The first book will always and forever be the complete works of Edgar Allan Poe!  I read "The Raven" when I was 10 and I was hooked. My Mama says I understood the poem better than other children at that age and I was intrigued by how Poe wrote his stories.  "The Cask of Amontillado" is my second favorite story because it could be the protagonist OR the antagonist who has the last laugh.  Depends on one's point of view.  

The second book would be "Many Waters' by Madeleine L'Engle.  It is the fourth book following "A Wrinkle in Time" Her books have a SLIGHT similarity to biblical stories, that is not the point of the books.  Ms. L'Engle wants you to stretch your imagination and see beyond what you already know.  See other possibilities in old stories.  "Many Waters" is set in the desert in an unknow time.  There are Seraphim and Nephilim, but they are NOT like what is written in the bible. They are completely different.  You have to be able to see past the bible stories to appreciate "The Time Series"

The third book... Well I'm going to cheat because I can!  The "Anita Blake Vampire Hunter" series by Laurell K. Hamilton.  Set in St. Louis, these books have a realism to them that other book about the supernatural lack.  Ms. Hamilton uses actual street names and intersections.  She references specific parts of town and what they are really like (safe or dangerous).  Her characters seem so real because of their many flaws.  Flaws that are realistic and do not necessarily have anything to do with the story line at the moment.  She's just building a character.  It's in a later book that the flaw makes sense.  I LOVE THAT!!!  You get sucked (no pun intended) into a world that is so real that when she bleeds a chicken to wake a zombie... it's not a big deal.  

Prose and Artwork Photo 
© 2023 Lady Kate Phillips
Pen name: Kat J Phillips
"I see… what others refuse to see.
I am… what others refuse to be"