To ask what are your top ten favourite books?

[Theda13]

I’m looking for recommendations, and thought this thread may be of some help to others too.

Mine are:

1. The Life of Rebecca Jones by Angharad Price
2. The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
3. The Book Thief by Markus Kusak
4. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
5. Girl, Woman, Other by Bernadine Evaristo
6. Goodnight Mister Tom by Michelle Magorian
7. The Colour Purple by Alice Walker
8. 1984 by George Orwell
9. The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah
10. Carol by Patricia Highsmith

1. Duncton Wood
2. The Davinci code
3. The Hobbit
4. The man who mistook his wife for a hat
5. The Salt path - probably not a popular choice but it is well written
6. Heidi

1. Duncton Wood
2. The Davinci code
3. The Hobbit
4. The man who mistook his wife for a hat
5. The Salt path - probably not a popular choice but it is well written
6. Heidi

Mine are:

After you're gone by Maggie o Farrell
The help by Kathryn stockett
The great Alone by Kristen Hannah
None of this is true by Lisa Jewell
Three hours by Rosamund Lipton
Elenor oliphant is completely fine
Secret life of bees by sue monk Kidd
The hand maids tale by Margaret Atwood
The bell jar by Sylvia Plath
Things we burned in the fire by Will Dean

I’m going to have series instead of books for some of these (& some of them are out of print).

1. The Empress of the Seven Oceans by Fiona Cooper
2. Cotillion by Georgette Heyer
3. The Chronicles of St Mary’s by Jodi Taylor
4. The Strike & Ellacott books by Robert Galbraith / JK Rowling
5. Audrey, A New Girl by Joanna Lloyd
6. The Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace & Babbage by Sydney Padua
7. The Fairacre books by Miss Read
8. Gaudy Night by Dorothy L Sayers
9. The Kinsey Millhone series by Sue Grafton
10. The Abbey Girls series by E J Oxenham

Could you please tell me what you liked about Girl, Woman, Other??

I can honestly say it's one of the worst books I've ever read. The whole thing was individual sections about some women, many of them very dull, with the odd exciting bit, then it's like the author got bored then thought oh shit, better end it now and linked all the women in the chapters together.

1. Daphne Du Maurier - Rebecca
2. Thomas Hardy - The Mayor of Caster Bridge
3. Dan Brown - The DaVinci Code
4. Harper Lee - TKAMB
5. Victoria Hislop - The Thread
6. Louise Fein - people like us
7. Anthony Horowitz - moonflower murder
8. Lianne Moriarty - apples never fall
9. Ken Follet - The Pillars of The Earth

10. ????

I read a lot and keep a book log.

Oh wow. I liked a lot of the books on your list so I decided to look up the ones I haven't heard of, starting with the very first one on your list. Turns out I shared a house with the author, Angharad Price, in my first year at Uni!!! The name was familiar but I thought it might be fairly common so looked up her profile and it fitted. I already thought it looked interesting but I will definitely have to read it now.

The Grand Sophy - Georgette Heyer
Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
Silence of the Girls - Pat Barker
Regeneration - Pat Barker
Slow Horses - Mick Herron
The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood
Emma - Jane Austen
The Little White Horse - Elizabeth Goudge
Collected Short Stories of Dorothy Parker
The Bloody Chamber - Angela Carter

1. Pride and Prejuduce by Jane Austen
2. The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Brontë
3. The Pursuit of Love by Nancy Mitford
4. Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray
5. A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
6. Silas Marner by George Eliot
7. The Hobbit by J R R Tolkien
8. The Thirteen Problems by Agatha Christie
9. Unruly by David Mitchell
10. The Stand by Stephen King

They are all highly recommended, and I read them again and again.

Entire disc world series by Terry Pratchett

Pride and Prejudice

An Evil Cradling - Brian Keenan

Hitch Hikers Guide - all in the Series - Douglas Adams

Good Omens - Terry Pratchett and Neil Gamen

Adolph Hitler and My Part in His Downfall - Spike Milligan

Unruly - David Mitchell

Jeeves and Wooster series - PG Woodhouse

Jude The Obscure - Thomas Hardy

Tom Jones - Henry Fielding.

This is not going to be highbrow enough!

I'm not sure I have all time faves but I like -

Books by Ann Cleeves especially the Two Rivers series

The Rebus series by Ian Rankin

The Ruth Galloway series by Ellie Griffiths

The Island of Missing Trees by Elif Shafak

The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver

Tim Sullivan's DS Cross series

That’s amazing! The book is so poetic and lovely. Hope you enjoy it.

I thought it was very unique and loved how the women were linked. I flew through the book in two days, which is unusual for me as I’m a slow reader.

I absolutely loved the Alfred Hitchcock film adaptation of Rebecca, so I must read the book too! That’s going to my to-read list.

@EmpressaurusKitty
I had completely forgotten about the Abbey girls series! I loved them. The only one I remember in any detail is Maid of the Abbey.

Thank you for the memory jog!

