After finally getting my list down from 25, I have my top ten here. (It was kind of hard to get them in the right order, and I'll probably regret it later... but oh well.) Number 2 is very long and rambly... just warning you. If you think it'll bore you, skip to number 1 because that's more important.
10. Robin Hood
There are too many versions of this story to count, but my favorites are The Outlaw of Sherwood by Robin McKinley and BBC's television series. Growing up, Robin Hood was one of my heroes (though in the version I used to read, I was a bit annoyed when he made fun of romantics; later versions are better for me). This is classic, old-fashioned action, romance, and humor with an underdog for a main character; that describes everything I loved most when I was young.
9. The Odd Thomas series by Dean Koontz
I watched Ghost Whisperer when I was young, a show that taught me a lot... about how to overdramatize everything. Really, I hate that show now, and I thought it had ruined all ghost stories for me. But Odd Thomas is not Melinda; he's a completely average man, so average that it's almost sad, who somehow gained the ability to see and talk to ghosts. Everything in the story is fresh and imaginative (ghosts can't speak; I learned so much about Elvis because he follows Odd around; Tasers: definitely not funny... unless Odd gets hit by one and then tries to make a phone call). As always, Dean Koontz writes a story so different and strange and mixes it with beautiful prose and quite a bit of humor. Plus, I can't resist a story with the ghost of Elvis Presley in it. And later, Frank Sinatra!
8. Just Like Heaven
Since I associate this movie with another called Heart & Souls, it took me a while to separate them enough to pick the best one. Once I looked objectively though, I realized how much I love this one more. This story is about a depressed man who rents an apartment and spends all his time on the couch, drinking and watching sports. Sounds awful, I know. It gets better when he starts seeing a blond woman running around his new apartment and even funnier when she convinces him that he's crazy/drunk, and she owns the apartment. They realize that the woman is a ghost, though she swears she's not dead, and a psychic soon tells him that she's right. The pace picks up when the man discovers that he's in love with this ghost and starts trying to find her, wherever she may be, and save her.
7. Bright Star
This is a fictionalized story based on the John Keats poem by the same name. It's about the poet, the death of his brother at a young age, his relationship with a friend, and his love for a young woman who we can't have because of his own financial problems. The acting is amazing in this movie, and I can't ever read John Keats's poetry without hearing Ben Whishaw's (beautiful) voice in my head. The story is definitely sad, and I am not ashamed to say that I cried at the end. You spend an two hours listening to this man speak so elegantly and watching him fall in love, only to see the woman wail for him after his death. (That's not a spoiler; Keats was a real person who died at 25 years of age.)
6. The Husband by Dean Koontz
Another by Dean Koontz, my third favorite author. This is the story of Mitch, a simple gardener who comes home one day to find that his wife has been kidnapped. As he searches for her, following the will of her captors as well as he can, shocking revelations are made about his own life, and it soon becomes apparent that he will do anything for the woman he loves. Psychopaths and geniuses (most of them both at once) abound in this story, and it is never boring. Suspenseful and gripping, oftentimes very confusing, but never, ever boring, even on the second read.
5. Forbidden by Ted Dekker and Tosca Lee
Here's something hard to describe. It's a pairing of my two favorite authors as they tell the story of a world trapped in numbness. In the future, emotion has been eradicated, leaving only the necessary fear for survival. There is no love, no joy, no sadness or anger... until Rom and Avra find a vial of blood, and their world explodes with so many new feelings. But the police are chasing them down, and the world is terrifying and saddening place when one's eyes are opened.
4. Moulin Rouge
This movie from director Baz Luhrmann is strange, different from most romances I've ever seen ("most" because Luhrmann also directed Romeo + Juliet, the Leonardo DiCaprio version). It's filled with music of all kinds, from the Nat King Cole's "Nature Boy" to Kiss's "I Was Made For Lovin' You" and Sting's "Roxanne." The acting is incredible, and the both the main characters and many side characters have beautiful singing voices. It's a bit inappropriate for the younger crowd, but I do adore the musical romance and the sad, sad ending. (The end is given away in the beginning, so that's not a spoiler.)
3. Once Upon a Marigold by Jean Ferris
A fun, light romance that I've read over a dozen times (around fifteen, at my best guess) set in a magical, medieval world of princesses and trolls. The story centers on Christian, a boy who ran away from home when he was young and was taken in to be raised by a troll named Ed and his dogs, and Marigold, a princess who no one ever touches because of her curse: the ability to read others' minds with a touch. Though Christian lives in the forest and Marigold in the castle, he can see her through a telescope when she steps onto the ramparts, and as a boy, he watches her and her family as a way of connecting to another human being. Finally, he begins messaging her through "p-mail," carrier pigeons, and they become best friends, though he never tells her his name. After a time, Christian decides to leave home and go to the castle for work, where he meets Marigold face-to-face and begins to love her even more. The story is simple but beautiful as Christian has to rush to save his love's life and discover who he really is.
2. Doctor Who
This is a fun, witty, epic science fiction television series that started all the way back in the sixties. Because the Doctor (a now-900-year-old time and space travelling Time Lord) can regenerate when he dies, becoming a new man with the same memories, the series could go on forever. (Previously, the Doctor only had thirteen regenerations total, but that has changed over time.) Also because of this, each new actor can change the Doctor a bit, keeping the core beliefs on the alien the same; thus, everyone can be a fan of Doctor Who without having anything in common with other fans! Great, right? Most "Whovians" will say things like "my Doctor," which just means whichever version they grew up/love the most. Mine is David Tennant, the Tenth regeneration who left only last year (I own his Sonic Screwdriver, and I'm getting the weapon of his greatest enemy, the Master, for Christmas), though my favorite companions (people who travel with him in his TARDIS, Time And Relative Dimension In Space) are Rory and Amy, who are the most recent. It's a bit confusing if you don't know what you're doing. My advice: watch the modern series; Christopher Eccleston, Nine, explains almost everything.
Ted is my favorite author. I read House, Thr3e, and Blink when I was fourteen/fifteen, and then I moved on to the Circle Trilogy, Black, Red, and White. These books blew my mind. I am not being overly dramatic; they changed my heart and my life. The way I think about God and Jesus has completely changed since those days. I do know it was just a story, but it was also a look at God through the eyes of a Christian man who has more figured out than I do (not everything, but more). This series makes it to number 1 on my list because it opened my eyes and brought me closer to my Creator than I had ever been before.
