Shah Wharton at Words in Sync recently asked a question at SeededBuzz:
Can you pinpoint your favorite book?  Like Shah I’m a voracious reader reading as many as two books a week on some occasions.  You’d think reading as much as I do I’d have a difficult time picking out favorites.  It really isn’t that difficult as I read many different genres and I can pick three favorites from one genre especially.  My favorite genre Science Fiction and Fantasy, (SF/F) but here’s where I’m going to cheat a bit and diverge from Shah’s original intent.  I’m going to pick authors and I’ll highlight a couple of books from each of my favorite authors has written:

Clive Barker
In 1987 Clive Barker published Weaveworld.  It very quickly moved to the top of my list of all time favorite books.  Weaveworld still holds a special place in my heart.  For many years in May it became an anual tradition to re-read this favorite book.  I own multiple copies:
–A signed first UK edition.
–A signed hand written corrected proof by Barker himself.
–A paperback that is LITERALLY held together by rubber bands it’s been read so many times.
–And two other paperback editions.

Weaveworld is about a magic carpet, but this carpet is unlike any anyone’s ever seen before.  Mr Barker is EXTREMELY graphic in this book.  Weaveworld is NOT for young people.  If you can get past the graphic nature of the book you’ll be in for one heck of a ride.  I HIGHLY recommend it.  Barker got a bad rap I believe as someone who writes horror.  His books from Weaveworld up until Sacrament are NOT horror at all.

The other book by Clive Barker that left a lasting impression on me is Sacrament.  I own two editions of this book:
–A signed first edition
–An unsigned first edition

Sacrament is a book, Clive Barker HAD to write.  The book explores his coming out as gay.  I thought and still think it was a catharsis to write.  Another reason this book so deeply resonated with me is the fact that a photographer plays a role.  These two books are the two I would recommend to anyone interested in Clive Barker.  He is still a favorite of mine

Jonathan Carroll
I discovered Jonathan Carroll’s books while working at RJ Julia’s Booksellers in Madison, Connecticut.  One of the things I LOVED about working at RJ’s was getting advanced copies of books before they were published.  Our inventory/ordering person knew of my love of eclectic fantasy and she recommended I look at a new book by Jonathan Carroll called White Apples.

Wow! Wow!
Amazon has this to say about White Apples:
Vincent Ettrich, a genial philanderer, discovers he has died and come back to life, but he has no idea why, or what the experience was like. Gradually, he discovers he was brought back by his true love, Isabelle, because she is pregnant with their child—a child who, if raised correctly, will play a crucial role in saving the universe.

But to be brought up right, the child must learn what Vincent learned on the other side—if only Vincent can remember it. On a father’s love and struggle may depend the future of everything that is.

By turns quirky, romantic, awesome, and irresistible, White Apples is a tale of love, fatherhood, death, and life that will leave you seeing the world with new eyes.
Everything in my paradgim is here.  It’s no wonder I clicked with this book.

Wow!  Wow!
That’s all I can say.  It’s sequel: Glass Soup is another amazing piece of fiction.  Jonathan Carroll just gets better with each book he writes.  His last book called The Ghost in Love is no different.  It’s better then his last book.  Here’s what Publisher’s Weekly has to say:

Death is not the end but rather the start of a series of madcap and sometimes moving adventures for characters in this spry novel about the un-afterlife. Events begin on a wintry day in Connecticut when Ben Gould slips and hits his head on a curb. He should have died, but owing to a virus in heaven’s computer system, Ben’s body lives on. Soon, Ben and others in his life—including his talking dog, Pilot, and his own ghost (named Ling)—find themselves endowed with extraordinary and unpredictable talents, including time traveling, the ability to hobnob with multiple incarnations of their younger selves, and a capacity to see otherwise invisible forces of fate manifested in bizarre physical forms.

Again it should come as no suprise that Jonathan Carroll resonates with me.  Be forewaned however if you decide to pick him up.  His style is WAY off in left field.  He’s now my FAVORITE author and I have Nancy Brown at RJ Julia to thank for introducing me to him.

Kim Wilkins
The Veil of Gold
Here’s what Amazon says about this fantastical Russian tale:

When an ancient gold bear is found walled up in a dilapidated St. Petersburg bathhouse, researcher Daniel St. Clair and his frosty colleague Em Hayward set out for the university in Arkhangelsk to verify its age. Along the way they are mysteriously set adrift. Maps are suddenly useless. Lost and exhausted they turn north, sinking even deeper into the secrets and terrors of the Russian landscape.
Daniel’s lost love, the wild and beautiful Rosa Kovalenka, fears the worst when Daniel goes missing and resolves to find him. To do so will mean confronting her past and secrets that she has fought to suppress. The only way to save him is to go forward, where she encounters the haunted Chenchikov clan, a family with their own shadowy tangle of grief, desire, and treachery.
In the unknowable, impenetrable Russian forest, Rosa meets an enigmatic wanderer who is full of tales and riddles of times past. Who might hold the key to Rosa and Daniel’s future–or the destruction of their world.

This is another favorite of mine in the SF/F Genre.

Spiritual/Self Help

Gary Braver’s Tunnel Vision is another book that spoke to me.  Dealing with Near Death Experiences and the search for God, the book it is only natural that I’d be drawn to the subject matter.  Gary has written many other books I’ve read most of them, but Tunnel Vision resonated on a deep spiritual level.  In fact I’ve written about the book here before.

Two other authors in the spiritual/positivity paradigm I follow are
Wayne Dyer
Timothy Keller

So, I guess Shah Wharton’s question struck a chord with me and like her I CANNOT pick one favorite book.  Like Shah, I read too much to be able to tie one book down.  As expressed above, I do have favorite genres though:
Science Fiction/Fantasy
and
Spiritual/Positivity

Be Happy!  Be Well!  Be Positive!
Blessings to yiu.
—
Chris