What is the best non fiction book,(novel )you have read

[Caribeing]

I enjoy biographies, true crime, etc but would like to try more novels, last one I read was Alice Sebold The Lovely Bones. Favourite classic was The Mayor Of Casterbridge.

[Canary42]

The best ever ?

That's quite a challenge. Certainly To Kill a Mockingbird would be up there somewhere, but so would many others like Catcher in the Rye, Crime and Punishment, Jude the Obscure (and other Hardy books), Mill on the Floss, Sense and Sensibility (and other Austen books), Diary of a Nobody, Notre Dame of Paris (aka Hunchback of Notre Dame), Les Miserables, and so on.

[jake-the-peg]

I could tell you but if you're favorite classic is the Maayor of Casterbridge I fear our tastes are too different.

I am a huge fan of Umberto Eco - you might like his most recent book Prague Cemetry who's hero(?) is a very nasty piece of work who gets involved in many of the key events of the 19th century such as Garribaldi's campaign and the Paris Commune as an agent for various secret police forces.

Eco was trying to create a character with whom nobody could empathise - he's amoral, anti-semitic, misogenistic yet somehow quite facinating

[shaneystar2]

I have to agree with Naomi that A Thousand Splendid Suns is a book that has stayed in my mind .
In fact I read it twice and I rarely read a book twice apart from Little Women , and the novels by Howard Spring which I must have read countless times .
I'm a crime novel fan and once I've found out who dun it I never read them again .

[boobesque]

James Herbert - Domain
Feyodor Dostoesvky - The Idiot
Charles Dickens - Great Expectations
Frank Herbert - Dune (The first one)
J.R.R Tolkien - The Hobbit

[quizzywig]

excelsior-1, again we agree. My Family and Other Animals is my favourite book of all time. I remembered it was read to our junior school class just before the bell rung at the end on the school day. I loved it! and still read it from time to time.

[mosesg]

My favourites are A Town Like Alice by Neville Shute and To Kill a Mockingbird. Although the Book Thief was an excellent read and would recommend it to anyone. I am an avid reader and over time have read many excellent books.

[brionon]

Borstal Boy by Brendan Behan.

[brionon]

Some of you don't seem to know the meaning of ''Non fiction.''

[AB Editor]

brionon - as stated in the thread by the OP, they meant fiction.

[sophie_1003]

Some of you haven't read the bit where the OP sad 'oops, meant fiction' :oP
I hate classic novels *ducks* but would second the reccomendation for The Book Thief. The Help by Kathryn Stockett is one of my favourites. Also; Jodi Picoult books (basically all the same but love them!) and One Day by David Nicholls is lovely.

[seadogg]

The King's War by C.V. Wedgewood is a fine account of the English Civil War.

A favourite classic fiction book is Silas Marner by George Eliot

[Wharton]

The Master and Margarita
Mikhail Bulgakov

[mosesg]

I also forgot to mention Jojo Moyes Me before you is a ust read. It was like an emotional rollercoaster reading it but I am so glad i read it

[Stargazer]

Naomi 24, MosesG and Shaneystar2 ....you all mention The Book Thief - a masterpiece imo - I read it thee times. However it is A Thousand splendid suns that I would like to discuss. I have it waiting to be read but was told that I should first read The Kite Runner. Is this so? And would it spoil my reading the Thousand ... etc. if I did not first read the Kite Runner?
I think Star of the Sea by Joseph O'Connor is a masterpiece and highly recommend it to anyone who appreciates amazing reads. It is the best book I have read recently and cannot recommend it enough.

[Flyhalf]

Excelsior/quizzywig
Have you tried another Durrell, "Rosie Is My Relative", about the adventures of a young man saddled with a performing elephant? I'd recommend it.
My own "best ever" is Hugo's "Les Miserables".

[ichkeria]

"The Master and Margarita
Mikhail Bulgakov "

Seconded - amazing book (and amazing TV adaptations also)