Mumsnet Talk

I absolutely loved The Thirteenth Tale

Im not sure I have normal female taste in books, but some of my favorites are;

the song of ice and fire series by George RR Martin, can't wait for the next installment!!!

Bernard Cornwalls warlord chronicals

1984 by George Orwell

Bernard Cornwalls warrior chronicals

Robin Hobbs assasin trillogy

and currently enjoying Robin Hobbs liveship traders trillogy.

Marking my place!

Loads that people have already said, and I would add anything by Michelle Roberts, Peter Carey (esp Illywacker and Oscar & Lucinda, though was disappointed I couldn't get into his latest one at all), Before I Go to Sleep, The Help ... Can't think of any more right now but watching with interest.

Middlemarch, I'm surprised no one has mentioned it before.
Emma
The Bronze Horseman although you have to be in a mood for misery, Paulinna Simoms
North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell
Remember Me by Sophie Kinsella, when you feel like something light.
The Ladies Paradise by Emile Zola, The BBC series of The Paradise was based very loosely on this book.

Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter, Simone De Beauvoir; The bluest Eye by Toni Morrison; The Road, Cormac McCarthy; the Handmaid's tale, Margaret Atwood; Surfacing, Margaret Atwood

So many but the two that spring to mind for me are The Red Tent by Anita Diamanté and The Birth House by Amy McKay

Oooh....

The Color Purple, Alice Walker
The Bell Jar, Sylvia Plath
Oranges are not the Only Fruit, Jeanette Winterson
Wise Children/Nights at the Circus, Angela Carter
Emotionally Weird, Kate Atkinson
Skating to Antarctica, Jenny Diski

Most things by Margaret Atwood, most things by Barbara Vine

good to see the book thief on this thread, fab book

i would add Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts as one of my greatest ever reads

normal mummsy reads this year i have enjoyed the night circus, and the Girl you Left behind by jojo moyes, and a handful of Nelson Demille

loved the millenium series, cant get in to the cryptonicum series, and have to fess up to reading all the Lee Child Reacher books! (except the latest one i am saving for next holiday, or duvet day maybe.. )

Gone with the wind

the red tent

1984

the chrysalids

jonathan livingston seagull

Marking my place to come back later!

Lots of books mentioned above that I also love & won't repeat but I'd Like to add:

The Jewel in The Crown quartet by Paul Scott

The Map of Love Ahdaf Soueif

The Forsyte Saga - John Galsworthy.

The latter is probably the book I've re-read most times, it's always been my 'comfort' book when life is hard as it really takes me away.

Anything by Victoria Hislop and Joanna Trollop

Appointment With Venus
Gone With the Wind
The Book Theif
The Diary of Anne Fran
A Farewell to Arms
Brighton Rock
Mrs Dalloway
A Woman in Berlin
.....I could go on forever! Love a good list

My must read books.

We Need To Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver.

The Stand, Insomnia and Rose Madder by Stephen King.

Important Artifacts and Personal Property from the Collection of Lenore Doolan and Harold Morris, Including Books, Street Fashion, and Jewelry* by Leanne Shapton.

The Red Tent by Anita Diamant.

Happenstance by Carol Sheilds.

The Perfect Storm by Sebastian Junger.

Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons.

Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier

The Lord of the Rings trilogy and The Hobbit by JRR Tolkien.

Someone at a Distance by Dorothy Whipple.

Persepolis by Marjane Sartrapi

Sophie's World by Jostein Gaarder

The Summer Book by Tove Jansson

Forgotten Voices of the Holocaust edited by Lyn Smith

And there are probably more when I think of them.

I'm working my way through William Dalrymple at the moment - the best travel writing I've ever read. 'City of Djiins: a year in Delhi' is a good one to start with.

