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Original poster

Is there ONE book....

83 replies

tobee · 21/11/2016 20:53

that you wish you could read for the first time again? Off the top of your head. Or is that too hard? For me, tonight, it would be Diary of a Provincial Lady and subsequent volumes.

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Palmer1983 · 27/08/2018 08:37

The story tellers secret Smile I love this book amzn.to/2odS3tH

PurpleArmy · 26/08/2018 23:28

Not very literary but A Woman of Substance by Barbara Taylor Bradford

Also
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith

A Secret History Donna Tart

Rebecca Daphne Du Maurier

CarpeVitam · 26/08/2018 15:47

Middlemarch

The Thornbirds

TheInternetIsForPorn · 10/12/2016 21:32

1984

whatshouldido1923 · 10/12/2016 21:24

Rules of Civility - Amor Towles.

Sallystyle · 07/12/2016 17:20

Sorry, can't just pick one

The Stand
A Fine Balance
The Cider House Rules, Garp, Owen Meany
A Suitable Boy
Fingersmith
Eleanor and Park
I know this much is true
Rebecca
Rachel's holiday
State of Wonder and Bel Canto
Lolita

Pallisers · 07/12/2016 00:16

I'm a couple of chapters into A Kind of Loving. Really liking it.

ExitPursuedBySantaSpartacus · 06/12/2016 22:53

How many times have you read it?

Hushabyelullaby · 06/12/2016 21:37

A Prayer for Owen Meany

S4MYC · 04/12/2016 01:00

Rebecca. Far From The Madding Crowd.

Pallisers · 30/11/2016 01:23

Pallisers I have just been off to order Morningside Heights ...

Oh Willow I really hope you like it. (I so want someone else to read and love this book). The second in the series "Love Work Children" is also lovely - she writes so well about good people (especially good people who value kindness, the life of the intellect, art, music etc. - all the things my country seems to have rejected in the presidential election) and her books reward the good people too.

WillowinGloves · 29/11/2016 12:54

Pallisers I have just been off to order Morningside Heights ...

FilthyKeyboard · 29/11/2016 09:22

Rebecca, and The Color Purple.

Meeep · 29/11/2016 09:07

Pallisers
I have the two sequels but I have been sort of... wary somehow to read them because I love Gilead so much!

SlottedSpoon · 29/11/2016 04:46

Three Men in a boat.

I did read it a second time and it was till hilarious but it won't ever be as funny as the first time when you know what's coming.

Pallisers · 29/11/2016 01:21

Pallisers nobody I talk to has ever read Gilead.
I love it, it's so beautiful.

I agree. The sequel is lovely too (story is told from his wife's perspective) but Gilead is something else - I think it is actually "the great american novel" (in the unlikely event that the american literary establishment could accept a woman writing the great american novel)

I ordered A Kind of Loving from the library today - thanks MNs!

There is a novel called Morningside Heights by Cheryl Mandelson which I absolutely love. I'm not sure it is even published in the UK but it is a wonderful warm, interesting, plot-driven novel about good people figuring out how to live. She wrote 2 more in the series which are just as good. I often wonder why she didn't become better known.

maisybobbins · 28/11/2016 23:01

Yes yes The Grapes of Wrath.

And flowers in the Attic. But I think I'd have to be 18 again.

Willow2016 · 28/11/2016 22:52

Little Women and subsequent books
Heidi s/a
The Hobbit
LOTR
Watership Down

Lokisglowstickofdestiny · 28/11/2016 22:29

Lord of the Rings (although three books). First read when I was 13, nothing can beat that first falling into Middle Earth. Over the years my visual interpretation has become influenced by the films. I have read it several times and have several different editions. It's a book I'll never read as an e-book it has to be an actual book.

Meeep · 28/11/2016 21:38

Pallisers nobody I talk to has ever read Gilead.
I love it, it's so beautiful.

FawnDrench · 28/11/2016 21:21

The Grapes of Wrath.

WillowinGloves · 28/11/2016 16:21

All the Heyer fans, do you know theres a book out recently with some new short stories? Apparently, some are in other collections, but there are a couple taken from magazines so 'new'. Haven't dared read it yet in case they don't live up to my hopeful excitement!

OlivesTree · 27/11/2016 22:20

Oh yes Shantaram! And A Fine Balance. Love them both.

OlivesTree · 27/11/2016 22:18

The Time Travellers Wife.

maisybobbins · 27/11/2016 22:15

Ooooh I'm going to get Shell Seekers thanks Dame