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Original poster

Life changing book

103 replies

HandbagsnGladrags · 15/09/2022 10:25

OK maybe not life changing but am looking for one of those books which stays with you for a long time for an upcoming holiday. I read lots of run of the mill books but like to have a 'special' one for a holiday that I can look forward to reading. Here are some of the ones I've read and loved so far which I would define as 'special':

Lessons in Chemistry
Where the Crawdads Sing
And The Mountains Echoed
The Kite Runner
A Terrible Kindness
The Paper Palace

Would love to hear your favourites?

OP posts:
Original poster
HandbagsnGladrags · 15/09/2022 22:28

Eek I'm going to need multiple holidays to get through all of these! Thanks everyone.

OP posts:
puffylovett · 15/09/2022 22:22

American dirt
eleanor oliphant
The Long Walk by Stephen King
The Rats by James Herbert - has stayed with me for all the wrong reasons 😆
loved The Giver of Stars

CampervanQueen · 15/09/2022 22:21

ShirleyJackson · 15/09/2022 22:05

Fingersmith by Sarah Waters.
Music and Silence by Rose Tremain.

Music and Silence is a masterpiece. As is Restoration by the same author.

Slightly left field, but American Gods by Neil Gaiman stayed with me a long time after I first read it.

Is The Lord of the Rings too obvious?!

HeadNorth · 15/09/2022 22:15

Cloud Cuckoo Land - Anthony Doerr. Just breathtaking - everyone I have urged to read it has agreed. It really stays with you.

Inklingpot · 15/09/2022 22:15

Well, Marilyn French’s The Womens’ Room actually literally changed my life but it’s a feminist novel so.

dementedma · 15/09/2022 22:13

The Night Circus
My Dark Vanessa
Tin Man
Shuggie Bain
Three Women
The Mermaids Chair

And non fiction
Entangled Lives - Merlin Sheldrake
Burning the Books - Richard Ovenden

ShirleyJackson · 15/09/2022 22:05

Fingersmith by Sarah Waters.
Music and Silence by Rose Tremain.

ShirleyJackson · 15/09/2022 22:03

I’m Sorry You Feel That Way by Rebecca Wait.
Ladder Of Years by Ann Tyler.
Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout.
Sula by Toni Morrison.

Suetwo · 15/09/2022 22:00

Oscar Wilde: Dorian Grey, because I longed to talk like the characters in the novel. In fact, I wanted to live in their world.

Aldous Huxley: Point Counter Point, because it made me realise how exciting literature could be, how fizzing with wit and ideas.

P G Wodehouse: Right Ho Jeeves, because it’s a perfect work of art.

Stephen Fry: Moab is my Washtub, because it’s probably the best thing he ever did.

Bill Bryson: Notes from a Small Island, because it made me grateful to live here.

Virginia Woolf: To the Lighthouse, because it made me love books.

CassandraBarrett · 15/09/2022 21:59

Yes to `We Need To Talk About Kevin '.

maeveiscurious · 15/09/2022 21:57

Rachel's holiday - Marion Keyes

Buffyzombie · 15/09/2022 21:12

Also, we need to talk about kevin by Lionel Schriver

Blackcountryexile · 15/09/2022 21:03

The Sealwoman's Gift Sally Magnusson

FormerlySpeckledyHen · 15/09/2022 20:54

FormerlySpeckledyHen · 15/09/2022 20:53

I meant Snuggie Bain 🙄

Show quote history

Arrrghhh Shuggie!

FormerlySpeckledyHen · 15/09/2022 20:53

FormerlySpeckledyHen · 15/09/2022 18:13

Shuggy Bain

I meant Snuggie Bain 🙄

PhotoDad · 15/09/2022 19:45

The Age of Innocence (Edith Wharton)

theveg · 15/09/2022 19:45

The Heart's Invisible Furies by John Boyne is just wonderful. We Begin At The End by Chris Whitaker is also v good and stayed with me for a long time.

Agree with both of these too

Riverhousepuppy · 15/09/2022 19:44

American dirt

Youkilledmyfatherpreparetodie · 15/09/2022 19:40

The Heart's Invisible Furies by John Boyne is just wonderful. We Begin At The End by Chris Whitaker is also v good and stayed with me for a long time. I would also recommend Pachinko by Min Jin Lee

Also loved Hamnet, All The Light We Can't See, The Book Thief, Crawdads and A Little Life.

Love this thread 💜

Wheelyweddingwipedout · 15/09/2022 19:37

Hawaii - James A Michener

JaneJeffer · 15/09/2022 19:23

The Road
The Secret Life of Bees
A Thousand Splendid Suns
An Evil Cradling

Handsnotwands · 15/09/2022 19:21

One hundred years of Margot and Lenni

theveg · 15/09/2022 19:06

In recent years

All the light we cannot see
Hamnet by Maggie O'Farrel
Still life Sarah Winman
Great circle Maggie shipsted
The whalebone theatre Joanna Quinn

Life after Life and A God in Ruins Kate Atkinson

Everything Dianne Setterfield has ever written

Nattalie18 · 15/09/2022 18:42

A little Life and Shantaram. And the Nightingale by Kirsten Hannah

ElEmEnOhPee · 15/09/2022 18:40

ilovetomatoes · 15/09/2022 18:37

The Road Cormac McCarthy

i really didn’t like the midnight library. It felt a bit cheesy to me.

Agree about Midnight Library, it was as subtle as a sledge hammer and repetitive.