My relationship with Toni Morrison started young and was very deeply forged. I was blessed with a terrific and highly influential English teacher in 11th grade, who assigned The Bluest Eye, Morrison's first novel. I gulped down the entire thing in a day, and then immediately started re-reading it, this time with a pencil in hand to make notes in the margins. I still have that copy, and there is not a single page in it without my underlines, denoting the most sublime moments of her prose.

Beloved is where most folks start with Toni Morrison, and for good reason. It's brilliant and is often tossed around in discussions about the Great American Novel. I spend a good deal of time examining reading lists, and spend even more time reading in order to cross titles off the lists. When I was a younger reader I understood these lists to be sacred, but the more I read the more skeptical I become in many cases, but Beloved deserves every accolade it has received. I'm very curious if it's still taught in high schools as much as it was, but I'm disappointed that I managed to make it through high school and college without having read it.

I read Song of Solomon a few years ago after reading that it was one of President Obama's favorite books. Presidential endorsements don't usually influence my reading habits, but Barack Obama is a talented writer himself, and Harold Bloom admires Toni Morrison as well so it's okay. I was initially disappointed because I knew it took place in Detroit and wanted very deeply to have a stronger personal connection to it as a result, which wasn't the case. That said, it was truly excellent and really exemplifies everything Morrison does best.

Morrison is an author to be read and read again, and as excited as I am to recommend her to anyone, I'm equally as excited to continue discovering her other novels.