Page 2 | What is your favourite book???

Els2020 · 2025-03-11T15:52:30+00:00

I pretty much read anything but I'm looking for book recommendations. Tell me what your favourite books are/ have been. The more 'out there' the better!

LynneLynne · 17/03/2025 23:09

A Change of Climate by Hilary Mantel

Clawdy · 17/03/2025 22:46

Jamrach's Menagerie by Carol Birch is brilliant. Shortlisted for the Booker Prize years ago, should have won it!

LoudPlumDog · 17/03/2025 13:27

So many have already been mentioned, but my current favourite is Meredith Alone by Claire Alexander. Brilliant.

Rowena191 · 17/03/2025 10:30

I recommend the one I've just read, The House of Doors by Tan Twan Eng. It's set in Penang, which is very atmospherically described, and features W. Somerset Maugham as a character. One theme is the difference between public and private morality and how we do not know what is going on in someone else's life behind closed doors.

Hoolahoophop · 17/03/2025 10:10

Thewalrusandthecarpenter · 11/03/2025 17:52

I Capture the Castle
The Bell Jar
No More Meadows
East of Eden
The Portrait of a Lady
Rebecca
The Wasp Factory
The Sea, The Sea
To The Lighthouse
The Greengage Summer
Gone With The Wind
Wide Sargasso Sea
The Chrysalids
Tess of the d’Urbervilles
The Catcher in the Rye
Sons and Lovers
The Handmaid’s Tale
The Shell Seekers
The Picture of Dorian Gray

I like your list a lot

MissAmbrosia · 16/03/2025 20:06

Ah - Any Human Heart - I was trying to remember this one.

Bruisername · 16/03/2025 19:28

Some great books above. I would add

The Master and Margarita
It Happened in Boston?
Nervous Conditions
any Kurt Vonnegut books

Hellohah · 16/03/2025 19:12

Not repeating what has already been said...

David Copperfield, Charles Dickens
The Pillars of the Earth, Ken Follett
Beartown, Frederick Backman
Sherlock Holmes (all of them)
The Count of Monte Cristo, Alexandre Dumas
The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini

TeaIsNice · 16/03/2025 19:11

Tully - Paulina Simons. The Power of One - Bruce Courtrnay

Nourishinghandcream · 16/03/2025 19:08

Blot On The Landscape by Tom Sharpe.

Don't know what it is but I can re-read it again & again and still laugh out loud.
Must have read it 20-30 times and never get bored (most recent reading was last week). My paperback copy fell apart and now the hardback is a bit worn around the edges (jacket is still pretty good though).
The 80's TV adaptation was pretty true to the book and a masterpiece of entertainment.

TBH anything by TS is a good read, thoroughly un-PC but great reading.

olesia66 · 16/03/2025 19:03

Return of the Native by Thomas Hardy
The Hearts Invisible Furies by John Boyne

Ilovemyshed · 16/03/2025 18:55

Too many to mention but:

Most things by Delderfield but especially the Swann trilogy
The Cone Gatherers
The Travelling Cat Chronicles

Civilservant · 16/03/2025 18:50

Circle of Friends by Maeve Binchey.

Ftypestar · 16/03/2025 17:42

Not my 'favourite' book but one of those that I turn to regularly when I'm wanting a good historical 'fix':

May 1812 by M M Bennetts - brilliantly researched and written.

Followed by her second book: Of Honest Fame - which is utterly breathtaking.

(And I LOVE Delderfield's novels - picked up all three of A Horseman Rides By from a charity shop!)

WellyBellyBoo · 16/03/2025 17:41

Too many but my top 10 would include:

One Hundred Years of Solitude (or anything by Gabriel Garcia Marquez)
An Equal Music - Vikram Seth
Amy Human Heart - William Boyd
North and South - Elizabeth Gaskell

user4434 · 16/03/2025 17:33

I couldn’t pick one, so I’ll put my current top five

Memoirs of a Geisha
The Great Gatsby
Jane Eyre
Anna Karenina
The Grapes of Wrath

WessexPrincess · 16/03/2025 17:32

Memoirs of a geisha

Didshejustsaythatoutloud · 16/03/2025 17:27

Thewalrusandthecarpenter · 11/03/2025 17:52

I Capture the Castle
The Bell Jar
No More Meadows
East of Eden
The Portrait of a Lady
Rebecca
The Wasp Factory
The Sea, The Sea
To The Lighthouse
The Greengage Summer
Gone With The Wind
Wide Sargasso Sea
The Chrysalids
Tess of the d’Urbervilles
The Catcher in the Rye
Sons and Lovers
The Handmaid’s Tale
The Shell Seekers
The Picture of Dorian Gray

Oh thank you so much, my late aunt told me to read the wasp factory, I'd forgotten the name of it until I seen your list. I'm off to order it right now.
Thanks 💐

FrostyMorn · 16/03/2025 17:20

Lots of wonderful books mentioned above. To add:
The Cazalet chronicles by Elizabeth Jane Howard
The Magus by John Fowles
Miss Smilla's Feeling for Snow by Peter Hoeg
Behind the Scenes at the Museum by Kate Atkinson (actually, all her books!)

The Slough House books by Mick Herron (that the Slow Horses TV series is based on) are great if you like a pacy thriller.

igglu · 16/03/2025 17:12

goodnightgrumble · 13/03/2025 20:23

I always say the same one. The red tent by Anne Diamant.

I agree, I've read it countless times over the years and love it. I'd also add Captain Corelli's Mandolin. I love it. Don't watch the film though, that's atrocious.

TheBookShelf · 16/03/2025 17:06

My list would be very long, but would have to include:

The Magic Apple Tree - Susan Hill
Diary of a Provincial Lady - Delafield
The Thirty Nine Steps - Buchan
Henrietta's House - Elizabeth Goudge
Charley - Joan G Robinson
Lindchester series (Catherine Fox)
Most of Dorothy L Sayers
Three Girls and a Secret - Rene Guillet (in translation)
Satchkin Patchkin - Helen Morgan
Lymond series - Dorothy Dunnett

IbizaToTheNorfolkBroads · 14/03/2025 05:56

Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
The Crow Road - Iain Banks

MyCatNamedCookingFat · 13/03/2025 23:02

SeashellsAndDaffodils · 13/03/2025 20:27

Recently read small pleasures by Clare chambers and really enjoyed it

Agreed! Have you read her new one?

MyCatNamedCookingFat · 13/03/2025 23:01

MaryGreenhill · 11/03/2025 16:41

The Dreaming Suburb/
The Avenue goes to war
R.F. Delderfield

Yes!! So nice to see other fans!

Enko · 13/03/2025 22:34

Mammoth hunters by Jean Auel. But its the 3rd in a series and you need the other two first for it to make complete sense.

Clan of the cave bear
Valley of the horses
Mammoth hunters
The plans of passage
Shelter of stone