Books #42

[Chocolategoggler]

Already mentally composing my list!

I can think of some immediately:
1. The Secret Garden
2. Holiday At The Dew Drop Inn (part of the One End Street series about the Ruggles family), and yes I did buy the remaining books in the series as an adult!

Two other books come to mind
3. The House At The Corner

and 4. Mr Pink Whistle by Enid Blyton plus 5.The Five Find Outers And Dog,

6. Malory Towers and 7. St Clare's school series, 8. The Enchanted Wood and 9. Magic Faraway Tree and 10. The Harry Potter books.....
I'm adding all these screenshots to justify why as a grown adult I needed to replace my old tattered copies.
Luckily some of the reviews point to other people loving the books and buying them again as adults, particularly if they have grandchildren. I don't have that particular excuse.
I did have an Uncle who liked to borrow me to take to the cinema, so he could enjoy again his favourite Disney films without looking like a wuss...

 

[ShiftyAndGrifty]

This list thing is so, so hard! I have put below some recent faves combined with others that I go back and reread every so often. In no particular order:

The Bestseller - Olivia Goldsmith
Adrian Mole Secret Diary aged 13 3/4 - Sue Townsend
The Glass Lake - Maeve Binchy
The Paper Palace - Miranda Cowley Hellier
Tomorrow x 3 - Gabrielle Zevin
Lessons in Chemistry - Bonnie Garmus
The Rosie Project - Graeme Simsion
The Secret History - Donna Tartt
Big Little Lies - Liane Moriarty
Watermelon - Marian Keyes

 

[veronica71]

Have the Jilly Cooper fans read Lace by Shirley Conran? I’ve not read Jilly but I imagine it might be a similar vibe? It’s not my usual genre but I really enjoyed it. Great fun.

I read that when I was far too young and all I remember is the goldfish


Still working on my list - books bring out the nerd in me! But two things I’ve realised a - I probably need to look closer at these lists as I’ve read some duff books and b - I’ve read quite a few books that are currently on my wish list to be read

 

[ToxicPony]

Woodworking was very meh. Read like young adult which I HATE.

I couldn’t get past first page of Age of Innocence, it was so wordy, but it was a very cheap kindle edition and it had typed election as erection!

I’m trying Animal by Lisa Taddeo now but I’m not immediately enchanted. Has anyone read it?

I remember the process of reading Animal very well. I also didn't much like it at the beginning and by the end I gave it 5 stars

 

[lokp0009]

No particular order for me either but

1. The Book Thief - Markus Zusak
2. 1984 - George Orwell
3. 11.22.63 - Stephen King
4. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban - J.K
5. To Kill A Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6. The Nightingale - Kristin Hannah
7. See You In September - Charity Norman
8. Every Note Played - Lisa Genova
9. Demon Copperhead - Barbara Kingsolver
10. The Running Grave - Robert Galbraith

Also The Hunger Games but I couldn’t pick just one so I’ve left them off!

 

[MissHavisham]

Have the Jilly Cooper fans read Lace by Shirley Conran? I’ve not read Jilly but I imagine it might be a similar vibe? It’s not my usual genre but I really enjoyed it. Great fun.

'Which one of you witches is my mother?'

I seem to quote that line a lot in my day to day life. Even though I've never had any doubt as to who my mother is!

 

[tarahalls]

I’m loving seeing all the Top 10 lists I’ve compiled my list below, they’re all books I remember feeling something deeply for at the time & still hold a special place in my heart.

In no particular order -

• The Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
• Cannery Row - John Steinbeck
• Mornings in Jenin - Susan Abulhawa
• The Crimson Petal & The White - Michael Faber
• Room - Emma Donoghue
• A Little Life - Hanya Yanagihara
• The Power of the Dog - Don Winslow
• American Psycho - Brett Easton Ellis
• Wild Swans - Jung Chang
• The Blind Assassin - Margaret Atwood

(3 extra I struggled to get on the list are The House of the Spirits, The Kite Runner & The Secret Friend (my preferred Donna Tartt novel) & maybe I’d swap out Room & American Pyscho if I did this on a different day )

 

[SaintLeo]

Have the Jilly Cooper fans read Lace by Shirley Conran? I’ve not read Jilly but I imagine it might be a similar vibe? It’s not my usual genre but I really enjoyed it. Great fun.

I haven’t read Lace but having just looked up a summery of it it doesn’t feel very Jilly Cooper-esque, other than lots of shocking for the time sex.

Lace feels like it might sit better alongside Jackie Collins (who I have read!). Jackie Collins often seemed to be lumped together with Jilly Cooper as they both wrote “bonkbusters” but to me they are very different. Jackie wrote about ball busting women, very ambitious, very American.

Jilly on the other hand is quintessentially English - the countryside is as important as some of the characters, they love their animals more than other people, and while there are some strong women in her books the focus is definitely on the men just as much if not more in some cases.

