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….

I'm just getting back into reading after many years (too many hobbies and 'internetting').

I worked in a library in a previous life back in 1990's and 2000's and still remember these books"-

The Da Vinci Code
Angela's Ashes
A Thousand Splendid Suns
Snow Flower and the secret fan.

Probably an age thing and the fact all my books are on Kindle now but I struggle to remember the titles of more recent books 😳.

I haven't read a totally amazing/unforgettable book for a while though.

Hamnet, like several others.
A Terrible Kindness by Jo Browning Wroe
The Siege By Helen Dunmore
Sea Defences by Hilary Taylor
The Sealwoman's Gift by Sally Magnusson

Hamnet is really beautiful. I have read a few Maggie O Farrell’s and it’s by far the best.

Just finished The Last Mrs Parrish and thoroughly enjoyed it.

Far too many to list just one! Here are some that have stayed with me.

Contemporary fiction:
Debutantes by Anne Melville
Louis de Berniere's Latin America trilogy (starting with The War of Don Emmanuel's Netherlands Parts)
My Dark Vanessa by Kate Elizabeth Russell
Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden
Shades of Grey by Jasper Fforde
A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole
My Husband by Maud Ventura
Daughter of Fortune by Isabel Allende
We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver
Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi
You by Caroline Kepnes
Milkman by Anna Burns
Completely Unexpected Tales by Roald Dahl
The Secret History by Donna Tartt

Classics:
The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Orzy
The Three Musketeers by Alexander Dumas
The Prince & the Pauper by Mark Twain
Animal Farm by George Orwell

Non fiction:
Random Family by Adrian Nicole LeBlanc
Maus by Art Spiegelman
Invisible Women by Caroline Criado Perez
The Only Plane on The Sky by Garrett M. Graff
Princess by Jean P. Sasson
Join Me by Danny Wallace

Children's books:
Runaways by Ruth Thomas
Stone Cold by Robert Swindells
The Anastasia Krupnik series by Lois Lowry
Revolting Rhymes by Roald Dahl

Number Thirty-Two by Cassie Steward

The Poisonwood Bible,
We need to talk about Kevin
Beloved
Vanity Fair
Wuthering Heights
Rebecca
Short story - The Yellow Wallpaper (Charlotte Gilman?)
Heart of Darkness

I know it's aimed at teenagers but I loved where the crawdads sing

The Master and Margarita

It’s so interesting the book snob comments because I think we’re all looking for different things in a book. I read the Nightingale recently and thought that was easily one of the best things I’ve ever read but a lot of people strongly disagree. To me though the way I got lost in the story and felt so emotionally involved in the lives of the characters made it a real winner for me.

I often think I’d love to write a children’s book but every time I read holes by Louis sachar with my kids, I change my mind. The way the different storylines all link together makes it perfect to me and I know I could never come close to writing something that good and Kate Barlow is one of my favourite book characters ever. So I think if I had to choose it would be that book.

The Red Tent

Swallows and Amazons
Wuthering Heights
The Lord of The Rings Trilogy
A Time to Kill, John Grisham
The Farseer Trilogy (Robin Hobb)
Shantaram
Cloud Atlas

Lord of the Rings
Wicked
The Book Thief
Atomic Habits
Educated.

My favourites of all time

11/22/63 - Stephen King (other fans may recognise my user name : ))
The Stand - Stephen King
1984
The Secret Garden
Wolf Hall

I agree... we all like different things. I do like a book with story well told. One that draws you in, invests you emotionally.

Am currently reading Dream Count by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and am blown away by the quality of the writing. Four interwoven tales that both make you want to read quickly to find out their story, and slowly to savour the writing. A book that has made me reserve her back catalogue at the library.

My friend borrowed it too... hated it. Weird how we 2 women with the same background, same hobbies, same fundamental likes and dislikes can feel so differently about words on a page.

So much mis-placed snobbery around SK. 11/22/63 was on my list too. I think it's my favourite Stephen King. The man is a fucking genius - one chapter and you're in. I think people believe he only writes about scary clowns but I loved Billy Summers and Fairytale from his more recent writing - also The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon, Dolores Claibourne, Mr Mercedes, Rita Hayworth & The Shawshank Redemption, The Green Mile, The Institute - not a monster between them!

Oh my...Dolores Claibourne, there's a paragraph where he describes her bleeding. It is so visceral I almost threw up. Any author that can evoke a physical reaction through words is genius.

She’s an amazing author and those books are pure brilliance.

When Nietzsche Wept(novel)
If you like philosophy

The obvious classic - Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
Fun comfort read - The Pursuit of Love - Nancy Mitford
Old-fashioned and forgotten - South Riding - Winifred Holtby
Populist - Conclave - Robert Harris

And for non-fiction, The Romanovs - Simon Sebag Montefiore. This is my desert island book, because it's fascinating history and you pick ip something new every time, but also it cracks along like a thriller.

Thank you so much for suggesting A Fortnight in September. I've just ordered it for my mum's birthday. R.C. Sherriff was an extraordinary writer.

East of Eden

@Beachtastic oh I'm glad you liked it! It's so good. Yes he really was.

Top ones so far this year :

quicksilver by Carrie fisher - fantasy

binding 13 series (I absolutely loved this , even though I was convinced I was ‘too old” but I absolutely encourage anyone to read the first one- by Chloe Walsh

for a cozy read - the spell shop by Beth durst

ya read - the lux series by j armentrout (if you were a twilight fan - it’s for you ! )

pure spice - Ryan rules series by Sadie kinkade

favorites this year

My favourites which I’ve reread multiple times are not what you’d call literary fiction (which I also read a lot of) but they bring me joy anew every time are Lord of the Rings and the Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley. For the one I think might be the best I’m torn between Middlemarch and Foucault’s Pendulum.

To the PP who chose The Master and Margarita you are way cleverer than me as I did not get that book at all! 😁