I love rereading books. One of the advantages of Chemotherapy was getting my memory wiped and getting to read favorite books for almost the first time.

A real favorite is The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield. The main character, the one you get the point of view from, is a serious reader, one who got lost in a book and fell off a wall as a child. I read it about once a year. As a huge fan of short stories I reread Sherlock Holmes over and over. I have a huge annotated copy that I will simply open and start where ever, I know them all that well. I reread most of Dickens, Bleakhouse is an interesting favorite Bookwoman. There are a ton of books I could name but

patricia

" Still Foolin' 'Em by Billy Crystal for best memoir "

If you liked this, two books by people who I think are more brilliant comedians and whose books I liked much better are

Born Standing Up, by Steve Martin (which among other things explains why he stopped doing standup comedy)

and

So, Anyway, by John Cleese.

Both audiobooks read by the respective authors. Cleese's book is especially cute because he often can't help but giggle when describing various funny situations he found himself in.

Another very good autobiography is Andrew Lloyd Webber's Unmasked.

All three reveal their principals to be decent, interesting, and relatively normal people, whose acquaintance anyone would treasure. Crystal grates on me a bit, probably just personal taste.

Hilary Mantel gave me so many hours of pleasure. Gone too early. I'm waiting impatiently to view the final segment coming up on Masterpiece.

Would an old lady like me enjoy LOTR? Maybe it's best if you remember it from your youth? I didn't appreciate the preachiness in Narnia.

along the lines of Billy Crystal’s memoirs which we enjoyed listening to, Michael J Fox’s memoirs are very good “listens”. Thanks for the recs of Steve Martin and John Cleese, I will try to get them from the library (Libby, Hoopla, Cloud, whatever else they have) for an upcoming road trip.

To Kill A Mockingbird and Grapes of Wrath are two of my very favorites. I have been reading since kindergarten starting with Bobbsey Twins and Nancy Drew. My husband is an avid reader as well and the first thing we did when we were first married and moved around a few years was to register at the local library. Although I always read to my kids religiously, neither are readers. I don't know why because they have their master's degrees, but my grandson seems to be a reader. We pick up books every Wednesday at our local library, where we have been going for 50 years. Mostly, I read fiction bestsellers now.

My favorite, that no one reads? In the Kingdom of Ice: The Grand and Terrible Voyage of USS Jeanette. It is so freaking good!

Laceyvail, thanks for the recommendation of Kristen Lavransdatter, and the heads-up for which translation. I see that the current, award-winning, translation is considered closer to the author’s style.

So many good books in this thread, and I’m happy to learn of books I hadn’t heard of.

rob, I have read a bit about Shackleton’s adventure so I’m sure I’ll find In the Kingdom of Ice at the other pole interesting, too.

"I will try to get them from the library"

I know both are available from Overdrive (the Libby app). Your library may or may not have it included in its subscription. Maybe from other vendors too though I think most books carried by Overdrive are on an exclusive basis relative to other library content providers.

As you may know, no library (at least in my experience) ever has anything approaching even a large percentage of what Overdrive has available. It's far too vast a list. What it can provide is much more extensive than any one library would need to make available or could afford.

Thank you all, for offering some excellent choices for future book reading!

Since I cannot decide, I will add to the collaborative reading list with these selections.

Novels: The Personal Librarian, The Covenant of Water, This Tender Land, The Dutch House (audio book version expertly read by Tom Hanks), The Lincoln Highway, The Midnight Library, The Sweetness of Water

Nonfiction: Just Mercy, The Golden Spruce, The Hidden Life of Trees, Surrender (Bono even sings at the start of some chapters in the audio book), Braiding Sweetgrass, Dinners with Ruth, Caste, Blink

I've already "borrowed" it from Libby so I'm good to go. And I notice that it's only a 4-hour listen so I know that I can check something else out. We left a CD from Stanley Tucci's "Taste" in the last car we traded in, so maybe we'll borrow that to hear the rest, since the new car doesn't have a CD player. Nor an audio jack. Online access sure is nice.

In newer cars, you activate Libby on your phone, connect the phone wirelessly to the car using Bluetooth (as you would for hands free phone use), select Bluetooth audio as a sound source (instead of radio or satellite), and then play it through the audio system.

All the King's Men by Robert Penn Warren and The Raj Quartet by Paul Scott are two of my all time favorites.

We are still figuring out the car, and how to DISable some things.

thanks you guys. A pattern that I have finely tuned is when I hear or read of a book title of interest, I will look it up on Am-z-n, read the reviews, and if it looks good enough to my liking (odd as it is) purchase it for my beloved kindle. If not head over heels infatuated, I can order it from my stellar, local library. They even deliver it to my doorstep. Cool.

oh, I loved the Hidden Life of Trees, JiJ.

Gone With The Wind, Roots, Lonesome Dove, To Kill a Mockingbird, The Green Mile and so many more.

