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Original poster

What’s the best book you’ve ever read?

221 replies

lostinthoughts · 22/06/2025 21:59

Holidays coming up and I’m fed up of starting books and not finishing them as they just don’t grip me. Give me your best ever books that have had you hooked….

OP posts:
whosaidtha · 08/07/2025 16:54

I know it’s all personal taste but some of these are baffling. A book you enjoyed absolutely , best book you ever read?! (Not mentioning specifics as people should read what they love)

TryingAgain7651 · 08/07/2025 16:53

Authors rather than books, but Barbara Kingsolver can do no wrong
Also Curtis Sittenfield for a lighter read but not too light!

terracelane23 · 08/07/2025 16:52

We need to talk about Kevin - Lionel Shriver

The last one at the party was also excellent as others have said.

magpie234 · 08/07/2025 16:50

I love lots of the books mentioned here but my all-time favourite is The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett. My husband bought me a beautiful illustrated Folio Society edition last Christmas.

SummerShimmer · 08/07/2025 16:44

All the colours of the dark by Chris Whitaker. One of the best books I’ve ever read.

New York by Edward Rutherford - eternal favourite that I won’t ever dare reread in case it doesn’t live up to the memory. I was bereft when I finished it.

SingleAHF · 08/07/2025 16:42

Mary Raleigh Richardson. It's the biography of a famous suffragette.

ladymalfoy45 · 08/07/2025 16:19

Anno Dracula by Kim Newman. Every time I read it I understand more of the literary,film,and TV references.
The Rivers of London series by Ben Aaranovich. Foxglove Summer is my favourite although Stone and Sky is a close second.
All of Jodi Taylor's books.
The Tiffany Aching books by Sir Terry Pratchett.
She's a proper unit that girl.
Love all of Sir Terry's books but Tiff and the Nac Mac Feegles are a joy.

WaitedBlankey · 08/07/2025 16:11

Pat Barker's Trojan trilogy. I swear that woman can't write an ugly sentence.

Claire North - pretty much everything, including the Ithaca trilogy.

Hamnet, which had such a strong sense of place I could smell the grasses and the crowds. It was astonishing.

Red Tent by Anita Diamant
Poisonwood Bible by Kingsolver
Children of Time series by Adrian Tchaikovsky
Temeraire series by Naomi Novak
Miss Pettigrew Lives For A Day by Winifred Watson
The Wofl Hall trilogy.

The usual collections of Austen, Heyer, Pratchett and Wodehouse.

Runnersandtoms · 08/07/2025 15:55

A man called Ove is my absolute favourite.

mambojambodothetango · 08/07/2025 15:53

Middlemarch by George Eliot

Hyperion100 · 08/07/2025 15:49

ODFOx · 22/06/2025 22:07

Imajica by Clive Barker. It really is an extraordinary story. A wholly different type of fantasy where portals to alternative worlds do exist, where love and loss and greed and hate and history and fate circle back round to love again.
There is no pretention in the writing style but the story is so well crafted with little hints along the way so that every so often you have a lightbulb moment over some detail that came before. So good!

One of my all time favorite books!

IceIceBabyBump · 08/07/2025 15:47

'The Luminaries' by Eleanor Catton

'A Little Life' by Hanya Yanagihara

'A Pale View of Hills' by Kazuo Ishiguro

'A Fine Balance' by Rohinton Mistry

CortadoPlease · 08/07/2025 15:45

Recently, I’d say:
A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini (also Kite Runner)
Demon Copperhead
All My Mothers, Joanna Glen
A Fine Balance, Rohinton Mistry

MovingSwiftlyOn · 08/07/2025 15:18

When I was a child it was Sword in the Stone by TH White. I read it so many times it fell apart and I still remember the excitement I felt reading it.
More recently I really loved Diane Setterfield’s
The Thirteenth Tale and also Nell Gavin’s Threads. The Reincarnation of Anne Boleyn, which has stayed with me.

Ilovemychocolate · 07/07/2025 22:57

The Kite Runner
Novel by Khaled Hosseini
Made me sob!
Then had to read everything he’s ever written.

Clawdy · 07/07/2025 22:40

Lincoln In The Bardo - George Saunders. Most of my book group didn't like it- I loved it.

ProfessionalTeaDrinker · 23/06/2025 18:24

Ddakji · 22/06/2025 22:31

Second Circe! Fantastic book. I loathe Achilles so I never like books about him, he’s such a PITA.

Show quote history

He really is a pita 🤣 Very self centered! But she just writes the story so beautifully that you just step into the world and get carried along and ignore Achilles being a twat 🤣

Menier · 23/06/2025 18:23

The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver

OnARainyDay2012 · 23/06/2025 18:16

Anything by Liane Moriarty or Taylor Jenkins Reid or Curtis Sittenfeld would be a great light holiday read. I've just read the first two Threadneedle books and loved them, I love a bit of magical realism! Demon Copperhead if you haven't already. Anything by Kate Atkinson or Elizabeth Strout ... I could go on but I won't!!

AdaColeman · 23/06/2025 18:15

Some of my favourites...

A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth
Prodigal Summer by Barbara Kingsolver
The Magician's Assistant and State of Wonder both by Ann Patchett
An Officer and a Spy by Robert Harris

Anything written by Joseph O'Connor, Hilary Mantel or C J Sansom

JohnTheRevelator · 23/06/2025 17:56

The Poison Tree by Erin Kelly.

EggandStress · 23/06/2025 17:55

TianasBayou · 22/06/2025 22:10

The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt. I’ve just started her book The Secret History which is also good.

I really liked The Little Friend too, but I don’t think many other people did!

PermanentTemporary · 23/06/2025 17:51

Some top books for me in recent years:

  • James by Percival Everett
  • Red Plenty by Francis Spufford
  • Empire of Pain by Patrick Radden Keefe (nonfiction)
And some I’ve recommended on another thread -
  • Midnight’s Children by Salman Rushdie
  • Bleak House by Charles Dickens
  • Mansfield Park by Jane Austen
  • Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver
ScottBakula · 23/06/2025 17:44

My family and other animals by Gerrard durral is my all time favourite ( tons better than the TV series)
Bill bryson, all of his all very good but Notes from small island and A walk in the woods are my favourites.

Spike milligan Puckoon is Outstanding !

DancefloorAcrobatics · 23/06/2025 17:39

If you fancy a biography and a bit of background knowledge about the current conflict in the middle east , I can highly recommend Queen of the Dessert: The extraordinary Life of Gertrude Bell by Georgia Howell. A truly amazing and inspiring woman!