Best book you’ve ever read...

Just finished Broken Greek by Pete Paphides - I’m a similar age to him and I found it astonishingly good. Also Nomadland (after seeing the film - much more detailed and totally fascinating) and along similar lines, but in the U.K., I just read Hired by James Bloodworth which is a sort of Down and Out in Paris and London for our times.

I am finding it hard to think of just one best book ever too - sorry.
I enjoyed American dirt and where the crawdads sing recently. I am reading Snuggie Bairn atm and it is really good.
Totally agree about the hand maids take and also loved room if you haven’t read it yet.

Hi, can you recommend a non fiction/autobiography book you enjoyed? (Not a self help type book, I’m too old for those 😄)

Swan song
The passage trilogy
The Langoliers (a Stephen king novella in “four past midnight)
Station Eleven

Best ever, probably 1984, Atonement or The Handmaids Tale.
Best recent ones - The Testaments, Shuggie Bain and American Dirt

[quote NoProblem123]@purpleme12 so glad The Storyteller has been recommended ! Such a moving story and so unexpected of Picoult. I regularly think about that book.[/quote]
Yes! I mean she's my favourite author anyway but that book.... It was just another level!

@purpleme12 so glad The Storyteller has been recommended ! Such a moving story and so unexpected of Picoult. I regularly think about that book.

@colouringindoors I just finished The Enchanted April! I really enjoyed it though I thought the end could have been a bit more finished/wrapped up. I'll definitely revisit it in future.

The Poisonwood Bible, Barbara Kingsolver.
The Secret History, Donna Tartt.
Where the Crawdads Sing, Delia Owens.
Wild Swans, Jung Chang
Rebecca, Daphne du Maurier.

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo.

Much lighter than a lot of the classics mentioned here but I much prefer an easy read at bedtime these days.

Oh I also meant to say The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne.

I read it when I was about 19, and for some reason it made a huge impression on me. My username may or may not be a reflection of that!

Lots of my favourites have been mentioned, including A Suitable Boy, Shuggie Bain, and American Dirt. I'd add:

The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy

The Secret History by Donna Tart

Possession by A.S. Byatt

All of Barbara Pym's books, but especially Excellent Women.

The Cazalet Chronicles by Elizabeth Jane Howard.

I read non-fiction rather than fiction, which I find can be a bit too formulaic, and you 'see' what's coming. However, I recently tried Bernardine Evaristo's "Girl, Woman, Other". Wow! So different. Generally, I pass books onto a book bank or charity. But this one is starting to do the rounds amongst my friends as I loved it so much.
Re: Audiobooks. I love them. They have saved me from many a sleepless night. And I can 'read' them whilst gardening or doing DIY. As a woman, I am always multi-tasking.....

Mines a strange one, I’ve read a lot of the modern classic fiction listed here, but I’m going for a book that literally changed my life. Well, I changed my life but it empowered me to do so!

Within three years of reading it, I’d had a baby, changed jobs and got promoted twice doubling my salary. I dared to do things I would have run away from before. Most importantly I’m more happy now.

The books called ‘You are a Badass: how to stop doubting your greatness and start living an awesome life’ by Jen Sincero.

Judging by the reviews on Amazon I’m not alone in the impact it had. I suppose I could have achieved the same through therapy, but this book was only £7.99! Best money I’ve ever spent.

Recent highlights would be The Mermaid of Black Conch by Monique Roffey, Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Nervous Conditions by Tsitsi Dangarembga. Don't know if I'd say they were light summer holiday reading though!

I went to Oxford in half term and read a couple of books set in Oxford so if you're going away there might be some location based books that look interesting. There are a few websites with suggestions for different locations although you've got to look hard if you're after something other than crime novels or rom coms!

Some lovely recommendations and I have a nice long wish list now, thanks 😁
I’d like to add the Shardlake series by C.J. Sansom.

It was The Book Thief....then I read The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern.

I simply cannot pick my all time favourite, please don't make me try [cries]

But the following have been in my all time top five for years:

Wolf Hall - Hilary Mantel
Tehanu - Ursula Le Guin
We Speak No Treason - Rosemary Hawley Jarman
Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
Lord of the Rings - Tolkien

Love the du Maurier love but if I was picking a holiday read I would go for Frenchman’s Creek. There is so much joy in this book. I only comfort read Austen but after reading this earlier this year I am definitely coming back to it.

yoshiblue oh wow! Really hope you enjoy it 😊

Rebecca
East of Eden
The Bell Jar
The Sea, The Sea
The Owl Service
The Poisonwood Bible
Birdsong
Memoirs of a Geisha
No More Meadows

Rebecca
The Pat Barker trilogy
The bonfire of the vanities
Anything by Anne Tyler but especially Breathing Lessons
The Road (Cormac McCarthy) - in fact all of the border trilogy

We Have Always Lived in the Castle - astonishing book

The sweet pea books are a funny summer read > female serial killer but in comedy form, you kind of sympathise with her in the end...almost!

My Cousin Rachel
The Pursuit of Love
Rachel’s Holiday and,
Mothering Sunday

Are probably my favourites of all time.

Best recent read is Hamnet though not such a fan of her other books

We were liars by E Lockhart
Fractured by Dani Atkins

Both because they took me by surprise. The endings to both have really stuck with me.