Devon Book Club discussion

Who doesn't love a book list?

I know I do.

During July I'll be compiling 2 Devon Book Club top 20 books of all time lists - one for fiction and one non-fiction. I'd love to hear about the outstanding books that have stood the test of time for you or you are sure will do if they are more recent. Any genre, from any period.

If you can add a note about why the books you nominate stand out for you that would be wonderful too.

In no particular order:
Anything by: Alice Munro, Margaret Atwood, Kate Atkinson,
Wilkie Collins, Charles Dickens, Jon McGregor,

Also:
Nadeem Aslam: Maps for Lost Lovers.
" " The Wasted Vigil & The Blind Man's Garden.
Rohinton Mistry A Fine Balance, & Such a Long Journey
Susannah Clarke Piranesi
Nicola Barker Darkmans
George Eliot Middlemarch, Adam Bede, The Mill on the Floss
& Daniel Deronda
Joseph Conrad Heart of Darkness, Nostromo, Lord Jim, etc.
Katherine Mansfield Collected Short Stories.
Marilynne Robinson: Homecoming, Gilead, ... etc.

There are more ... many, many more! And many I have not revisited for a long time. Writing this is making me want to go back and reread all my past loves ... but there are so many more potential new loves already piled up on the shelves.
I will give it some more thought!

DrMama wrote: "In no particular order:
Anything by: Alice Munro, Margaret Atwood, Kate Atkinson,
Wilkie Collins, Charles Dickens, Jon McGregor,

Also:
Nadeem Aslam: Maps for Lost Lovers.
" " The Wasted Vigil &..."

This is a wonderful list Carol but you need to help me out a bit more here. I can't list all the work of e.g. Dickens or Alice Munro. I need a few totally stand-out titles. I know it's a tough one but it is only for fun - give me the 5 you'd rescue from a fire

Hi Ian ... Yes, of course! Got carried away ...
Nadeem Aslam: 'The Wasted Vigil'.
Rohinton Mistry: 'A Fine Balance'
George Eliot: 'Middlemarch'.
Kate Atkinson: 'A God in Ruins'.
Nicola Barker: 'Darkmans'.
Joseph Conrad: 'Heart of Darkness' ('cos it was my 1st').
Katherine Mansfield: 'Collected Stories' ('cos she led me to Lit').
Will think even more ......

Cheers, Carole

Phew! I can hear the gears grinding. All great choices

It's so difficult to know which to pick, isn't it, since different books speak to you at different stages in your life? But, off the top of my head, I have some standouts: The Great Gatsby, Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, Snow Falling on Cedars, Jane Eyre, The Go-Between and, in non-fiction: Leonardo da Vinci: Flights of the Mind and The Adventure of English: The Biography of a Language

Kathy wrote: "It's so difficult to know which to pick, isn't it, since different books speak to you at different stages in your life? But, off the top of my head, I have some standouts: [book:The Great Gatsby|46..."

Thanks Kathy - an interesting range - first suggestion for Le Carre. Loving the non-fiction choices too.

The list is getting very long already - watch out for more posts

So, - the story so far. Top 20 in order, rest as they came in.

Nominations close on 11/7/21

House On The Strand Daphne Du Maurier
Wuthering Heights Emily Bronte
Wind In The Willows Kenneth Graham
Miss Smilla's Feeling For Snow P. Hoeg
Lord Of The Rings Tolkien
Lorna Doone RD Blackmore
The Great Gatsby Scott Fitzgerald
Anna Karenina Tolstoy
War And Peace Tolstoy
The Dutch House A. Patchett
And Then There Were None Agatha Christie
Small Island Andrea Levy
The Little Prince Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
Jane Eyre C. Bronte
Rebecca Daphne Du Maurier
Crime And Punishment F Dostoevsky
The Brothers Karamazov F Dostoevsky
100 Years Of Solitude Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Middlemarch George Elliot
1984 George Orwell
The Chrysalids J. Wyndham
Price and Prejudice Jane Austen
Little Women Louisa May Alcott
Hamnet M O'Farrell
The Big Sleep R. Chandler
A Fine Balance Rohinton Mistry
Les Miserables Victor Hugo
Woman In White Wilkie Collins
The Colour Purple A. Walker
Witch World Books Andre Norton
Every Light In The House Burnin' Andrea Levy
God of Small Things Arundhati Roy
Lacuna B. Kingsolver
The Poisonwood Bible B. Kingsolver
Unsheltered B. Kingsolver
Kestrel For A Knave Barry Hines
Don Quixote Cervantes
Tale of Two Cities Charles Dickens
Things Fall Apart Chinua Achebe
Victory Conrad
Snow Falling On Cedars D. Guterson
The Goldfinch Donna Taart
Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy Douglas Addams
Fried Green Tomatoes At Whistle Stop Café Fannie Flagg
Love In The Time of Cholera Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Short Stories (esp Une Vie) Guy De Paupassant
The Cruelty of Morning H. Bonner
To Kill A Mockingbird H. Lee
A Little Life Hanya Yanagihara
Wolf Hall Hilary Mantel
Around The World in 80 Days J Verne
Corrections J. Frantzen
Catcher In The Rye J.D. Salinger
Emma Jane Austen
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy John Le Carre
Heart of Darkness Joseph Conrad
Nostromo Joseph Conrad
Catch 22 Joseph Heller
Wild Swans Jung Chang
One Thousand Splendid Suns K Hosseini
A God in Ruins Kate Atkinson
Collected Stories Katherine Mansfield
The Go-Between L.P. Hartley
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy Le Carre
The Kindly Ones Little
Ducks, Newbury Port Lucy Ellman
Gone With The Wind Margaret Mitchell
Refiners Fire Mark Helprin
Soldier of The Great War Mark Helprin
Airs Above The Ground Mary Stewart
Nine Coaches Waiting Mary Stewart
The Moon Spinner Mary Stewart
The Wasted Vigil Nadeem Aslam
Darkmans Nicola Barker
Who Fears Death Nnedi Okorafor
Kindred Octavia Butler
The Picture of Dorian Gray Oscar Wilde
The Hierarchies Ros Anderson
The Eagle Of The Ninth Rosemary Sutcliffe
The Mark Of The Horse Lord Rosemary Sutcliffe
The Big Goodbye Sam Wasson
And Quiet Flows The Dawn Sholokov
Tess Of The D'Urbevilles Thomas Hardy
The Mayor of Casterbridge Thomas Hardy
Fathers and Sons Turgenev
Earthsea Cycle U le Guin
The Sound and The Fury W. Faulkner

