'The Rosie Project'. Will make you laugh and cry and say 'I know someone like that'.

The MaddAddam trilogy by Margaret Atwood is incredible. All her stuff is amazing – I re-read The Handmaid's Tale every few years!

Arthur Golden "Memoirs of a Geisha" and Adeline Yen Mah "Falling Leaves." Also anything from the canon of literature. I particularly like anything by Jane Austen and "The Mayor of Casterbridge" by Thomas Hardy. I can read these works over and over and never get bored. For sci-fi ( a genre which I don't like) this is one novel "The Left Hand of Darkness" by Ursula K Le Guin which is a masterpiece of writing and should imo be read at least the once by all even if nobody ever picks up a sci-fi novel again!

I recently read "The Girl You Left Behind" by JoJo Moyes which I loved and will make you cry. You can't go wrong with a classic. I have to admit my all time favourite is Little Women though and I also love To kill a Mockingbird

We'll I'm going to recommend a working bible! An epic and irreplaceable tome that is a pleasure to pick up and dip into, flip through for inspiration, get educated, with stories in built: Sir Bannister Fletchers A History Of Architecture. It used to be called 'A Comparitive History of Architecture' as it has an amazing (and often beautiful) collection of line drawings illustrating the differences between various styles and eras in architecture, giving a unique overview on this massive design discipline, its history, language and....well I could go on!

H is for Hawk - what a book! Macdonald's use of language is crazy, so visceral and inspired like I haven't read since Ursula Le Guin many years ago.

Ah, where do I start?! Anything by Margaret Atwood, John Irving, Joanne Harris, or Donna Tartt. Recently I have devoured Elizabeth is Missing, Gone Girl (finally), The Rosie Project, and The Girl on the Train.

But my number one recommendation to anyone who hasn't tried him is Stephen King - try Bag of Bones. For those of you who think he only writes nasty horror, remember the movies The Shawshank Redemption, The Green Mile, and that 80s classic Stand By Me are all Stephen King!

I've already bought 2 books for my holiday - Finders Keepers by Stephen King and The Rosie Effect. Now I just have to resist them for another week!

Oh and my all-time favourite is To Kill a Mockingbird - very excited about Go Set a Watchman, just wish it would be out in time for my holiday...

@Cobalt Moon Design - The Perfume is an odd one, but I enjoyed it! Can't say the same about the film, though.

It's hard to pick a favourite but I love My Ántonia by Willa Cather. There's so much life and energy in the story, and also contains one of my favourite quotes ever:

"That is happiness; to be dissolved into something complete and great. When it comes to one, it comes as naturally as sleep.”

Terry Pratchett 'Going Postal'. It was the first of many books of his that I read.

Burial Rites by Hannah Kent - Based around a true story this thoroughly engrossing novel had me riveted to the very end.

I never thought I would want to read anything by Jeffrey Archer but I am half way through reading book 2 of 5 in the Clifton Chronicles - "Only time will tell" is the first one, and I am hooked. The books tell the story of how the lives of two families from completely different social classes are interwoven. The other book that I could read again is Evergreen by Belva Plain, another story revolving around family life which I could not put down when I read it in the 1980s.

My current favourites are The 100 Year Old Man Who Climbed Out Of The Window and Disappeared and The Unlikely Pilgrimage Of Harold Fry. The Secret Life Of Bees was very, very good too! Keep the recommendations coming though, I'm writing myself a list for my holiday too now!

in our 15 years of book group, the all time favourite is The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver. It was totally unknown to us, and amazed us all. I have since read all her books, and loved each and every one. More recently we all enjoyed The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt. I personally love anything by Steinbeck, and revisiting the classics.

The Confessions of Nat Turner, by William Styron. An imaginative account, written in an 'interior manner', as if by the Participant, of the only slave revolt attempted in US history. Amongst many things, it demonstrates how preventing education and linguistic development, so the slaves had to speak in pidgin English, is a form of cultural self-fulfilling slavery in itself. It is a really wonderfully written book.

If possible, I like to read a novel set in the country I'm visiting. Read Birds without Wings by Louis de Bernieres whilst staying in Kayakoy, Turkey - the village with the ghost town that inspired this wonderful novel/ history book. Amazing to be both reading about the food, sights, flora & fauna of the area whilst living amongst it! Great read anywhere but really comes to life in Turkey.

Katy - I read The Goldfinch recently, having loved Donna Tart's first two books. I was completely addicted - but (without spoilers) I found the last section quite odd and disappointing. Maybe that was just me...? If you like that kind of epic modern American literature, Jonathan Franzen's The Corrections is brilliant, as is his second book Freedom.

Has anyone read Iris Murdoch's The Sea, The Sea? I only persevered with it (it's LONG) because I was briefly in a book club - but I'm so glad I did. It's now my all-time favourite book. It's really, really weird and creepy and odd but in a brilliant and compelling way.

I love C J Sansom's books, especialy the Shardlake series. Shardlake is a lawyer living in Henry 8th's London . He risks life and limb solving murder and mayhem for the 'great' of the time - including the king and Thomas Moore. They give a strong impression of life in the city and the dangers of the religious upheavals during and after the Dissolution . Best read in chronological order, but not essential.

Sarah, Captain Correlli's Mandolin was our first book in our book group - and we are planning to go see Louis de Berniere at the Edinburgh Book Festival in August as a day out! but his new book is pricy in hardback!

Back again- have been following this post as I love recommendations! Yes yes yes to The Poisonwood Bible and The Book Thief, they are must-reads! Forgot to mention Rebecca Wells, Divine Secrets of the Ya-ya Sisterhood. Don't be put off by the girly title or the Sandra Bullock movie - it's a really gripping, powerful book, beautifully written.

I think I always thought his books were about politics, but I must say that I now think his story telling is brilliant and as I said before, I am hooked. I have bought all 5 in the Clifton series and am on book 2 and just wish I didn't feel so tired each night, as I can only read a few pages before I find myself lying there asleep with my kindle drooping in my hand!! (Before anyone else says it - it is not a euphemism)