Jill Zimmerman Rutledge's Top Five of All Time

Jill Zimmerman Rutledge (Picture Perfect) hopes to someday relocate to the Vail Valley. In the meantime, she's an expert on body image and self confidence for girls in Evanston, Illinois.

1. Lad, A Dog by Albert Payson Terhune


2. A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens


3. Autobiography of a Yogi by Paramahansa Yogananda


4. Personal History by Katharine Graham


5. Collected Stories of Eudora Welty by Eudora Welty

Phil Jackson's Top Five of All Time

Phil Jackson (Sacred Hoops) will visit the Vail Valley in September for a fundraiser with the Swift Eagle Foundation. The former LA Laker coach was known to require reading for members of his teams, and this list resembles a syllabus of fine literature!

1. Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky


2. The Call of the Wild by Jack London


3. Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy


4. Moby Dick by Herman Melville


5. A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens

Jim Steinberg's Top Five of All Time

Jim Steinberg (Colorado Scenic Byways) is a wonderful photographer and supporter of the arts in Colorado.

1. Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls
2. Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
3. A Woman of Substance by Barbara Bradford Taylor
4. The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien
5. The Stand by Stephen King

Kim Barnes' Top Five of All Time

Kim Barnes (A Country Called Home) is off on a flyfishing trip before starting the school year as a writing professor at The University of Idaho. Her next novel will explore the lives of Americans residing in 1960s Saudi Arabia.

1. Sula by Toni Morrison


2. The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway


3. Bel Canto by Ann Patchett


4. Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy


5. A Childhood: The Biography of a Place by Harry Crews

John Thompson's Top Five of All Time

John Thompson (The Armageddon Conspiracy) was fishing this week in Eagle County. He stopped by on Sunday to sign books and visit with family, friends and visitors.

1. Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy


2. Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky


3. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain


4. Jesus' Son by Denis Johnson


5. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

Temple Grandin's Five Related Books

Temple Grandin (They Way I See It) spoke to hundreds of parents and educators in Vail this week. During her talk, she referred to five great books on topics relating to autism.

1. How Can I Talk If My Lips Don't Move? by Tito Rajarshi Mukophadhyay


2. In the Mind's Eye by Thomas G. West


3. Born on a Blue Day by Daniel Tammet


4. Perfect Rigor by Masha Gessen


5. Delivered from Distraction by Edward Hallowell and John Ratey

Dagny McKinley's Top Five of All Time

Dagny McKinley (Wild Hearts: Dog Sledding the Rockies) is a Steamboat Springs photographer and dog sledding guide. Her book was just released and will be perfect for locals and tourists once the snow flies!

1. Ask the Dust by John Fante


2. Stones of Summer by Dow Mossman


3. Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky


4. Fairy Tales by The Brothers Grimm


5. The Eccentricities of a Nightingale by Tennessee Williams

Kaya McLaren's Top Five of All Time

Kaya McLaren (On the Divinity of Second Chances, Church of the Dog) scheduled her own road trip this summer, choosing the route based on independent bookstores along the way. We were excited to meet her, and to check out her favorite books!

1. Solar Storms by Linda Hogan


2. Horse Heaven by Jane Smiley


3. The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver


4. Woman in the Mists by Farley Mowatt


5. Letters to Rollins by R.K. Overton

Shirley Welch's Top Five of All Time

Shirley Welch (The Eagle River Valley) received the local Nimon-Walker Award this year for her work preserving local history. She published that history with Arcadia in 2008 in addition to compiling oral histories for hospice patients.

1. Shantaram: A Novel by David Gregory Roberts



2. Exodus by Leon Uris



3. Meely LaBauve by Ken Wells



4. The Travels of Jamie Mcpheeters by Robert L. Taylor



5. The Infidel by Ayaan Hirsi Ali

Hank Manley's Top Five of All Time

Hank Manley (Bahama Reckoning) is a businessman and writer who spends the summers in Colorado, and the rest of the year on sailboats and beaches around the Caribbean. His newest novel, Legacy of Honor, is partially set in the Eagle River Valley. Book #3 on this list contributed to Hank's decision to join the Marine Corps!

1. Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry


2. From Here to Eternity by James Jones


3. Battle Cry by Leon Uris


4. Word of Honor by Nelson DeMille


5. Caine Mutuny by Herman Wouk

Craig Childs' Top Five of All Time

Craig Childs (Knowledge of Water, Animal Dialogues) spoke about House of Rain to benefit the Gore Range Natural Science School recently. Here are his fantastic recommendations on nature and the human experience!

1. The Meadow by James Galvin



2. Dune by Frank Herbert



3. The Girl of the Sea of Cortez by Peter Benchley



4. Arctic Dreams by Barry Lopez



5. American Primitive by Mary Oliver

Lev Grossman's Top Five of All Time

Today I had the pleasure of chatting with novelist and Time book critic Lev Grossman (Codex). As he signed copies of newly released The Magicians for The Literacy Project Luncheon in Avon, we went over his top five of all time - all classics for this Harvard and Yale graduate!

1. Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf



2. Ulysses by James Joyce



3. The Trial by Franz Kafka



4. The Odyssey by Homer



5. Troilus and Criseyde by Geoffrey Chaucer

Debut post

For more than five years, I've been asking authors what they are reading. Their recommendations span time and genre, and often leap-frog to movies, exhibits and musical works of art. From authors with New York Times best selling status to local writers with an interesting take on life in the Rockies, these scribes have more than just pages of their own to share. They often provide some of the best reading resources I (and my staff) have ever received. These gems should be shared, and I hope they will enrich your reading list well beyond the shelves of any one collection.



To start, I've plucked a few from the recent archives:

• Lisa See (Shanghai Girls) recommending The Guernsey Literary Potato Peel Pie Society by MaryAnn Shaffer and Annie Barrows in July 2009
  
• David Wroblewski (The Story of Edgar Sawtelle) recommending So Long, See You Tomorrow by William Maxwell in June 2008


• Laura Lippman (What the Dead Know) recommending The Post Birthday World by Lionel Shriver in March 2007

It is my hope to begin a dialogue with authors about what they are reading, what they hope to read, and what books changed their lives. As I collect the lists, new ideas will certainly emerge. Let's get started!