What is your favourite Anne Tyler

[polyhymnia]

I’m a fan of hers and have read lots (eg Accidental Tourist, Amateur Marriage, Ladder of Years, Spool of Blue Thread, Breathing Lessons, and Vinegar Girl)but not all.
Have just read Saint Maybe which I hadn’t come across before and thought I’d like to read more.
Which are people’s favourites?

[woman11017]

Lovely thread lovely writer, thanks OP. Another favourite of mine right now is our own Linda Grant. I agree with all your good read list carbuckety . 'Unless' by Shields has stayed with me.

[Andtheresaw]

Back When we Were Grownups is my favourite I think. I'm not quite there yet but I can see myself in a few years turning round and going 'This isn't what I had planned!' and then having to find myself again. It's as if she sees my future.
I also loved The Beginner's Goodbye. Such sweetness in the midst of something so grim.

[carbuckety]

I love all her books. Have read all excpetbthis latest as I wait for paperbacks. Really hard to choose between them. Breathing Lessons and Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant stand out but every single one would go with me to a desert island. I almost cry when I finish the latest. I don't know what I will do when she dies... like Carol Shields, broke my heart.

Annie Proulx, Marilyn Robinson, Joyce Carol Oates, Jane Smiley are 'similar' for me in that they minutely document teeny tiny domestic, human things

[qumquat]

I love Anne Tyler beyond all loving! For a favourite I can't decide between A Patchwork Planet and Ladder of Years. Thanks for reminding me to re-read.

I read all of her books I could a few years ago but did end having to take a break as I was starting to find them two depressing. I think it was Dinner at The Homesick Restaurant and the one about the man who felt he'd caused his brother's suicide which finally broke me. The way she captures the sadness of normal lives can be heartbreaking.

[Tinycitrus]

I recently re-read Ladder of Years and it resonated so much now that I’m
In my forties.
It’s the grief for the life that is gone and you will never get back. How your children grow and no longer need you. How your relationship changes along with your expectations of each other.

I love the way she conjures up a character in just a few lines. She is a very underrated writer - although I think she won the Pulitzer Prize for The Accidental Tourist.

[Cherubfish]

Ihatebuildabear - I would say she's similar to Penelope Lively.

My favourite is Back When We Were Grown Ups.

[foxtiger]

I can't remember the title right now, but the one with the man who spends years trying to atone for something he did when he was young. I think it has a more satisfying, conclusive ending than some of the others.

[Shinygoldbauble]

Ladder of Years is my favourite.

[Twogirlsandme]

I love Ladder of Years. One of my favourite books. Loved Comonwealth too.

[thatmustbenigelwiththebrie]

I have read all of Anne Tyler but Breathing Lessons is a beautiful book. I first read it when I was 15 and it always stayed with me.

[hackmum]

I love Carol Shields. She seems to have been forgotten about since she died.

And definitely an Anne Tyler fan. Perhaps predictably, Accidental Tourist is my favourite.

[MyKingdomforaNameChange]

No one has mentioned my favourite - A Slipping Down Life.

I got it free with a glossy mag when I was about 17 and have loved it ever since.

[EveryoneTalkAboutPopMusic]

I’ve only read Spool of Blue Thread and Back When We Were Grown Ups and in currently reading Breathing Lessons. How can you possibly chose one to be favourite?

[HopeClearwater]

Hygge it’s one of my favourite books and she is one of my all-time favourite characters.

[Hygge]

That's one of the things I love about the story MyBrilliantDisguise.

Usually I like to read Jack's story first, I think because I like Brenda's story best so I'm saving her for last.

I love the convention and the information about the quilts, and just the group of women spending time together having actual lives outside of their homes.

Although Jack staying home, the details about his parents, the issues with the neighbours and his friend's son in the hospital, I do love all of that, but I just like Brenda stepping out of all of that just that little bit more.

[MyBrilliantDisguise]

I think The Republic of Love is one of my top five books. I was thinking of Happenstance just today - really loved how you could choose whose story you wanted to read first - can't believe nobody else has done that!

[polyhymnia]

Yes, I love Carol Shields too. Time to re-read some of those, I think.

[HangingRoundInABofAlorsStance]

Ladder of years

[Hygge]

MyBrilliantDisguise - I love Carol Shields as well.

I think Happenstance is my favourite, perhaps because it's the first of her books that I read and I like how it's two stories in one, but still one story at the same time.

I think then I like The Republic of Love, Unless, and Larry's Party, but really all of her books. She was a wonderful writer, and a big loss to the book world now she is gone.

[MyBrilliantDisguise]

I love Anne Tyler. Has anyone also read Carol Shields? She's a fantastic writer.

[DarthNigel]

I like the Amateur Marriage best.love her books.

[YessicaHaircut]

I love A Patchwork Planet, it’s actually one of my all-time favourite books.

[Lkjem]

Tactum thanks.
I wasn't doing to remember the title of the one where the mother walked off from her selfish family.
So yes Ladder of Years one of my favourite ones.

[Ihatebuildabear]

Will order some of hers I think based on this thread! May even have one kicking around somewhere! Loved Olive Kitteridge.

[2018SoFarSoGreat]

Love all of her books, but Accidental Tourist and Breathing Lessons I return to quite often. I find myself thinking about passages during real life incidents with DH. So very tender and so very real.

I shall take the recommendations up thread - thank you all.