Best fiction you've ever read...calling all readers

N

Nomad

Guest
Years ago I started a book club for fiction readers. I didn't stay in it for various reasons, especially since I got super busy the last two years. NOw, things are quieter and I'm back.

I'm not a big fiction reader. I usually prefer non fiction...but I really want to try fiction. Always have. by the way, just read "LIttle Bee," wow...very interesting! (It's about a young African Woman who witnesses crime in her village and then is sent to England...complicated, at times terrorizing, fascinating....hard to fully explain).

Ok...we are making a list of FICTION books for next year.

I'm at a loss. It's just not a topic I'm familiar with. Soo....for you fiction readers...what is the BEST (or top two if it is a tie) fiction book you have ever read and give me a one sentence description or reason why. MANY MANY THANKS. I NEED THIS ASAP!
 

DaisyFace

Love me...Love me not
Well, let's see...

"Pillars of the Earth" by Ken Follett. It's a page-turning historical drama. In fact, I think a movie version is in production...

"Watership Down" by Richard Adams. One of my all-time favorite stories...

"The Beggar King and the Secret of Happiness" by Joel Ben Izzy. A combination of fiction and non-fiction. The author tells of his own story battling serious illness against a backdrop of traditional folktales.
 

AnnieO

Shooting from the Hip
Err... Depends on how much time you have...

The "Outlander" series by Diana Gabaldon is AWESOME! History, time travel, myths and a little romance for seasoning... And there are a BUNCH of books... They just all happen to be 2" thick...
 

TerryJ2

Well-Known Member
Water for Elephants
Kite Runner
White Oleander
The Fountainhead
The Horse Whisperer
An Artist of the Floating World
Snow Falling on Cedars
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime
Funny in Farsi (for something lighter)
 

CrazyinVA

Well-Known Member
Staff member
The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver. "Haunting" is a good word for it. It's about a missionary who moves to the Congo with his family. It stuck with me because it's ultimately about accepting people where they are, and not trying to fit them into your mold of where you think they should be.
 

recoveringenabler

Well-Known Member
Staff member
First one of many which came to mind is The lovely bones by Alice Sebold.
Centers on a young girl who has been murdered and watches over her family - and her killer - from heaven. She must weigh her desire for vengeance against her desire for her family to heal.
 

Malika

Well-Known Member
"A Thousand Splendid Suns" by Khaled Hosseini, the author of "The Kite Runner", set in his native Afghanistan. A tale marvellously and yet very simply told, evocative characterisations, sweeping historical range and deeply, deeply moving. A classic, in my humble opinion.
 

Estherfromjerusalem

Well-Known Member
The best fiction book I ever read is by William Horwood, called "Skallagrigg." It's about brain-damaged people, and it is the most amazing and moving book I have ever read. The few people I have reluctantly lent my thumb-eared copy to, have all returned it expressing amazement at the book. I guard my copy because it is not easy to get hold of. Really, the best book I have ever read.

Love, Esther
 

donna723

Well-Known Member
One of my all-time favorites, the one I've read over and over again, is "A Painted House" by John Grisham. Hard to describe but it's completely different from his other books. It's told from the point of view of the seven year old son of very poor cotton farmers in 1950's Arkansas. The story and the characters are totally captivating, reminds me a bit of "The Grapes of Wrath".

I've lost track of how many times I've read it. And my little paperback copy was passed around and read by so many of my friends at work that it's falling apart now. Even some friends who aren't normally avid readers have read this and loved it!
 
H

HaoZi

Guest
Here's another vote for Watership Down
Stephen King's Dark Tower series
C.S. Friedman's Coldfire trilogy
 

Hound dog

Nana's are Beautiful
I don't think I could pin it down to a single book. Shoot, I couldn't pin it down to a single genre. I'm all over the place from historical fiction to science fiction.

A series I will recommend............simply because it was truly awesome on several levels, not only is the character development amazing, but the story is pretty awesome....AND.....it makes you think......and maybe view the world just a little bit differently.

The Odd Thomas Books by Dean Koontz

He happens to be one of my fav authors. If I'm going to buy a fiction book based on author? Dean Koontz and Robert Heinlein every single time. I think I have our local book store owner primed to start ordering me some Heinlein ones that I need to replace in husband's extensive collection going back many decades. They been read literally to death some of them. LOL
 

donna723

Well-Known Member
Another one that I've read over and over again is "The Widow of the South" by Robert Hicks. It's fascinating if you're in to historical fiction or the Civil War era. Details are fictionalized but all the characters, all the happenings, were real. It's set in Franklin, Tennessee, less than a two hour drive from where I live. It's an account of the McGavock family who lived on the Carnton Plantation, next to the site of the Battle of Franklin, one of the bloodiest battles of the Civil War. Their home was taken over by the Union Army and used as a field hospital. After the battle, the wife, Carrie McGavock, arranged for the 1500 Confederate soldiers that were killed there to be buried in an elaborate cemetery she set up on the plantation grounds. She devoted the rest of her life to maintaining this cemetery and corresponding with the families of the soldiers buried there. And it's all still there - the plantation house with the original furniture and old family portraits still hanging on the walls, and the cemetery! You can even see it on Google Earth! Carrie McGavock was the great-great grandmother of one of my good friends and one of these days we're going to make the drive to Franklin and see it.
 

Fran

Former desparate mom
I just finished the "Hunger Games" trilogy. It was gripping even if it was a little dark. I couldn't put it down.
I'm going to pick up "The Painted House" on Donna's recommendation.
I loved "Outlander","The Help"
 
Top