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?

A thousand splendid suns. Moving and beautifully written. I have read it over and over again.

American Dirt...it’s rare I enjoy novels that attract a lot of hype but I loved this and absolutely stayed with me

James Webb - A Sense of Honor (it is American).

MrsGrindah I have just started American Dirt, and from what I have read so far, it will certainly make its mark.
I got it out of the library along with several other books, before it closed it’s doors.

@Greenteandchives Let me know what you think!

I'm almost at the end of American Dirt on Audible and I'm rationing my listening as I don't want it to end.

Notable inclusions for me
The Stand
House of the Spirits
Americanah
A Thousand Splendid Suns
Roots
The Handmaids Tale
Half of a Yellow Sun

One of my favourite books I read as a teenager was The Secret History by Donna Tartt. I eagerly awaited The Goldfinch but was disappointed.

I am enjoying Dirt Music by Tim Winton at the moment .

Anything by Lianne Moriarty as mentioned up thread. Also Anne Tyler is amazing escapism. Margaret Forster (sadly deceased) is also wonderful for 20th c minutiae. V relaxing.
Sally Hepworth is a new Aussie I've come across up to Lianne standard.
Anything by Jane Harper - again a fantastic Aussie novelist, one of the best I've ever read

Also like The Luminaries which is bonkers and long but stays with you

Mine have already been mentioned by and large:

The Stand and The Dark Tower books (in fact any Stephen King, but those have stayed with me)
The Help
To Kill a Mockingbird
Hilary Mantel's Cromwell books
We Need to Talk About Kevin (which I need to re-read)
Circe (just read this and loved it!)

These may have also been mentioned (sorry I have a lunatic toddler asking me about the Clangers...):
Alias Grace - Margaret Atwood
The First 15 Lives of Harry August - Catherine Webb
The 7 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle - Stuart Turton

I expect I'll remember more later. This thread is great

Sashenka by Simon Montifiore. It is a book that has stuck with me a decade after reading it.

Loved all of the Walsh family novels by Marian Keyes, Rachel’s holiday and Watermelon were my favourites.

What Alice Forgot by Liane Moriety.

The Storyteller by Jodi Picoult.

But my absolute favourite book is from my childhood and I still reread it regularly - Goodnight Mister Tom.

I also read a chick lit book by Louise Pentland (Wild Like Me) that really resonated with me, it’s standard chick lit but about a single mother who allows herself to be used by a man whilst feeling down and low about herself. It made me think back to a time when I was in a similar position and allowed me to finally stop mentally beating myself up about that time in my life. It’s funny how different styles of books will affect different people!

Middlesex
Any Human Heart
Tully
We Need to Talk About Kevin

Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl

Sorry that's non fiction!

The Other Hand.

I made the mistake of reading it on holiday! Great book but scary.

As @Scruffyoak mentioned previously The Kabul Beauty School & also The Little Coffee Shop of Kabul both by Deborah Rodriguez. Both memoirs based on the author's time living in Kabul where she set up a beauty school to train Afghani women so they could work from home & earn their own money.

I also enjoyed The Plot Against America by Philip Roth & Welcome To The World Baby Girl by Fannie Flagg*
Margaret Mitchell's 'Gone With The Wind' is even better than the film.

For pure escapism I like the Jack Reacher novels by Lee Child. Thrillers by David Baldacci.
I like the authors Kathy Reichs & Tess Gerritsen too.
After all that blood & gore I like the gentle sagas by Lynda Page (mainly set in Leicester/Leicestershire) & novels by Katie Flynn (mainly set in Liverpool/Merseyside.)

If you like non fiction especially stuff about The First World War Europe's Last Summer: Who Started the Great War in 1914? by David Fromkin is hard going but an excellent read.
I also recommend the books about Queen Victoria & her extended family by Christina Croft

Finally I've just downloaded On The Beach by Neville Shute as recommended by pps.

The taking of Annie Thorne
The chalk man (both by CJ Tudor) both excellent.

The Help one of my favourites
Secret life of bees lovely coming of age story
Little fires everywhere lovely unravelling of two families
The woman in cabin 10 by Ruth Ware
So lucky by dawn O porter was brilliant, funny and rude

Any Stephen King.
The Stand is my all time favourite, but I devour his books.

Light reads, quite gritty, but get you hooked: Martina Cole.
Well written interesting narratives - anything by Sarah Waters.
Classics that are like a pair of comfy slippers: Jane Eyre, Middlemarch, any Austen. Les Miserables.

Books that stand out: The Bell Jar by Plath, Germinal by Zola, Of Mice and Men, Steinbeck; and my all time favourite Gone with the Wind, Margaret Mitchell (the film is a classic, the book much better).

The whole Rivers of London series
Eleanor Oliphant is absolutely fine
Dissolution by CJ Samson

Oh @littlecrocodiles, 'Dissolution' is on my To Be Read list.... just got about 7 million pages of 'The Mirror and The Light' left!

The Bedlam Stacks by Natasha Pulley. She created an impossible history I still half-believe.

I can’t remember all the authors but”
Memoirs of a Geisha
The Red Tent
Atonement
Pillars of the Earth series
The Night Circus
The Mermaid’s Chair
Shadows of the Wind
The Lies of Locke Lamora
Germinal
AppleTree Yard
A Day in the life of Ivan Denisovich
Lord of the Flies

Oh, and Dissolution is the best of the Shardlakes. Excellent.
And forgot - All the Light we cannot see

Thanks so much everyone for these suggestions, I’m googling and reading reviews for every single one mentioned and I have a list as long as my arm to download...

😂