What book would you recommend?

“Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine” is a beautiful book.

Gave up on I Am Pilgrim. People raved about it. I thought it was crap.

I'm currently re-reading Gerald Durrell's My Family & Other Animals and it is absolutely enchanting. No wonder it's been in print for 60 years!

I did just about manage to finish it but I didn't in the least enjoy This Must Be The Place by Maggie O'Farrell. I had no interest in a group of such self-centred, annoying people.

I usually read non fiction,but my most,most favourite is the crimson petel and the white by Michel Faber,it was made into a series for television,it's written as though you are with the author walking through the dark alleys of Victorian London ,and about a prostitution and the main character is called Sugar ,it's so brilliantly written ,it tells you to follow as each character appears,read 20 times!!!!
You would never know a man wrote it,it's from a woman's perspective,!
Another great read is The magic cottage by James Herbert,it's gripping! A couple buy a dream cottage in the woods,lovely things happens at first,a animal heals quickly,the cottage flowers bloom longer,they feel happy and as both are artists they do their best work ever...
But some one is watching from the woods at night, and the cottage slowly reveals its other side!

I tried to read the lovely bones,as I liked the film,hadn't a clue what. Was going on ,gave up,
I read a lot! Especially social history and travel.

Gosh, so many I could recommend, but here are a few.
The Grapes of Wrath (John Steinbeck)
Birdsong, On Green Dolphin Street, and Charlotte Gray (Sebastian Faulks)
In Falling Snow (Mary Rose MacColl)
Restless, Any Human Heart, and Ordinary Thunderstorms (William Boyd)
Child 44 (Tom Rob Smith)
The Power and the Glory (Graham Greene)

I could go on, but you asked for a book and I've already overstepped the mark

I’ve just finished Eleanor Oliphant too. Would definitely recommend.

Could never get into Lord of the Rings series.

Any of the Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon always a good read. I enjoyed Eleanor Oliphant too.
I don't much like Charles Dickens overly descriptive style or any of the
Alexander Mcall Smith books with their weak stories.

Others have mentioned Sebastian Faulks. My favourite of his by far is The Girl at the Lion d'Or. I gave it to so many people one Christmas that he may have noticed his royalties go up. But his more recent ones are oddly on my very small didn't finish list.

On a lower plane than many posters on this thread I'd hope I was making a recommendation for someone who wanted light relief, and would go for P.G. Wodehouse, probably The Code of the Woosters

'Persuasion' Jane Austen's, wonderful story of love lost and found again.

I used to enjoy the novels of Barbara Pym and came back to them with anticipation after a break of some decades - and have now found them unreadable. I started with 'Excellent Women' and by chapter 12 I had decided I was too bored to go any further. I found the plots and the characters had dated badly and were two dimensional.

Such a shame.

The Lido.

I agree Sodapop Diana Gabaldon books are favourite with me too.

All the Elly Griffith books are fab but they do need to be read in order.

Best book - Nevil Shute "A Town Like Alice"

I am ashamed to say that I have given up on more books than I care mention. Just can't read a book if I am not enjoying it - probably says more about me than the books!!

Is non-fiction allowed?
Antonia Fraser's "The King and the Catholics" is fascinating.

Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott, and any of the follow up books.

I gave up on War and Peace when I was 14, but about 4 years ago I bought a copy and read it through, because I was determined. However, I didn`t really enjoy it much.

Are we allowed favourite books in each genre?
Fantasy: Book 1 of the Thomas Covenant series (Stephen Donaldson)
Historical: Katherine (Anya Seton)
Romance: not my taste, but I did enjoy Gone With the Wind
Modern Classic: The Colour Purple (Alice Walker)

Gave up on ...
100 Years of Solitude (Marquez)

From this year, without a doubt The Heart's Invisible Furies - John Boyne

From my all time list :

Star of The Sea - Joseph O'Connor
Middlesex - Jeffrey Euginides
The Poisonwood Bible - Barbara Kingsolver
The Quincunx - Charles Palliser
The Crimson Petal and the White - Michel Faber
The Blind Assassin - Margaret Attwood
The Goldfinch - Donna Tart
Life After Life - Kate Atkinson
The Hidden Garden - Kate Morton
Asta's Book - Barbara Vine

It's hard to pick one

Two books that I finished and wished I hadn't bothered, Lincoln in the Bardo - George Saunders and Autumn - Ali Smith, both so awful, worse than homework! Booker Prize Winners I believe, but then again so was the sublime Blind Assassin which I loved.

Couldn't finish Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell, just too long, I don't mind a tome, but I have to be engaged with it to invest the time.

Life After Life by Kate Atkinson, is wonderful. I have enjoyed all her books and just reread her first one, Behind the Scenes at the Museum.

Anything by Rachel Hoare, Kate Morton or Santa Montifiore.

.my favourites are
Jane Eyre ( did it for GCE and again for my degree)
Behind the Scenes at the Museum , Kate Atkinson
The Silver Sword.
Call of the Wild

this is hard to do, as my memory for all the good books I have read is poor.
best of recent books: Any Human Heart by William Boyd
Dark Matter [ghost story] by Michelle Paver, All The Light We Cannot See by Anthony Duerr, Life After Life by Kate Atkinson and The Shell Seekers by Rosamund Pilcher.

One book I couldn't pick up once I put it down was the latest by Joanne Trollop, but can't remember the title!

The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck or Atonement by Ian McEwan.

Anything by Ann Tyler

Cloud Atlas. Oh dear!

Favorites (can’t decide).
All the light we cannot see by Anthony Doerr one of many fiction favorites.
A man called Intrepid. By William Stevenson (non fiction)
Song of the Exile - Kiana Davenport - very harrowing in places.

I prefer the classics, or Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels to modern writers, but one book I loved was The Secret Life of Bees by She Monk Kidd.
I go back regularly to read Pride And Prejudice and Sense and Sensibility. I've also read Jane Eyre several times.

That would be Sue not she.