Hey Natalie — this was such a great post and it just took me too long to post my own, as I got lost in memories and descriptions. I don’t really do well with finishing series so that’s pretty impressive. These are 5 books/novellas that influenced my reading (and writing):

Anna Karenina (Leo Tolstoy)
The Unbearable Lightness of Being (Milan Kundera)
My Brother (Jamaica Kincaid)
The Heart of Darkness (Joseph Conrad)
Love in the Time of Cholera (Gabriel García Márquez)