I too loved The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield, but was disappointed in her other book, Once Upon a River probably because my expectations were so high after the first one.

Such a great topic...I'll be adding it to the meta thread: https://www.gardenweb.com/discussions/6333291/meta-of-favorite-threads#n=72

I have very good memories of Rebecca, but when I tried to read it again, it just didn't hold up to the passage of time and changes in my expectations.

Some books I thought were very good but also quite painful, so I don't want to read them again, include The Jungle, and Crime and Punishment.

I reread Tony Hillerman's novels in the Navajo Nation, not because of any great meaning in the books, but because I find his evocation of the main characters' lives and the geography to be quite calming. I know that sounds weird, but that's the feeling I get from reading them, even the ones with murders.

The Handmaid's Tale is one I have (and will continue to) reread every now and then.

Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal still makes me laugh whenever I listen to (the audiobook) again.

The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane by Kate DiCamillo. Its a young adult novel, but really for all of us.

Toronto, i loved Lamb!

I have read so many wonderful books! My two absolute favorites that I re-read frequently are War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy and A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth. I also re-read and re-listen to Troubles and The Siege of Krishnapur by J. G. Farrell, both great books. As those have already mentioned, Kristen Lavransdatter by Sigrid Undset as well as Thomas Mann's Buddenbrooks and The Magic Mountain. The Forsyte Saga by John Galsworthy is another great family saga. Anything by Charles Dickens, especially my absolute favorite David Copperfield. There are colorful characters and themes in that novel that could easily comprise six separate books. As well as great literature, he was a voice for those without a voice, i.e. children living in poverty. The magic of these writers is that their art seems to flow so naturally, there are no shoe-horned or false steps to be seen.

@Uptown Gal, The "Spencer"author is Robert Parker, not John. Yes, I have them all.

@chisue, you may well like LOTR. It's not as preachy as the Narnia books, probably because their author was not as religious as C S Lewis was.

I have enjoyed many of the books that you all have also enjoyed. (I thought I was the only "Once and Future King" fan :-) ). It's good to hear that many of you reread favourites- most people think I'm odd to reread books I've already read :-)

I'm also a science fiction and fantasy fan. My reading started in the days of Heinlein and Clarke, Asimov and Silverberg and so many others. So many books, so little time...

Ah Annie D, I so agree that her second book left a lot to be desired which might keep you from reading the next one Bellman and Black. Now that one is way more interesting. You get to learn a lot about crows as you go along. It is a book you have to digest. Such different books.

As a reader of shorts I tend to think of my inability to remember the names of authors as a serious flaw but then again if you cant depend on any individual author to produce the same quality then maybe it isn't

DH signed me up for something called One Story. You pay some pittance and get a new short about once a month. Look them up and sign up. You will be supporting new talent and maybe just maybe you get some astonishing story. Mostly not. But I have a few that bounce around in my head and that is all I ask. I adore a good short. Stephen King, despised as he is because he is so prolific has written some stories that scorch your brain. I would never read one of his novels.

patriciae

I love Stephen King. He does characters so well, giving them mannerisms and personalities so true you feel that if you met them you'd instantly recognise them.

I’ve never been a big Stephen King fan, as horror is too disturbing for me, but a few years ago I read 11/22/63 and it was terrific. I really loved it.

I haven’t seen Middlesex mentioned by anyone. I loved that book and it’s one of the few contemporary novels I have reread. By Jeffrey Eugenides.

bpath,

I wish I could unread it so I could read it again. I don't think that about anything else I've ever watched or read. Maybe. But this is the first thing I ever thought that about!!! So well written. The title gives away what happens, but it's still amazing.

My favorite trilogy is by William Burroughs: Nova Express, The Ticket That Exploded, and The Wild Boys. I saw Wm Burroughs in San Francisco and had him autograph my copy of The Wild Boys.

Thanks Colleenoz...about Robert Parker...my mistake ;) Think John was the one

that worked on the TV show with Robert Urich (Spenser for Hire).

Elmer: Thanks...I have read Steve Martin's "Born Standing Up" too....I also enjoyed

that. "This Time Together" by Carol Burnett...a bit sad. Actually, this thread started

me thinking, and lots of bios come to mind that I really enjoyed. Have to find more

time to read again. LOL Thanks everyone....

I really enjoyed Stephen King in the first half of his career, more or less - probably about until his accident, maybe? Carrie, Firestarter, Dolores Claiborne were all great, as were many of the books he wrote as Richard Blackman, like Thinner and The Long Walk. Then, I started to find his books less engaging and a little self indulging - until 11/22/63, which I agree was terrific.

Another good autobiography is "Born A Crime" by Trevor Noah (bonus, he narrates the audiobook).

My favourite non-fiction include The Alchemy of Air, Red Harvest, and Bad Blood.

TV, would you mind adding authors to your nonfiction books as there are a number of them with the same title.

Uptown, speaking of Carol Burnett, Home by her friend Julie Andrews is also a good listen. Well, I would listen to anything read by Julie.

