What is your favourite novel, and why?

Does anyone remember the Whiteoaks series by Mazo de la Roche?

Yes, I do, Blinko
I borrowed them from the library one after another very many years ago. Thoroughly enjoyable.

My favourite is likely to be whatever I’m reading at the time!
My best ones over the last couple of years are the four novels by Elena Ferrante,stating with My Brilliant Friend.
It was written in Italian and loses a bit in not very good,translation.
If you can get past the first half of the first book, then you’ll need a couple of days clear to binge read all the others in the series!

Sleepygran My favourite is likely to be whatever I’m reading at the time!
On consideration me too!
I've been thinking about this and decided many of the books I've enjoyed most recently have been 'low-brow' rather than 'high-brow'. I usually find books far superior to the film or TV versions.
I loved 'The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas' and the book was far superior to the film, which I enjoyed but lacked the impact of the book. I suppose because they couldn't or wouldn't show the time lapse until the final realisation.
I've always loved reading, and would read the back of the cereal box if nothing else was available. My biggest problem is I hate to admit defeat and not finish a book. I need to post on the other thread

Perfume
Peter Suskind
I loved that book.

Yes Tinky17! E Nesbit was the first time I really got lost in a book- I’ll never forget that feeling. I recently bought a copy of The Phoenix and the Carpet for my DGD and settled down to read it again myself …. what a shock! I couldn’t believe how dated it was! Turns out it was written in 1904. 119 years ago 🤣😳

I'm attempting to read Proust's In Search of Lost Time (Scott Moncrieff translation).

... flippin' 'eck - I'm only on the first volume. I might have bitten off more than I can chew. BUT, I am definitely warming to the work.

Evelyn Waugh didn't like him / the work - called him a 'mental defective' which is rude. And Kazuo Ishiguro thought him "crushingly dull"... which was exactly my reaction to his (Ishiguro's) novel, Remains of the Day. The film was OK, but the book reduced me to great yawning sobs...

What a lovely but impossibly difficult question Doodledog I love it. I could change my top five every couple of weeks. I loved The Kite Runner, possibly in my top 5, but could be in my top 10 another day. Where the Crawdads Sing would make my top 10 currently (depending on my last read). I read The French Lieutenant's Woman for A level English, when on holiday in Lyme Regis which was a bit surreal as I was on the Cobb reading it. Great book but so long ago, it’s been pushed from my tops ‘list’. Going WAY back though, I would definitely include Wind In The Willows in my top three of all time (from when I was 8 🤭). Great question Doodledog.

It’s hard to pick absolute favourites but I’ll go for
The Wolf Hall trilogy, HM made Cromwell very relatable and (mostly) likeable.
Lanark: A Life in Four Books by the very much missed and multi-talented Alasdair Gray. Difficult to describe, impossible to forget.
Shogun by James Clavell, imo the best in the saga.
Jean de Florette/Manon des Sources by Marcel Pagnol. Saw the film and loved it, loved the book even more.
Candide by Voltaire, first read it when I was still at school, made me laugh out loud then and still does.
Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton, makes me cry every time.
Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson, a murder mystery but so much more.
St. Agnes’s Stand by Thomas Eidson, a Western but unlike any other.
Gone to Soldiers by Marge Piercy. The very different WW11 experiences of several people. On a similar line the Winds of War/War and Remembrance by Herman Wouk.
The Stand by Stephen King particularly so since COVID.
The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant by Stephen R. Donaldson, but only the first trilogy in the series.
Sorry Doodledog I couldn’t narrow it down any further 😀 in fact I could easily add to the list.

grannydarkhair

It’s hard to pick absolute favourites but I’ll go for
The Wolf Hall trilogy, HM made Cromwell very relatable and (mostly) likeable.
Lanark: A Life in Four Books by the very much missed and multi-talented Alasdair Gray. Difficult to describe, impossible to forget.
Shogun by James Clavell, imo the best in the saga.
Jean de Florette/Manon des Sources by Marcel Pagnol. Saw the film and loved it, loved the book even more.
Candide by Voltaire, first read it when I was still at school, made me laugh out loud then and still does.
Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton, makes me cry every time.
Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson, a murder mystery but so much more.
St. Agnes’s Stand by Thomas Eidson, a Western but unlike any other.
Gone to Soldiers by Marge Piercy. The very different WW11 experiences of several people. On a similar line the Winds of War/War and Remembrance by Herman Wouk.
The Stand by Stephen King particularly so since COVID.
The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant by Stephen R. Donaldson, but only the first trilogy in the series.
Sorry Doodledog I couldn’t narrow it down any further 😀 in fact I could easily add to the list.

An interesting catalogue of authors grannydarkhair.

I'm going to go through them... someone gave me Snow Falling on Cedars and I put it to one side - I think I will read it now.

And Jean de Florette/Manon des Sources by Marcel Pagnol.

Thanks for posting this!

Dickens Like a great many people, I have favourite genres and writers, but will read anything if it grabs my attention by its cover, title, synopsis, review, etc. I nearly always enjoy sci-fi, fantasy, WW11, anything dystopian, murder mysteries. My list of favourite writers is varied and wide.
Hope you enjoy those you choose from my list.

