What’s the best book you’ve ever read?

[lostinthoughts]

Holidays coming up and I’m fed up of starting books and not finishing them as they just don’t grip me. Give me your best ever books that have had you hooked….

The French Lieutenant’s Woman - John Fowles
The Crimson Petal and the White - Michel Faber
Madame Bovary

I love a good 19th century fallen woman, me.

Also:
The Persian Boy, King Must Die, Bull from the Sea - Mary Renault
Circe - Madeline Miller
I, Claudius - Robert Graves
Small Island - Andrea Levy
A Spell of Winter - Helen Dunmore

Non-fiction
Into Thin Air - Jon Krakauer

I couldn't pin it down to just one but could narrow it down to:
I Capture The Castle by Dodie Smith
The Diary of a Nobody by George and Weedon Grossmith
Music and Silence by Rose Tremain
The Return of The Native by Thomas Hardy
Notes From a Small Island by Bill Bryson
And practically everything by Sebastian Faulks.

The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck.
The City of Joy by Dominique Lapierre.

Rebecca Daphne du Maurier

Star of the Sea Joseph O' Connor

The Invention of Wings Sue Monk Kidd

Thomas Hardy, Jude The Obscure - tragic.
Hilary Mantel, Wolf Hall trilogy - takes you back right there, you imagine you're in the middle of it all.
And one from left field, Alfred Doblin, Berlin Alexanderplatz (Michael Hofmann translation). Just astonishing.

It's really difficult to only choose one- lots of books have an impact in different ways and at different times.

However, I think for me it would be 1984 by George Orwell. I've read it several times over the years and can still vividly recall being a teenager and finding it absolutely fascinating.

The Secret Life of Bees
Half of a Yellow Sun
The Hearts Invisible Furies.

I loved Lincoln in the Bardo too. It was so, so sad. But so original.

Have you read A Place of Greater Safety? I liked that even more. Just as immersive but French Revolution. She was a phenomenal writer. I would love to read more historical fiction which feels so immediate and rich and doesn’t hold you at arms length.

I can’t really get it down to one, but books that have really stayed with me are:

Undermajordomominor by Patrick DeWitt
Any Human Heart by William Boyd
Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders
The Sellout by Paul Beatty
The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro
A Room With a View by EM Forster
Fiesta: The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway
Tender is the Night by F.Scott Fitzgerald
The Secret History by Donna Tartt

Theres probably loads more.

Rodham and American Wife - both by Curtis Sittenfeld. I've enjoyed her other books too but this two stand out for me. Nightingale Point by Luan Goldie. Also Small Pleasures by Clare Chambers.

For something thought provoking, Jews Don't Count by David Baddiel.

Depends what you're looking for though - I've recently enjoyed the first Robert Galbraith novel, and Conclave by Robert Harris. Not high brow - but I have to be in the right mindset for more literary works!

Oh yes. 100 per cent agree

Forever Amber.

The Goldfinch
The Hearts Invisible Furies
Birdsong
The Regeneration Trilogy
Snow Falling On Cedars
Nice Work ( David Lodge)
The Remains of The Day

The Goldfinch
The Hearts Invisible Furies
Birdsong
The Regeneration Trilogy
Snow Falling On Cedars
Nice Work ( David Lodge)
The Remains of The Day
The American Wife

I absolutely agree, Achilles is just despicable! But the book is fantastic.
I hate Achilles like I hate William the Conqueror.

In recent times - Demon Copperhead. Absolutely phenomenal.

Oh my God! The Goldfnch is a book I still wake up thinking about. It needed a good edit but it was extraordinary. The story, the characters, the twist at the end...it completely wrung me out.

Two for me...
Jung Chang's Wild Swans... her whole life in a book so readable that you feel you are there, right at the centre of the story.
And Bill Bryson Notes from a Small island... the tiny story of the nun and his own clumsiness with his drink had me ugly cry-laughing where you just cannot stop. Such good writing with simple, yet funny tales to be told.

My two favourite books of all time are probably "Midnight's Children" (Salman Rushdie) and "A Suitable Boy" (Vikram Seth) - they are definitely not holiday reads, though!

Love, Nina by Nina Stibbe
You Must be Sisters by Deborah Moggach

Engleby - Sebastian Faulks.

Oh excellent! I bought a hardback edition of Puckoon when I was in Hatchards in London at Christmas and haven't read it yet. Thanks!

Knots and Crosses - Ian Rankin

Grapes of Wrath - Steinbeck

A few that have stayed with me …

Another fan of Wuthering Heights

Most of Toni Morrison’s novels, especially The Bluest Eye, Song of Solomon, Beloved, Paradise.
The Beautiful Ones Are Not Yet Born, Ayi Kwei Armah
The Persian Boy, Mary Renault
The Grass is singing, Doris Lessing
The Testament of Mary, Colm Toibin
Amongst Women, John McGahern

More recent fiction -
Americanah, Chimimanda Ngozi Adichie
Hamnet, Maggie O’Farrell
The Fraud, Zadie Smith

Loved the Elena Ferrante ‘Brilliant Best Friend’ series of books - could be good holiday reads.

Phillipa Gregory historical fiction is my comfort read.