Books I loved in childhood...
What Katy Did
Harriet the Spy
Anne of Green Gables
Gone with the Wind
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
* I know y'all were just talking about the racial issues, etc., but I still love the story for all the funny scrapes Tom gets into. I did not read Huckleberry Finn until college and did not like it nearly as well.
Dmom also loved Forever Amber, Cowinkie. I think I read it a long time ago... need to check it out again. I'm sure she loved it because of the historical setting, too. She loves anything about that period of English history.
I think I would enjoy Debbie Macomber; I've noticed her books in the bookstore before but never got started on any of them.
Right now I am reading Salem Falls by Jodi Picoult and it IS sorta depressing, but I'm pretty sure the guy is going to be found innocent, so I have to finish it to see how they solve the crime.
To relieve the dark/depressing tone, I'm also reading Good Wives, which I thought was a sequel to Little Women, but apparently it is more of a re-write of the last half of Little Women; which is sorta disappointing. Still, in my present state of mind, there's a lot I can learn from "Marmee," so I'm hanging in there with it.
I also have the sequel to The Shell Seekers on my nightstand,
along with Joyce Meyer's The Battlefield of the Mind,
and Sue Monk Kidd's Firstlight, which (I think) is a collection of short inspirational writings she did early in her career.
And I want very much to read The Help, by Kathryn Stockett. It is a new novel about race relations between the black housekeepers and their employers during the Civil Rights era. I think it takes place in Mississippi or Alabama. I read part of it on Amazon and it looked sooo good. I may just have to break down and buy it, but I wish they'd get it at the library.