I’ve really enjoyed reading about your favourite books and have now got loads of Ideas for my kindle
My ‘must reads’ are :-
A Clergyman’s Daughter (Orwell) – Bleak and brilliant – hooked from first page.
The Post-Birthday World (Lionel Shriver) – I thought ‘Kevin’ was good, but this is fantastic. It’s one of those books when it is two in the morning and you’ve got to get up for work in five hours and you Just. Can’t. Put. It. Down.
A Little Learning (Caro Fraser) – If you’ve been married a long time – this will push your buttons! I’ve re-read this until it’s a bit crumbly.
The Caper Court Series (Caro Fraser again) – Series of books about norty lawyers and sex, betrayal and great court cases.
All Patricia Cornwell Kay Scarpetta books – Forensics, horrific serial killers, FBI profiling, the lot ... start with Postmortem and you’ll want to read the rest - simples!
All Marian Keyes – Brilliant, brilliant, brilliant writer, for example Rachel’s Holiday Single girl in New York having too much (dangerous) fun – funny, compassionate and dark ‘they tried to make me go to rehab ...’ Anybody Out There made me cry, really really cry, heartbreaking ...
Elizabeth George Inspector Lynley Mysteries - for all Ruth Rendell/Barbara Vine/Minette Walters fans, these are fantastic twisty-turny mysteries, forget the boring tv series, the books are so much better and there are lots of them (sigh – heaven!!!).
All other Orwells (nuff said).

Hope you like some of these, and happy reading!!

the five people you meet in heaven -Mitch albom

Memoirs of a geisha

For something funny try David sedaris - Naked
It's one of the few books that literally had me laughing out loud

I was given Diane Keaton's autobiography for Christmas - its soooo wonderful - so many interesting men in her life and a varied career from Annie Hall to The God Father (with liaisons with Al Pacino) - to kissing scenes with jack Nicolson that were life changing - plus like me she became a mother in later life - she adopted at 50 and 55 - its a story that is intertwined with that of her mother - I read it fast and then again slow - wonderful - other books that I loved were The THings They Carried - (who by?) - Brightness Falls by Jay Macinerny - all of his work I love - and Brother Of The More famous Jack by Barbra TRapido - Dorothy Parker Short Stories - always by my bedside -...plus JUlia Donalson (I have three year old twins) - I love her so much I kissed her when I nmet her last week at a signing!

A few more to add that haven't been mentioned;

Das Parfum by Patrick Suskind
The island and The thread by Victoria Hislop
The vanishing by Tim Krabbe
Love live by Ray Kluun (don't be put of by the title)
The five people you meet in heaven- Mitch Albom ( or similar surname)
The century trilogy by Ken Follett
Books by Isabelle Allende

Just read Learn Love in a Week by Andrew Clover. Hilarious observational comedy about relationships. Seriously recommend it if you feel like a light yet engaging read. It's not wishy washy chick lit but real feel good funny book.
PS just went into my local Waterstones to buy a copy for my sister and it was sold out due to rave review in daily mail this weekend!

oh that's good to know novia. I'm currently trying to get into wolf hall so that i can read bring up the bodies after but i'm finding it pretty dry so far. Will keep going though!

I tend to find a new author and read them obsessively for a while; I read the whole of the Discworld series, Wodehouse, Sherlock Holmes, Charles Dickens, and various others in blocks. I also really enjoy reading Alan Bennett, Peter Carey, David Lodge, A S Byatt and Agatha Christie books.

Someone mentioned Jean Webster's Daddy Long Legs. Have read tgat book approximately once every five years since I was about 13, I'm 35. It's just lovely.

If not now, then when - another vote for Primo Levi
The Glass Bead Game - Herman Hesse
(slightly adolescent choice, but...) Hunger - Knut Hamsun
History of Danish Dreams - erm, erm, um, Hoeg, Peter, is it?
Morte D'Arthur - Malory
Cancer Ward - Solzenitzyn
anything at all by Balzac, but if pushed, Cousin Bette
In praise of idleness - Isaiah Berlin
The Histories - Herodotus - for being so fabulously stupid
A Rebours - Huysmans
Woodstock - Walter Scott

ooh ooh and Katherine Mansfield, and Turgenev and Marquez, and Saki and Wodehouse...

These are things I love. Things I should read, well I too have fallen asleep over Ulysses a few times. I will try again <when I'm fecking 90 and have nothing left to lose>. Not.

I have some sympathy with Cote's question. If this is a list of hearty recommends, should we not be seeing

The Secret History by Donna Tartt

in about one third of posts? It must be the most consistently enjoyed and recommended book I have ever come across. When I was reading it, I was carrying it in to work with me in case I got any spare moments. Not my general habit.

I did very much enjoy two classics that I recently re-read because they were on lists of worthiness:

To Kill a Mockingbird
Catch 22

My local independent book shop has managed to track down If this is a man by Primo Levi. It should be in store on Monday. So that's a result