tell me a book you where you said "wow, that was blankety, blank amazing!

Wideacre by Phillipa Gregory.

I was totally surprised at how gripped I was by 'Restoration' by Rose Tremain, as I'm not one for romantic fiction but this was brilliant, such a 'real' central character that it was like losing a friend when I finished the book.

Also recently loved "Lady Audley's Secret" by ( I think) Mary Ann Braddon, it's a victorian 'suspense' novel, very readable.

Agree with Bint that Helen Simpson is fab.
We Need To Talk About Kevin is a great novel but very harrowing-I was in tears.
Fave comtemporary author is Anne Tyler.
Douglas Kennedy tells a great story.
The Shipping News by Annie Proux is my all time favourite read.
I know it's not fashionable but I love Anita Brookner- restrained and uptight characters living unfullfilled lives.

Ellie, it took me ages to get into, but when I finished it, it left a real impression

Another vote for The Red Tent - I read it after reading about it on here - couldn't put it down!

Another vote for The Red Tent (which I read because jimjams recommended it, yonks ago) and The Kite Runner which I only read last month and immediately wanted to read again.

The Red tent by Anita Diamant,
the tale of Dinah in Genesis but elaborated upon.
Utterly enchanting.

texasrose, start with Ghostwritten - it was his first - then Number Nine Dream.

hi pollyanna. atonement is the one book EVER that i couldn't finish!!!

Enough here?

Yes to Shadow of the Wind
Yes to Poisonwood Bible

Would add:
Ursula Under - a brilliant 'yarn' and great for Mums/ Dads
Widow for Year - John Irving
The Lovely Bones - (you can read it in a night, but it is SO gripping)

Dare you not to be moved by

Beloved more detailed info here :
Beloved by Toni Morrison

recently Kazuo Ishiguru Never let Me Go and
Atonement by Ian McEwan really made an impression on me. (read Atonement before Keira Knightley ruins it forever on film )

Keep coming back to this thread. The Gormenghast trilogy, by Mervyn Peake - made a huge impression on me when I first read them as an 11 or 12 year old, and I still marvel at them when I re-read them.

WilD Swans
Time Travellers Wife.

Georgette Heyer - Regency book. Only one of hers that I've read and loved it.

Love Northern Lights triology.

Not great literature per se (although maybe things that give thought or pleasure are great) but ones that I loved unexpectedly would be the Big Stone Gap trilogy books by Adriani Trigiani. Beautifully written and quite captivating.

Bink those are on my must-read lists. I've only read Cloud Atlas. Which of his would you recommend to read first?

luanmac - The James Hogg is available on Amazon (only £1.99).

pesme and texasrose, have you tried Mitchell's Number Nine Dream? I think it's his best, even a tiny bit better than Ghostwritten. I re-read both recently - re-reading being the acid test.

Cloud Atlas suffers a wee bit from having to be a Powerhouse of a Novel (to support all the Booker-y marketing) and his latest, Black Swan Green is, I think, something pushed out to make sure he stays in the public eye (& not worthy of him, really).

And can I just say, with motherinferior, that Helen Simpson is a genius. The Katherine Mansfield of our time.

I didn;t rate Oryx and Crake. found the Blind Assassin a complete page turner and also enjoyed Alias Grace and the Handmaid's Tale but O&C was a bit of a disappointment for me

It's so good to see Georgette Heyer being lauded as I think these are wonderful, really are escapism and an antidote to cold winter days and nights.
I agree re Oryx and Crake and would recommend Sheri Tepper if anyone is interested in trying fantasy with a feminist slant.
Has anyone read the Boudica series by Manda Scott? they are truly amazing

Some really interesting ones here.. and the first people I have ever come across to put Margaret Atwood's 'Oryx and Crake' top of a GOOD reads list.. seems to crop up near the top of a lot of people's 'worst book in recent times' list...just too obvious and simplistic. I used to like her early stuff such as 'Cat's Eye' but it's all been downhill since 'The Edible Woman' imho..
My personal favourites: 'Perfume' (mentioned frequently on here, I see), 'Remains of the Day/Pale View of Hills/Artist of the Floating World' (Ishiguro), anything by Gabriel Garcia Marquez...and recently 'We need to talk about Kevin', by Lionel Shriver... not the best written book in the world but sent shivers down my spine as a mother...
brilliant way to get suggestions for new books to read though!

I must re-read Catch-22. I read it so many times when I was in my twenties and it was laugh out loud funny.

Oh just to add A Woman in Berlin by Anon - a non-fiction account of when the Russians entered Berlin at the end of WW2 - truly harrowing.

Absolutely loved A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving, although judging by comments I've seen on other threads it's a love-it-or-hate-it type of book.

Also brilliant is the non-fiction The Man who Mistook his Wife for a Hat - pretty amazing.

ive the memory of a goldfish but i do always remember how much i loved Catch 22. it worked for me on so many levels. its just exactly how i would write, if i was a writer, that is (in my dreams!)

Got to agree re John Fowles "The Magus".

And for a classic to be relished over a number of weeks possibly, is George Eliots "Middlemarch" - quite a big read, but she offers an illumination on every page.