Grannydarkhair
Jean de Florette/Manon des Sources by Marcel Pagnol
My daughter bought this book for me, and I thought it may look a bit heavy going, but it’s such a beautiful read, I have now bought it for several friends, and everyone seems to love it.

Too many to name, but just re read
The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger

Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys.

Life changer.

Have thought about mine and although many above have been enjoyable I am going for 3, The Belle Fields and sequel Ashes of Roses by Lora Adams and a book of poems Say Kangaroo by Five Sisters. The Lora Adams books have more twists and turns and the outcome of the first book was quite unexpected and sad but things turn out well in the end! The Five Sisters' book is I think unique, a compilation of poems and drawings reminiscing about childhood and growing up in the 50s and 60s. Certainly brought back good and not so good times for me!

What a great list of books, many I’ve read on recommendation and loved or disliked and some which I might try. Thanks for the reminder about the Whiteoaks series.
Favourites are difficult -tends to be whatever I’m reading, but I love books by Faye or Jonathan Kellerman.
Germinal was an amazing experience. That and Le Chant de Bernadette are my most reread foreign language books.
If favourites are books you reread, then mine include the Artemis Fowl books by Eoin Colfer, Goodnight Mr Tom and Back Home by Michelle Magorian, Lily Cigar by Tom Murphy and Frost in May by Antonia White, Enigma by Robert Harris and lots (but not all) of the books by the late Maeve Binchy.

Thank you Doodledog for this lovely thread.

As a child, Anne of Green Gables - I was overjoyed when the internet kicked in and I found a whole series of L M Montgomery books as Anne grew ... When life gets too much I'll go back and find comfort in these books.

As an adult - I read these two as a teenager, and I can't think of a book that has touched me in the same way as these, and I can't chose one over the other. A Moment In Time by HE Bates and A Town Like Alice, Nevil Shute. Both have been mentioned earlier in this thread. I often re-read these in the same paperbacks I had as a teen.

Depending on my mood -
I do love Georgette Heyer, humour and romance.
Rivers books by Ben Aaronovich, although they got very weird at one point and I had to duck out.
Roddy Doyle! And on a similar vein a new author Caimh Mcdonnell books, great Irish humour in his books.
Other H E Bates and Nevil Shute books, although Nevil Shute is very much of his time.
We had Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen at O Level, which I spun through, but very much preferred Pride and Prejudice.

I've recently added Audible and have had Stephen King's "Rita Hayworth and The Shawshank Redemption" read to me at bedtime, which has been a real joy.

And yes, I'm making a list going through the posts here!

The thorn birds Colleen McCullough ! Not sure about spelling.
The conjurors bird Martin Davies. A thousand splendid suns khaled Hosseini. Don’t read very much but these have stayed with me.

What I picked up from this 10 pg read is one commonality - the books from childhood that have stayed with the readers. Our first impressions, the impact of written words have staying power all our lives.

Since retirement I’m voraciously devouring books of all genres. I omitted one favorite book that stayed with me for decades as a favorite (till A Gentleman in Moscow came along and displaced it…) and that is Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett (historical fiction). I remember being gobsmacked by HOW DID THEY? build those elaborate magnificent cathedrals back on the 11th, 12th centuries? The intrigue around the masterminding, the power and corruption of the church. Just brilliant.

And then I go to a book like Lessons in Chemistry and The Maid - recent American #1 best sellers. I jump around.
Have a g’day!
USA Gundy

Without question Star of the Sea by Joseph O'Connel, my all time favourite book. Have read it several times and about to read it again!! Can never remember the end to be honest ...despite being told the ending at the very beginning. This book has everything for me, the writing is engrossing...I enjoy every description and the pictures they conjur up. The characters and their histories are fascinating and I love how their stories interconnect as the book progresses. I have visited the parts of Ireland mentioned and had some knowledge of the period of history covered so enjoyed this being brought to life. I could rave about this book for hours, anybody who asks about my favourite book must regret having asked 🤣.

Happyme

Without question Star of the Sea by Joseph O'Connel, my all time favourite book. Have read it several times and about to read it again!! Can never remember the end to be honest ...despite being told the ending at the very beginning. This book has everything for me, the writing is engrossing...I enjoy every description and the pictures they conjur up. The characters and their histories are fascinating and I love how their stories interconnect as the book progresses. I have visited the parts of Ireland mentioned and had some knowledge of the period of history covered so enjoyed this being brought to life. I could rave about this book for hours, anybody who asks about my favourite book must regret having asked 🤣.

It's my number 1 too Happyme, I loved Star of the Sea so much I went out and bought it for several of my book loving friends, if I lend it out, I have to buy another one to replace it, it has such a special place in my heart. I have Richard and Judy to thank for discovering it in the first place, years ago on their afternoon programme they had a book club and this was one of the first books they promoted. I can't say it would have been a book I would have picked up otherwise.

Another thumbs up for Jean de Florette and Manon de Sources.

Just ordered Star of the Sea
Honestly I’ve never heard of it, but you all seem to rate it highly.

Sarah be warned it's another one where you have to break through the first 50 or 60 pages of scene setting, I do remember a "what the hell's this all about" before it got going.

TerriBull
Thanks for the warning!

The Midnight Library.
Give it a read. You won’t be disappointed

DonnaB5859

The Midnight Library.
Give it a read. You won’t be disappointed

I was I hated it.- Takes all sorts!