Books that have stayed with you

[daizychain]

Wondered which books you have read that have stayed with you and why.

[iamdivergent]

Before I Die by Jenny Downham - I felt really affected by this for a few days afterwards. It just seemed so real to me.

[GatoradeMeBitch]

The Borribles. It was a children's trilogy, and something about the writing was so vivid to me that occasionally I get a flashback of the plot as an actual memory. I know that I never watched two feral boys fighting to the death underground, but I 'remember' it as clearly as I remember my first day at school!

[sooperdooper]

Beloved, Toni Morrison
Alias Grace, Margaret Atwood
Lady oracle, Margaret Atwood

[tobee]

When I was a child The High House by Honor Arundel. The first book I remember reading that felt believable and possible to me.

As an adult The Right Stuff. The first chapters made me cry on the tube as I went to work.

[cantbelieveimonhere]

Redeeming love by Francine Rivers. Warning - impossible to read without crying!

[Wotsitsareafterme]

Urban grimshaw and the shed crew by Bernard hare. It's a memoir by a disillusioned sw. It's incredible and he should write more

[daizychain]

I love it when books stay with you. It's as though they become part of you somehow

[hackmum]

Hardly anything, sadly. Books that had a profound effect on me at the time have been almost entirely wiped from my memory. The only books that really stay with me are those I've read time and again, which is mostly stuff from my childhood like Anne of Green Gables and Little Women.

Of books I've read in the past year, there is one I still think about quite a lot, which is The Railway Man by Eric Lomax, and that is to do with a strong interest in the subject matter (post traumatic stress) as well as the fact that it is a very powerful and moving memoir.

[HemanOrSheRa]

She's Come Undone by Wally Lamb. I really liked the main character, Dolores.

[AttitcusFinchIsMyFather]

Leaving Time by Jodi Piccoult, Im not even usually a fan of her books!
Room by Emma Donaghue

[FurbysMakeSexNoises]

The feeling of raw bleak chilling emptiness and oppression from The Handmaid's Tale has remained decades later. Very powerful. And the surprising joy in little details of gulag life in A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovitch.
And The Faraway Tree!

[nyldn]

agree, the book thief. also a prayer for owen meany.

[BigPapaChunk]

Animal Farm - Orwell

[piechuck]

I was going to say Owen Meany NY, so will add Life After Life by kate Atkinson, and all of the original Tales of the City (the recent ones are nothing in comparison)

[OftheTwilighttheDarkness]

There are quite a few books that have stayed with me over the years. One is a book called 'Maggie Muggins' by Keith Waterhouse.

[Tournesol]

The Poisonwood bible by Barbara kingsolver really stayed with me, so beautifully written.

I also found H is for Hawk by Helen McDonald a really thoughtful and special book.

So many books, I love to really fall into a book but it is quite rare to really hold a strong place in my heart.

[Mrsmumb]

The book thief
The night circus
Me before you
How to be a woman
Little women
The Casual Vacancy
and some that I could describe the story perfectly of but cant remember the name

[sydenhamhiller]

Second A Prayer for Owen Meany. I don't know what it is about this book,but I love it, think about it again and again and read it a lot.
Also Vintner's Luck by Elizabeth Knox. It is a beautiful beautiful book about love, in its many forms.
Love this thread OP...

[HemanOrSheRa]

I love A Prayer For Owen Meaney too. Also The World According To Garp. In fact I may re read them over the summer hols.

[BikeRunSki]

The Handmaid's Tale. Should be given to every girl on her 15th birthday, with a test on her 16th!

Now I Know - Aidan Chambers. Actually written for teenagers, and I read it shortly after it was published when I was 16. It's very much a coming of age, rite of passage type story based on a boy's exploration with understanding Christianity, and the relationship with his older girlfriend. I found it very intriguing and must have read it 5 times a year for 5 years and at least once a year since. I wrote to the author after the first couple of times I read it and he replied. The reply letter lives in the back of the book.

A few years I thought we were going to flood. It was one of the first things I took upstairs for safekeeping.

[NeedsMoreCowBell]

The Handmaids' Tale.... Agree with PP is should be given to every 15 year old

The Road by Cormac McCarthy.
Heartbreaking but beautifully written, reads like poetry.

The God of Small Things.

The Women's Room by Marilyn French.

[EllieFAntspoo]

Clan of the Cave Bear and The Valley of Horses, because the heroine is awesome. I read The Mammoth Hunters but I don't know if I finished it, and I don't think I get onto the fourth one. Now I believe there are six.

I want to read the books Game of Thrones is based on before I watch any of the TV series, cos I just know the TV series will ruin the books for me if I watch them first.