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SOLERA DIAMOND VALLEY | AUGUST 2020 15 By Clare Mendez, Resident Recently, PBS ran an eight-part series featuring America's 100 best-loved novels hosted by Meredith Vieira. You may have seen this in 2018 when it originally aired, and due to more people at home reading in 2020, the series was aired again. According to the creators, the series was "the centerpiece of an ambitious multi-platform digital, educational and community outreach campaign, designed to get the country reading and passionately talking about books." PBS and the producers worked with the public opinion polling service "YouGov" to conduct a demographically and statistically representative survey asking Americans to name their most-loved novel. Approximately 7,200 people participated. The list contains a broad range of fictional titles, authors, time periods, countries, genres and subject matter. It includes books from as far back as the 1600s and as recent as 2016. From beloved world literature to contemporary best sellers, many categories are represented: 20th century American classics, thrillers, young adult novels, sci-fi/fantasy, adventure, historical fiction, romantic stories, and books that represent the human experience told from a diverse range of perspectives. The criteria for inclusion on the top 100 list were as follows: • Each author was limited to one title on the list (to keep the list varied). • Books published in a series or featuring ongoing characters counted as one eligible entry to increase variety. • Books could be from anywhere in the world as long as they were published in English. • Only fiction books would be included in the poll. • Each advisory panel member was permitted to select one book for discussion. More than 4 million votes were counted and To Kill a Mocking Bird by Harper Lee came in as number one on the list. I can venture a guess that every one of us has read the book and/or seen the movie. Some other titles to make the list were: JRR Tolkien's series, The Lord of the Rings, which came in at number five. Number seven on the list is the children's book, Charlotte's Web by EB White. (If you have young grandchildren it would be a great addition to their library.) Skipping ahead to #50 on the list is the 1,225 page book War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy. The mere length of that book has kept me from even starting it. Number 68, the oldest book on the list, was written over 400 years ago and published in two parts in 1605 and 1615 is Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes. And coming in at Number 70 on The Great American Read, my favorite book, The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho. If you are interested in seeing the entire list just ask Google. With 100 titles to choose from, you will be entertained for days and days. The Great American Read

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