Suggest a maximum of three stand-alone works you would highly recommend everyone read. Any genre. And not your own books.
Suggest a maximum of three stand-alone works you would highly recommend everyone read. Any genre. And not your own books.
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The gargoyle, the testament of Gideon Mack and the language of flowers
I agree with the Gargoyle. I have read it twice and really love it. I haven’t found anything similar since.
@Julie it certainly was original. Would highly recommend the testament of Gideon Mack for another great read x
@Melanie thank you. I will. X
I can’t pick! Um…. for all round good read, I’d say
The Princess Bride by William Goldman
Stoned by Aja Raden
The Bible
Difficult question, but I’ll go with Sapiens, Breakfast With Buddha, and When Breath Becomes Air
Really enjoyed When Breath Becomes Air?
The Freedom Writers Diary and Hope in a Ballet shoe both true and incredible and inspiring stories
Not without my Daughter by Betty Mahmoody
Chart Throb – Ben Elton
The other Boleyn Girl – Phillipa Gregory
Blindness by Jose saramago, the edible woman by Margaret Atwood, and road to Santiago by cees nooteboom.
Hard to choose but I think anyone would like these!
The Storyteller by Jodi picoult
Snowflower and the secret fan by Lisa See
Moloka’i by Alan Brennert
Definitely Snowflower and the Secret Fan.
The wild, Still Allice, A child called IT.
The wife between us, behind her eyes, it
Lonesome Dove
Grapes of Wrath
Days without end.
Jane Eyre, Lorna Doone and Tess of the D’Urbevilles
If you are on kindle you can get them free right on Amazon
The Boy Made of Blocks – Keith Stewart
This Is Going to Hurt – Adam Kay
The Couple Next Door- Shari Lapena
Suite Francaise by Irena Nemirovsky
Bird Song by Sebastian Fawlkes
The Legacy by Katherine Webb
@Ros three I never heard of. Nice.
The Stand- Stephen King
The Art Of Racing In The Rain- Garth Stein
Ghost Story- Peter Straub
Dang it! I just thought of another one!
Gone with the wind
The Thornbirds
The Stand
Siddhartha
Watership Down
Fahrenheit 451
I am surprised by Fahrenheit 451. Our book club read it recently. Our choices are joint decisions and I pushed for this as I really wanted to read it, and I so wanted to love it….but couldn’t! It was rated poorly by most of us, all women. My husband loved it. My son loved it. I know we are supposed to be all the same…blah blah… but we are not really are we! Does it have more appeal for men…or was it just us…middle aged British women that just didn’t get it.
@Julie I’ve read it a number of times. I feel like it’s reflective of what authoritarian government has the power to do, and is specifically aimed at the very concept of books. The protagonist has never really known another world and eventually discovers the forbidden lure of books. It has themes of rebellion and going against authority, as well as self discovery and personal betrayal. I also like the idea of a Utopia that ideally hopes to reinvent the world that has become so corrupt. Could it be that men are more attracted to rebellion and confrontation?
@Jef Yes, you are probably right. I found it slow. To me not a lot happened. I sympathised with Guy and hated his wife and her friends. When I talked to my husband and and son about it they thought it was such a great story and couldn’t understand why i didn’t too.
The film from 1966 was good. HBO made a new film this year with Michael B Jordan that was interesting.
Wuthering heights
In cold blood
The Cat’s table
I’m only going to mention one because it’s almost size of three books and my absolute favorite book of all time…The Stand by Stephen King
I’m reading that now!! I’m only on like page 200
Beartown
Educated
For sure those are two. I have more but I can’t narrow them down.
Handmaid’s Tale, The Book Thief, Sea of Tranquility
I love the hand maids tale
Shantaram
The Book Thief
Memoirs of a Geisha
The Green Mile, The Five People you meet in Heaven and Goodnight Mister Tom.
Awesome choices!
Thanks!
I read it at school and then 30 years later bought my own copy. Love it.
To kill a mockingbird, the green mile and the time travellers wife.
