Anonymous
Post 03/25/2024 12:18     Subject: Recommend your best book (fiction) ever
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!
Anonymous
Post 03/25/2024 12:10     Subject: Recommend your best book (fiction) ever
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.


The World According to Garp is funnier.

Les Miserables is the best fiction book ever.


I thought the Count of Monte Cristo was much better
Anonymous
Post 03/25/2024 11:43     Subject: Recommend your best book (fiction) ever
Anonymous wrote:Richard Russo’s Straight Man is excellent and unexpectedly funny.


+1 When I saw the request for funny, this was my first thought!

I also love Kevin Wilson’s books. They’re funny, in an odd, off-beat way. Maybe start with one of the books of short stories? They’re great, and I don’t usually go for short stories. (May be perfect for vacation, too.)
Anonymous
Post 03/25/2024 08:25     Subject: Recommend your best book (fiction) ever
Anonymous wrote:For funny, Liane Moriarty! If you haven’t read “The Husbands Secret” that’s a great funny page turner beach read. “Maybe Where’d You Go Bernadette” if you like quirky. “Lake Success” if you like social commentary or are interested in ASD. “Nothing to See Here” was very funny and poignant.

For serious books, “Wolf Hall”, “Never Let Me Go,” “pachinko.”



I HATED Lake Success - I think his books maybe just aren't for me

Agree that Pachinko and NLMG are great. Klara and the Sun is a more recent book by the same author as NLMG that I also really enjoyed.
Anonymous
Post 03/25/2024 08:25     Subject: Re:Recommend your best book (fiction) ever
I don't know if you've ever read Stephen King, but he is so much more than the horror genre. His characters are incredibly well developed and he draws you into his books from the very start. I love so many of his books, most recently Holly, and classically probably Christine is my favorite. His short stories are also great. The Mr. Mercedes trilogy is another good recent one.

Another author I love is Chris Bohjalian, although I find his stuff to be all over the place. His best books, and some of my favorite books ever, are Midwives, Sandcastle Girls, The Double Bind, The Light in the Ruins, and Skeletons at the Feast. They are all wildly different so you could even read them all back-tp-back.
Anonymous
Post 03/25/2024 08:24     Subject: Recommend your best book (fiction) ever
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.


I read Anna Karenina on vacation once and it kept me gripped, same with Wuthering Heights

I'm terrible at keeping lists of best books ever - I like a lot of books! - but if you're looking for classics, those are two that held my attention while I was traveling.

I read a wide variety of fiction so I'd need to know more about what OP enjoys reading to give more recs!
Anonymous
Post 03/25/2024 08:23     Subject: Recommend your best book (fiction) ever
If you never read Watership Down, I think it would be a great vacation pick.
Anonymous
Post 03/25/2024 08:21     Subject: Recommend your best book (fiction) ever
Anonymous wrote:Nothing to See Here by Kevin Wilson- fantastic and funny
Either of the 2 Benjamin Stevenson books - Everyone in My Family Has Killled Someone and Everyone on this Train is a Suspect - great murder mysteries and very funny


If you do audiobooks, Marin Ireland narrates this one and she has made some good books even better - she is particularly good with witty or sarcastic lines, so I'd highly recommend listening to this one if you do both. (I do and I have separate lists based on whether or not I like the narrator).
Anonymous
Post 03/25/2024 08:20     Subject: Recommend your best book (fiction) ever
Anonymous wrote:This is a hard question!!!

My favorite book ever? The Secret History. Would it still be my favorite book if I read it at 30 as opposed to 18? Maybe not.

Honorable mentions that immediately came into mind: The Poisonwood Bible; Wolf Hall; Homegoing; The Namesake.


These are also some of my top books ever
Anonymous
Post 03/25/2024 08:19     Subject: Recommend your best book (fiction) ever
Anonymous wrote:Anything by Frederick Bachman
Anxious People and Britte Marrie Was Here are my favorites of his.

Alice I have Been or Mrs Tom Thumb by Melanie Benjamin

Sense of an Ending Julian Barnes

Ruth Ware books or Lisa Jewel if you like mysteries.

Last Mrs Parrish if you like Psychological drama mysteries Liv Constantine author

Anything by Laine Moriartiy like Big Little Lies all her books are fun.




I loved the Bear Town trilogy although I know others did not. I thought they were really well written.

I have read all of Liane Moriarty and think some of her stuff is better than others. Big Little Lies and What Alice Forgot were the best two. They're all pretty entertaining reads. I actually thought the TV series of Nine Perfect Strangers was better than the book.
Anonymous
Post 03/25/2024 08:17     Subject: Recommend your best book (fiction) ever
Anonymous wrote:OP. Bonus if it’s also funny.


Jonathan Tropper is funny and I enjoyed all his books.
Anonymous
Post 03/25/2024 07:17     Subject: Recommend your best book (fiction) ever
Moby Dick is hilarious.

The Brothers Karamazov is the best.
Anonymous
Post 03/25/2024 04:57     Subject: Recommend your best book (fiction) ever
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
Anonymous
Post 03/24/2024 20:34     Subject: Recommend your best book (fiction) ever
Anonymous wrote:
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.


DP. Strange response. This is a thread for recommendations not philosophy of what’s a best book.



DP. According to your own response, you shouldn’t be posting then as it didn’t contain a book recommendation.
Anonymous
Post 03/24/2024 20:24     Subject: Recommend your best book (fiction) ever
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.


DP. Strange response. This is a thread for recommendations not philosophy of what’s a best book.