What book would you recommend?

I’ve just read Wilbur Smith’s When the Lion Feeds - fantastic book. I also love all Ken Follett’s books. I gave up on The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt.

Lots of the books mentioned. Plus I loved David Lodge’s humour. About the only writer to have me laugh out loud.
Incidentally I enjoyed This must be the Place, and all her other books too. And all of Kate atkinson’s.

Sarum by Edward Rutherford or anything by Daphne du Maurier.

Most of the books that I enjoy are by American authors, who I believe have all been Pulitzer prize winners. In the main they originate and write about the eastern seaboard of America, a region that I feel very drawn to .
The Hour I First Believed - Wally Lamb
This Much I Know is True - " "
Olive Kitteridge - Elizabeth Strout
Amy & Isabelle - " "
Empire Falls - Richard Russo
One True Thing - Anna Quindlen

These days as most of my books are from the library or bought very cheaply on Kindle, I have no compunction in putting them to one side if there is no enjoyment.
I believe that the sign of an exceptional book is when you fell sad that you are coming to the end of the story.

Genesis - Karin Slaughter - had to read it all in one sitting.

Lovely Bones - can’t remember the author - very depressing and desolate ??

I quickly gave up on:

The Time Traveller's Wife
The Slap
Captain Corelli's Mandolin (but perhaps I should have persevered)

The Accidental Tourist - Anne Tyler
The Little Stranger - Sarah Walters
The Secret History - Donna Tartt
Saint Maybe - Anne Tyler
And when did you last see your Father - Blake Morrison (autobiography)

That would be Sue not she.

I prefer the classics, or Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels to modern writers, but one book I loved was The Secret Life of Bees by She Monk Kidd.
I go back regularly to read Pride And Prejudice and Sense and Sensibility. I've also read Jane Eyre several times.

Favorites (can’t decide).
All the light we cannot see by Anthony Doerr one of many fiction favorites.
A man called Intrepid. By William Stevenson (non fiction)
Song of the Exile - Kiana Davenport - very harrowing in places.

Anything by Ann Tyler

Cloud Atlas. Oh dear!

The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck or Atonement by Ian McEwan.

this is hard to do, as my memory for all the good books I have read is poor.
best of recent books: Any Human Heart by William Boyd
Dark Matter [ghost story] by Michelle Paver, All The Light We Cannot See by Anthony Duerr, Life After Life by Kate Atkinson and The Shell Seekers by Rosamund Pilcher.

One book I couldn't pick up once I put it down was the latest by Joanne Trollop, but can't remember the title!

.my favourites are
Jane Eyre ( did it for GCE and again for my degree)
Behind the Scenes at the Museum , Kate Atkinson
The Silver Sword.
Call of the Wild

Anything by Rachel Hoare, Kate Morton or Santa Montifiore.

Life After Life by Kate Atkinson, is wonderful. I have enjoyed all her books and just reread her first one, Behind the Scenes at the Museum.

From this year, without a doubt The Heart's Invisible Furies - John Boyne

From my all time list :

Star of The Sea - Joseph O'Connor
Middlesex - Jeffrey Euginides
The Poisonwood Bible - Barbara Kingsolver
The Quincunx - Charles Palliser
The Crimson Petal and the White - Michel Faber
The Blind Assassin - Margaret Attwood
The Goldfinch - Donna Tart
Life After Life - Kate Atkinson
The Hidden Garden - Kate Morton
Asta's Book - Barbara Vine

It's hard to pick one

Two books that I finished and wished I hadn't bothered, Lincoln in the Bardo - George Saunders and Autumn - Ali Smith, both so awful, worse than homework! Booker Prize Winners I believe, but then again so was the sublime Blind Assassin which I loved.

Couldn't finish Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell, just too long, I don't mind a tome, but I have to be engaged with it to invest the time.

Are we allowed favourite books in each genre?
Fantasy: Book 1 of the Thomas Covenant series (Stephen Donaldson)
Historical: Katherine (Anya Seton)
Romance: not my taste, but I did enjoy Gone With the Wind
Modern Classic: The Colour Purple (Alice Walker)

Gave up on ...
100 Years of Solitude (Marquez)

Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott, and any of the follow up books.

I gave up on War and Peace when I was 14, but about 4 years ago I bought a copy and read it through, because I was determined. However, I didn`t really enjoy it much.

Is non-fiction allowed?
Antonia Fraser's "The King and the Catholics" is fascinating.

Best book - Nevil Shute "A Town Like Alice"

I am ashamed to say that I have given up on more books than I care mention. Just can't read a book if I am not enjoying it - probably says more about me than the books!!

I agree Sodapop Diana Gabaldon books are favourite with me too.

All the Elly Griffith books are fab but they do need to be read in order.

The Lido.

'Persuasion' Jane Austen's, wonderful story of love lost and found again.

I used to enjoy the novels of Barbara Pym and came back to them with anticipation after a break of some decades - and have now found them unreadable. I started with 'Excellent Women' and by chapter 12 I had decided I was too bored to go any further. I found the plots and the characters had dated badly and were two dimensional.

Such a shame.

Others have mentioned Sebastian Faulks. My favourite of his by far is The Girl at the Lion d'Or. I gave it to so many people one Christmas that he may have noticed his royalties go up. But his more recent ones are oddly on my very small didn't finish list.

On a lower plane than many posters on this thread I'd hope I was making a recommendation for someone who wanted light relief, and would go for P.G. Wodehouse, probably The Code of the Woosters