Can you recommend me just one

[ivykaty44]

and only one book to read - please, thank you

Brother of the More Famous Jack by Barbra Trapido - its a modern day Brideshead Revisited (set in the 80's) - its a timeless classic with a eye for realism - a love story hidden underneath a story of a life - I love this book.

I love Pride and Prejudice, also The Lord of the Rings, have read both several times.

anna karenina

Another vote for "One Day" by David Nicholls if you want a current book. Damn good read. I like Notes From An Exhibition by Patrick Gayle - also (fairly) current but well written.

Feed My Dear Dogs. Wonderful!

Sex and Stravinsky by Barbara Trapido - funny and a good story.

War & Peace, Tolstoy.

what a great thread- saved to my favourites! i can echo a fine balance and one day and also loved birdsong by sebastian faulks

One Day is definitely worth a read

The Wanting Seed - Anthony Burgess
The Philosophers Pupil - Iris Murdoch

I know it is two

Or anything by P.G Wodehouse

Woman in White, Wilkie Collins

Anna Karenina by Tolstoy

American Gods by Neil Gaimen and Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood. I do tend to be pulled towards the unusual but trust me these are amazing if you're wanting to leave the mushy chick-lit droves. Failing out-and-out weirdness try A prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving.

Anne of Green Gables - such a comforting book to be tucked up in bed with

Miss Garnett's Angel
or
The Other Side of You

both by Sally Vickers

A thousand splendid suns..............or.the kite runner

Amen to A Thousand Splendid Suns goodbyemrchips- whenever I think of that book I truly thank God that I was born a free Western woman, I think even more compelling than The Kite Runner, and that is no mean feat.

Most books I choose seem to be equally as emotional and draining but, uncharacteristically (!) a much more light hearted read that I thoroughly enjoyed was What Alice Forgot by Liane Moriarty. It made such an impression on me that I bought it for four of my friends for Christmas and it left me wondering how have I changed in the last 10 years........?

This is technically only ONE recommendation as I was simply seconding goodbyemrchips with my first comment :-)

Sorry, MRS Chips :-)

Apols another double nomination!
To kill a mockingbird and The guernsey potato peel pie society are both brilliant imo

High Fidelity or Jane Eyre, one to make you laugh out loud and another to make your heart weep!!

Blimey, The Passage has some bloody awful reviews here, and tellingly they all say the same kind of thing. Are you sure?

Of the ones recommend so far I second:

Prayer for Owen Meany
Half of a Yellow Sun
A Thousand Splendid Sons
Birdsong
The Red Tent

... all brilliant.

I read 'One Day' but found the male character beyond irritating and the ending trite although everyone I know who has read it really liked it.

I couldn't get into 'The Crimson Petal and the White' at all - perhaps just my frame of mind at the time, it just seemed too long-winded even though I normally love a big, engrossing book.

My main reccomendation would be 'The God of Small Things' - beautiful, lyrical and heart-breakingly sad.

I know you said one but my other all time favourite is 'The Time Travellers Wife' - an interesting concept turned into a wonderful love story.

Off to google some of the other recommendations as I could do with a good read...

Her Fearful Symmetry - Audrey Niffenegger