Anonymous
Post 07/23/2011 14:22     Subject: Best novel you have ever read
just off the top of my head a moving novel I read recently was Jeannette Winterston's Written on the Body (have not yet read The Passion as mentioned in another post).

I highly recommend it - a captivating read.

I also love the poetic prose of Michael Ondaatje (The English Patient).

A last and enduring favorite is Milan Kundera's "The Unbearable Lightness of Being.
Anonymous
Post 07/17/2011 13:57     Subject: Best novel you have ever read
meant to say "English 101" at Dartmouth
Anonymous
Post 07/17/2011 13:57     Subject: Best novel you have ever read
should be English 101, at Dartmouth
Anonymous
Post 07/17/2011 13:56     Subject: Best novel you have ever read
Middlemarch
Persuasion (Austen)
The Great Gatsby
Portrait of a Lady
What Maisie Knew (James)

sounds like English 1 reading list, but I still love all these books, and I've reread them many times over the years.
Anonymous
Post 07/17/2011 09:13     Subject: Best novel you have ever read
Confederacy of Dunces
Anonymous
Post 07/17/2011 08:57     Subject: Best novel you have ever read
Gabriel Garcia Marquez's A Love in the Time of Cholera
Anonymous
Post 07/17/2011 08:55     Subject: Best novel you have ever read
I second a Prayer for Owen Meany...also Garp by him.
Anonymous
Post 07/17/2011 08:38     Subject: Best novel you have ever read
I loved Gilead! Home was more traditional in its style, but Gilead was fabulous too. Marilynne Robinson is a fantastic writer.

Loved Wolf Hall too. Best read so far this year.
Anonymous
Post 07/16/2011 23:09     Subject: Best novel you have ever read
Anonymous wrote:I love seeing so many of my favorites on other people's lists!

The Passion- Jeanette Winterson
The Secret History- Donna Tartt
Midnight's Children- Salman Rushdie
Wise Children- Angela Carter
Neverwhere- Neil Gaiman
White Teeth- Zadie Smith
Wolf Hall- Hilary Mantel


I liked White Teeth but LOVED On Beauty by Zadie Smith. She's such a talented author!
Anonymous
Post 07/15/2011 22:28     Subject: Best novel you have ever read
I love seeing so many of my favorites on other people's lists!

The Passion- Jeanette Winterson
The Secret History- Donna Tartt
Midnight's Children- Salman Rushdie
Wise Children- Angela Carter
Neverwhere- Neil Gaiman
White Teeth- Zadie Smith
Wolf Hall- Hilary Mantel
Anonymous
Post 07/15/2011 22:03     Subject: Best novel you have ever read
A Pray for Owen Meany.

I just finished Unbroken (non-fiction) and loved it.
Anonymous
Post 07/15/2011 21:58     Subject: Re:Best novel you have ever read

Love in the Time of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
The Passion - Jeanette Winterson
Prayer for Owen Meany - John Irving (I also loved a Widow for One Year)
Divine Secrets of the Yaya Sisterhood - Rebecca wells
Enduring Love - Ian McEwan
Anonymous
Post 07/15/2011 21:42     Subject: Re:Best novel you have ever read
Love this thread too - I am in the middle of a fine balance, which is wonderful. Thanks!
Anonymous
Post 07/15/2011 20:59     Subject: Best novel you have ever read
Who's read Gilead? That's next for me.
Anonymous
Post 07/15/2011 20:54     Subject: Re:Best novel you have ever read
This thread qualifies as my favorite DCUM thread by a mile.
So many great books already mentioned. My top five favorites are
Home, Marilynne Robinson
The Promise of Rest, Reynolds Price
The Angle of Repose, Wallace Stegner
Three Junes, Julia Glass
The Thornbirds (who wrote this? I'm blanking...)

The Thornbirds certainly isn't great fiction, but I loved it as a teenager. It was so epic and romantic.

Am going to print this thread out and use as my reading guide for the next few months. Thanks OP!