Best book you’ve ever read...

[Beautyschooldropin]

Wanting ideas for summer reading really. What’s the best book you’ve ever read? Do you have a book that you go back to and read again and again? Do you listen to audiobooks? Would you recommend them?
TIA!!!📚

Hamnet by Maggie o Farrell is a fantastic book - one of the best books I have ever read. Such a talented writer.

Best book ever is The Storyteller by Jodi Picoult
By miles

My favourite book ever is Katherine by Anya Seton. I re-read it every few years. Great literature it isn't but for some reason it touches my heart.

Another Harry Potter fan here, so much better then the films, humour that adults pick up on etc. I've tried them on audio book but can't seem to get on with them.

I also love Goodnight Mr Tom, made to read it in school and it's a book that's stuck with me over 20yrs later.

I also like 'easy, fluff' books, Marian Keynes, Jenny Colgan, etc

@chorusline79

Hamnet by Maggie o Farrell is a fantastic book - one of the best books I have ever read. Such a talented writer.

Definitely. It was more of a slow burner than her others. But a beautiful treatise on grief & its resonance.

Books I read over and over:

Anything by Maeve Binchy, but especially Light a Penny Candle & Echoes. (I hate the narrative that these are easy reads / chick lit - mind you hate that phrase anyway - her writing is so well-observed, and in an Irish context, subtly subversive in terms of themes & choices made by the characters)

The William books

Jeeves & Wooster.

@EarringsandLipstick can you recommend any of Maggie's other books? I have only read Hamnet so far
( sorry to hijack thread slightly OP)

The Stand by Stephen King

Just seen that you asked about audio books also. I absolutely love them, but with the caveat that the narrator will make or break it! Always listen to the sample first.
Books which I have found brilliant in audio recently have been the first two installments in The Book of Dust trilogy by Philip Pullman, exquisitely read by Martin Sheen. And also The Binding by Bridget Collins, narrated by Carl Prekopp.

Stephen king's The Green Mile

[quote chorusline79]@EarringsandLipstick can you recommend any of Maggie's other books? I have only read Hamnet so far
( sorry to hijack thread slightly OP) [/quote]
Oh yes!

Favourites include:

• The Hand That First Held Mine
• After You'd Gone (I actually want to read this again now I've typed it!)
• The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox
• Instructions for a Heatwave

I also loved her memoir (sort of memoir) I Am, I Am, I Am

I've actually never not enjoyed anything she's written. I found Hamnet a slow starter but then loved it.

I find her books so readable, with always a satisfying story/resolution but also well-written.

Some great suggestions here! Thank you 😊 a friend has recommended A Gentleman in Moscow - so will definitely give that a go!

I would agree with anything by Maggie O'Farrel
Or
Heft
The misremembered man
The poisonwood Bible, this is a hefty read

I know it’s topical at the moment but I read The Handmaids Tale in the 1980’s and it stayed with me ever since, tv series aside

Truly a masterpiece

Not sure on best ever.

I really enjoyed Brave New World by Aldous Huxley and it's one I've read a few times.

Jasper Ffordes Wednesday Next series (Eyre Affair etc) is definitely enjoyable and good summer reading. I brought the entire series after reading the first few of an ex's

Loved James Herbert's Once

“I know it’s topical at the moment but I read The Handmaids Tale in the 1980’s and it stayed with me ever since, tv series aside

Truly a masterpiece”

Yes - brilliant book

Recent highlights:
The Heart's Invisible Furies
The Mercies
Where the Crawdads Sing

All-time favourites:
To Kill a Mockingbird
Lord of the Rings
Wuthering Heights
Beloved
Pride & Prejudice

I love East of Eden by John Steinbeck, it's almost perfect. Completely different to the film which only covers a small part of it. I go back to it every few years (not too often in case it spoils it!)

@Beautyschooldropin

Some great suggestions here! Thank you 😊 a friend has recommended A Gentleman in Moscow - so will definitely give that a go!

Do it's a beautiful slow read. Cannot wait for his next book!

My favourites include,

Atonement
Middlemarch
Jane Eyre
Cave of the Clan Bear (Earth's Child series)
Far from the Madding Crowd
The Alchemist
Year of Wonders
The Thorn Birds
The Blind Assassin
Wolf Hall
Life of Pi
The Sea

My most respected non-fiction works are Helen Garner's Joe Cinque's Consolation and This House of Grief. Both texts significantly challenged me and left a lasting impact. I adore Garner's body of work.

@EarringsandLipstick's post has made me hang my head in shame at not mentioning PG Wodehouse. My OTHER all time favourite is Uncle Fred in the Springtime. Perfect summer reading, particularly if you're in a garden in England, as so many of us are likely to be this summer (weather permitting!).

It also contains my all-time favourite line about someone listening to someone else moaning about their uncle and feeling like Noah listening to someone complaining about a bit of drizzle.

Most PG Wodehouse books are perfect summer reading.

@EarringsandLipstick thanks so much - will add these to my list!

Enjoy Chorusline 🙂

Agree completely Passthesauce. The lines from Wodehouse are pure genius.

All Khaled Hosseini’s books but my absolute favourite is A Thousand Splendid Suns.

The Hearts Invisible Furies by John Boyne. I read it after seeing it recommended on a mumsnet thread and can’t stop telling people they must read it, it’s fantastic.

The Beekeeper of Aleppo on audio, read by Art Malek. My eyesight is shot now I'm 62, so its audio all the way for me.