Favorite book?

What is your favorite book?  Answering that question was a writing prompt that originated from the Bloggers United group over at Inkwell.  There are many ways to define a "favorite" book but in the end I picked the one two that always rise to the top: Pride and Prejudice, and the Heaven Tree Trilogy.  Each of these took some effort for me to start and appreciate, because I they were beyond the main genre of my youth (neither book offered dark sorcery or hyper drive starships, if  you can believe that!).

1.  Pride and Prejudice was a departure from what I normally read, but as a freshman in college I picked it up. Struggling through the first ten pages, I dropped it in disgust and moved on.  It was Christmas Break and there were better things to do.  But the book called out and I picked it up and--tossing it aside at the same page as the first try.  At least half a dozen times I picked it up, each time wondering as I set it down unfinished how it had managed to achieve even mediocre reviews.

There is no better explanation for why I started over for a seventh time other than a competitive nature to at least have the book read when I told my siblings how wrong they were about the book.  How wrong I was.  Something clicked.  Primarily the story of Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy, the book traces layers of pride, judgement, forgiveness and love.  The characters are strong and the dialog is laced with human emotions that feel real.  Although the society of Victorian England is not something I can relate to deeply, the characters are.  I worked hard to finish the book and ended up embracing it.

2.  While still a freshman in college I dove into The Heaven Tree trilogy, by Edith Pargeter (who more commonly writes mysteries as Ellis Peters).  Set in the 13th century, the trilogy primarily focuses on Harry Talvace, an idealist and artist who does not fit well into feudal society; Harry's son and namesake; Ralf Isambard, Harry's mentor for the construction of a spectacular church; and the retired courtesan Madonna Benedetta.

While the book's first chapter, and a little more, move slowly the provide the groundwork to understand the artistic passion and moral strength of Harry.  The story is really about passion: artistic, moral, romantic, and political, delving into positive and negative aspects until they blur together at points.  Historical and geographic settings are as well crafted as the story itself.  Perhaps the main reason I love the story is the writing.  There is such a grand scale of things that it would have been easy for the book to get bogged down with adjectives and redundancy.  Instead the book strikes such a balance that Pargeter restores the meaning and impact of our oft abused language.

Note: I could easily throw two others into the mix.  In fact, I think I will have to do a follow-up to this post to handle them, which inspire me in different ways.