To ask you for your all-time favourite life-changing books?

[frogsoup]

Now my kids are getting older I'm finally getting the chance to start reading again. I'm at a bit of a crossroads in life and career terms and I'm feeling the need for books that are so amazing that they make you rethink life, the universe and everything. Any suggestions?

My starter for 10: Primo Levi's 'The truce', about his journey home from Auschwitz. One of the most astonishingly life-affirming books I've ever read.

[NotAsGreenAsCabbageLooking]

Loved Curious Incident of a Dog in the Nighttime.

Also.. (completely different genre) Marching Powder by Rusty Young (I think) is mind blowingly amazing.

[DieAntword]

A short history of despair by Emil Cioran.

[frippit]

Cry the Beloved Country by Alan Paton. Beautifully written book set in South Africa about a black parsons search for his son, I love this book.

[khakoney]

Vampire Diary(a collection of 12 books) by Morgan Rice,takes you to another world but at the end it makes sense to a normal human being.Kind of scaring but interesting..

[RaquelWelch]

Oh! and the Barrytown Trilogy by Roddy Doyle - The Commitments, The Snapper and The Van

[RaquelWelch]

The God of Small Things - by Arundhati Roy
A Thousand Splendid Suns - by Khaled Hosseini (cried my eyes out!)
Rachel's holiday - by Marian Keyes
Gone Girl - Gillian Flynn

[Kzzzzz]

Not sure if it’s been mentioned but A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving is sich a life affirming book for me.

It’s such an odd story, an amazing unforgettable main character and just so original, funny and heartbreaking. I read it at least once a year and think I will continue to do so forever more.

[33goingon64]

The Outsider (Camus). I read it in for A level French otherwise probably wouldn't have come across it. It shaped my understanding of how the justice system works (or doesn't work) and more generally about whether it is possible to exist as a physical body without behaviours or emotions, and if so is that something human society could ever accept? It blew my mind.

[Calledyoulastnightfromglasgow]

Another vote for Birdsong. I read it many years ago and it changed me and I never walk past a war memorial without stopping. It brought the First World War and it’s statistics to life (sadly) but was beautifully written

[OneDayIWish]

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon. It's an amazing book and became an award winning play. It gives such an insight into the mind of an autistic boy creating understanding and empathy into the condition. At the same time, it's a mystery novel.

[beachygirl]

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly. Written by Jean-'Dominique Bauby, who was in a coma, mentally aware of his surroundings, but physically paralyzed with locked-in syndrome, except for some movement in his head and eyes. The entire book was written by Bauby blinking his left eyelid, which took ten months (four hours a day). It is an amazing testament to the human spirit. Bauby died just 2 days the book was finished.

[proudbrows]

I read a book once and it was (to me) perfect....I lost the book and I forgot what it was called or who the author was or even what colour it was.....years later I still wished I could find it again...last year I walked past a tiny bookshop, I felt compelled to go in, convinced I’d find ‘the book’...and I was browsing the shelves and yep, there it was!!!! I could not believe it, what are the chances!!! It was ‘the history of love’ by Nicole Krauss

[chickenstock]

Chronicle of a Death Foretold by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, both because its message about the consequences of a passive community is always relevant, and because it first inspired me to travel to South America.

A Fine Balance, Any Human Heart, and the God of Small Things as others have said.

Also, all three Donna Tartt novels, particularly the Little Friend, Ian McEwan’s On Chesil Beach, all of Thomas Hardy’s novels, and latterly, His Bloody Project by Graeme Macrae Burnet which, in my opinion, took the novel into a new and exciting, almost cinematic, place.

[JamieFrasersSassenach]

I've just finished the 8th book in Diana Gabaldons Outlander series - absolutely amazing, beautiful love story with amazing writing, I cannot recommend these books highly enough. I am now waiting impatiently for her to finish writing book 9 - so really pleased to see this thread!

What never to read - Shantaram - my God - we still laugh hysterically about trying to read that in our book club - never been so bored!!

[JeremiahBackflip]

Following - I need some life changing reading right now!

[wildbhoysmama]

Yy to Birdsong, Sebastien Falkes ( I had forgotten my ugly, snotty sobbing at the side of a pool in Greece!) and loads of the others mentioned.
Janice Galloway is bloody brilliant.

Recently read Eleanor Ollifant is completely fine ( ate it up in less than 24 hours, loved it).

Philip Larkin continues to provide the shades of grey we all need.

Tally's Blood ( drama) Annmarie deMambro.

The little prince - Antoine de San Aubrey

[LisaTheMug]

David icke's Robots' Rebellion. Only book ever where when I finished the final page, I flicked back to the beginning and read it all over again.

Sublime.

[AngeloMysterioso]

Turns out I already had The Book Thief and Women Who Run With The Wolves in my book closet, and I'm pretty sure I've got Wild Swans somewhere too. I've started reading The Book Thief today, and loving it so far, already finished Part 1. It helps that the pages have that great rustle to them of pages that have got wet and then dried again (no idea when that might've happened mind you).

[marmiteloversunite]

Cutting by for Stone by A Verghese is a fantastic book which really makes you think. Will definitely read it again.

[littlewhitething]

The Prophet by Khalil Gibran

[ChesterBelloc]

Another vote here for Gilead by Marilynne Robinson.

Beautifully crafted, with an unforgettable narrative voice, about life, love, loss, forgiveness, youth and age. So much greater than the sum of its parts - but one might need to be in the right mood for it.

[IMissGin]

Tuesdays with Morrie, it’s a short book but packed with strong messages. I give it as a gift often

[LadyRochfordsHoickedGusset]

Feel The Fear and Do It Anyway by Susan Jeffers changed my whole way of thinking when I was going through a very bad time in my late teens.

Yy to a pp who mentioned the memoir Late Fragments by Kate Gross. What a humbling beautiful memoir from an amazing woman/mother/wife and put things in perspective when I was feeling sorry for myself over some first world problem. In that vein also Mortality by Christopher Hitchens.

Jane Eyre - a re-read, first read when I was sent away to school, felt uncomfortable and new and it helped reading about Lowood - keeping things in perspective again.

Otherwise (these are more favourites rather than life-changing, though they all had an effect);

The Acid House - Irvine Welsh (mad & clever short story that got me into his other books).
Of Mice and Men/Grapes of Wrath/East of Eden -Steinbeck
American Gods - Gaiman, any Gaiman really. Even DS was into his children's ones.
Birdsong - Faulks
Hard Times - Dickens (made to read for A-level but loved it and got me into Dickens).
Down and Out in Paris and London/Homage to Catalonia/1984 - Orwell
The Sunne in Splendour - Penman (pure escapism esp if you love history).
Wolf Hall - Mantel (as above but when's the third one coming out Hilary M hm?)
Rebecca - DuMaurier
All Austen
Precious Bane - Mary Webb
The Secret Scripture -Sebastian Barry
The Go-Between - LP Hartley
Lady Chatterley's Lover - Lawrence
Cat's Eye/Alias Grace/the Penelopiad/THT- Atwood
The Crimson Petal and the White - Michel Faber
The Red Tent - Diamant
Disgrace - Coetzee

There are more but this post feels massive.

[Grobagsforever]

The Subtle Art of Not Giving a Fuck.

Only self help book you'll ever need

[frenchfancy]

Thanks to this thread I now have 12rules for life on audible.