Re-read it, re-read it good

Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice turned 200 hundred years old this week! As a book that is probably more loved by more people than most others, it got me thinking about other books that are fun to re-read. (Since re-reading P & P is a given for many.)

Here's a little list of some of my favorite re-reads. There are a lot of young adult literature picks in here because that tends to be my favorite. These are all fiction as well. Maybe I'll do a non-fiction list another time.

A Wrinkle in Time by Madeline L'Engle
~One of my favorites as a teen. Meg is an ultimate ugly duckling and therefore a great heroine. The mix of science, sci-fi, and coming of age were so exciting and inspiring to me when I was younger. Now that I'm older, I see more levels to the family dynamics, appreciate the scientific facts and excellent narrative.

Tom Loves Anna Loves Tom by Bruce Clements
~I found this gem at the library. God bless librarians who put books out on display! It is a story told from the perspective of a teenage boy who falls in love with a girl visiting town. It's probably the closest depiction of real love (as I see it at least, and especially from a teenage point of view) that I've read. It's not very flowery, it's self-consciously and subtley romantic at times and very relatable. I re-read this every year or so.

Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine
~Oh, my heart's true love. One of the best books of all time. It combines love, humor, fairy tale, intelligence. A retelling of the Cinderella story without any mice and with a semi-crazy fairy godmother. The first time I read this, I sighed in happiness when I finished the book and was ready to start it again right then. I got my sisters hooked on it too and we all read it regularly. [Disclaimer: run SCREAMING away from the movie version of this book. The movie has NO resemblance to the book and when I saw it in theater I was very angry.]

Anne of Green Gables by L. M. Montgomery
~My most recent re-read. Anne Shirley is a wonderful Polly-Anna-with-a-major-klutzy-streak character. The book is a joy to read. 

The Lord of the Rings Triology (and The Hobbit) by J. R. R. Tolkien
~Epic drama at it's best. 

Redwall and the other books in the series by Brian Jacques 
~Adventure series set in fictional Medieval times with castles and kings, priests and tapestries, knights and poetry. Oh, and all the characters are animals. :)

The Long Winter by Laura Ingalls Wilder
~My favorite of the Little House books. I'm not sure I've re-read any of the others in the series in a long while, but am open to doing so. This one is just so good and such a great winter book!

Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
~Brooding, crazy, dark, fascinating, stark. Gets your brain going in a million directions.

Persuasion by Jane Austen
~One of my other favorite Austen's. Her last completed novel, it shows a great deal of maturity in the writing style and the characters. The main character is 27 and you can tell the difference and relate, especially as an older reader, to Anne Elliot.

The Portrait of a Lady by Henry James
~Complex, intriguing, packed with enigmatic characters and unusual plot twists. No happy endings or tied up strings in this novel, but so much to get out of it!

The Outsiders by S. E. Hinton
~A group of teenage "Greasers" trying to make in a world where "Socs" get all the breaks. Loved it in high school, love it as an adult, even though it bears no resemblance to my teenage or life experience. We can all relate to feeling like an outsider.

I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith
~A story of an eccentric family living in an old castle in England, told from the perspective of a teenage girl through her journals. I found this book in a cool bookstore in Colorado Springs and really liked it. There is a decent movie adaptation as well.

A quick list to wrap this up because there are more books that I've re-read and continue to re-read than I thought!
~The Secret Garden
~Pippi Longstocking
~A Little Princess
~Tom Sawyer
~The Harry Potter series
~The Twilight series (guilty pleasure)
~Hamlet