Life changing book

[HandbagsnGladrags]

OK maybe not life changing but am looking for one of those books which stays with you for a long time for an upcoming holiday. I read lots of run of the mill books but like to have a 'special' one for a holiday that I can look forward to reading. Here are some of the ones I've read and loved so far which I would define as 'special':

Lessons in Chemistry
Where the Crawdads Sing
And The Mountains Echoed
The Kite Runner
A Terrible Kindness
The Paper Palace

Would love to hear your favourites?

Herbert Wells
The Time Machine)
In fact. It's hard to choose at least one or two) Many classic books written long before I was born - influenced me)
Read the classics!

Middlesex by Jefferey Eugenides

I read it at 19 and thought it was ok. Then read at 28 and thought it was the best book I'd ever read. I attempted it again recently (33) to see if I would take anything different from it but babies seem to have addled my brain and I couldn't get into it at all.

The book thief
Thousand splendid suns
All the light we cannot see

Fahrenheit 451, Birdsong, American Wife, A town like Alice

Love in the Time of Cholera Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Reese Witherspoon book club recommendations are almost always fantastic
The Storyteller and Nineteen Minutes both by Jodi Picoult
The Last Summer Karen Swan
Lucy Foley’s early books for historical fiction and her later ones for excellent thrillers.
Jennifer Weiner has written some great books

Currently reading Wrong Place Wrong Time which is excellent Gillian McAllister

I second Love in the Time of Cholera and also The Book Thief

The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
The Murmur of Bees by Sofia Segovia

Yes!
Also Captain Corelli's Mandolin and The Time Traveller's Wife, both much better than the films.

Fantastic thread

currently re reading Captain Corelli

need the next books for an upcoming hol

I loved the Lincoln Highway

I agree with lots of previous suggestions:
Shuggie Bain
The Hearts Invisible Furies
The Poisonwood Bible
The Goldfinch
The Beekeeper of Aleppo

Tales of the City series - v odd in parts but great characters
My Dear I wanted to tell you - part of a trilogy
Testament of Youth
Birdsong
Captain Corellis Mandolin

I loved the first 2/3 of 'All the Light', then thought it went Nazi apologist and the ending was ... disappointing at best.

'The Time Traveller's Wife' is a knock off of the much better 'Kindred' by Octavia Butler, I've read both and thought Kindred was much better.

Books I haven't seen on this list but are in the same vein as many mentioned: 'A Thread of Grace' by Mary Doria Russell ('The Sparrow' and 'Children of God' by the same author are also excellent); 'The Bone People' by Keri Hulme and...slightly out of left field but possibly a go 'The Secret History' by Donna Tartt.

The Joy Luck Club

I should add the author...The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan

Ooh I can get The Beekeeper of Aleppo on Prime reading - happy days!

Have read quite a few of the additional suggestions - I read a lot! But this is going to be great to refer back to when looking for a good read.

The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova

Shuggy Bain
Birdsong
The Road

Are probably the books off the top of my head that have stayed with me and I can remember 😁 and thanks to the recommendations here, I will be downloading Burial Rites tonight as looks like my kind of read.

Kindred is a brilliant book. So was Parable of the Sower by the same writer.

The English Patient. Better in print even than on film, and it is my favourite ever film.

Also: anything by Margaret Atwood, but particularly "The Blind Assassin". The Handmaid's Tale will (quite rightly) destroy you, but this Booker Prize winning book will seduce you. It's so good.

MuddlerInLaw So pleased to see The Portrait of a Lady and the Golden Bowl mentioned as Henry James is more often dramatised than read these days. Like you, the Golden Bowl stays with me. Like the bowl which has a hidden fracture life incurs fractures of one kind or another but are plastered over but those fractures still exist and make us more vulnerable. Henry James was often thought of as difficult to read which I could never understand as he wrote introductions to explain his intentions. I read these books years ago, along with others and so enjoyed his writing. I also read a definitive biography which I also,enjoyed. It was a long time ago but think the author was Edell , maybe Leo Edell.

MuddlerInLaw. It is Leon Edel. The best biography of all..

Haven’t read that - will look it up. (People have been shocked when I say HJ is my all time favourite writer …)

Have you read any Patrick White? He has the same ‘heft’. You pick up Voss or The Tree of Man and from the first paragraph you know you’re going to be in ecstasy for hours, or days.

Just finished The Midnight Library. I liked it, although I can see what others meant when they said it was a bit obvious and cheesy.

Me too.
(Even though it is very much of its time, I would still recommend it, as an “awakening” book, even though feminism is now so misrepresented that it has become an undesirable thing.)

DH and I agreed that the Wind in the Willows was the book for both of us, as children. The juxtaposition of animals doing quite ordinary things within a vast beautiful countryside setting and then that beautifully written pagan chapter was wonderful.

Terry Pratchett's books have always done it for me, as they are very funny and wise. The authorial voice shines through.

I would love to hear from the posters who have listed books about why they have chosen them.

Ladder of years by Ann Tyler is so unique .
I go back and re read it , and also similarly
The time travellers wife because I love the detail as well as the plot.

Thank you I haven’t read Patrick White so will certainly be looking for those books you recommend.