 

[tarahalls]

I haven’t read Lace but having just looked up a summery of it it doesn’t feel very Jilly Cooper-esque, other than lots of shocking for the time sex.

Lace feels like it might sit better alongside Jackie Collins (who I have read!). Jackie Collins often seemed to be lumped together with Jilly Cooper as they both wrote “bonkbusters” but to me they are very different. Jackie wrote about ball busting women, very ambitious, very American.

Jilly on the other hand is quintessentially English - the countryside is as important as some of the characters, they love their animals more than other people, and while there are some strong women in her books the focus is definitely on the men just as much if not more in some cases.

I’ve read Lace & Jackie Collins novels but nothing by Jilly Cooper. I agree with you, Jackie & Jilly wrote very different style “bonkbusters” & I’d say Lace leant more towards a Jackie Collins novel. I loved Lace at the time, I thought it was glamorous & Lucky Santangelo was my teenage heroine

 

[WeepingCassandra]

My top 10 is somewhat limited and honestly I'm not sure I could populate a full list of 10 books now! I read voraciously as a teenager - I rarely had my head out of a book - but the majority of what I read was 'pop fiction', not anything of substance and stuff I could rip through in a couple of days (and I mean a couple of days... because I used to read in the car on the way to school, then after school instead of doing my homework, at the dinner table and late into the night under my duvet). Since I hit my 'adult' years I've rarely finished a book.

Books that I know I enjoyed then and would enjoy again though -

1) The Gargoyle by Andrew Davidson
2) The Fifth Elephant by Terry Pratchett (though you could pretty much put any Discworld novel and certainly all the Watch novels on here for me)
3) Life After Life by Kate Atkinson
4) Black Beauty by Anna Sewell

Series like The Windsinger Trilogy by William Nicholson, Abhorsen by Garth Nix, Artemis Fowl by Eoin Colfer and Stravaganza by Mary Hoffman had a huge huge role in my literary upbringing and I still have my original copies today, hoping that my kids one day might want to read them too.

 

[Harlot O'Scara]

I haven’t read Lace but having just looked up a summery of it it doesn’t feel very Jilly Cooper-esque, other than lots of shocking for the time sex.

Lace feels like it might sit better alongside Jackie Collins (who I have read!). Jackie Collins often seemed to be lumped together with Jilly Cooper as they both wrote “bonkbusters” but to me they are very different. Jackie wrote about ball busting women, very ambitious, very American.

Jilly on the other hand is quintessentially English - the countryside is as important as some of the characters, they love their animals more than other people, and while there are some strong women in her books the focus is definitely on the men just as much if not more in some cases.

I read one Jackie Collins years ago and I thought it was awful. The sex scenes were just embarrassing.

 

[ohnomyhat]

I love these lists!! It's interesting seeing that some of the books that I despised are adored by other readers, and I'm sure if I could narrow down my faves a lot of people would think they were bad books. It's easier for me to say which books made my bottom 10 than my top 10 sometimes.

 

[ohnomyhat]

Series like The Windsinger Trilogy by William Nicholson, Abhorsen by Garth Nix, Artemis Fowl by Eoin Colfer and Stravaganza by Mary Hoffman had a huge huge role in my literary upbringing and I still have my original copies today, hoping that my kids one day might want to read them too.

I was OBSESSED with the Windsinger books. Sisi is one of my favourite characters ever.

 

[anniemouse]

Anyone else see other people’s top ten and go “oh I forgot about that one, I loved it!”

 

[SaintLeo]

Anyone else see other people’s top ten and go “oh I forgot about that one, I loved it!”

Absolutely! I think I could probably do an alternative top 10 made up of books from other people’s lists that I forgot.

 

[emmer_moans]

I was OBSESSED with the Windsinger books. Sisi is one of my favourite characters ever.

Is this the series with Mumpo and Kestral and Bowman?

 

[Carapop]

Anyone else see other people’s top ten and go “oh I forgot about that one, I loved it!”

Constantly!

I just saw Wild Swans above, I LOVED that book. I read it at sixteen, and then not long after did an oral French exam and discussed it as my favourite book and the examiner had just read it and loved it and I’m convinced that’s why she gave me an A as my French was not great

 

[CommentBelow]

Anyone else see other people’s top ten and go “oh I forgot about that one, I loved it!”

Yep!! It’s making it a struggle to do my own list because I struggle to remember what I’ve read pre tracking apps

 

[OhhBacon]

Constantly!

I just saw Wild Swans above, I LOVED that book. I read it at sixteen, and then not long after did an oral French exam and discussed it as my favourite book and the examiner had just read it and loved it and I’m convinced that’s why she gave me an A as my French was not great

I love it to , am going to read it again.ready for the sequel that comes out i paperback.

 

[WeepingCassandra]

Is this the series with Mumpo and Kestral and Bowman?

Yes

Think my first ever crush might have been Bowman