What is your favorite book? I have to give "my favorite" to a friend for her 50th.

[Anonymous]

Here are a few of my favorites:

The Power of One (mentioned above)
The Regeneration Trilogy by Pat Barker (OK that is three books)
The English Patient
The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida (I could not stop thinking about it)
Paddy Clark Ha Ha Ha
Crime and Punishment
Yes, I love Booker Prize winning novels and Russian literature...

[Anonymous]

I LOVE A Tree Grows in Brooklyn but my 16 year old daughter hated it. I was so disappointed. I first read it in high school and maybe it was because my parents are from Brooklyn, I fell in love with it. My sister and I tried to make some of the recipes she mentions (gross fail).

I also love Dune as someone else mentioned. The Martian book is amazing.

This is not light reading, but I found Fifteeen Dogs fascinating, heavy, and disturbing.

[Anonymous]

Italo Calvino's If On A Winter's Night A Traveller

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:These books always immediately come to mind but they’re also popular or classics, so I’d worry she has already read them or owns them.
“Wolf Hall”
“The Poisonwood Bible”
“Possession”
“The Secret History”
“The Snows of Kilimanjaro”
“The Namesake”

There are more recent books that I’m not sure are my favorite book ever, but I enjoyed them and think they should be commended as strong works:
“Great Circle”
“Annihilation”
“The Heart’s Invisible Furies”
“North Woods”
“Trust”

I also rate Possession and The Secret History as favorite books

[Anonymous]

All the Light We Cannot See
The Red Tent
1984
As Long As the Lemon Trees Grow
On the Beach

[Anonymous]

And Ladies of the Club by Helen Hooven Santemyer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:A Tree Grows in Brooklyn comes up on these lists quite a bit. But everyone already owns it

I'd choose Rebecca or The Beautiful and the Damned by F Scott as they are fine books, but the recipient may not like.

Yup, a classic that everyone should read if not own!

[Anonymous]

Song of Solomon

Cloud Atlas

Heart of Darkness

To Paradise

[Anonymous]

A Visit From the Goon Squad (Jennifer Egan) is about the most perfect 50th bday book gift I can imagine. I’m reading On Beauty right now and loving that too. A new book that is great is Claire Lombardo’s Same as it Ever Was.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Lonesome Dove. Nobody talks about it but it's got everything. I recommended it to a book club once and got so many weird looks but then EVERYONE loved it.

Yes!!

[Anonymous]

I wish my husband did this for me! Brilliant idea

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest J. Gaines.

I haven't thought of this book in ages. I sat down with Mr. Gaines years ago for a long conversation about books. Such a dignified and kind man.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:These books always immediately come to mind but they’re also popular or classics, so I’d worry she has already read them or owns them.
“Wolf Hall”
“The Poisonwood Bible”
“Possession”
“The Secret History”
“The Snows of Kilimanjaro”
“The Namesake”

There are more recent books that I’m not sure are my favorite book ever, but I enjoyed them and think they should be commended as strong works:
“Great Circle”
“Annihilation”
“The Heart’s Invisible Furies”
“North Woods”
“Trust”

I also rate Possession and The Secret History as favorite books

I loved The Secret History and The Poisonwood Bible. I really liked Possession, though personally I found it frustrating.

[Anonymous]

The Giver - the entire series is wonderful and has recurring characters

[Anonymous]

At Home in the World