What is your favourite novel, and why?

Probably Wuthering Heights.

Sara1954

With A Thousand Splendid Suns, I kept forgetting I was reading a book set in the present, until someone mentioned a phone or a television, I would feel I was in biblical times.

Yes, I agree. It was our Book Group choice which happened to be over Christmas, and I found it so upsetting. I'm not exaggerating when I say that it rather spoilt Christmas for me.
I cried a lot over it, and although I'd like to read it again, there hasn't been a time in my life recently when I want to go through that upset again.

Glammagran
That’s good to know, I’ll see how I get on tonight, but it seems too crowded, like he’s trying to fit too much in.

I devoured the Chalet School books when i was around 12 to 13.
Anybody else read A Solitary Grief, by Bernice Reubens? Its a heartbreaking story of the birth of a baby who has Downs Syndrome. Its bleak and heartbreaking but so percetively written

Sara1954

Glammagran
Your choice of ‘Lessons’ surprised me, I am about half way through, and I’m not particularly enjoying it, but I’ve still got a way to go.

I admit I didn’t much enjoy Lessons at the start but it really grew on me as I went on through the book. DH has started it which is quite an achievement as he usually only ever reads Sci-Fi,

As a child, from age 7-14 I used to lose myself in books and the very sensitive librarians at my local library really encouraged me and led me to choose books I may have overlooked, including many of the ‘classics’ already mentioned.

I read Anya Seton’s Katherine, as a young adult and it has never really been supplanted as a book that I can read and re-read and still thoroughly enjoy.

Another book that I’m surprised hasn’t been mentioned is Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett. It’s a weighty tome, but the characters and storyline are very engaging.

Canadiangran
The Light Between Oceans is a really sad and beautiful story, and for once, the film of the book is not bad either

This has been an interesting thread. So many of the books mentioned I have also read. I don't often read books twice, so the characters really have to stick with me to be remembered as favourites.
Some of my top picks;
As a child - horse stories! My Friend Flicka, and Misty of Chincoteague, and of course Black Beauty
Three Day Road by Joseph Boyden. This really should be school reading; it is a WWI story of two Cree brothers that become snipers in the war.
A Light Between Oceans
All the Light We Cannot See

I have a tendency towards historical novels, especially during wartime.

With A Thousand Splendid Suns, I kept forgetting I was reading a book set in the present, until someone mentioned a phone or a television, I would feel I was in biblical times.

I do apologise for continuing to come back with and here's another one but did love this, We Had It So Good - Linda Grant, she's written some great books but this was my favourite of hers.

I did really like A Thousand Splendid Suns, but just found it so, so utterly heartbreaking, I didn't include it.

The First Circle by Alexander Solzhenitsyn - the book I try to persuade everyone I know to read. It is perfect.
Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro - I love this book. It is so sad and the reader understands by the end of the book that Stevens’s life has probably been wasted
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen -
I have lost count of how many times I’ve read this. My daughter gave me a beautifully bound copy for my 60th.
Piranesi by Susanna Clarke - A wonderful book even though as a previous poster suggests, we aren’t sure what it is about!

Any Human Heart by William Boyd it is long and engrossing...encompassing London. New York and France with the life story and loves of the male protagonist

Greyduster

And “Children of Jocasta”.

A agree she's wonderful. Have you listened to her podcast on BBC sounds "Natalie Haynes stands up for"
Apparently she was also a stand up comedian and did the Edinburgh festival

And “Children of Jocasta”.

Glorianny Natalie Haynes is a wonderful writer. I haven’t read “Stone Blind” but “A Thousand Ships” was a terrific book.

TerriBull
Possession, I remember starting it, and finding it a bit heavy going, I asked my daughter if she had read it, and she had, and said it was really worth persevering with.
It is actually a really wonderful book, she’s a great writer

So many wonderful replies - thanks everyone who's told me your favourites so far.

I agree with so many of your choices that could so easily have been on my list. My mind always goes blank when I'm asked this sort of thing for some reason, even when (as with Saturday) it's a question I'm sure to be asked and I've rehearsed an answer beforehand.

I'm starting a list of the ones I haven't read that sound good. I've been sorting my bookshelves and have come across a few unread paperbacks that were the third one chosen on a 3 for 2 deal, and forgotten about, so I want to work through those first, before buying any new ones, though. Top of the list is going to be Two Weeks in September, as I looked at it on Amazon and it sounds a delight.

Thanks Chocolatelovinggran

Sara1954

TerriBull
I wasn’t a fan of The Goldfinch, I read it, and I liked some sections of it, but overall, not a favourite.
I think I realised very early on, as the beginning seemed to drag on for much too long.
I ‘m happy you enjoyed it though.

Yes lots of people said that about The Goldfinch, including my husband who thought it needed some editing, fair enough!

I knew I'd forget some well loved authors such as Margaret Forster, Anita Brookner and William Boyd. Haven't read any Margaret Drabble but did read her sister, AS Byatt, Possession which was a wonderful book, albeit a bit heavy going at times.

Also forgot to add a favourite of the past couple of years, American Dirt, riveting.

My best friend is a big reader, but if I read a book she recommends, I usually tell her it was a load of trashy rubbish, and if I recommend one to her, she usually says she’s had more fun watching paint dry
Just a matter of taste.

Terribull- you are spot on as to " why" some books resonate with us so much. I feel a book gives you the experience of a walk in someone else's shoes, however strange or difficult that journey may be. Hopefully, this makes the reader a more empathic person.

TerriBull
I wasn’t a fan of The Goldfinch, I read it, and I liked some sections of it, but overall, not a favourite.
I think I realised very early on, as the beginning seemed to drag on for much too long.
I ‘m happy you enjoyed it though.

This is so interesting.
I just have to add Doris Lessing, Margaret Forster, Margaret Drabble and Anita Brookner, all favourites of mine.

As a girl Little Women
As a teenager The Catcher in the Rye (Salinger) and The Age of Reason (Jean Paul Sartre)
In my twenties- Alexandrian Quartet by Lawrence Durrell
As I've got older
Cat's Eye Margaret Atwood(great descriptions of childhood and bullying)
Reading in the Dark by Seamus Deane ( the complications of life in N. Ireland)
A Thousand Splendid Suns (but it is heartbreaking)
Miss Garnet's Angel by Sally Vickers (better than a guide book for Venice)
Stone Blind by Natalie Haynes- she retells Medusa I love the way she makes Perseus an unthinking little thug
If it was short stories any by Alice Munro.

Dune, Frank Herbert's SF masterpiece which deals with many themes such as conservation, religious intollerance, manipulation of populations enc so on back in the 1970s. I could not put this book down when I read it. Its been filmed several times but none have touched the power and grandeur of the book.