The Olson Favorite Books

Dear Bekaroo, 

You said your secret Christmas dream was to have a list of the favorite books of those in our family.  Turns out, this was a difficult task.  For people like us, favorites can be hard to come by.  But we thought hard, culled our lists, set aside our reservations about ignoring most of the readerly world, and (mostly) made the tough calls in order to make your Christmas dream come true.  We love you so much.  And we're so glad to have you in our family of readers.

With so much love,

Your doting familia

OUR FAVORITE BOOKS LIST! (December 2012)
 
Grandpa Olson: Team of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwin
Dad: Bleak House by Charles Dickens; The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupery
Mom: Dandelion Wine by Ray Bradbury

N: Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card
S: Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card
C: Socks by Beverly Cleary; The Secret Series by Pseudonymous Bosch; Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling

D: Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card; Purity of Heart by Soren Kierkegaard; The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupery
A: Animal Dreams by Barbara Kingsolver
S: Amazing Pokemon Guide Book by Modern Publishing (Dan: "We tried to encourage him away from this one to something more literary, but alas. . .")
M: My Friend Is Sad by Mo Willems

E: Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky
A: The Five Love Languages by Gary Chapman; Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen; Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card; The Anatomy of Peace by The Arbinger Institute
I: The Hobbit by J.R. Tolkien
A: Nerds by Michael Buckley
E: Nate the Great by Marjorie Sharmat

S: For the Time Being by Annie Dillard; The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje
J: Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card; The Peacegiver by James L. Ferrell

Jos: James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl
Jac: The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin; Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky (Jacob: "Picking is hard!")
P: The Oxford Book of American Poetry (Favorite poet: A.R. Ammons)
R: The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupery; Till We Have Faces by C.S. Lewis; Persuasion by Jane Austen; Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech