Charlotte's Web, E.B. White. It's the first book that ever made me cry. It's the reason I don't kill spiders in spite of the fact that they truly creep me out. It taught me to care for the underestimated. And it has always reminded me that your friends don't have to look like you.

Traveling Mercies, Anne Lamott. This is the book that I have most consistently given away over the years. It reminds me that my journey of faith may not look exactly like that of those around me; that my language may be too 'earthy' and I may smoke too many cigarettes, but the God of all grace is crazy about me anyway. And I am captivated by the honesty and wit that is pervasive in Lamott's writing--I want to be her pen pal.

Esther. Okay, so it's just a piece of a book, but to find in the midst of a book that so many call misogynistic this great story of a woman who defied most every cultural more of her time--it was a tremendous gift to me. Growing up in churches that did not affirm a woman's place as anywhere but in the kitchen or the nursery, this fierce queen kept me in the Church.