OK - I want new things to read. Please can you list two books- one classic, one modern- you think everyone shoulf read.

[seeker]

I'll start. Pride and Prejudice and The Kite Runner, by Khalid Hosseini.

An Equal Music is brill too (as per gigglewitch). Gosh these women have gooood taste!

InNeedofSleep, I was nearing the end of page 7 of this thread tinking, "I can't believe no-one's mentioned E.M.Forster yet..." went to page 8 & there you were! I'll go for:

"Howards End" (Classic)
&
"The Bone People" - Keri Hulme (modern)

Travels with my Aunt - Graeme Green

The Womens Room - Marilyn French

So many ideas - I have been note taking wildly in anticipation of my next library visit.

I would say ....

Madame Bovary by Flaubert and The travelling Horn Player by Barbara Trapido.

Great Expectations-Charles Dickens and A Fine Balance by R. Mistry (spelling may be off so feel free to correct me).

I'd say The Woman in White/ Moonstone Wilkie Collins or any Jane Austen and Cross stitch by Diana Gabaldon for slightly daft historical escapism

The Little World of Don Camillo, by Giovanni Guareschi to confirm one's faith in the humanity and the humour of Man - a fantastic possession if you can find a copy. Modern - Jon McGregors If Nobody Speaks of remarkable Things (Bloomsbury)for its elegaeic prose and profound yet gently-expressed themes....

I'm going to go twice because my 1st choices are already done which are:
To Kill A Mocking Bird - essential
The Time Traveller's Wife - beautiful

so next I will recommend:

Far from the madding crowd

and (I'm going to cheat now)

The Latin American trilogy by Louis de Bernieres

Very excited off to the library!!!

Actually can I just say that I was quite pleased to see Behind the scenes at the museum on several lists!

Little Woman
(and to my shame- Dear Daddy Long Legs )

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (by Jean-Dominique Bauby)

saki.

and i am impossibly torn between louise welsh and denise mina.

plus3 i love kate atkinson's jackson brodie. i have latest one waiting for me at the library.

ooh I haven't read that one yet. Also delighted to see the diving bell & the butterfly on here.

it was on my reading list for my course (OT)...but I would have enjoyed it anyway....

Just had to jump up and down and wave at SalVolatile as a fellow Don Camillo fan - they are wonderful tales!

Has anyone tried any Harriet Evans novels for a contemporary slant - nothing gobsmacking but immensely readable especially her latest The love of her life.

P.s. A Fine Balance is an immense book that just has to be read - come on girls let's move away from all these white male classics and go for something a bit different

Classic:
Persuasion - Jane Austen

Modern:
Lolita - Nabokov

The tenderness of Wolves Stef Penney

The Go between L.P Hartley