Ken Follett's Pillars of the Earth.

Followed closely by Sarum by Edward Rutherfurd.

edit: I, too, enjoyed Cleese's book.

Pillars and Sarum are both excellent!

TV, would you mind adding authors to your nonfiction books as there are a number of them with the same title.

I made a horrible error in remembering the title of a great book, so thanks for giving me the opportunity to correct my mistake:

Alchemy of Air, by Thomas Hagen. More properly titled "The Alchemy of Air: A Jewish Genius, a Doomed Tycoon, and the Scientific Discovery That Fed The World but Fueled the Rise of Hitler". It's about the men who discovered how to use the nitrogen in the air to make fertilizer and feed millions, but ended up seeing their life-saving discovery used to empower a hateful and deadly war machine.

I was wrong about Red Harvest - shame on me! - it's actually Red Famine: Stalin's War on Ukraine, by award winning historian and author Anne Applebaum. About Ukraine's long, long history of conflict with Russia, and the man-made famine of the Holodomor that killed millions.

Bad Blood, by John Carreyrou, is the story of Silicon Valley fraudster Elizabeth Holmes and her fraudulent blood testing company Theranos.

My favorite nonfiction is

The Warmth of Other Suns by

Isabel Wilkerson

It is about the great migration north of African Americans around and before WW2

Annie - I have never seen anyone else list Shibumi as favourite book. It is one of my all time favourites. I lost my copy and it now appears to be out of print.

Also for me A Man called Ove

Non- fiction Golden Spruce, The Hidden LIfe of Trees and The Library Book about the fire that almost destroyed the LA central library. It's a fascinating book that discusses the fire but also talks about the history of libraries and how they have become so important to communities.

Actually, I can't give a review yet, but I just started The Women on Platform Two by Laura Anthony. She's an Irish author. It takes place in two time periods: 1969 and 2023. The subject is contraception, which evidently was banned in Ireland, and the intrepid group of women who fought for change. Characters are fiction, but the story is true. Good Reads gave it excellent reviews.

I just bought The Thirteenth Tale paperback on Walmart.com for $3!

blfenton, there are used book copies available for sale of Shibumi.... and I see one of our area libraries has a copy to lend.

I've been reading since I was a young child and still love all the books by Laura Ingalls Wilder especially The Long Winter and These Happy Golden Years. The book that got me started reading for pleasure when I was 8 1/2 was The Little White Horse by Elizabeth Goudge. As a young adult I loved Green Darkness by Anya Seton which got me started on time travel adventures and I loved The Time Travelers Wife by Audrey Niffenegger. I also loved LOTR by Tolkien and Watership Down by Richard Adams. I've read Cotillion by Georgette Heyer like a million times! Now that I'm old I just love The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman! It's just too hard for me to name just one favorite!

Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir is a favorite. I loved The Time Travelers Wife by Audrey Niffenegger. I'd recommend the following to young readers:Anne McCaffrey,The Dragonriders of Pern series. Crystal Singer series. The Angel Experiment: A Maximum Ride Novel by James Patterson. The Hobbit & LOTR by Tolkien, all fun books.

Coming back to this to find a book for DH and me to listen to on our car trip. Still working on it, we might just end up finishing Stanley Tucci's Taste while looking for something else. Has to be non-fiction.

Ghoghunter, I reread The Long Winter when it was recommended by David Laskin in his excellent book The Children's Blizzard. His book concerns the blizzard of 1888 and suggested Ingalls' book to understand upper-midwest winters. Rereading it as an adult gave me an entirely different perspective than when I was young.

One of the most interesting autobiographies I have read was that of Prof. Julius Sumner Miller, an American physicist who used to do a children's’ science show called, ”Why is it So?” on TV here in Oz. I have remebered for the best part of 40 years how, when he and his wife lived in a cottage near a railway line in a rual area. Their income at the time was very small, so to save money, Miller used his knowledge of physics to calculate the most likely places (mostly on particular curves) that coal would fall off the coal tender car behind the railway engine, and go there to collect the dropped coal for use in their coal fired stove and furnace.

pbath....Years ago, quite a few now, I very much enjoyed listening to Michael Pollan's "Omnivore's Dilemma" on a road trip. His later book "Cooked" is also wonderful non-fiction. I would guess that would have an an audio version too.

Grapes of Wrath, John Steinbeck

Gone with the Wind, Margaret Mitchell

To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee

In Cold Blood, Truman Capote

A Time to Kill, John Grisham

The Mountain Between Us, Charles Martin

Wrapped in Rain, Charle Martin

And probably a great many more!

I've read all of the above at least twice, but I rarely do that anymore. So many books and so little time!

Rusty

Hobbitmom, my son gave me The Omnivore’s Dilemma several years ago and I got halfway through, then misplaced it. It’s excellent, and thanks for the reminder to find it on audio.

Two books by Amor Towles - Rules of Civility, and A Gentleman in Moscow.