What is the best book you have ever read?

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I think mine has to be (at least at the moment) The House at the End of Hope Street because I grew up not far from there.

Which is your favourite book and why?

I was going to say East of Eden, but honestly in terms of what I've gone back to, my favourite book is The Lost Continent by Bill Bryson. My 20 year old copy has literally fallen apart I've gone back to it so much. I love all of his travel books. The only other book I own which looks so 'loved' is Tess of the D'Urbervilles. It took me a long time to realize what a fucked up story it is.

A lot of the books mentioned here kind of traumatized me to be honest... Poverty, murder, sexual violence. I can appreciate they are 'good' books, but I was glad to finish them and move on. I think I'm just too soft! For me to go back to a book it has to have humour, and heart, and a journey (literally if possible).

Hi all!

We're just moving this over to our book discussion topic so that we can preserve this thread.

Stone Cold by David Baldacci... it's a book about ex government assassins being killed. Great book! Yes, I should have been born a man!

The best book I have ever read is 'The Poison Tree' by Erin Kelly. It had me hooked within the first chapter. And it has a twist that I really did not see coming. A close second has got to be 'The Sick Rose',also by Erin Kelly. I love her style of writing and her plot twists are amazing.

How could I have forgotten the Wolf Hall books?

"His children are falling from the sky." Quite an opening line.

I love the way The Goldfinch feels so well researched re art and antiques, and how the narrative takes so many unexpected turns. I loved the depiction of New York, and Vegas, as well as the Amsterdam chapters. It's really immersive. And almost impossible to answer the question "what's it about?" As it's about everything!

So many, it's hard to know where to start. Lots of mine have been mentioned but a few others not-
The heart is a lonely hunter- Carson McCullers
Orwell- Down and Out in Paris and London. Not so much that i was blown away at the time but it has never left me
A Fine Balance- Rohinton Mistry
The Line of Beauty- Hollinghurst
Poison wood Bible- Barbara
Kingsolver (love all her stuff)
Iris Murdoch- Under the Net/The Sea the Sea
The Master- Colm Toibin
The Elena Ferrante series - My Brilliant Friend etc
Middlemarch- possibly my favourite and just perfection
Persuasion
The Night watch by Sarah Waters
To the Lighthouse-Virginia Woolf
Rebecca
The Seige- Helen Dunmore
All the Light We Cannot See- Antony Doerr
Goldfinch
All Maggie O'Farrell
Of Human Bondage- although I did want to shake him at times!
Definitely inspired to seek out Owen Meaney now - read Garp years ago

As a child - a traveler in time by Alison Uttley.

As an adult best non fiction Graven with Dimonds by Nicola Schulman a biography of Thomas Wyatt

Best fiction probably still Lord of the Rings.

But for the Grace of God by Paul Grzegorzek

Belwiz..I also loved Down and Out in Paris and London !

Janey thanks for the recommend cation for the Poison Tree! Half way through, I would never have picked this up but am also hooked (also had it on my kindlewaiting for me!)

Favourite of all time: The English Patient - Michael Ondaatje

Others:
In the Skin of a Lion - Michael Ondaatje
The Alexandria Quartet - Laurence Durrell
We Need to Talk About Kevin - Lionel Shriver
The Razor's Edge - W Somerset Maugham
A Prayer for Owen Meany - John Irving
Skinny Legs and All - Tom Robbins
Alias Grace - Margaret Atwood
Sophie's World - Jostein Gaarder
English Passengers - Matthew Kneale
Miss Smilla's Feeling for Snow - Peter Hoeg
Snow Falling on Cedars - David Guterson
The Hand that First Held Mine - Maggie O'Farrell (love all her writing)
Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
Keep the Aspidistra Flying - George Orwell
And a random that has stuck with me:
A Confederate General from Big Sur - Richard Brautigan

I think it's so hard to pick one book. I'd have to go with the Lord of the Rings trilogy as I re-read it every 2-3 years. I never get bored of it and it spurred me to read other Tolkien books to appreciate the extent of his world building. Still get a lump in my throat when Sam returns to the Shire after seeing Frodo sail into the West.

