Great Books
Choosing the best books of all time is a very subjective challenge. Using the criteria of most sold, most translated, reputation and hearsay, the following books rate being posted to the all-time best reading list [ not in order of ranking ]:
Arguably the best fictional book ever written, Dan Brown’s opus has sold millions of copies, been translated into dozens of languages, made into a movie and been put on the pedestal it deserves to be on.
Why it is the best: very suspenseful, engaging and well written; captivating puzzles presented throughout have a modicum of believability. The ‘chases’ are very engaging. The book is spellbinding.
Harper Lee wrote this outstanding novel in the 1960’s. She was awarded a Pulitzer for the book, deservedly. Translated into many languages and made into an Oscar-winning movie, this book should be on everyone’s bucket list.
Outstanding writing, a great story, universal in its theme, the book is as engaging today as when it debuted.
For history buffs, Robert Massie’s Nicholas & Alexandra should be high on the list of “must reads.” Though Massie may be guilty of broad use of writer’s license, this novel is a superb narrative of the final days of the Romanov dynasty. So well written, the reader cannot help but sympathize with the doomed Czar and his entire family. A universal tragedy but one which many may feel as justifiable.
Detective novels are adult male comic books: lively, entertaining and occasionally an enjoyable Rubric’s cube for solving by a reader playing super sleuth trying to discover who is the “butler” of this novel’s crime.
Stuart Wood’s Chiefs is all one would expect in a detective story and much, much more. It has a crime needing solution but more than that it has social commentary about racism and bigotry messaged in an unobtrusive manner. The message is relentlessly underlined throughout the story but never detracts from the entertainment value of the tale. This is Woods’ opus for which he deserves much acclaim. Harper Lee has finally met her match.
You are invited to submit your all time best reads below:
