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Original poster

Please recommend me a great or your favourite book!

79 replies

msrisotto · 21/04/2013 19:35

I'm looking forward to having time to actually read on holiday soon!
I don't fancy too much gore or too much twee romance. Classics or modern are good.
My favourite to date is "I know this much is true" by Wally Lamb. I liked Atonement and I have 1984 next on my list (and the much trashier but lovely Jemima J by Jane Green). Wrong section for nonfiction but I like stuff like 127 hours and Touching the void too. Any ideas?

OP posts:
OneHolyCow · 27/04/2013 12:22

The invention of solitude by Paul Auster. A story about how he finds out things that were hidden in his family after his father died. Beautiful.

Other things by George Orwell like Down and out in Paris and London or the one where he writes about his time in Spain during the civil war.. I love those. Hommage to Catalonia.

I've just read Harvest by Jim Crace and found that very good.

Pat Barker's Regeneration trilogy.

Touching the Voidy: Into the wild, Jon Krakauer bio of hapless boy in Alaska. He's also got a mountainering book, forget the title though.
Werner Herzog's Annapurna ascent is historically not very accurate but a gripping read!

Worksitoutwithapencil · 26/04/2013 21:10

The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood
Dangerous Liaisons by Choderlos de Laclos
Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier
these are three of my favourites

hazeyjane · 26/04/2013 20:14

Any Douglas Coupland
The Bone People by Keri Hulme

cq · 26/04/2013 20:09

Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks is my all-time favourite.

Also loved The Hour I First Believed by Wally Lamb.

The Lacuna - Barbara Kingsolver

Me Before You - Jojo Moyes (less heavy going but needs a box of tissues to hand)

My Dear, I Wanted to Tell You - can't remember the author, but another great wartime novel if you liked Atonement.

Love anything by Minette Walters - she writes really gritty psychological thrillers.

Agree with The Crow Road - a great read.

acrabadabra · 26/04/2013 20:04

Agree with a few already mentioned - the Poisonwood Bible, the Handmaids tale, to Kill a Mockingbird are all very, very good.

Also worth a read is Helen Dunmore esp the Seige and Your Blue Eyed Boy.

Favourite book is Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guttenberg.

RedHelenB · 26/04/2013 19:45

The Great Gatsby

RedHelenB · 26/04/2013 19:44

One Day in the Life of Alexander Solzhenitzin

Smartiepants79 · 26/04/2013 19:19

Phillipa Gregory if you like historical novels, I loved The Other Boleyn Girl. Have just enjoyed Wolf Hall.
We need to talk about Kevin- quite shocking but brilliant.
Have you read His Dark Materials trilogy by Phillip Pullman? Very good.
Also the game of thrones books are amazing if you like epics!

RicStar · 26/04/2013 19:07

Books by Pat Barker / Jonathan Coe or Sarah Walters. All modern classics. Margaret Atwood too as people say. Mind you for holiday reading i always end up packing a lee child / katie fforde as well as a proper book. Enjoy your hols.

Sirzy · 26/04/2013 18:52

I could read To Kill a Mockingbird over and over again.

ZaraW · 26/04/2013 18:51

The Quiet American by Graham Greene is also a favourite.

ZaraW · 26/04/2013 18:49

I love Anna Karenina have read it many times. I had high hopes for War and Peace but hated it.

UptoapointLordCopper · 24/04/2013 20:15

Timothy Mo's The Redundancy of Courage. Stays with you forever ...

CurlsRUs · 24/04/2013 10:56

The Year of the Flood by Margaret Atwood - amazing!

fanoftheinvisibleman · 24/04/2013 10:52

The Handmaids Tale by Margaret Attwood

MimsyBorogroves · 24/04/2013 10:50

Have you tried any of the other Lamb books? I really enjoyed 'She's come undone'.

King's 'IT' is brilliant.

Sallystyle · 24/04/2013 09:29

Second SK's The Stand and 11.22.63 my best books ever.

I just finished Jodi Picoult's The Storyteller which was excellent.

Look up Kate Atkinson she is amazing.

Mintyy · 23/04/2013 22:51

Some of my most favourite ever books are

Harry Thompson's biography of Peter Cook

The Barrytown Trilogy by Roddy Doyle

Restoration by Rose Tremain

Puffball by Fay Weldon

King Soloman's Carpet by Barbara Vine

Hawksmoor by Peter Ackroyd

headintheclouds · 23/04/2013 22:48

The Poisonwood Bible- Barbara Kingsolver, I read this about 3 years ago and its just stayed with me..I loved it. I also read' I know this much is true' several years ago and I do remember it being a great read..so I think you'd enjoy Poisonwood

CoteDAzur · 22/04/2013 14:30

This Thing Of Darkness
Cloud Atlas

LittleMissLucy · 22/04/2013 04:46

The Dubliners by James Joyce. Short stories, moving, compelling and easy to dip in and out of.

highlandcoo · 21/04/2013 23:10

As you enjoyed Touching the Void, try Skating to Antarctica by Jenny Diski.

For fiction, Iain Banks is really good. The Crow Road (brilliant first line!)
and Espedair St are my favourites.

FuntimeFuschia · 21/04/2013 22:15

The Stand, Stephen King. My all time favourite, I reread it every couple of years and still love it. Avoid at all costs, however, if you have any cold or flu-like symptoms Wink

LoganMummy · 21/04/2013 20:33

I love Jodi Picoult novels.

Recently read Mum's List by St John Greene and loved it (but cried buckets!)

Original poster
msrisotto · 21/04/2013 20:33

Thanks!

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