about a gallant spider’s fight to save the life of a runt pig as a children’s story are letting children have all the fun.

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