Fictional books that have left a mark.

[whodunit3]

I used to absolutely obsessed with reading but over the years the DC have kept me either busy or exhausted and I have stopped.

However now we are on lockdown and the DC seem to be all getting along and happy thought I’d treat myself to some new books on my kindle and try to get back into reading, but where to start.

I like quite serious matter books especially with layers and characters that draw you in. I used to love Jodie Picoult and Diane Chamberlain but looked at a few just now and they are not drawing me in...

I think my favourite (fictional) book I have ever read is the Memory Keepers daughter which I absolutely loved.

Which books would you recommend and have found real page turners?

The Red Tent

I loved the Earth Children Series by Jean Auel. The Outlsnder Serues by Diana Gabledon ( read them before the TV series) and my favourite book Sarum by Edwatd Rutherford.

On The Beach by Nevil Shute. There has been an atomic incident in Taiwan. The northern hemisphere is dead, by all, or most, indications but in Australia, a small town outside of Melbourne, life, sort of goes on, but they are waiting for the atomic dust cloud to come to them and then human life is over. The ways people deal with this is heart lifting, and heartbreaking. The final scene will make you weep. I read it years ago and it stays with me. The human spirit in the face of catastrophe, and the desperate sense of loss of all the world's wonder, because of our stupidity and hubris.

Room by Emma Donague is my favourite book of all time.

The Kite Runner

I also just finished A Fine Balance which is so incredibly sad but very moving

The Hearts Invisible Furies

The Color Purple is my all time favourite and I read it over and over again

@isoblue

I also would recommend Room by Emma Donogue

Draws you in and then smacks you in the face. Powerful

Jane Eyre. Reader, I married him!

We need to talk about Kevin... By Lionel shriver.
Haunts me years later, powerful examination of nature vs nurture and the experience of motherhood.

I also loved Room, and more recently The Power.

The Hand that First Held Mine. Heartbreaking

Eleanor Oliphant is Perfectly Fine is a very touching read

Alias Grace

The Lovely Bones

www.amazon.co.uk/Secret-Life-Bees-Monk-Kidd/dp/0747266832?tag=mumsnetforu03-21

The Secret Life of Bees: The multi-million-copy bestselling novel about a young girl's journey towards healing and the transforming power of love, from the award-winning author of The Invention of Wings.

Lily has grown up believing she accidentally killed her mother when she was four years old. Now, at fourteen, she yearns for forgiveness and a mother's love. Living on a peach farm in South Carolina with her harsh and unforgiving father, she has only one friend, Rosaleen, a black servant.

When racial tension explodes one summer afternoon, and Rosaleen is arrested and beaten, Lily chooses to flee with her. Fugitives from justice, the pair follow a trail left by the woman who died ten years before. Finding sanctuary in the home of three beekeeping sisters, Lily starts a journey as much about her understanding of the world as about the mystery surrounding her mother.

A thousand splendid suns.
Be prepared to cry though, definitely a book that touched me

And Rachel's holiday by Marian Keyes, my favourite book, tough subject but oh so readable, and funny too!

Cutting for stone
www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/0099443635/ref=dbs_a_w_dp_0099443635?tag=mumsnetforu03-21

I just finished reading Where the Crawdads Sing and I absolutely loved it.
Also recommended Where the Forest meets The Stars, Little Fires Everywhere

"These is my words" by Nancy Turner. Currently rereading it, lovely book.

The Alice Network
www.amazon.co.uk/Alice-Network-Novel-Kate-Quinn-ebook/dp/B01LZFL63S/?tag=mumsnetforu03-21

Lincoln In The Bardo - George Saunders. Just wonderful.
Life After Life - Kate Atkinson.
Slaughterhouse Five - Kurt Vonnegut.

The Help
The Song of Achilles

A town like Alice is also by Nevil Shute and excellent

Out of my mind by sharon draper. Aimed at teens. But i read it as an adult. It has definitely changed me.

"Eleven-year-old Melody is not like most people. She can’t walk. She can’t talk. She can’t write. All because she has cerebral palsy. But she also has a photographic memory; she can remember every detail of everything she has ever experienced. She’s the smartest kid in her whole school, but NO ONE knows it. Most people—her teachers, her doctors, her classmates—dismiss her as mentally challenged because she can’t tell them otherwise. But Melody refuses to be defined by her disability. And she’s determined to let everyone know it…somehow."

We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler
Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

Agree with lots above. Two of Chris Cleaves books, The Other Hand and Incendiary really stay with you. My year of Rest and Relaxation by Ottessa Murghahi is thought provoking, the Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath. Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury is also a serious favourite.

Oh, and recently read Where the Crawdads sing and i loved it, it's not one I'd usually choose.

The Narrow Road to the Deep North
The Things They Carried

It’s so interesting reading recommendations. Some of these lists contain books I have loved alongside books I have hated! Each to their own!

1984 and books by Iain banks.

Normal People Sally Rooney. About to be released as a film or series on Netflix.
Any book by Anne Tyler .