The All-Time List

Cornelia Funke, 2003

I'm not even sure what I could say about this book. It's a story about a girl and her father, who can read things in books to life, and I read it when I was about fourteen. I've never read it again, and it was amazing and magical, and I think the reason I never read it again was that I wanted to be in that world too badly. I wanted to disappear to a place where you can read yourself into a book and live in a magical world. In other words, it hit me way too close to home. I've always kept a copy and hope someday I'll be ready to visit such a magical place again because it was wonderful.

Tamora Pierce, 2009

My mother bought these books for me when I was a kid and I read them probably around thirteen, the same age as the protagonist, a young girl with a magic she doesn't understand and is rarely acknowledged in the world. Pierce's Tortall universe sucked me in and it's never let me go, taking me on a magical journey every time I reread this quartet of books, which is once every year or two.

Patricia C. Wrede, 2015

Snarky princesses, dragons who like cherries jubilee, any dragon can be King if they pass the trial, Queen is boring and no one wants the job…it speaks for itself really. This book and its sequels turn the dragon and princess story on its head when a princess, the youngest of seven, runs away to become a dragon's princess on purpose, and turns away a dozen knights who try to rescue her because she doesn't want to be rescued. Dragons, witches, and evil wizards who are melted by buckets of soapy water with lemon. Quirky fun for any age.

Brian McClellan, 2013

This is what is apparently known as 'Flintlock Fantasy' and let me just say, I need more of it. I devoured these books, then I devoured them again. And again. And again. Told from a variety of viewpoints they cover a mass of events in a short time and I've rarely read something that felt more real and alive and visceral. I loved every moment of these from start to finish and I've pretty much read them once a year since the first time and will likely continue to do so.

Sherrilyn Kenyon, 2010

A bit of an outlier, this is a shorter fantasy romance set in a world of vampires and daemons and demons, and Greek and Atlantian Gods. There are over 20 books. This is the third in the series, and they're each about a different character. The main character of this book, Zerek, has always been close to me because he's grouchy and grumpy and angry and isolated, and he reads. He's always been my favourite and my paperback of this is falling to pieces, I think I've read it over ten times. There's nothing hugely special about this story over any of the others in the series, except for one character that's always felt so familiar.

Michelle Moran, 2008

Another one that I read and read again. This book is also set in Ancient Egypt and is told from the point of view of Nefertiti, wife of Ramses the Great. I honestly have to say that these books (there are two more that are related) are a huge part of why I started writing historical fiction, and are a huge inspiration to me as I keep writing. It's a beautifully woven story and there is always something new each time I read it.

Eloise Jarvis McGraw, 1961

Another childhood favourite, this is a YA historical fiction that I've read seven or eight times since I was a child and I always find something new. It's a brilliant story about a boy who has nothing, and who is offered the greatest wealth in all the land and in the end…he doesn't want it. He wants to become a reed farmer and save his money to pay his own way to the apprenticeship he wants. It's a wonderful story about honour over greed and knowing what's right and wrong, and it warms my heard every time I read it. It being set in Ancient Egypt doesn't hurt either.

Bernard Cornwell, 2010

Part of the Saxton Chronicles, or The Last Kingdom, depending on which series title you give it, this is quite a random pick. The series is 13 books, and this is book 5. I'm not really sure what it is about this book in particular that stuck with me when I read the whole series over one summer, but it was easily my favourite out of all of them. I would defiantly recommend the entire series because again, it reads much better than the adaptation, even if the TV show is epic.

Wade Davis, 2011

The only entry by a non-fiction book, this is a book about the early expeditions to climb Mount Everest in the 1920s. It is a hugely powerful book that tells the story of a group of men, many of whom survived the horrors of World War I and trench warfare on the Eastern Front. They are all damaged, mentally and, in some cases, physically, and they are to a one, crazy. But that’s the kind of person you needed to be willing to try and be the first person to climb the world’s tallest mountain. Some of the men on those early expeditions died during them, and most, whether they claimed or not, never returned to England. I absolutely loved this book when I read it several years ago, and someday I want to read it again because it brings out the humanity in these early pioneers in bright, bold, beautiful technicolour.