If you could recommend one single book to read, what would it be?

[BernadetteRostankowskiWolowitz]

I've set myself an annual readingoal, having lost the wherewithal to read like I used to, pre kids.

I'm flying through the books on my list, and also want a new target to aim for next year.

So.

I need more on my list. I'm literally open to any genre. Any length etc.

if you could only recommend one single book, what would it be? And why?

Wolf Hall because its brilliant

“Cutting for Stone” by Abraham Verghese

Small Island - Andrea Levy
Incredibly touching story

Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks

@Thatisme

Small Island - Andrea Levy Incredibly touching story

I was just about to recommend this. One of my favourite books.

The Color Purple by Alice Walker — incredibly moving
The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion - loved the main character!

Burial Rites by Hannah Kent - I read it several years ago and loved it, still remember it. And The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver - really good story but it is a door stopper.

I find Goodreads is a great way to look up good books

sorry that's 2!

The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro. Not a huge amount happens but it's so beautifully written.

Also Intimacy by Hanif Kureishi. It's very short but spills over with poignancy. It's about a man making the decision to leave his wife. I read it after I had decided to leave my partner a few years ago and it really got to me.

I found Possession really heavy going, and gave up on Birdsong.

I must be quite the philistine.

I don’t rate either Kite Runner or Thousand Splendid Suns. They’re both one-read-only books to me, and neither is particularly good. I like much of Ishiguro’s writing, though, so Remains of the Day etc. I liked Possession, Birdsong, Wolf Hall, but they’re only one-read books. I couldn’t finish the other two books of the Wolf Hall trilogy.

Deathless by catherynne valente

The corrections by Jonathan Franzen

I've just read The good wife of Bath and absolutely adored it.

Shantaram

Ahh some great recommendations here and pleased to see American Dirt on it as I've just bought it.

Mine would be Song of Achilles by Madeleine Miller. It's beautifully written and has really stayed with me.

Interesting what people choose. Some of these I've tried to start but given up.

Jurassic park

Please, please, I beg you to read We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson. It is an absolutely incredible book. I had always struggled to choose a favourite book but not since reading this. It’s incredible. It’s only short too so won’t take too long! It’s just so so wel written, the characters feel so viscerally real - and it’s so refreshing to read what feel like real women! - and the way she reveals the plot is just a masterpiece.

The Hands of the Emperor by Victoria Goddard

Love Story by Erich Segal
It is a slim, tightly written book that leaves me sobbing every time.
I used to have difficulty crying when I was younger and this book helped me to release the feelings building up.

@ImNotShpanishImEgyptshun

American Gods by Neil Gaiman

I was going to add this one. Just love it!

To Kill a Mockingbird

Moon Tiger by Penelope Lively. A really complex central character, reflections on the nature of remembering and a love story at the centre. Best quote - "The place didn't look the same but it felt the same; sensations clutched and transformed me. I stood outside some concrete and plate-glass tower-block, picked a handful of eucalyptus leaves from a branch, crushed them in my hand, smelt, and tears came to my eyes. Sixty-seven-year-old Claudia, on a pavement awash with packaged American matrons, crying not in grief but in wonder that nothing is ever lost, that everything can be retrieved, that a lifetime is not linear but instant. That, inside the head, everything happens at once."

Another vote for Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee by Dee Brown. utterly heartbreaking, should really be compulsory reading for anyone who has ever given a passing thought to the US.

For fiction, their Eyes were watched God Zora Neale Hurston, incredible writing