A Secret History- Donna Tartt
A Little Life - Hanya Yanagihara
Pachinko - Min Jin Lee

I have lots of favorites but the first two to pop in my head are:

Pale Fire by Vladimir Nabokov
Midnight’s Children by Salman Rushdie


Oh and thought of a couple more:

Sister Carrie by Theodore Dreiser
The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton

Anonymous wrote:Anne of Green Gables, LM Montgomery
The Heart of the Matter, Graham Greene
Jane Eyre, Charlotte Bronte
Brideshead Revisited, Evelyn Waugh
Light in August, William Faulkner

You and I would be kindred spirits, PP!

Snow by Orhan Pamuk
Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Toles
Sense Of An Ending by Julian Barnes

A Prayer for Owen Meany— John Irving
The Miracle Life of Edgar Mint— Brady Udall
Possession—A.S. Byatt
The Crossing— Cormac McCarthy

Poisonwood Bible is one of mine too! Funny, I haven't liked her other books.

Others are: Cruddy by Lynda Barry. This book doesn't fit any genre. It's illustrated but not a graphic novel. It might be classified as a YA book (not sure) but it's not typical at all for YA. It's just fantastic and weird.

Those are really the only two books I have read over and over again.

Do you like Amy Tan? The Kitchen Gods Wife and Joy Luck Club are somewhat similar to your list.

Grapes of Wrath - Steinbeck
Lonesome Dove - McMurtry
Persuasion - Austen

Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell

Season of Passage (Pike)
Stupid but I adored it at ~ 14?

Harry Potter. Nothing gripped my imagination like that series.

The Heart’s Invisible Furies by John Boyne

Anonymous wrote:Prodigal Summer - Barbara Kingsolver
Whoredom In Kimmage - Rosemary Mahoney
The Blue Sword - Robin McKinley
The Last Chinese Chef - Nicole Mones
Their Eyes Were Watching God - Zara Neale Hurston
The Makioka Sisters - Junichiro Tanizaki

in addition to some favorites already mentioned

Sorry: Zora (damn autocorrect)

Prodigal Summer - Barbara Kingsolver
Whoredom In Kimmage - Rosemary Mahoney
The Blue Sword - Robin McKinley
The Last Chinese Chef - Nicole Mones
Their Eyes Were Watching God - Zara Neale Hurston
The Makioka Sisters - Junichiro Tanizaki

in addition to some favorites already mentioned

Anonymous wrote:Some of my most favorites (it's hard to pick)

1. The Red Tent by Anita Diamant
2. Wait Til Helen Comes by Mary Downing Hahn (childhood favorite since I was 10)
3. This Tender Land By William Kent Krueger
4. The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey
5. The Giver by Louis Lowry
6. Yellow Crocus by Laila Ibrahim
7. I know this Much is True by Wally Lamb
8. Hunger Games Trilogy (don't judge!)
9. The Fourth Monkey Trilogy by J.D. Barker
10. The Dovekeepers by Alice Hoffman

OMG. Was discussing horror books with a friend of DD, and I mentioned this book, and she read it and loved it! So glad that I’m not the only crazy person who remembers this book from 30 years ago!!

Wouldn’t have made my top list but wanted to share!
My desert island books, don’t judge…
- Anne of Green Gables series
- 11/22/63 by Stephen King
- Jane Eyre
- Lightning, Dean Koontz
- Andre Dubus, entire anthology, NOT Andre Dubus III
- F. Scott Fitzgerald, entire anthology
- and let’s be honest, I’ll throw in the Outlander series, bc if I’m stranded on desert island I would want some JAMMF

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Need some ideas of good books! Here is my list:

1) House of Spirits - Isabella Allende
2) And the Mountains Echoed - Khaled Housseini
3) A Thousand Splendid Suns - also by Housseini
4) In the Time of the Butterflies - Julia Alvarez
5) Poisonwood Bible - Barbara Kingsolver

Yes to A Thousand Splendid Suns.

I actually love everything by Kingsolver EXCEPT Poisonwood Bible, but that is her most popular novel.

Also love A Constellation of Vital Phenomena by Anthony Marra(?)

Op here - interesting about Barbara Kingsolver. Poisonwood Bible took me a while to get into but then I absolutely loved it. I also loved Animal Dreams by her.

Ooo, if you haven’t read them yet, try The Bean Trees (her first), Prodigal Summer, and (a challenge but my favorite!) The Lacuna. I really liked Animal Dreams, too, OP.