Recommend your best book (fiction) ever

[Anonymous]

Not funny as I remember it, but Judy Budnitz's If I Told You Once was an extraordinary book.

I waited YEARS for her to write another one, but nope.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My “best” books are not the ones I’d choose on vacation.

This is impressively uninformative. You’ve turned OP’s original question into 2 questions with one sentence.

What are your “best” books? What books would you choose for vacation?

Do you consider the “best” books to be dry, ponderous classics and you prefer something entertaining on vacation?

Are your “best” books porn, but you can’t read them on vacation because it’s harder to keep the kids out of your stuff?

Do you get lost in a good book and are too busy on vacation to give the “best” books your full attention and prefer something mediocre that you can easily set down?

Please let us know what your “best” books are, what you read on vacation, and why the lists differ.

My post somehow got buried in the quotes.

For me to consider it an amazing book, I need to remember it in a couple of years and have some takeaway from it. That usually means it’s a heavier book.

I prefer to read lighter things on vacation. OP asked for the “best” book and something funny, which is why I replied as I did. I’m not quite certain what OP is looking for.

Thanks for clarifying. You might post a few of each so that OP can have some options in both categories.

Your policing is obnoxious.

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My favorite novel is A Prayer for Owen Meany, by John Irving. I've reread it several times. Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout and Gilead by Marilynne Robinson are up there, too.

Oh lord those are some heavy books!

Feel free to skip them and read some chick lit?

[Anonymous]

The Trees by Percival Everett is funny and serious. Everett is the same author that wrote American Fiction. Dr. No by Everett is also very funny if you like James Bond or like to make fun of James Bond.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My favorite novel is A Prayer for Owen Meany, by John Irving. I've reread it several times. Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout and Gilead by Marilynne Robinson are up there, too.

I really liked Olive Kitteridge, it inspired to me almost everything else Strout has written most of which I also enjoyed a lot.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Ghosts, Dolly Alderton
Saturn’s Return to NY, Sara Gran
The Boys, Katie Hafner
The Office of Historical Corrections, Danielle Evans
Happy all the time, Laurie Colwin
Several People are Typing, Calvin Kalsuke

This poster back again with some different genres:

Master and margarita, mikhail bulgakov
Giovanni’s Room, James Baldwin
Bad Blood, John Carryou
The wolf at the door, mfk fisher
Operating instructions, Anne lamott
My sister the serial killer, oyinkan braithwaite

Like other posters, I adore Never Let Me Go, the Sense of an Ending, Nothing to see here. Kevin Wilson is truly wonderful.

[Anonymous]

Driving Over Lemons : An Optimist In Spain by Chris Stewart

Funny but also sweet and insightful and empathetic (about another culture)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Best fiction EVER?? Ok:

A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry is top of my list
In the classics column: The Count of Monte Cristo, Jane Eyre, David Copperfield, Rebecca . All are un-put-downable
The Stand by Stephen King
Circe by Madeline Miller
Smilla’s Sense of Snow

Yes!!! Superb!!!

Finally, a good rec for OP!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ghosts, Dolly Alderton
Saturn’s Return to NY, Sara Gran
The Boys, Katie Hafner
The Office of Historical Corrections, Danielle Evans
Happy all the time, Laurie Colwin
Several People are Typing, Calvin Kalsuke

This poster back again with some different genres:

Master and margarita, mikhail bulgakov
Giovanni’s Room, James Baldwin
Bad Blood, John Carryou
The wolf at the door, mfk fisher
Operating instructions, Anne lamott
My sister the serial killer, oyinkan braithwaite

Like other posters, I adore Never Let Me Go, the Sense of an Ending, Nothing to see here. Kevin Wilson is truly wonderful.

Not OP, but thank you!

[Anonymous]

"Hell of a Book" (Jason Mott) is a great page-turner--laugh-out-loud funny in places and quirky, but also with a deeper more serious thread that will stick with you.

I loved "Sorrow and Bliss" (Meg Mason). Also funny and quirky, with serious themes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My favorite novel is A Prayer for Owen Meany, by John Irving. I've reread it several times. Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout and Gilead by Marilynne Robinson are up there, too.

Me too!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Best - Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes

Best funny - I’ve Got Your Number by Sophie Kinsella

Funniest thing I’ve ever read - Chapter 26 of The Lord God Made Them All

While I wouldn’t generally describe James Herriot as a humorous writer, one of the funniest things I’ve ever read is the short story that makes up chapter 26 of his book The Lord God Made Them All. James Herriot writes stories of a country vet and this chapter relates the misadventures of one unfortunate bull while the vet was trying to obtain a sample in accordance with the new technology of artificial insemination. The rest of the book isn’t particularly funny.

Honorable mention:

Below the Salt by Thomas B. Costain

Mrs. Pollifax series by Dorothy Gilman

Advise and Consent by Allen Drury (written from Cold War right-wing slant)

The Westing Game

The Secret Garden

Cheaper by the Dozen (not fiction - but reads like it, based on the authors’ father)

Frankenstein - not at all what I thought it would be, it’s NOT a typical horror story

Oh I remember loving the westing game!!! I haven’t read that in years

[Anonymous]

I saw Rebecca recommended- most people who read at all have read that but if you have not (or not for years) that’s a good classic that I would enjoy on vacation.

I also enjoyed Wide Sargasso Sea, which is a re-telling of Jane Erye from another perspective.

I also loved I know why the caged bird sings (and think it would be ok for vacation) but I guess that’s not really fiction

[Anonymous]

Not at all funny but beautifully written and nice as a spring book: the Age of Innocence by E. Wharton

[Anonymous]

I agree with a lot of the previous recommendations.

Here are mine:

A prayer for Owen Meany
Cutting for Stone
Sophie's Choice
A Fine Balance
Pachinco
Ana Karenina