If you could recommend one book that everybody should read....

[ClashCityRocker]

What would it be?

For whatever reason, because it has a great message or just because it's a bloody good read?

The Nightingale by Kristen Hannah. About how the French suffered terribly during the war. It made me cry on the train but it's a beautiful book

Thanks CoolCarrie :) though I’m in two minds as I don’t know if they could ever do it justice...

I know, it's always a disappointment if a film doesn't match up to a novel, especially when it comes to casting.

Stephen King. Bag of Bones.
Just because I think it's good.

Animal Farm. Changed my view of everything in life, forever.

Wifework. Essential reading.

I'm choosing two, because I'm greedy:

All Quiet on the Western Front - because it's beautiful and moving, sure, but also because it reminds us that war is a bastard, whatever side you're on, and that 'the enemy' is probably as scared and powerless and - guess, what, human - as you are.

It - by Stephen King - because we should never forget what it felt like to be a child.

palliser, I also thought of Marilynne Robinson's Gilead when I read the thread title! Such a beautiful book.

Torn

I know why the caged bird sings - beautifully written but also heartbreaking and informative

Feel the fear and do it anyway - great book I've found immensely helpful with anxiety, but we all get anxious and have fears so recommend to anyone

Seconding The Power of Now by Eclhart Tolle - very good for depression

Middlemarch - I just so, so didn’t want it to end. It has everything: humour, an extraordinary insight into human nature through its characters, clever plot.
It also gives us a canvas of provincial Victorian life without seeming to make any judgement, I mean Dickens is fab, but GE is so subtle.
I don’t think you would ever tire of it.

The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt who is comparable to GE in the breadth of her scope.

Tuesdays with Morrie
Love eat pray
To kill a mockingbird
Gone with the wind
Lucy Sullivan gets married
Summer by Titia Sutherland

Guns Germs and Steel - taught me so much
The Selfish Gene - Dawkins can be a PITA but when he’s on form heavy unbeatable
And How To Lie With Statistics, because everybody needs to know that stuff.

An Evil Cradling. It's the triumph of the human spirit in awful circumstances.

The Ragged Trousered Philanthropist. If I was in charge I’d make it compulsory reading in every school.

The Stand, because it's so bloody good.

The Stand is indeed very good and one of my favourites.

And It. Stephens King writes about children very well, I think.

Cloud Atlas was a funny one for me - started reading it last year and could not get into it at all. Tried again recently and absolutely adored it..

Also loved TKAM to the extent that I don't dare read the sequel.

I would probably chose Lord Of The Flies. It's the first book where I couldn't sleep after reading it.

Fortunately I read it before we studied it at school and over-analysed it to death.

One hundred years of solitude - GG Marquez
A book I go back to time and again

Virgin Wolf - Hermione Lee
perfect place setting

I read The Stand last year after it was recommended and went onto read the Dark Tower series.

Following on from the thread about heartbreaking books, the His Dark Materials trilogy. I've read it so many times and it is so clever, questioning and encompasses so many human emotions.

A Handful Of Dust without a doubt

To Kill a Mockingbird is probably the most stand out book for me but I really recommend The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd. This book stayed with me for a long time

The Secret by Rhonda Byrne. Most of you in the thread are probably aware of this book, but its worth mentioning again.

This book was an eye opener for me as it made me realize that everything that I have, everything that I go through (both good and bad) is something that I attracted in to my life, something that I unconsciously asked for. It talks about 'Law of Attraction'.

The Women’s Room by Marilyn French

The handmaids Tale...Margaret Atwood. Loved it and found it scarily plausible before the TV series-first book I read in my teens that made me really think...loved the TV series too.

I love so many of the books on this thread, will add Room by Emma Donoghue.