What is your favourite novel, and why?

I was so allergic to reading after my degree that I literally found it soothing to look at a Tupperware catalogue. However, I've since discovered a love of character driven series. 'The Expanse' novels by S.A. Corey are 9 novels following the crew of a captured martian spaceship. Most of them are now on video on Amazon Prime. There is a lot of empire building, morality, ethical choices, biology, science and engineering. Mainly a good mix of characters in the core crew.

Ooops Beetle as in the insect !!

“Modern Books”
Miss Bensons Beatle - real feel good book and The Hunger Games Trilogy
And so many from my childhood:-
Heidi, Black Beauty, The Lion The Witch and The Wardrobe and Alice in Wonderland. I love reading and read lots of thrillers/murder mysteries/biographies and other but never westerns, wars books or Mill & Boon !!

For me it has to be Black Beauty. I was mad about horses when I was a child and I read this book so many times the spine and cover fell off it. I must have read it 20 or 30 times easily over the years. I still love it at 68.

The Night Circus - Erin Morganstern - just magical. But there’s too many to mention, I love all Douglas Kennedy’s novels and Jodi Picoult….I just love books.

Absolute favourite - Pride and prejudice
Favourite childhood book - The story of the treasure seekers by Edith Nesbit
Also really enjoyed:
Never let me go (Kazuo Ishiguro)
If nobody speaks of remarkable things (Jon McGregor)
The librarian (Sally Vickers)
Anything by Sarah Moss
A year of wonders (Geraldine Brooks) novel of the plague

Lovely thread & like others I'm making a list of books to try!

So many great books mentioned, I loved Olive Kitterage, what a woman!
I would also like to mention Sue Gee, every word she writes is perfect, and ‘The Hours of the Night’ would definitely be in my top ten.

My two all time fa ourite books are Fingersmith by Sarah Waters which has some many twists and turns and keeps you in your toes all the way through. The other one is The Dovekeepers which is based around the story of Masada and is about three women and their lives. A brilliant book.

Any novel by Tracy Chevalier. The girl with the pearl earring.
The lady and the Unicorn
Remarkable Creatures. To name a few. So we'll written.

Mine are probablyKane and Abel because it was such a meaty story of two men I the same timeframe and how different their lives were . Then I must also say Gone With The Wind by Margaret Mitchell. This book surprised me as I wouldn’t normally have been attracted to it (I bought it from a charity shop) simply because inside the cover someone had written “To …… this was the best book I’ve ever read. Love Mum.” I loved it too … so much content and although I’ve watched the original film I wish someone would remake it.

Jane Eyre also. Never enjoyed Wuthering Heights, had no sympathy at all for Cathy and Heathcliff.

Wives and Daughters by Elizabeth Gaskell.
Anglo-Saxon Attitudes by Angus Wilson.

Memories of Ice by Steven Erikson - the third book in the high fantasy series Tales of the Malazan Book of the Fallen. Erikson is an amazing writer, not always an easy read but well worth persevering with. This book is full of battles, politics, gods, various human and non-human races, triumph and tragedy - with the necessary humour to lighten where necessary. If you love fantasy then I cannot recommend Erikson highly enough - do not be put off by Gardens of the Moon, first book in the series, Erikson tends to throw his readers in at the deep end and allows them to sink or swim. Swimming is so worth it, I have read this series several times, there is always something new to notice in this intricate and complicated fantasy world.

Iceni55

My favourite is The Crystal Cave by Mary Stewart. First read when I was a teenager along with the other 3 in the series.
Read many times since then.

Ooh yes. I loved this, too. And the others in the series. I also liked the Marion Zimmer Bradley Avalon books.

MadeInYorkshire Have you tried a Kindle? They are very light weight and easy to hold in one hand.

Favourite books I could read again
The Long Walk, Slavomir Rawicz (read when I was about 12 and never forgotten)
The Thorn Birds, Collen McCullough
The Far Pavillions, M M Kaye ( and her autobiographies)
Diary of an Ordinary Woman, Margaret Forster
The Light between Oceans, M L Stedman
All the Nella Last series of diaries
The Source, James Michener
The Pillars of the Earth series, Ken Follett
The Kite Runner and 1000 Splendid Suns, Khaled Hosseini
All the books about different cities by Edward Rutherford
Most of Leon Uris books
And Lots more!

manny

David Copperfield. I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve read it. So I also enjoyed Barbara Kingsolver’s reworking of it - Damon Copperhead. Re an earlier post about The Remains of the Day: Ishiguro was born in Japan. There are parallels between the rigidity of the Japanese Salary Man and the persona of Mr Stevens, the butler, whose identity is swallowed by the British class system at the time at which the novel is set.

Good to know have just started Demon Copperhead,.

OMGA (Oh! My Giddy Aunt) Doodledog I hated Great Expectations! We read it in English lessons when I was only eleven years old and I found it creepy (Miss Havisham) and terrifying (Magwitch - I knew he was hiding under my bed!) I've re-read many Dickens novels since then but never that one!

Anything by Elizabeth Strout is high on my list, especially Olive Kitteridge and Olive Again. Alice Munro is the best short story writer alive.

I like the Novels by Robert Neil as I can identify locations and have a map with me. Black William based on Tyne side, Mist Over Pendle, about the Pendle witches. Moon in Scorpio, about west Lancashire. The Devils Weather, about the Lakes.
I also add R.F, Delderfield. Anna Jacobs. Georgette Heyer.

As a passionate reader since the age of 5 (Enid Blyton's "Faraway Tree") it's impossible to choose a favourite or even a shortlist but a book that I have returned to several times is "The Enchanted April" by Elizabeth von Arnim. I'ts a comfort read - easy, gentle, humorous, and has a magical quality that reminds me of the joy of holidays, beautiful gardens and time spent in Italy.

Good thread!

For me, today,
most of Rose Tremain’s and Ian McKewan’s output
Bleak House
Little Dorrit
Great Expectations
Persuasion
Piranesi
Kite Runner
Darke

I read these posts but have never contributed but felt I needed to share. The latest book that I have read has been one of the best and totally unforgettable. I cried (several times), laughed and never wanted it to end. The book was “A Little Life” by Hana Yanigihara. Truly a beautiful read. I have shared with friends who have also loved it.
Totally agree with others choices especially Thorn Birds, Angela’s Ashes and Little Women. A book I read 30 odd years ago has stayed with me Tara Kane by George Markstein a historical epic which has never left me although I had to change the end in my head as so totally involved.

I knew I was going to love this read today! So before I read every one these posts I’m going to drop mine right away, then go back and leisurely read and make notes!

1) Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towels (fiction; beautifully written; A Russian royal who is placed under house arrest and confined to the most lavish hotel in the city for decades, his life, relationships. Just riveting)
2) The Revolutionary by Stacy Schiff
(biography of one of our founding fathers, a man who masterminded our independence from the mother country. As if I were walking the streets…) Sorry, guys 😏 wasn’t sure if I should mention this book. 😆
Cheers!
USA Gundy

Lots of my favourites already mentioned but I have these 2 to add.
Memoirs of a geisha by Arthur Golden
The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver

I loved She by H Rider Haggard when a teenager. So exciting.

The Grapes of Wrath
American Psycho (disturbingly brilliant)
Any Ian McEwen
Perfume
Mapp & Lucia
Any Irvine Welsh
Thomas Hardy (Angel Clare - bastard)
Red Dragon
All George Eliot
All Quiet on the Western Front
Sophie's Choice