What is the most beautiful book you have ever read?

[umbrellabird]

I've had a tough year and just want to surround myself in good things...

Sad but beautiful, Paula by Isabelle Allende, a eulogy to her daughter.

Another one for the god of small things there's no other book quite like it. Bit of a marmite book though I think.

Nice to see, 'Paula' mentioned again. More people need to read this lovely book. :)

Lots of books on here, I hated. I think I must be wired differently. Hated, '1000 Splendid Suns' and detested, 'Never Let Me Go' and, 'The Remains of the Day.'

But I am bloody awkward, so do feel free to ignore!

Guess how much I love you.

I cried when I read the last couple of pages of that book for the first time to my DS, hormones ! I was pregnant with DD.

Another tally for Gilead, (and thanks for the tip of Lila - that amongst others added to my wish list ;)

Also loved 'we are all completely beside ourselves'

There is a letter in one of Murakami's books - the wind up bird chronicle, I love the whole book but this letter is so beautifully written I always think of it specifically.

Also recommend adding John Clare to your poetry list

I enjoyed 5 people you meet....& his others but they're not that memorable for me years on in the way i know the others are.

Also, a heartbreaking work of staggering genius is vg ;)

I read a slim little book last year called Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto. It is rather sad but the writing, even in translation, is beautiful.

Remus- I hated 1000 splendid suns and never let me go too

I discovered Mitch Albom this spring/summer just when I needed him.
"Tuesdays with Morrie" was my first and favourite of his - about learning from an older mentor/friend who is nearing the end of life

I think many children's books can be beautifully written too. I have Finn Family Moomintroll next to me just now in a little pile of favourites - Tove Jansson is a beautiful writer
Also enjoyed The Gruffalo especially this summer when we went on a Gruffalo themed walk through woods in the Lake District (at Risedale Valley) - so cleverly written that one, I love how it gets children thinking!
Many other childhood favourites too

Not quite what you were after, but I adore "Ten Little Fingers and Ten Little Toes". Bit miffed that DD is growing out of it. Also "There's Going to be a Baby". Helen Oxenbury's illustrations are perfect for both.

The Great Gatsby - though it is so relentlessly pessimistic.

Golding's novels I think are beautiful, especially The Spire, and Lord of the Flies. Again, though, bloody depressing.

And Rohinton Mistry's A Fine Balance, a wonderful book, but, I'll never read it again, so devastating.

I think sad books are the most lovely.

Don't get me started on The Velveteen Rabbit!

Yy to Bel Canto by Ann Patchett. I love her lucid prose.

Oh god I LOVED I Am David. I haven't read it for years but am minded yo dig it back out. Such a beautifully written book

Good Night, Mr Tom.

For One More Day by Mitch Albom. Also Tuesdays With Morrie and The Five People You Meet in Heaven

All This and Heaven Too by Rachel Field.
It is an historical romance based on a true story and is written by the great niece of the main character, Henriette Deluzy-Desportes, a governess who works for the aristocracy.
It is the tale of a notorious French murder and the trial where Henriette has to fight for her life. A terrific read.

If you like Gone With The Wind (another favourite of mine), you'll love this!

The passages on the death of Simon in, 'Lord of the Flies' are astonishingly powerful - an absolutely stunningly good book and I find something new in it on every re-read.

Yes to, 'A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius' too.

I used to think that one day Douglas Coupland would produce an absolutely perfect novel but to paraphrase Philip Larkin, 'He has not done so then, and will not now.' I think he's getting worse, not better, and that makes me very sad. :)

In terms of children's books, 'Charlotte Sometimes' has some really lovely lines - "She was crying, crying for a girl that died so many years before" - and anybody who likes The Cure will know that line very well too!

Yes to, 'Goodnight Mr Tom' - I adore, 'Tom's Midnight Garden' too and there are some lovely passages in it.

For sheer sense of place then TC Boyle's 'The Tortilla Curtain' and Daniel Woodrell's 'Winters Bone' are unbeatable. The writing is tight, sparse and they know people.

Betty Smith's 'A Tree Grows in Brooklyn' is warm, filled with love for characters that live, harsh, often brutish lives.

Barbara Kingsolver doesn't put a foot wrong but I particularly love' The Prodigal Summer' for its Appalachian forest setting and the few, finely drawn characters.

Bailey White is one of my favourites- her two short story collections 'Mama Makes Up her Mind' and 'Sleeping at the Starlite Motel' are modern Southern Gothic with alligators, predatory spiders and a mamma who is as mad as a fish. Brilliant.

Michael Lee West's 'Consuming Passions' is a brilliant Louisiana based culinary memoir. Barking Southern relatives, mad dogs, gumbo and crawfish.

Karen Russell's short stories and first novel 'Swamplandia' are set in the South, mainly Florida. They are redolent with swampy, cracker atmosphere.

Janice Owen again, is a Florida 'Cracker' (her own definition) and in 'American Ghosts' she pays tribute to her heritage. Amazing writing.

'Garden of Evening Mists' is written in a way that makes me swoon.

A monster calls by Patrick ness is very beautiful and sad and wonderful.

TC Boyles 'The Tortilla Curtain' is sumptuous. The setting becomes a character in itself. Look out for a new novel coming out in the early New Year called 'The Never Open Desert Diner' by James Anderson. It is set in Utah.

Also Raymond Briggs graphic novels- 'Ethel & Earnest' and 'When the Wind Blows' are sadly beautiful.

I've just read Mr Mac and Me by Esther Freud - she writes beautifully, I think, though it's quite slow-moving.

A Thousand Splendid Sun's by Khalid Hosseini. Again not always the happiest but I couldn't put it down. Also love The Remains of the Day. My favourite 'children's' book is The Secret Garden. I think it's beautiful and full of hope. Xxx