Mindblowingly good books

[LePruneDeMaTante]

There's so much 'meh' writing out there, and it's such a big, competitive industry, but which book have you found absolutely brilliant?

Not just 'quite good if a little light or contrived' but seriously impressive for whatever reason.

I shall watch this with interest.. I will read anything but the stuff on my kindle will NEVER be admitted to :D

The Long Song - Andrea Levy

Into thin Air

Lolita- although I think I would struggle more with the subject matter now I have a dD. The language is amazing though.

Really thought A Visit from the Goon Squad was wonderful this year. Though it may have helped that i knew nothing about it when I opened it.

The Art of Captaincy by Mike Brearley.

"The Master and Margerita" is astonishing and reveals something new every time you read it.
"The illusionist" by Anita Mason is wonderful too.
For non-fiction Nietzsche's " Twilight of the idols" and the Antichrist" are vital if you appreciate being challenged and forced to question everything (which is probably as close to "mindblowing" as you can get)

I love Wild Swans - Jung Chang

Re-read Jane Eyre again recently actually and loved it now that I am a bit older - so passionate I definitely do not have a crush on Mr Rochester

The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood.

Another vote for Remains of the Day, finished it a fortnight ago. Wolf Hall fab, but wonder if you need a serious interest in that period of history to get the best out of it. Clockwork by Philip Pullman is amazing. Strictly a children's book, but one of the cleverest books I've ever read.

It's not fiction, but it reads a like a novel - Nothing to Envy by Barbara Demick about everyday life in North Korea. Totally un-put-downable, stranger than fiction, but all the better (more disturbing) for being true. Brilliantly written - you could not make this story up.

OK some of my favourite books are on this thread.
The Quincunx is astonishingly good fun
The Master and Margarita is so so worth it

I loved Grapes of Wrath and when I feel hard done by by life I often think how lucky I am in reference to the lives of the characters.

But also Tess of the D'urbervilles for similar reasons. It was heartbreaking and I felt so sorry for Tess. I live near the fens and when there is a cold siberian wind blowing, I think of her pulling up turnips with her bare hands. Sniff.

I did love all the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo books too even though they would not normally be my cup of tea.

The book that has stayed with me for life is called 'Children of the Dust' about a nuclear holocaust. I borrowed it from the library when I was ten and thought about it a lot over the years and then recently found it in a bookshop and re-read it. I honestly think about the issues in it as frequently as every week. Sad huh?!

Omg I loved children of the dust- I stole my sisters gcse copy when I was 12. Really brilliant! Scarey too

Any human heart by William Boyd. The character stays with you for ever. Amazing.
The best book I've read in years.

Janice galloway. Trick is to keep breathing.

After you'd gone Maggie o Farrell. I'm sure you have read that already.

actiongirl that's not sad at all - I wish more books were that memorable.

Another voted for 'The remains of the day'... I adored it!

Omg action that book is fab!

Love Jane Austen

Read the help and Brixton beach recently. Loved both.

The master a margarita is wonderful. Although for me, Crime and Punishment is the book that I can return to time and time again. If this is a man by Primo Levi is the most profound and moving book I have ever read.

In terms of modern stuff I was blown away by jonathan strange and mr norrell. Couldn't put it down even though I thought that I wouldn't like it.

Sorry- I have just realised that my post has a complete dearth of punctuation. Apologies...

John Steinbeck East of Eden

oh yes, and Wild Swans was mind blowing too

Bleak House-Dickens, really found the charecters a lot less two dimensional than his charecters often are. Everything Matters-Ron Currie Jr, very gripping and sad. Shogun-James Clavell. Tokyo-Mo Hayder, having read a couple of her other books this is by far the best. And the Chaos Walking triology-Patrick Ness. Aimed at teenagers but really has some fantastic sort of philosophical themes running through it and gripping too.

I remember reading 'almonds and raisins' by Masie Mosco years ago and being blown away by it. She wrote a whole series about a Jewish family emigrating from Russia to Manchester in 1905. Each book looked at different generations of the family before and during the wars.

I wonder whether they're still in print?

I tend to read mostly non-fiction, and these are my all-time rave books:

"Y: The Descent of Men" - Steve Jones (everything you wanted to know about the Y chromosome, and some that you didn't)
"Mutants" - Armand Marie Leroi (despite the sensationalist title, a sensitive and fascinating account of just how some people end up being born different - very tall, very small, intersex etc)
"The Wrong Kind Of Snow" - Anthony Woodward & Robert Penn (a year's guide to the British weather, with quotes from famous figures, general facts and figures, stories of notable weather events etc)

Otherwise, anything by Terry Pratchett.

Fall on your knees - Anne Marie Macdonald

Castles burning - Magda Denes (out of print I think, but easy to get from Amazon. Its autobiography, holocaust memoir but an utterly amazing book by someone who eventually became a psychotherapist, and I suspect the book was part of her own therapy.)

More recently, The thousand autumns of Jacob de Zoet by David Mitchell. Anything by David Mitchell actually.

In another light - Andrew Greig. Also Return of John McNab, well again anything by Andrew Greig really.

Argh at people loving Joyce! headdesk
I just can't do it!

I am going to say The Great Gatsby inspired by another thread . I love that book so much!

I also really love The Princess Bride. The book has been read over and over again and I need a new copy! Lol

Wally Lamb - The Hour I first believed

Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey and Maturin series - I've read all twenty of them at least twice and am going to start from the beginning again after Christmas

They are an astonishing achievement - written over the space of 30 years, they combine to form a perfectly realised world. I had never been particularly interested in naval history but found myself fascinated - I envy people who haven't read them yet ...