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Our very own top 10 novels

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TerriBull Sat 16-May-26 11:02:42

Apropos of Whitewave's thread "Top 10 novels of all time" and not wishing to derail that one, it focuses the mind on possibly what are our own personal top 10 novels. I have had to put on my thinking cap, because books come and go and there will be those that I've read a long while ago that I thought were wonderful and possibly there would be a few childhood ones, that I'm not going to include. These are probably a reflection of my last 20 or so years of reading and I'll massively kick myself, if later on, I realise I've omitted a firm favourite but here goes: Possibly in no particular order but definitely blown away by these

Star of the Sea Joseph O'Connor
Middlesex Jeffrey Eugenides
The Quincunx Charles Palliser
Demon Copperhead Barbara Kingsolver
The Poisonwood Bible Barbara Kingsolver
The Heart's Invisible Furies - John Boyne
The Blind Assassin Margaret Atwood
Any Human Heart William Boyd
Life After Life Kate Atkinson
The Crimson Petal and the White Michel Faber

These two narrowly missed my 10 The Goldfinch - Donna Tart, some say it rambled and needed editing. I did love it though. 1,000 Splendid Suns Khaled Hosseini (too heartbreaking)

.....so what would yours be ????

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Cossy Sat 16-May-26 20:30:52

Mine are :-

Post Mortem
I know why the caged bird sings
Jane Eyre
The Hunger Games
Gone with the wind
Miss Benson’s Beetle
Three men in a boat
And lots more that have just vanished from memory grin

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foxie48 Sat 16-May-26 20:42:57

Donna Tartt, The Secret History
Kate Atkinson, Behind the scenes at the museum
Khaled Hosseini, A thousand splendid suns
Barbara Kingsolver, Demon Copperhead
Hanya Yanagihara, A little life
Barbara Strout, Olive Kitteridge
Mikhail Sholokov, Quiet flows the Don
Lionel Shriver, We need to talk about Kevin
Margaret Attwood, The Handmaids tale or Cat's Eye
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Half a yellow sun

A quick list of books that left a mark but tbh there are so many others and most of the above authors have written other books that I love and there are so many other authors that I always read. I keep thinking of other books but I'll stick to just ten

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Tenko Sat 16-May-26 20:51:59

This is more up my street .
Lord of the rings trilogy
A little life
A hand maids tale and the testaments
Demon copperhead
The beekeeper of Aleppo
Clan of the cave bear series
More recent reads
The Names
The crimson Petal
Anything by Elizabeth Strout
A place called Winter by Patrick Gale.

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Maggiemaybe Sat 16-May-26 22:05:41

These are mine, but I’ve really struggled to whittle the list down to ten!

Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen
Jane Eyre, Charlotte Brontë
Demon Copperhead, Barbara Kingsolver
Behind the Scenes at the Museum, Kate Atkinson
David Copperfield, Charles Dickens
Prophet Song, Paul Lynch
I am Pilgrim, Terry Hayes
Girl, Woman, Other, Bernardine Evaristo
The Miniaturist Jessie Burton
The Accidental Tourist, Anne Tyler

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foxie48 Sun 17-May-26 11:04:56

Tenko I also read anything by Elizabeth Strout, I think she's a brilliant writer but she's not everyone's cup of tea as she writes extremely profoundly about the lives of very ordinary people. I love her books but friends have found her boring!

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