The Japanese Lover — Isabelle Allende
All The Light We Cannot See — Anthony Doer
The Girl’s Guide to Hunting and Fishing — Melissa Bank
Peony in Love — Lisa See

Thomas Costain, Below the Salt
Anya Seton, Katherine
Jeff Shaara, the Killer Angels

I like history and authors who can bring past events and people to vibrant life.

Anonymous wrote:

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.

DP: I did not like Poisonwood Bible at all, but Prodigal Summer is one of my favorite books.

ADP - I always read her and while I liked Poisonwood Bible as I found the history fascinating - I loved Prodigal Summer - I reread that one still!

The tortilla curtain by T.C. Boyle

The History of Love (Nicole Krauss)
The Art of Racing in the Rain (Garth Stein)
Love and Shame and Love (Peter Orner)
Snow Child (Eowyn Ivey)
Grapes of Wrath (John Steinbeck)
Hobbit/Lord of the Rings Series (Tolkien)
Harry Potter - agree with PP, it just ticks all the imagination boxes and I read them as an adult

Anonymous wrote:

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!

I’m always searching for kindred spirits. I’m thrilled to see other posters who also love Anne. For a celebratory surprise trip, my DH planned a trip to PEI. Totally worth it to immerse yourself in Anne’s world. He said he almost went to Cabo but then realized PEI would be much better for me. He was right!

OP, for more recent fiction, I love Middlesex, The Heart’s Invisible Furies and The Silent Patient.

I’ve seen several of my favorites on here — but one that hasn’t been mentioned yet :

A River Runs Through It

Moby Dick
Wuthering Heights
The Hobbit
The Stand

The Wolf Hall trilogy by Hilary Mantel
The Undoing Project by Michael Lewis
The Red Tent by Anita Diamant
The Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole
The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan
Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse

Cane River by Lolita Tademy
Beach Music by Pat Conroy (actually anything by him)
I Know This Much is True by Wally Lamb
Grapes of Wrath
Men Like Gods (Amazing Novella by H.G. Wells)

Back to thriller/horror:

John Saul’s Second Child and Suffer the Children

I love Nabokov too, especially Lolita and Pnin

The Orphan Master’s Son - Johnson
The God of Small Things - Roy
How to be Both - Smith
Catch-22 - Heller
A Visit from the Goon Squad - Egan
Their Eyes Were Watching God - Hurston
The Joke - Kundera

+1 to A Thousand Splendid Sons and And the Mountains Echoed.


The Unbearable Lightness of Being
The Count of Monte Cristo

Lolita (Vladimir Nabokov) is my favorite.

I’ll always have a soft spot for The Things They Carried (Tim Obrien). It was HS reading but I still love it.

I’m so glad to see Persuasion getting so much love. It’s also my all-time favorite. It always gets overshadowed by her other novels, Pride and Prejudice especially, but Persuasion was Austen’s best work IMO.

My list:
1. Persuasion
2. Evelina (Horribly overlooked, but brilliant.)
3. The Name of the Wind