The time traveller’s wife, The historian, and the stand.
The Given Day by Dennis Lehane, I Know This Much Is True by Wally Lamb, Mystic River also by Dennis Lehane
The wicked deep!
Lock the door
Behind closed doors
The stand by Stephen King
Legend by David Gemmell
Red Storm Rising by Tom Clancy
To Kill A Mockingbird, Lucia Lucia and The Lovely Bones
The Secret Garden, Rebecca, Jane Eyre.
Shogun, Lonesome Dove and Word of Honor.
A Thousand Splendid Suns. The Gargoyle. Me Before You.
The help.
Small great things.
The time of my life.
Following
The secret garden- frances hodgson Burnett
On the edge of darkness- Barbara erskine
Me before you- jojo moyes
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
The Goldfinch
The Book Thief
Pride & Prejudice
The Five People You Meet in Heaven
The Time of My Life
The Prince of Tides by Pat Conroy; The Kitchen House by Kathleen Grissom; Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verhgese; Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zoe’s Hurston
Survivor by Chuck Palahnuik, Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn, and To Kill a Mockingbird
All The Bright Places by Jennifer Niven
Orbiting Jupiter by Gary D. Schmidt
A Touch of Gold by Annie Sullivan
The Gargoyle
The Book Thief
Birdsong
I am so glad the Gargoyle keeps coming up. It is such an amazing and deserving book. So different for the run of the mill.
Katie mcgarry “Remember me” . Jennifer L Armentrout “The problem with Forever ”
Tijan “Ryan’s Bed”
The Kite Runner, The Last Lecture and To Kill a Mocking Bird.
The Poisonwood Bible (Barbara Kingsolver), Warbreaker (Brandon Sanderson), Dark Matter (Blake Crouch)
Bonnie Dennis I loved The Poisonwood Bible!
Its an amazing book, right?! It has actually impacted my way of thinking about certain issues.
@Bonnie I just bought a new book by Barbara Kingsolver. Hopefully it will be as good as The Poisonwood Bible!
A fine balance
Cutting for stone
Hearts invisible furies
Because I loved A Fine Balance I’m going to choose your other books to read ?
@Lyn I hope you enjoy. They are amazing.
Bag of Bones
To Kill a Mockingbird
I let you Go
Some great responses. Mine are:
THE BROTHERS KARAMAZOV (Dostoyevsky)
LETTERS FROM PRISON (Bonhoeffer)
DUNE (Herbert)
It was a close call between Dostoyevsky and a work by Tolstoy, both of whom are favourite authors. I feel Tolstoy writes more warmly, but Dostoyevsky’s scalpel-like precision in delineating human psychology and behaviour is something to truly be admired.
To Kill A Mockingbird; Pride and prejudice; Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone
The Heart’s Invisible Furies, TKAM, How Green Was My Valley.
The Hearts Invisible Furies
Catch 22
The Nightingale
Jane Eyre. Lord of the rings. The Guernsey literary and potato peel pie society
The Bible, The Prince of Tides, and To Kill a Mockingbird
The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah, To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee, Harry Potter series JK Rowling
Rebecca, by Daphne du Marier, Replay by Ken Grimwood, Interview with the Vampire by Anne Rice
The Mirror by Marlys Millhiser, Goatsong by Frank Yerby, and The Source by James Michener.
Giovanni’s Room by James Baldwin, Buddenbrooks by Thomas Mann, The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck.
Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil
Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami, Eleanor Oliphant, The Tortilla Curtain….
The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo
A Gentleman in Moscow
The Hate U Give
Following
Cutting for stone
A little life
The god of small things.
The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls
Furiously Happy by Jenny Lawson
Educated by Tara Westover
You liked Yje Glass Castle? I hated it, thought the parents were disgusting, no sympathy for people like that who abuse children.
Sky song by abi elphinstone. The art of hearing heartbeats by jan Philip sendker. The traveller by john twelve hawks ?
Invisible furies of the heart by John boyne
Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik
Trust No Girl. http://jbook.uk/