A book that has made you think long after you have finished reading it

* Who Owns England - How We Lost Our Green and Pleasant Land by Guy Shrubsole
* The Trespass Book - Crossing the Lines that Divide Us by
Nick Hayes

Both books opened my eyes to the access that we think and actually have to our countryside, moorland, rivers, etc and why this is the case.

Lord of the Rings, imo the best book ever with a brilliantly sad ending. Also, Doomsday Book by Connie Willis, about the Black Death in England in the 1340s. Beautifully described and so sad.
I hated Never Let Me Go, such a ridiculous and unbelievable storyline. I had to read it for my book club, but it was so awful I will never read anything else by that author.

Life After Life by Kate Atkinson.
The Accidental Tourist by Anne Tyler.
The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers. I read it many times when I was young.
The Tin Drum by Gunter Grasse
Possession by A. S. Byatt.

Sara those kitchen sink novels & dramas were ground-breaking at the time. I’ve recently watched the film versions of Saturday Night & Sunday Morning and Room at the Top.
I think both the films very accurately portrayed the mores of the time, the class differences & the power balance between men & women.

I read the Women's Room in thr early 80s when I was a student and I loved it. When I read it again a few years ago I really did not enjoy it.
I loved Lord of the Rings as a teenager - so magical.
Also loved Schindler's Ark which I read a few years before the film Schindler's List came out. A brilliant book.

So many, but the following spring to mind immediately:

Diary of a Young Girl (Anne Frank)
The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns (both by Khaled Hosseini)
Jane Eyre (Charlotte Bronte)

Books with the Holocaust, world wars, slavery and women’s situation throughout history as themes tend to stay with me if they’re well written.

TerriBull I have just finished reading Star of The Sea by Joseph O Connor. I started reading it, found it a bit dark and depressing and was intending to take it back to the library., unfinished. Then I saw your post on this thread and decided to have another go. I’m so glad I did, a wonderful book.

The most memorable book I've read this year has been American Dirt, a truly unforgettable story of escaping a Mexican drug cartel by riding on the roof of a train and illegally entering the US.

I have quite a lot of favourite books but I know the one that I’ve just read will stay with me. I would recommend Boys Don’t Cry by Fíona Scarlett

The Kite Runner, shocking, poignant and touching. Grapes of Wrath so sad and hopeful as well in parts.
We the Accused by Ernest Raymond, I read this when young and it certainly stays with you. A manhunt with the accused getting his just desserts at the end.

I love this question and the answers as I’m always on the lookout for good reads. I agree with some of the choices of the others and the comment that I couldn’t pick out only one. Here are some of mine;
The Good Earth-Pearl Buck
The Secret Life of Bees-Sue Monk Kidd
Me Before You-Jo Jo Moyes
Shuggie Bain-Douglas Stuart

halfpint1

Another one for Elizabeth is Missing and on non fiction
Donna Eden, Energy Medecine, opened my eyes.

I read this just as one of my Aunt's was diagnosed with dementia. Lots of things began to make sense.

Also, thinking about book series it has to be the 'My Brilliant Friend' series by Eleanor Ferrante and also the 'Gilead' series by Marilynne Robinson.

lemongrove

I think that in recent years Never Let Me Go, it was a harrowing read and I felt quite upset even though it’s fiction, it’s so heart breaking.
Also All The Light We Cannot See by Anthony Duerr ( set in WW2) and
Life After Life by Kate Atkinson.

If you enjoyed Never Let Me Go then I suggest you read his latest novel Klara and The Sun. Love your other choices - both excellent books.

Another one for Elizabeth is Missing and on non fiction
Donna Eden, Energy Medecine, opened my eyes.

Niochorio

Two of the books that stayed with me for a long time were both children’s books. Private Peaceful and The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, but I can’t remember the names of the authors. The ending of The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas fair took my breath away.

Boy in the striped pyjamas was excellent. The subsequent film was a let down from the book

A book we read at school, incredibly bold for it’s time especially for fourteen year old girls
A Kind of Loving-Stan Barstow had a huge affect on me at the time, still remember it quite vividly.
Oh and much more recently, everything by Elizabeth Strout.

Paddy Clark Ha Ha and The Woman Who Walked Into Doors, both Roddy Doyle books.
The Green Mile is another very emotive book.

Plus The Grapes of Wrath
The Ragged Trousered Philanthropist

Birdsong
American Dirt
Where The Crawdads Sing
To Kill A Mockingbird
Shuggie Bain
Eleanor Oliphaunt is Completely Fine
War and Peace
The Cellist of Sarajevo

During my childhood it was The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett and The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. More recently Elizabeth is Missing by Emma Healey.

I found Born on a Blue Day by Daniel Tammet haunting, but possibly because I met the author at a book festival and it was really the first time I had a proper insight into Asperger's Syndrome, which I now realise has featured greatly in my family, mostly undiagnosed.

I ought to also mention A Voyage to Arcturus by David Lindsay, a book which is memorable not for the writing so much as for sheer weirdness. Probably a bit of a marmite novel but it has stuck with me.

Terrific books to lose yourself in, and there are eight of them to date, the Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon, time travel very well researched, and characters you really come to care about. Five series on film now, hugely enjoyable.

The Golden Notebook by Doris Lessing.

Agree with most of the above plus purple hibiscus, to kill a mockingbird and the women"s room. Good books are manna from heaven!

Too many to list, but Madame Bovary and especially My Antonia by Willa Cather. Her books hang about me for a while as so atmospheric, a wonderful picture of the plains of Nebraska and the early pioneers.
Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton was unforgettable and Colette always leaves me feeling lighthearted and French!