A to Z Challenge: My Favorite Storytellers-- I

"I' is easy! "I" is for....

John Irving

So remember how I couldn't tell you if Bret Easton Ellis is the writer I love to hate or hate to love? Well, John Irving is the writer I LOOOOVVVVEEE and sometimes wish would shut up. Just a little.

John Irving is brilliant. When I first read A Prayer for Owen Meany, I was instantly enthralled. This is truly one of the most incredible pieces of modern storytelling I can think of. Several hundred pages long, there are moments in this book when you think "Oh my goodness, just get to the frigging point!" because it seems like SO many extraneous details. And yet, when you get the end, Irving wraps up every single detail and story arc into one evocative, astounding ending that you are nothing but ecstatic that you stuck with it.

His skill and imagination are second to none. And yet, Irving's Achilles' Heel is sometimes using his writing as a very, very preachy political platform. For instance, while I thought Cider House Rules was an amazing, beautiful book, and I actually believe in the politics outlined in it, pointing out what he believes is sometimes suffocatingly heavy-handed.

Any writers like that for you? They are brilliant, but their personal agendas sometimes color their work a bit too much?

Comfort Fiction-- Part 3

In my series on comfort fiction, I have now covered movies, and television. The next logical place is books, right?

But how on Earth do I choose ONE book that comforts me to write about? I love to curl up in books, it is the best way for me to turn my brain off after a tough day? Reading is also a way to challenge myself, stimulate my brain, get my mind going.

There are just too many that I love too much to pick just one comfort book...

• I read Ender's Game once a year. It reminds me of my adolesence (in a good way) and always inspires me
• During tough times, the Sookie Stackhouse novels are incredible ways to turn off the world and escape into some juicy, fanciful, vampire stories
• When I need reminded of how much power there is in simply being a woman, Margaret Atwood is always there for me
• When I needed reminding that the the human spirit can prosper and overcome a lot more than one might think, my beloved Sherman Alexie is there for me
• When I am craving the beautifully weird, hello John Irving

I just can't pick.

So here is what we're going to do-- tell me YOUR comfort fiction. What do you read when life gets rough? Or what book can you read over and over and over again? What book always fills you with some kind of something, or makes you feel infinite?

Post your answers (and the why) below. One lucky commenter is going to win a book... for once, I am not giving away Max and Menna! I am giving away one of my favorite works of comfort fiction, to be chosen based on the particular style of the winning commenter.