What's the BEST book you ever read?

Hi Jes! And I bet you thought you were finished w/collecting books! Ha! This author is my absolute favorite: Jhumpa Lahiri. She wrote Interpreter of Maladies and her new one The Namesake. Both of these books are a must read! Happy reading! Kathy:D
 
My favorite is To Kill a Mockingbird, followed by The Sparrow. Also love She's Come Undone, Gone With the Wind and The Mists of Avalon.

sparrow
 
OK...I'll add mine.

My all time favorite is Tara Road by Maeve Binchy.

My closest runner up, and it's a VERY close race is The Kite Runner (I can't remember the name of the author).

BOTH....excellent reads, not too wordy, a very thought-provoking.

Good luck choosing!

Gayle
 
I just finished a really good one called "The Almond Picker"

--Lois


"If I have the belief that I can do it, I shall surely acquire the capacity to do it even if I may not have it at the beginning" - Mahatma Ghandi
 
These aren't beach reading but they are worth every minute:

Don Quixote by Cervantes
Middlemarch by George Eliot (Mary Ann Evans)
 
Hi ya all -
I really like Ken Follet. Just finished reading "The Runaway Quilt" very good. The Secret Life of Bees" very good. The Five people you meet in Heaven" very good. I also can go on and on but these are the ones that I have read very recently and are fresh in my mind. You all have given me some good suggestions.
 
The Diana Gabaldon series.....

Outlander
Dragonfly in Amber
Voyager
Drums of Autumn
The Outlandish Companion

By far the best books you will ever read....

Gods and Generals is also a winner by Jeff Shaara

His father, Michael Shaara, wrote Killer Angels...

So read in this order...

Killer Angels - Michael Shaara
Gods and Generals - Jeff Shaara
The Last Full Measure - Jeff Shaara

... if you like fiction with historical background... i.e. civil war.....
 
Hi everyone! For some lighter reading, I recommend Sydney Sheldon. He used to be one of my favorites-Other Side of Midnight great book. I just finished James Clavells Shogun. I wasn't sure if it would be for me, but I ended up reading it within a week (1152pgs) Wendy I was at Barnes and Noble with The Count of Monte Cristo in my hand and chickened out, 1,400pages! Is it easy to get into? I would really like to read some classics but haven't been able to get into them. The Grapes of Wrath, and Great Gadsby weren't for me I'm sorry to say.
`Carolyn~
 
I can't believe nobody's mentioned:

Memoirs of a Geisha
The Handmaid's Tale
The Red Tent
Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime

I also recommend:

Perfume by Patrick Suskind
Grass by Sheri Tepper
Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card
Earth's Children series starting with The Clan of the Cave Bear by Jean Auel
A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain by Robert Olen Butler

My all-time favorite books are:

The Little Prince
To Kill a Mockingbird
Their Eyes were Watching God
 
I 'm going to have to renew my library card!:p I doubt they will have all these at the recycle bookstore.....i do a book trade thing where i trade in 2 for one. And i should also have stock in Barnes and Noble;-) Thanks ladies:7


jes
 
I love these kinds of posts!

I, too, have been accused of being a book snob, but I also like a good beach book every now and then. I second the motion for The Shipping News (just finished it and LOVED it even more than the movie, which was also very good). Some others include:

1) anything by Margaret Atwood (fave author): The Handmaid's Tale, The Blind Assassin, Alias Grace, Oryx and Crake (great post-apocalyptic novel)
2) Mating by Norman Rush (takes place in Africa - very interesting)
3) The Hours by Michael Cunnigham (especially if you've already read Virginia Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway)
4) East of Eden by John Steinbeck
5) Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier
6) anything by Amy Tan (The Kitchen God's Wife, The Bonesetter's Daughter, Joy Luck Club)
7) Possession by A.S. Byatt (the movie couldn't do it justice)
8) Reading Lolita in Tehran (forgot the author) - nonfiction, but VERY interesting in terms of women's condition in Iran and how a literature professor & her female students took in joy in reading "forbidden" Western literature
9) Naked and Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris (hilarious!!)
10) this one's for the hopeless book lover - Ex Libris: Confessions of a Common Reader by Anne Fadiman (again, very funny!)

My last recommendation is for any soon-to-be-brides or friends of brides: Diary of a Mad Bride by Laura Wolf. A friend gave me this book as wedding shower gift and I read it in 2 days (couldn't put it down). It's a very light book and is perfect for someone who's trying to frantically plan a wedding! ;-) Hilarious, laugh-out-loud funny, several "OMG, I'm not the only one who's thought/done this before" moments.

Hope this helps - enjoy!!! (I'm addicted to used book stores, too - B&N already has too much of my $$!) }(

Cleo
 
Cleo,
Wow, what a list. Thanks for giving a little synopsis for every book. Very helpful and interesting.

Trying like the dickens to read fiction. I have a difficult time putting my brain in neutral and letting myself simply be "enetertained" by a book. I always like to be infromed and educated...entertained?

Just started Gabaldon's Outlander. Trying to keep up with all the historical terminology. Interesting premise though.

deb :)
 
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