At the moment, My Fight For My Family (the mega pig file) by David Jordan. It's a powerful emotive nonfiction book surrounding a father's struggle to get his baby daughter back after social workers literally snatched her off the mother in the street. It's one of those books i couldn't put down.

Dorothy Dunnett, Lymond or Niccolo. She should be read by a wider audience, her books are breathtaking, literally.

Impossible to chose one

Some of my favourites:
Mrs Dalloway - Virginia Woolfe
Our Man in Havana - Graham Greene
A Passage to India - EM Forster
Midnight's Children - Salman Rushdie
Pride & Prejudice - Jane Austen
The Blind Assassin - Margaret Atwood
The Secret History - Donna Tartt
To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
Stoner - John Williams

Less "set text" but I really love these - The Snowman - Jo Nesbo and The Girl with the Dragon tattoo - Larrsson and LA Confidential and Perfidia by James Ellroy.

Interesting that so many, particularly early in the thread talk of Garner's Weirdstone of Brisingamen. DS (9yo) read it last year and enjoyed it. I'll have to give it a read!

The womens room Marilyn French
Avalon by Anya Seton
Kathryn by Anya Seton
As well as many of the books already mentioned.
Years ago I read a really haunting heart breaking novel about an American girl who married a Chinese man just before the revolution. They were separated and he died in prison. She was eventually reunited with their son.
It was one of those epic stories. I wudh I could remember what it was called. I would love to read it again.

Star of The Sea - Joseph O'Conner
The Blind Assassin and Alias Grace - Margaret Atwood
The Quincunx - Charles Palliser
The Crimson Petal and The White - Michel Faber
Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
Middlesex - Jeffrey Eugenides
The Poisonwood Bible - Barbara Kingsolver
The Meaning of Night - Michael Cox
The Goldfinch - Donna Tart
The Thorn Birds - Colleen McCullough
We Had It So Good - Linda Grant
Asta's Book - Barbara Vine (plus many more of hers)
The Forgotten Garden Kate Morton
After You'd Gone - Maggie O'Farrell
Behind the Scenes at the Museum and Life after Life - Kate Atkinson
Numerous Agatha Christies
Wuthering Heights -Emily Bronte
From childhood - Alice in Wonderland/Through The Looking Glass, The Water Babies, What Katy Did and a load of Enid Blytons

I bet I've forgotten a few then I'll kick myself when I remember them.

There's a couple of mentions of Maggie O'Farrell but my favourite of all hers is The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox

I love these threads.

Dead author
The Count of Monte Christo - I savoured every single word of that book. It knocked Wuthering Heights of the top dead author book post. I remember where I was and all the emotions that ran through me, everything.

Living Author
It is Louis de Bernieres. I absolutely adore him and his books. It took me three attempts to get into Captain Corelli but when I did ... I am though, picking Senor Vivo and the Coco Lord as my absolute favourite. Devastating, but so funny sometimes.

I love so many of those mentioned too.

Endoftheline that book about the american girl who marries the Chinese man was by Pearl S Buck. I can't remember the name

Steppenwolf - Hermann Hesse

Carriemac
Was it the one where he keeps her photo under the wall paper in prison?
I will do some googling.
I would love to read it again.

Haruki Murakami - Norwegian Wood

And basically almost every other Murakami novel. I am deeply in love with his writing style.

I love most things Margaret Atwood but my favourites are The Year of the Flood and The Blind Assassin. I've read both several times - Flood I was bought as a birthday present as it was released around then, I read it through, turned to the beginning and started reading again. The follow up, MaddAddam, is one that's slowly growing on me. The more I read her books the more I pick up on the clever little things in them.

I adore Fannie Flagg books, they are the ultimate in feel-good American nostalgia. Just gorgeous. Daisy Fay and the Miracle Man is probably my favourite - it's so funny!

I've loved Station Eleven and have read a couple of times. I do in general love apocalyptic fiction.

Thanks to this thread I've added several more books to my 'to read' shelf on GoodReads and have just downloaded The Goldfinch.