I need help finding a good book...suggestions? All time favorite?

[geochick]

I just got through my "to-do" reading list. The last book on there was The Time Traveler's Wife. It was great. I'm looking for another good book. I like pretty much anything. What's your all-time favorite book or just a great book you'd recommend? I don't like sci-fi or fantasy, unless it's especially good. Thanks!

[slaggyc]

The only one I can think of off the top of my head is Snow Flower and the Secret Fan. I thought it was a good read.

[Pennylane]

My sister insists this is one of the best books she's ever read, It's called The Outlander.

http://www.amazon.com/Outlander-Diana-Gabaldon/dp/0440242940/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1199271410&sr=1-1

I'd love to hear some other opinions on it.

I love The Kite Runner, The Other Boleyn Girl, A thousand Splendid Suns.

Ann

[npace19147]

The Outlander series is fabulous!! Escapist reading at its best!

Sharon Kay Penman's historical novels are very good, totally different though...heavier reads.

[gatorruth]

I LOVED the Outlander and the Kite Runner, too. Other books on my recommended list are:
The Red Tent
A Fine Balance (similare to Kite Runner)
Mrs. Washington and Horowitz, too by Henry Denkler
Tepper Isn't Going our by Calvin Trillon
Cloud Nine by Luanne Rice
Expecting Adam (about a woman expecting a child with either Downs or Autism, I can't remember)
A Prayer for Owen Meeny by John Irving

Hope this helps- happy reading!

[emmiem]

Water For Elephants, The Namesake, The Memory Keeper's Daughter, My Sister's Keeper, Comeback, The God of Animals, The World To Come, Rise And Shine, T is for Trepass or any of the series, The Last Jew, The Space Between Us, and Snow Flower and The Secret Fan.
Michele

[denna]

Water for Elephants
Atonement
The Kite Runner
A Thousand Splendid Suns

Any Jodi Piccoult book. I also am towards the end of East of Eden and I think it is one of the best novels I have ever read.

[AbbysMom]

Shoot! the one time I don't print something out and decide to technologically minded by adding this thread to my subscribed list, the boards go down and this thread is missing half the posts! Anyone care to re-post theirs? I ran out and got the Outlander and really liked it.

I had added a bunch of authors of mysteries that I like, including Elizabeth George (but I wouldn't start with her newest), Minette Walters, Ann Perry (the Monk and Hester series not the others), PD James, and my newest favorite Ann Purser.

[geochick]

I agree. PLEASE repost your book recommendations. I almost put all of the listed books in my saved shopping cart at Amazon, but I figured I could always come back and check the thread when I was ready for a new one. Sigh!

[wellyes]

The Outlander series & Philippa Gregory novels like "The Other Boleyn Girl" came up a lot in the old thread. They are historical fantasies that read like romance novels.

Mysteries - Elizabeth Peters is really funny

Quirky family stories with heart - Barbara Kingsolver's "Bean Trees", anything by Anne Tyler

Very funny travelogues and memoirs - try Bill Bryson! Other memoirs I liked were "Passing for Thin", "Ambulance Girl", "The Glass Castle"

Kids books that I enjoyed reading as a grownup - "The Thief Lord" by Cornelia Funke, the His Dark Materials trilogy by Phillip Pullman, and my favorite is the coming-of-age book "I Capture the Castle".

[BillK]

The Hobbit - J.R.R. Tolkien

The Stand - Stephen King

my 2 all time favorites

[StantonHyde]

I am just reading "The Thirteenth Tale"--addictive. I loved Freakanomics. "The Female Brain" was really good and let me know my we Mommy Brain was normal :-) My book club is now reading "The Observations". We also read "Balzac and the Tiny Chinese Seamstress"--very interesting. The Other Boleyn Girl and The Constant Princess are my favorite Phillipa Gregory. The Glass Castle just pissed me off. A Thousand Splendid Suns was haunting as way My Sisters Keeper. I LOVE anything by Barbara Kingsolver, but especially Animal Dreams and something that had Spring in the title.

Gotta go "be a puppy"!