1. Pavane by Keith Roberts
2. Strong Poison by Dorothy L. Sayers
3. The Man In The Moss by Phil Rickman
4. Duma Key by Stephen King
5. Grass by Sheri S. Tepper
6. Night's Master by Tanith Lee
7. Empire of the Vampire by Jay Kristoff
8. The War of Don Emmanuel's Nether Parts by Louis de Bernieres
9. Night Watch by Terry Pratchett
10. Hexwood by Diana Wynne Jones

I know it's a bit of an odd collection.

I can't really put them in order - except for the first one.

Return of the Native - Thomas Hardy
Wuthering Heights - Emily Brontë
The God of Small Things - Arundhati Roy
The Painter of Signs - R. K. Narayan
Things Fall Apart - Chinua Achebe
On Beauty - Zadie Smith
Disgrace - J. M. Coetzee
Beloved - Toni Morrison
Life Before Man - Margaret Atwood
My Life as a Fake - Peter Carey

Rebecca .
Wuthering heights.
The woman in white.
The distant lands of my father .
The secret life of bees.
The book thief.
All the light we cannot see.
Far from the madding crowd.
Anne of green gables.
I capture the castle.
I found it difficult to list 10 favourite books as there are so many others i love too, really inspiring to read others lists

That's an interesting take on the book. I just found so many of the characters weak or just not likeable and found it painful to read. I always try and finish a book so read it to the end but found it so disjointed.

I've not actually seen the film adaptation for Rebecca. I am often disappointed by films. I'm actually reading Harry Potter with my kids at the moment and they keep pointing out bits that are different from the film.

Wow, this is difficult! Not in any particular order and it would depend on my mood, but I'd probably say:

1. Rebecca
2. Wuthering Heights
3. Song of Achilles
4. To Kill a Mocking Bird
5. The Blind Assassin
6. The Mill on the Floss
7. Our Mutual Friend
8. In the Company of the Courtesan
9. The Nightwatch
10. Cloud Atlas

Amit Patel - Kika & Me
Anita Moorjani - Dying to be me
Bekhal Mahmod - No safe place
Cupcake Brown - A piece of cake
Elizabeth Burton-Phillips - Mum Can you lend me twenty quid?
Jenny Smith - The refuge
Matt Haig - The midnight library
Warren Fellows - The Damage Done
Peter Stark - The last breath
Charlotte Levin - If I can't have you

Totally agree and if I could have 15 then I would have included Rebecca, The Woman in White and Far from the Madding Crowd as well! (And also The Collector and Midnight's Children).

Wow, I applaud your choices, @TheOnlyLivingBoyInNewCross ! Some of my favourites in there.

I'd go with:

• all the Jeeves books by Wodehouse
• Discworld
• Heyer's Regency romances (except Cousin Kate which deserves to be burned and forgotten)
• Persuasion
• the Kinsey Millhones series
• Silence of the Girls trilogy
• Red Mars trilogy by Kim Stanley Robinson
• Robin Hobbs series
• Miss Pettigrew Lives For A Day
• To Kill A Mockingbird

But now I'm thinking of about 20 more that I also love. Ithaca series by Claire North - so goo! Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky. Middlemarch, which is probably the best novel ever written. All the children's books I love so much like the L.M. Montgomery and E.B.White and Laura Ingalls Wilder and Mrs Frisby and the Rats of NIMH. Charlie Fletcher's Stoneheart Trilogy.

Oh god, why not just ask me who my favourite child is!

The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles
a Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving
Middlesex by jeffrey Eugenides
hey Nostradamus by Douglas Coupland

I need to write down what I read as depressingly finding it hard to remember my favourites!

A farewell to arms - Ernest Hemmingway
Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
Goodbye to Berlin - Christopher Isherwood
The Neapolitan Novels - Elena Ferrante
In Cold Blood - Truman Capote
Sweet Thursday - John Steinbeck
The pursuit of love/love in a cold climate - Nancy Mitford
Down and out in London and Paris - George Orwell
To kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee

Also just reading Hamnet for the first time and I love it (but haven't read the ending so can't put it on the list yet!)

The Lord of the Rings trilogy
The Darkness is Light Enough (nature diary by Chris Ferris)
Cold Comfort Farm (Stella Gibbons)
The Third Policeman (Flann O'Brien)
Good Omens (Terry Pratchett, Neil Gaiman)
Wuthering Heights (Emily Brontë)
The Mists of Avalon (Marion Zimmer Bradley)
Interview With the Vampire (Anne Rice)
Dune (Frank Herbert)
Delia Smith's Complete Cookery Course

The Crimson Petal and The White, Michel Faber

Under The Skin, Michel Faber

Adrian Mole (all of) Sue Townsend

Mrs. Beeton's Book of Household Management, Isabella Beeton

The Fortnight in September, R.C. Sheriff

The Darling Buds of May, H.E Bates

Twopence To Cross The Mersey, Helen Forrester

Ronan's Rescue, James Bibby

The Woman Who Went To Bed For A Year, Sue Townsend.

Not particularly in that order.