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Original poster

OK - I want new things to read. Please can you list two books- one classic, one modern- you think everyone shoulf read.

194 replies

seeker · 22/10/2008 22:45

I'll start. Pride and Prejudice and The Kite Runner, by Khalid Hosseini.

OP posts:
sleepycatonabroomstick · 23/10/2008 23:04

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DeadTall · 23/10/2008 23:04

A Fine Balance

To Kill a Mockingbird

Beetroot · 23/10/2008 23:06

Shakespeare on Toast -' wonderful and easy and then (if you don't alreadly) you will get it.

Original poster
seeker · 23/10/2008 23:40

Troube is, all this has just made me want to re-read things - I've read most of the listed books but not for a long time. I'm going on holiday tomorrow and I am now going to take Brideshead Revisited as a re-read and I'm going to read Middlemarch again when I come back. Then start on all the others......!

OP posts:
lilolilmanchester · 23/10/2008 23:54

Jude the Obscure;
Prince of Tides (the film was crap, but I couldn't put the book down)

mumof2222222222222222boys · 24/10/2008 09:26

So sorry cyteen!

There really are some brilliant books here - I'll be taking note of a few. In cold blood - Truman CApote is coming in for lots of praise from a friend at the mo...a busy time ahead!

Flowertots · 24/10/2008 12:06

Thank you Lilo

DEFIATELY Jude the Obscure!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

who cares about a modern when you've got a tremendous classic like Jude!!!

KerryMumchingOnEyeballs · 24/10/2008 12:07

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KerryMumchingOnEyeballs · 24/10/2008 12:08

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Flowertots · 24/10/2008 12:17

Frankenstein, the ultimate Halloween story especially how it was originally told as an off the cuf ghost story....GENIUS!!!

ScottishMummy · 24/10/2008 12:20

Classic 1984 as pertinent now as then
Modern white teeth cracking read

ChloeandAlfie · 24/10/2008 12:24

Can't praise 'In Cold Blood' enough. It changed my view on life...

Flowertots · 24/10/2008 12:28

never heard of that Chloe, what's it about? Is it like 1984/Animal Farm type?

ChloeandAlfie · 24/10/2008 12:34

By Truman Capote (same guy as 'Breakfast at Tiffany's'). It's a story that follows a true event where a family were killed in Canvas. Capote followed the story avidly, becoming involved with the two men who were eventually charged with the killings. It's horrifying and shocking, but a tale told with great empathy. I was only 17 at the time, but was deeply affected by it. I recommend it to my AS/A2 Literature students now!

CrushaGrape · 24/10/2008 12:46

Classic - Tolstoy's 'The Death of Ivan Ilych', which is so absorbing (and short!) that you'll get through it in a couple of sittings.

Modern - Zadie Smith's 'On Beauty'. I started re-reading it this week, and had forgotten how brilliant it was.

Blu · 24/10/2008 12:56

The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists

and

The Rotters Club and the Closed Circle (they HAVE to be read together, TCC is the sequel, so count as one)

smartiejake · 24/10/2008 13:29

THe Grapes of Wrath

The boy in the striped pyjamas

lilibet · 24/10/2008 13:47

i thought of two 'linked books yesterday and was convinced that someone would ahve put them on

Tale of Two Cities

A Prayer for Owen Meany

"It's a far, far better thing.............." [sob]

slayerette · 24/10/2008 13:49

Tess of the D'Urbervilles

Remains of the Day

ipanemagirl · 24/10/2008 13:57

'The woman in white' Wilkie Collins &
'Beloved' Toni Morrison

or

'David Copperfield' Dickens &
'Fingersmith' Sarah Waters

ratherbesleeping · 24/10/2008 14:01

Georgimama Lorelli's secret????? Wasn't that the one in which a grief stricken man tries to teach a dog to talk?

V weird book

If not, ignore me and write me off as v weird Mumsnetter

theyoungvisiter · 24/10/2008 14:06

arg, only one of each? So difficult!

I think it would have to be...

Emma, Jane Austen

Suite Francaise by Irene Nemirovsky (written in 1940s but only recently published)

midnightexpress · 24/10/2008 14:13

Classic:
Anna Karenina
or
Therese Racquin (or anything by Balzac, actually)
or
Bleak House

Modern:
The Corrections (Jonathan Frantzen)
or
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay (Michael Chabon, I think)
or
The Stone Diaries (Carol Shields)

georgimama · 24/10/2008 20:15

Yes it is! I loved it!

DoubleBluff · 24/10/2008 20:19

To Kill a Mocking bird

The Time Travellers Wife

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