What's your favorite book and why?

[Anonymous]

Flowers for Algernon/Algernon, Charlie, and I
Summer of My German Soldier
Tess of the D'Urbervilles
Scarlet Letter
Story of the Trapp Family Singers
Cheaper by the Dozen
Dante's Inferno
Anna Karenina
Kristin Lavransdattar
If I Pay Thee Not in Gold
Catherine Called Birdy
Midwife's Apprentice
They Loved to Laugh

all three Bronte sisters' works
Taming of the Shrew, Much Ado, King Lear, Richard III, Tempest, Midsummer Night's Dream (I like the others, but those are my favorites.)

Series:
All of a Kind Family
Earth's Children
Wars of the Roses
Pern
Narnia
Prydain
LotR
HP
All Souls
Five Little Peppers
Misty of Chincoteague/Sea Star/Stormy
Malory-Anderson family
Ly-san-ter
Uglies (brilliant!!!)
Wayside School
Myth Adventures
Hero and the Crown/Blue Sword
Oz (original series!)

I follow these series, reread when I get the newest book:
Gor (yes, I know...)
Outlander/Lord John

I get everything from the following authors, and I reread frequently (each series whenever I get a new one, at minimum):
Tamora Pierce (thinking of supporting on Patreon)
Laurell K Hamilton
Piers Anthony (especially Incarnations)
Mercedes Lackey (Valdemar is possibly being turned into a show?)

I also read fanfiction (mostly Harry Potter), and I have some of my favorites bookmarked.

I have eclectic tastes. However, my favorites are usually historical, fantasy and/or sci-fi. I like historical fiction if they're well researched; Gabaldon's Outlandish Companion has an absolutely amazing book list, and it was so much fun to read the books she used for research. I have always liked books with female characters, but I don't require them to be either damsel in distress or sword-swinging heroine. Most of all, I either want to think, or I want to luxuriate in nostalgia.

They Loved to Laugh is my grandmother's favorite book. She was the only person who checked it out of the library for over 15 years... until the library gave it to her. I read it numerous times while growing up.

My grandmother loved the Little House series, and she got my sister and me a full set each, plus MacBride's Rocky Ridge series (Rose Wilder Lane's childhood). While there are definite problems with the series (as there are with most series when viewed through a later lens), I reread with nostalgia.

Earth's Children was recommended by my junior year English teacher after being caught reading Geoddessey during class, and he gifted me with a signed first edition of Shelters of Stone when he retired at the end of the year. We kept in touch until he died a few years later, and I will never part with it. He also recommended Stewart's Arthurian series starting with Crystal Cave (good, but not a favorite).

Dragonflight (Pern-McCaffrey), Blue Sword (McKinley), Spell for Chameleon (Xanth-Anthony), Black Gryphon (Valdemar-Lackey), Gentle Rogue (Malory-Anderson--Lackey), and Laughing Corpse (Anita Blake-Hamilton) were all snuck from my mother's bookcase with various levels of trouble after. Of course I snuck more, but those sparked my interest in the rest of the series.

On the other hand, my mother purposefully shared Misty and other horse stories with me as a child. Some were good, some seemed very formulaic, but Misty (and all the rest of Henry's books) stands the test of time.

Five Little Peppers was one of my great-grandmother's favorite series. She read them to me when I was young, we read them together as I grew up, and I read them to her as she declined. While I have the set she got for me as a child, I value more the older set that I inherited from her.

[Anonymous]

Project Hail Mary - unfolds wonderfully, and the best story of friendship I've read.

Andersonville - I could actually smell it when I read it. It's a saga with expert description.