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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Margaret Atwood's trilogy Oryx and Crake. Sooooo good.

Second Station Eleven.

Loved Book Thief

Jane Smiley's triology (Iowa)

Kate Atkinson's Life after Life and God in Ruins

Zone of Interest by Martin Amis

Constellation of Vital Phenomena

Invention of Wings

Orphan Master's Son

Longbourn

Wolf Hall and Bring up the Bodies

Just a few of my faves!
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We have similar tastes. I couldn't put down Wolf Hall and Bring up the Bodies. Also loved Life After Life. I'm going to try some of the other recommendations on your list.[/quote]

Cool!  What are some of your favorites? 
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Favorites, both fiction and non-fiction- in addition to Life after Life, Station Eleven, and the Hilary Mantel novels, this is probably my "desert island library":

My Brilliant Friend, by Elena Ferrante, and the rest of the novels in that quartet
Ann Patchett's novels and non-fiction, especially State of Wonder (novel), Truth & Beauty (non-fic), This is the Story of a Happy Marriage (non-fic), Bel Canto (novel)
The Last Policeman Trilogy, by Ben Winters 
Some of Margaret Atwood's earlier works - like The Handmaid's Tale, Cat's Eye, The Robber Bride
Bad Feminist, by Roxane Gay (non-fiction essays)
Novels by Donna Tartt, especially The Secret History and The Goldfinch (though I admit the latter takes some commitment and I thought the first half of The Little Friend was brilliant)
Anything by Laurie Colwin, esp. her non-fic cooking essays (Home Cooking, More Home Cooking), A Big Storm Knocked It Over (novel), Happy All the Time (novel)
Anything by Alice Munro, who writes short stories
Anything by Michael Ondaatje, esp. In the Skin of a Lion (novel), Running in the Family (non-fic memoir/travel writing)
A.S. Byatt's novels, esp. Possession, The Children's Book, Still Life, A Whistling Woman
The Peppered Moth, by Margaret Drabble (A.S. Byatt's sister!)
The Namesake, by Jhumpa Lahiri (this novel makes me cry but I love it)
Short stories by Edith Pearlman 
What's Bred in the Bone, by Robertson Davies - and for something lighter, The Salterton Trilogy (esp. Tempest-Tost). I love Robertson Davies -he's like a modern-day Dickens. Too bad he's gone.
The Unspeakable, by Megan Daum (non-fic essays)
H is for Hawk, by Helen Macdonald (non-fic memoir)
The Light of the World, by Elizabeth Alexander (read this recently and it blew me away - beautifully written, moving memoir)
Birds of America, by Lorrie Moore (short stories)
The Argonauts, by Maggie Nelson (memoir - so smart, complex, and moving I started re-reading it right after I finished to make sure I understood it totally)
The Kitchen God's Wife, by Amy Tan
Being Mortal, by Atul Gawande, a non-fiction book. Also loved his prior non-fic works Complications and Better. 
A Family Life, by Akhil Sharma - a novel based on his real life. I thought this was an amazing, devastating piece of writing.
Nobody's Fool, by Richard Russo
A Prayer for Owen Meany, by John Irving- by far his greatest novel, in my opinion, though I have a soft spot for The World According to Garp and Cider House Rules too.
Gilead by Marilynne Robinson. Also Home. (Though I couldn't stand her third book in this trilogy, Lila.)
The Shipping News, by Annie Proulx
Michael Chabon's The Yiddish Policemen's Union and Telegraph Avenue. I've enjoyed some of his other novels but these two are the ones I re-read.
On Beauty, by Zadie Smith - the only one of her novels I've really enjoyed and been moved by, though I did like large stretches of "NW."
And now for something a little different: Fun Home and Are You My Mother? graphic novels by Alison Bechdel - I don't usually read graphic novels but these were really enjoyable and interesting.

And I'm excited for the following books coming out in the next year or so: Colson Whitehead's The Underground Railroad, Ann Patchett's Commonwealth, Ben Winters' Underground Airlines. The final book in the Wolf Hall trilogy - I can hardly wait for this. Moonglow, by Michael Chabon.

Next on my list to read this summer: Little Labors, by Rivka Galchen. The Past, by Tessa Hadley. Something by Curtis Sittenfeld (thanks for the Sittenfeld recommendations, PPs!). Modern Lovers, by Emma Straub (though I'm on the fence about this one because it has been SO heavily promoted over the last few weeks it makes me skeptical - anyone read this or her other stuff before?).

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