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?

@MyMabel There was a lot of sniffling! The production was so cleverly done and very true to the novel.

@PlinkPlankPlunk

One Hundred Years of Solitude - by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

It just has everything. A cracking story, a generational family saga, underlying wit and humour, a good dose of magical realism, and the hot, bosky South American climate…

I come on to say the same

@EarringsandLipstick

So interesting reading posters' choices.

I've read most of the ones recommended. Some I liked, one I loved (Eleanor Oliphant) and so many I absolutely hated. Including Poisonwood Bible, which is my Worst Book Ever.

It's all about personal taste & choice!

If I had to suggest just one book, I'd go away from a Great Work & pick any of the William books, or a Wodehouse. Combination of life-enhancing humour, timeless characters & beautiful writing.

Totally agree! So interesting isn’t it. I would not enjoy Robyn Hobb or the Three Body Problem, but love seeing other people’s recommendations whatever they are.

I’ve just bought The Poisonwood Bible after seeing it a lot on these sorts of threads…

The Cazelet Chronicles

Status Anxiety - Alain de Botton because people ruin their lives and happiness worrying about their status or driving themselves into the ground over it or falling out with people over it and it’s all a bit unnecessary. Also because it has great artwork and is generally fascinating. A little dated but still the only book of its type that I know of.

Fingersmith by Sarah Waters- cracking story, great characters and the best twist in any novel EVER! Made me gasp outloud. Fab!

The Days of Abandonment by Elena Ferrante.

I’ve just read The Cazalet Chronicles one after the other @MrsKDB. Really enjoyed them although I think another one was needed. Would have loved to discover what happened next with all the changes in their lives.

@Burgerqueenbee

Many books I have enjoyed have been mentioned but my recommendation would be East of Eden by Steinbeck, it is the only book I have read that I deliberately spread out because I wanted to prolong the enjoyment. It is the story of two brothers and a woman they encounter, based on the Kane and Abel dynamic.

Oh yes, I forgot about this one. I read this last year in lockdown - it was absolutely brilliant.

On the back of this thread I have today been out and bought:

Alias Grace
The Night Circus
and
We have always lived in the Castle

I shall look forward to reading them all.

I love book threads!

I'd recommend Lorna Doone.
I enjoyed the narrator's quite straightforward way of looking at things, the story is moving and I was enthralled all the way through.

So nice to see a vote for The Golden Gate - one of my absolute favourite books and my all-time comfort read.

A Fine Balance - wonderful but absolutely devastating.

Middlemarch - all (Victorian) life is there.

The Way We Live Now (Trollope) - a rollicking good read and much funnier than I expected.

Our Mutual Friend.

Sorry - could never pick just one!

@Musicalmistress

Lots of lovely suggestions on here! My own would be A Scots Quair by Lewis Grassic Gibbon. It's a trilogy really but I go back & read it often.

I love that too Sunset Song was the best book of the three. Such wonderful characterisation , such humour, such horror...

A Place of Greater Safety. Hilary Mantel
An account of the part Danton, Robespierre, and Desmoulins played in the formation of the French Revolution.

I loved Erin Morgensten's The Starless Sea (as well as The Night Circus), and I think it may be one of my favourite books for a long time, so I'm going to politely disagree with ClaireEclair and recommend it.

The Cloud Garden - a true kidnap story about how a young man kept his spirits up by focusing on orchids. It's terrifying and beautiful.

@Chemenger

Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman. It’s the book I have reread most often (apart form Pride and Prejudice, which I assume everyone has read). Closely followed by Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman. Good Omens is the most consistently funny book I’ve ever read but also has a brilliant plot. Neverwhere is clever and creative and beautifully written, a fantasy classic that isn’t silly at all. Good for people who would “never read fantasy”.

Yes - I love this book, and I am not a fantasy reader at all. Very funny and life-affirming.

I would also choose Behind The Scenes At The Museum. Made me laugh, made me cry, neither of which books often do.

What a great thread!

A Life in Secrets by Sarah Helm. The under reported heroism of female SOE agents in WWII. Their stories, sacrifices, disappearance and the search for them, by the woman responsible for them. Life changing read.

@Whitney168

The Prince of Tides, by Pat Conroy - his writing is superbly descriptive and the book is both beautiful and harrowing.

Oh I love The Prince of Tides!

I so seldom see it mentioned by anyone else.

Just saw it’s been said already, but one my all time favourite books is the Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini.

Beautifully immersive and engaging story about a family, particularly brotherly love, set in Afghanistan when the Taliban took over first time round. Possibly one of the best works of historical fiction imho.

I’m just about to re read it myself.

Lanark, A Life in Four Books by Alasdair Gray. It’s a surrealist/realist portrayal of Glasgow. The books don’t follow in the order of 1-4, plus there’s a prologue and an epilogue somewhere in there as well, but not where you’d expect. 40 years old and it’s without doubt, one of the greatest Scottish novels ever.

The Fortnight in September by R C Sherrif, Someone At A Distance by Dorothy Whipple, Lissa Evans’ WWII trilogy or The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton.

Sorry, couldn’t choose one!

The subtle art of not giving a fuck