The best books you've ever read

[JustNotFunAnymore]

Following on the from the other thread
where someone asked what the most ridiculous thing you've read in a book was. (And therefore ruining anything on my wish list 😂)
I want to know what the best book you've read is. What book I must read soon.

I'm partway through 'Becoming' by Michelle Obama. I got it as a sample and after two or three chapters had to buy it on my kindle. It's so good. She writes really well.

@Chicchicchicchiclana

Yabu.

👍🏻

The thornbirds, could not put it down

Donna Tartts Secret History
couldn't put it down - and its a very long book; I also loved The Goldfinch

Disobedience by Naomi Alderman
Suite Francaise by Irene Nemirovsky
White Teeth Zadie Smith

Rachel's holiday by Marian Keyes

Goodness, it’s been many years since I’ve read A Town Like Alice. Can anyone recommend anything similar?

Or postmortem by Patricia Cromwell

Or a maidens grave (I think) by Jeffrey Deaver

My absolute favourites are:
Anything by Tracy Chevalier
Rebecca
Kite Runner
A thousand splendid suns

reading thru the above reminded me the We need to talk about Kevin and Possession should be on the list.

A friend introduced me to "kevin" and said it was good, but the attitude towards the protagonist was quite shocking, Me, after I'd read it - "I thought all children were like that"

Favourite childhood book was Gobbolino the Witches cat.
We had a black guinea pig, so she was called Sootica.

I can't decide between My Antonia by Willa Cather or Riddley Walker by Russell Hoban. Both are always lurking near the open end of my subconscious.
A poem rather than a novel but similarly The Wasteland is never far away.

I loved the Regeneration WWI trilogy by Pat Barker (Regeneration, The Eye in the Door , and The Ghost Road). Incredible. Inspiring and heartbreaking.

Also love anything by Chimananda Ngozi Adiche and Zadie Smith.

@phlebasconsidered

Yes! I had overlooked Patrick Hamilton. Love Hangover Square, the Gorse trilogy and The slaves of solitude.

The Red Tent by Anita Diamant
More or less anything by Patrick Gale or Kate Atkinson
Why be happy when you could be normal? by Jeanette Winterson

@Serin

A Town Like Alice by Neville Shute. Love it.

My favourite too! Very dated tho

An Evil Cradling by Brian Keenan is so good.

I re-read A Town Like Alice recently and couldn't find a single simile or metaphor in it. Not complaining! Just goes to show you don't need literary devices to write a cracking good book.

Jerichospenis I loved Rachel’s Holiday too. Did you know Marian Keyes is currently writing a sequel?

Brothers Karamazov is the best book I've ever read, and I've read a lot of books! Highly, highly recommend.

The God Delusion
Tricks of the Mind - Derren Brown
Reasons not to Die
1,2,3 Magic

All of the above changed my thinking and changed my life. 1,2,3 magic is an absolute must for any parent with troublesome kids, from the terrible twos onwards

I love to read anything from Marian Keynes - how she writes is lovely . I turn the first page and I hooked . I can find myself with some of her books thinking about them whilst I'm at work .
One that has stayed with me is a book called' the people that you meet on the way to heaven' . Beautiful read .

Bookmarking a lot on this thread!

The Secret History - Donna Tart
The Robber Bride/Cats eye - Margaret Atwood (actually almost any Margaret Atwood)
Almost any Kate Atkinson
Almost any Terry Pratchett
The Stepford Wives/Rosemary's Baby - It's Levin
The Talented Mr Ripley - Patricia Highsmith
Any Jane Austen
I Capture the Castle - Dodie Smith
The L- Shaped Room trilogy - Lynne Reid Banks
All the Miss Marple books
Five Little Pigs/Curtain/Murder on the Orient express
For children:
Goodnight Mr Tom
The Ogre Downstairs

The red tent - Anita Diamant
These is my words - Nancy E Turner
The stand - Stephen king
Elegance - Kathleen Tessaro
Little Women - Louisa May Alcott

It's by no means a literary classic but I absolutely loved The Kind Worth Killing by Peter Swanson. I was so invested in the story and the ending caused me to whoop with excitement 😂

Love behind the scenes at the museum
Also the hand that first held mine by Maggie O Farrell.

*His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman
*I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith
1984 by George Orwell
The Secret History by Donna Tartt
*The Dutch House by Ann Patchett
Three Things About Elsie by Joanna Cannon
How to Stop Time by Matt Haig
*The Midnight Library by Matt Haig
The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
Girl, Woman, Other by Bernadine Evaristo
*Brick Lane by Monica Ali
*Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng
All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
*Schindler's Ark by Thomas Keneally
Everything Everything by Nicola Yoon
Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman
The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion
Lolita by Vladimir Nabakov
*The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood

These are the ones which come to mind. Stars mean extra extra extra good.

Bloody hell, how did I forget to kill a mockingbird??