 | Sleeping in Flame by Jonathan Carroll
Buy new: $11.16 / Used from: $0.70 First third of this novel captures falling in love. Perfectly. Then it takes a turn...
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 | Pawn in Frankincense: Fourth in the Legendary Lymond Chronicles by Dorothy Dunnett
Buy new: $11.56 / Used from: $2.98 Killer. Amazing. An emotional sucker-punch that I'm still reeling from, years later.
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 | Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell: A Novel by Susanna Clarke
Buy new: $7.99 / Used from: $0.01 As well-crafted a tale as I could ever dream. And very like a dream.
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 | Enemy of God (The Arthur Books #2) by Bernard Cornwell
Buy new: $10.87 / Used from: $2.00 Best, most satisfying ending I can think of.
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 | Ender's Game (Ender, Book 1) by Orson Scott Card
Buy new: $6.99 / Used from: $0.96 So short you'll miss it if you blink, and yet it will never, ever leave you.
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 | Early Autumn by Robert B. Parker
Buy new: $7.99 / Used from: $0.01 The rules to being male, and good.
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 | The Grass Crown (Masters of Rome) by Colleen McCullough
Buy used from: $4.91 Very much a middle book in a series, and yet - this is where everything goes wrong. This book hurts.
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 | The Fortune of War (Vol. Book 6) (Aubrey/Maturin Novels) by Patrick O'Brian
Buy new: $10.17 / Used from: $1.99 Unlike most of the Aubrey/Maturin books, this takes place on land and shows the doctor at his best. Then Jack surprises you, and it's a breathless race to the end.
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 | The Sign of Four (Penguin Classics) by Arthur Conan Conan Doyle
Buy new: $8.00 / Used from: $1.87 Opening and closing lines that I've been able to quote since I was in grade school, and yet Holmes still fascinates me.
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 | Little Myth Marker by Robert Asprin
Buy used from: $1.75 The best of the Myth books, just before the series fell apart. Charming, funny, with characters I've always loved, pushing to grow beyond their author's ability.
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 | Stardust by Neil Gaiman
Buy new: $10.07 / Used from: $0.01 The perfect fairy tale, it is neat without ever being nice.
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 | Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Book 5) by J. K. Rowling
Buy new: $17.54 / Used from: $0.43 This and Azkaban are the books I come back to.
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 | The Thin Man by Dashiell Hammett
Buy new: $9.36 / Used from: $0.75 The film will never leave your head, but you can see how close they played it.
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 | The Alienist: A Novel by Caleb Carr
Buy new: $10.17 / Used from: $3.13 Gruesome, cerebral, brutal, and a real slice of life from New York in a golden age.
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 | Patriot Games (Jack Ryan) by Tom Clancy
Buy new: $7.99 / Used from: $0.01 A fantasy about what spies should be, I never fail to tear up once or twice when Jack's family is in peril.
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 | That's Not All Folks by Mel Blanc
Buy used from: $0.65 Mel's tale of his life, especially during the golden age of Warner cartoons and old time radio. Charming and fun.
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 | The Master of Verona by David Blixt
Buy used from: $2.68 My own novel - it has to be on the list, if only because I'll be returning to it for the rest of my life, drawing on the characters.
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Listmania!
