To ask for the best book you've ever read?

[chxm19]

Recently got into reading again and want to ask for suggestions!

I've just finished The Couple Next Door by Shari Lapena after it being recommended by a friend.

Needless to say I was so disappointed with the ending

TIA

My favourite ever book is 'Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency' by Douglas Adams followed in close second by 'Snow Crash' by Neal Stephenson.

Unfortunately I can no longer really read either as I basically know them off by heart.

A Thousand Splendid Suns is my all-time favourite. Read the Kite Runner first though. I read the Suns first and the kite runner second, wish I’d done it the other way around.

Eleanor Oliphant is completely fine (or something to that effect), was a great, easy read that was very different. And then The Wasp Factory is an old school fave.

I’ve just ordered the Couple Next Door :(

I’m surprised that We Need To Talk About Kevin is so popular, I found it such an uncomfortable, difficult read!

Oh, where to begin!
A thousand splendid suns
The secret history
We need to talk about Kevin
Memoirs of a Geisha
The blind assassin
Lady oracle
So much for that
The post birthday world
The hand that first held mine
Stoner
Call me by your name
I've just finished, and loved, A prayer for Owen Meany. The final sentence was like a punch to the heart.

So many! And several mentioned here already.
A Widow for One Year, plus many others by John Irving
Loved The Goldfinch and a Little Life
1984 - mind blowingly relevant
Larry’s Party by Carol Shields
Several novels by Anne Tyler
Murakami, Isabel Allende, Garcia Marquez
My favourite non-fiction is News from Tartary by Peter Fleming (brother of Ian). Wonderful travelogue from a bygone era.
And many, many more!

I also loved We Need to Talk about Kevin!

Crime and Punishment. Bit clichéd, haven’t read the thread yet and probably mentioned, but I realised what all the fuss was about when I read it.

On a lighter note, Ruth Rendall’s Portobello. Funny!

The Life of Pi
Captain Corelli’s mandolin
Shadows of the wind
Patricia Cornwell’s First series
The DaVinci code
The No1 Ladies detective agency books by Alexander McCall were excellent

11.22.63 by Stephen king
The Stand by Stephen King

If you want easy reading crime fiction there is a series by Angela Marsons (The Kim stone series) which I thoroughly enjoyed.

Wuthering heights is also amazing. So dark and romantic.

A Thousand Splendid Suns. Nothing else has ever come close (apart from the author’s other books, but this was my absolute favourite. Never been so touched by a story.

100 years of solitude
Love in a time of cholera both by Gabriel garcia marquez

American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis - not for the faint hearted. Seriously disturbing.

The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists by Robert Tressell

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

I like books that make me think a little deeper. Although on holiday I like Martina Cole / Danielle Steele whose books are all the same - light escapism though!

Everything P D James has ever written.

Likewise Virginia Woolf
Lewis Carroll's Alice books
Zusak's The Book Thief
A.S. Byatt, Possession
Zadie Smith White Teeth
Cormac McCarthy, The Road
Stephen King, Pet Sematary
Arundhati Roy, The God of Small Things
Neville Shute, A Town Like Alice (has its flaws but I love the heroine)
Emily Bronte, Wuthering Heights
Andrea Levy, Small Island
Jean Rhys Wide Sargasso Sea

I second the poster who mentioned the Hannibal Lecter series. Just what is it that's so fascinating, compelling and downright attractive about that maniac? (Or perhaps it's just the thought of Anthony Hopkins' voice; the way he purrs 'Clarrrrice' turns my entrails to liquid ...)

Too many to mention but here's a very eclectic mix off the top of my head:

World War Z
Traveller in Time
The Dark Is Rising
Wolf Hall
The Da Vinci Code
Dune
Five Go To Smugglers' Top
Here Be Dragons
The Handmaid's Tale

For various reasons each book really resonated with me at the time I read it and I've never forgotten them.

@VWpurse, I’m trying Crime and Punishment at the moment but not sure, did it take a while to get into it?

@Toffeeandcoffee was thinking of ordering AP, have seen the film but never read the book.

How do the two compare?

Forever Amber by Kathleen Windsor

'The Help' by Kathryn Stockett. The movie of it is a pretty good adaption, but the book is fantastic.

I also recently read 'The Tatooist of Auschwitz', which was also fantastic and bizarrley uplifting considering the harrowing setting.

Alias Grace
Wolf Hall and Bring up the Bodies.

Many of these are fabulous books. It's hard to predict CK favourites but the three books that have stayed with me are:
The Five People You Meet in Heaven
Tuesdays with Morrie
Sky Burial

The Last Thursday In July - the Rachael nikkel murder story told from her boyfriend's perspective. You assume that the title is based around the murder but it's not - it's the day they had their first date. Not sure it's the best book I read but it stayed with me for years. It draws you in.

A fine balance by Rohinton mistry

hitchhiker guide to the galaxy

It really depends what you like!
I've read many fantastic books and an awful lot of crap ones!
I loved The Song of Troy by Colleen McCollough - it has stayed with me for years.
Loved the Darling Buds of May by HE Bates when I was younger too.

Will think of others!

The golden notebook - Doris Lessing
The drivers seat / prime of miss jean Brodie - Muriel spark
David Copperfield - Dickens
Tess of the d'urbervilles - hardy
Ragged trousered philanthropist-tressell

This year:
Educated - Tara westover
Eleanor oliphant