Lord of the Rings
A day in the life of Ivan Denisovic - Alexander Solzhenitsyn
Philip Pullman's - His Dark Materials (the full trilogy if it's allowed!)
Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
Mary Shelley - Frankenstein
Oscar Wilde - the Picture of Dorian grey

The Throne of Glass series by Sarah J Maas
The Daughter of the Forest by Juliet Marillier
Harry Potter by J K Rowling
Any books by Annie M G Schmidt
Magician - Raymond Feist
Circe - Madeline Miller
Pippi Longstocking - Astrid Lindgren
Pigs in Clover - Simon Dawson
Born a Crime - Noah Trevor
Circus of Wonders - Elisabeth Macneal
Nala's World - Dean Nicholson
Spectacles - Sue Perkins
The Girl with the Louding Voice -
Abi Daré
Sealskin - Su Bristow
Where the Crawdads sing - Delua Owens
The Mercies - Kiran Millwood Hargrave
Girl, Women, Other - Bernardine Evaristo
Eleanor Elephant is completely fine - Gail Honeyman
Winnie The Pooh - A.A. Milne
Any books by Elif Shafak

it is very hard to choose only 20 favourites, but I am choosing these one's with how it made me feel and some of them of memories of Netherlands and growing up.

Carrie wrote: "Lord of the Rings
A day in the life of Ivan Denisovic - Alexander Solzhenitsyn
Philip Pullman's - His Dark Materials (the full trilogy if it's allowed!)
Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
Mary Shelle..."

Rules - what rules? Trilogy allowed. Great choices. Love Solzhenitsin - he's had a few nominations now. First for Philip Pullman though

Naomi wrote: "The Throne of Glass series by Sarah J Maas
The Daughter of the Forest by Juliet Marillier
Harry Potter by J K Rowling
Any books by Annie M G Schmidt
Magician - Raymond Feist
Circe - Madeline Miller..."

Hi Naomi - all great choices. Whilst there are no rules as such I can't really cope with "any books by..." If it is a Best Books of All Time we can't really include the whole of a writers work - so, can you pick one from each of the writers - or I'll have to randomly do so :)

I think every adult should read 'Wild Swans' by Jung Chang, as it gives a true picture of what life was really like for women in China during the twentieth century. I've also read 'The Lacuna' by Barbara Kingsolver several times - again it's a great insight into life in the States in the middle of the twentieth century.

I quite agree Cynthia both excellent books, I would add The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz for an insight into the situation in the Dominican Republic not that long ago, also The Pillars of the Earth, Ken Follett, and Stand on Zanzibar by John Brunner, should be required reading for all politicians.

Cynthea wrote: "I think every adult should read 'Wild Swans' by Jung Chang, as it gives a true picture of what life was really like for women in China during the twentieth century. I've also read 'The Lacuna' by B..."

Hi Cynthia - not read either of them but they are both well regarded and will go on the list (actually, Wild Swans is already on it!)

Ley wrote: "I quite agree Cynthia both excellent books, I would add The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz for an insight into the situation in the Dominican Republic not that long ago, also The Pi..."
Happy to add all of those - are they fiction or NF?

Ian wrote: "Ley wrote: "I quite agree Cynthia both excellent books, I would add The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz for an insight into the situation in the Dominican Republic not that long ago,..."

Sorry - I meant the two that are not Ken Follett

they're fiction Ian.

Ley wrote: "they're fiction Ian."

Thanks