25 Books to Read Before I Turn 25

A few years ago, I found this list of books, all suggested by former First Lady Laura Bush. As a former librarian and a huge literacy advocate, she definitely knows what she's talking about. The titles in bold are those that I've already read. So far, I've liked most of the suggested books, and Jane Eyre is my most favorite of them all. Good thing I have five more years to finish off the list!

1. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain

2. Atonement by Ian McEwan

3. Bless Me, Ultima by Rudolfo Anaya

4. The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

5. Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton

6. Flannery O'Connor: The Complete Stories

7. The French Lieutenants Woman by John Fowles

8. The Heart of the Matter by Graham Greene

9. I, Claudius by Robert Graves

10. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

11. A Lesson Before Dying by Earnest J. Gaines

12. The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupery

13. My Antonia by Willa Cather

14. Mornings on Horseback by David McCullough

15. Music for Chameleons by Truman Capote

16. The Optimists Daughter by Eudora Welty

17. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

18. The Razor's Edge by W. Somerset Maugham

19. Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books by Azar Nafisi

20. Rebecca by Daphne du Marier

21. The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd

22. Ship of Fools by Katherine Anne Porter

23. Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse

24. Sophie's Choice by William Styron

25. War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy