#117. "Alice Through the Looking Glass" by Lewis Carroll

 

In the world of children's literature, there have been few characters who are curious and curiouser than Alice. With endless adaptations over the past century on stage and screen, Lewis Carroll's defining creation has inspired audiences to find the absurd in everyday life. With zippy prose and playful language, Wonderland is a world that comes to life all too easily. What's more impressive is that even with an inventive original story, credit should be given to "Alice Through the Looking Glass" for being more than a retread of what's come before. Sure, it's another visit through the crazy world of characters, but like the best of sequels, it builds on what came before and creates a strong companion to the original. In fact, one could argue that this features some of the greatest moments Carroll ever wrote.

#116. "Inferno" by Dante Alighieri

Few texts have been as influential as Dante Alighieri's epic poem "The Divine Comedy." For centuries, it has inspired a variety of artists and writers to imitate and pay homage. The idea is so simple and yet every new verse presents something immersive and full of thought-provoking commentary. With the first entry "Inferno," Dante finds himself traveling through hell in order to get to heaven. The story of needing to live through sin in order to become worthy of purity is a premise that plays out rather vividly throughout the text, presenting a narrative that may not have the most complicated of structure, but finds endless moments that stick with the reader. Rarely has a text been so alive with ideas and imagery that inspires the imagination. Every new ring of hell presents a conflict that ties into the human condition, forcing one to wonder not only who Alighieri's reference points are, but what this means for the individual reading. This is the start to one of the first undeniable trilogies, and one that is difficult to forget upon completion.

#115. "Cat Kid Comic Club: On Purpose" by Dav Pilkey

Credit should be given to Dav Pilkey. For a writer once considered so profane that his popular Captain Underpants was once on a banned book list, he sure has cornered the market for children's books that actually foster imagination and creativity. With the third entry in his Cat Kid Comic Club series, he finds characters continuing to find their voices as storytellers, doing so with vivid examples that embrace the endless potential inside every child. It isn't so much telling a story that will revolutionize the medium, but present something authentic to the creator. With "On Purpose," the story continues to reflect the value of the workshop process and even comments on the struggles with getting work published. Good luck finding a series as entertainingly frank about the writing process as Pilkey's story about a cat teaching tadpoles how to craft narrative. It's really difficult to write something this accessible yet informative in equal measure.

#114. "The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao" by Junot Diaz

There is something a bit frustrating about Juno Diaz's novel. From the first chapter, there is a clear and distinct understanding of voice. Few novels at the time had been written with such humor and insight quite like "The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao," where a bilingual narrative detailed the concept of bad luck (or "fuku") over generations and across the immigration experience. Alongside dictatorship is studies of comic book nerdery and the struggles for teen boys to have sex. This is a novel that should feel alive with purpose and, at times, reaches something that could be considered brilliant and even revolutionary. The issue is that Diaz has decided to use this technique to tell the story of a fairly uninteresting plot that never settles on anything brilliant. While that could be the point of its "brief and wondrous" title, it definitely holds it back from being this 21st century masterpiece, reflecting a perspective rarely seen in literary circles. It's unlike anything that's been seen, but it's also fairly uninspired outside of its style.

#113. "Petals on the Wind" by V.C. Andrews

With "Flowers in the Attic," V.C. Andrews created one of the best firecrackers in trashy, pulpy novel history. The Dollangangers were a family whose trust issues are slowly revealed in ways that are increasingly bizarre but somehow rationalized thanks to how Andrews wrote the prose in very manipulative and compelling ways. Some may argue that its themes are at times too uncomfortable or exist solely for shock value, but from a prose standpoint, it was riveting and relied on what the audience needs in a good book. It needs to stay hooked, and she found a way to keep the plot moving even as the characters remained trapped in an attic, constantly struggling with sanity. They felt real and vulnerable, where even their slow dive into a controversial legacy felt warranted. This was the epitome of a true crime tale crossed with the most delicious of soap opera scenery chewing.

It included a cliffhanger where "Petals on the Wind" immediately picks up. With an undeniable hook going in, the reader has to wonder what will happen next. What is amazing is not so much that Andrews has continued to churn out surprise after surprise, but how her second outing is not structurally the same as what came before. From beginning to end, decades play out and characters experience twists and turns that are even soapier and may be less satisfying. It's at times too self-aware of the legacy it must live up to, but even then leaves questions as to how Andrews thought to continue this journey for several more books. It feels like she burns through the plot so quickly that there's nothing left to say. Even then, "Petals on the Wind" is a novel that gives a fist pump of an ending, playing into the reader's worst tendencies and rewarding their desire for moments driven by big, irrational emotion. It may not be the pristine follow-up Andrews could've written, but it's far from a boring continuation.

#112. "Ulysses" by James Joyce

"Ulysses" is often considered one of the greatest novels of the English language not only in terms of quality, but potential. James Joyce sought to chronicle life over a single day in Ireland while playing with every potential literary form. Taking years to craft and full of symbolism that would take longer to unpack, the novel is a challenging bugger that blends fantasies and reality in such a way that the reader is often struggling to figure out where one is in the text. As a scholarly work, it reflects Joyce's greatest contributions to the novel and presents something that even a century later remains memorable in its absurdity and deeply felt emotion. This may not be like any other book written, even by Joyce, but it symbolizes so much of what would come after in the Modernist and even Post-Modern movements, capturing a way of conveying emotion and intellect in ways that are immersive and interactive. It's a book that may be a chore to get through at times, but it's ultimately one of the most rewarding experiences ever put to the page.

#111. "Dubliners" by James Joyce

Of the writers who kicked off the Modernist literary movement, few did it with such efficiency as James Joyce. While his later books would push the English language to its breaking point, his early anthology "Dubliners" presented an even more interesting proposition when it hypothesized that the Irish city of Dublin was in a state of paralysis, refusing to grow and evolve with the times. Even if these stories do not overlap often, they present a thorough and complete portrait of turn of the century culture in a country that was in need of some fresh perspective. From the opening story detailing the death of a priest to the ending focusing around a universal death, Joyce found an entertaining way to discuss heavy and controversial themes in entertaining ways that drop the reader into a time and place where, even a century later, feels so lived in. Don't be fooled by the brevity. It's so full of minor details that one can't help but feel like they're there witnessing these events in all of their entertaining, tragic detail.