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Thread: Top 3 Works of Fiction

  1. #1
    Senior Member catherine's Avatar
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    Top 3 Works of Fiction

    What the best works of fiction you have ever read?

    Let's break it down....

    What are: a) What you think are the top 3 fiction books written and b) 3 works of fiction you would recommend to the rest of us that might not be as well-known but you really enjoyed?

    Let's inspire each other to read something awesome!

    Best fiction books I ever read:
    The Dollmaker
    Grapes of Wrath
    Gone with the Wind

    Books to recommend:
    All Creatures Great and Small: James Herriot
    We were the Mulvaneys: Joyce Carol Oates
    Angela's Ashes: Frank McCourt
    "Do any human beings ever realize life while they live it--every, every minute?" Emily Webb, Our Town
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  2. #2
    Senior Member JaneV2.0's Avatar
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    City of Joy, Rosemary's Baby, probably Gone With the Wind...
    Runner up: anything by Agatha Christie.

    But I have a strong preference for non-fiction, so I would recommend a few NF titles.

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    I love all of those named above! This is really hard, I love so many books!

    Three of my top favorites: The Mill on the Floss, Breakfast of Champions, Catch 22

    Books I recommend:
    Any of the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency series
    Anything by Henning Mankell
    Things in Jars
    The Hobbit/Lord of the Rings - I think these are Tolkien's best works. but I've not yet read his Beowulf translation

  4. #4
    Yppej
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    I really love anything by Kent Haruf.

  5. #5
    Simpleton Alan's Avatar
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    I'm a big fan of fiction, especially of the epic fantasy variety, so 2 of my top 3 are in that genre.

    #1: The Stand: Stephen King
    #2: The Lord Of The Rings trilogy: J.R.R. Tolkein
    #3: The Wheel Of Time series : Robert Jordan (with 14 volumes in the series this one is not for the faint hearted)

    As for recommendations, I'll go with anything by Samuel Clemens in the hopes that everyone has a chance to enjoy his wit and satire before they're banished from the earth.
    "Things should be made as simple as possible, but not one bit simpler." ~ Albert Einstein

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    Senior Member iris lilies's Avatar
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    God I do love Catch 22. Glad early morning mentioned it, so .i won’t use up one of my 3 slots.

    Best well known novels:

    Of Human Bondage

    One of the Jane Austen masterpieces (Emma or P & P or S & S)

    Vanity Fair

    of the lesser known books:

    E.F. Benson’s Lucia novels

    A More Innocent Time by Eugenia Hill. Not innocent at all!

    The Little Ottleys

    I also like you all love Gone with ?The
    wind even though that is not something we are supposed to love in this day and age.

    The Lucia novels I mentioned above are wonderful social satire. The other two — not saying they’re wonderful those are just the two that popped into my head. I do not own many novels because for the classics and the good ones you can always get them through a library. And when I move I will get rid most all novels that I am but I’ll probably keep 10 of them. The Lucia novels are definitely on that list to keep.

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    Senior Member razz's Avatar
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    I remember fiction that enchanted me when reading.
    Gone with the Wind, for sure.
    The Old Man and the Sea
    The Scarlet Pimpernel

    Some dark stories like those by Charles Dickens woke me up to the challenges that mankind has faced and forever coloured my perspective on the world.
    As Cicero said, “Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all the others.”

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    Senior Member Rogar's Avatar
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    All the Light We Cannot See / Anthony Doerr

    The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn / Mark Twain

    The Great Gatsby / F. Scott Fitzgerald

    Runners-up would be most anything by Steinbeck.

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    In the first category:

    Henderson the Rain King - Saul Bellow

    The Wapshot Chronicle - John Cheever

    Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoevsky

    In the second category:

    American Gods - Niel Gaiman

    Thus was Adonis Murdered - Sarah Caudwell

    Cain at Gettysburg - Ralph Peters

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    First category:
    Lately it is anything by Pearl S. Buck
    The Lord of the Ring series
    To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee

    Second category:
    The Green Kingdom - Rachael Maddux
    The Dispossessed - Ursula K. Le Guin
    Ishmael - Daniel Quinn
    To give pleasure to a single heart by a single act is better than a thousand heads bowing in prayer." Mahatma Gandhi
    Be nice whenever possible. It's always possible. HH Dalai Lama
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