[Vijaya Posts: 7,104 Status: Offline Encourage]

Wow Betsy! I've only read Petit Prince in the original and having to translate in my head didn't have the same impact.

[janae-stubbs Posts: 32 Status: Offline]

Terry Pratchett - The Wee Free Men (actually the entire Tiffany Aching series--wow!) or Mort

Ray Bradbury - Dandelion Wine, or Fahrenheit 451

Agatha Christie - And Then There Were None

I think Persuasion (Austen, of course) is wonderful and I get something new out of Jane Eyre every time.

I feel like someone just asked me to name my one true best friend, and I didn't even just put one down! I have pages and pages of 'best book ever' so I obviously need to work on this.

[janae-stubbs Posts: 32 Status: Offline]

Wow Betsy! I've only read Petit Prince in the original and having to translate in my head didn't have the same impact.

I read it in French the first time, too! Liked it, but there was the struggle of translating in my head. But it certainly made me pay attention to French literature.

[Betsy Posts: 2,106 Status: Offline PICKY EATERS]

Well if you guys read The Little Prince, you both could probably read Charlotte's Web. It's pretty easy--not much harder, really. White has some descriptive paragraphs here and there with some words I didn't know, but then I just go to the Reverse Dictionary online and look them up. It's a great dictionary. What I like about it is that it has samples of each word used in phrases and sentences at the bottom of the page, and that really helps:

http://dictionary.reverso.net/french-english/brises

Also, you might like books by Sylvie Laine, especially this one:

https://www.amazon.com/French-Stories-Beginners-French-English-Glossaries-ebook/dp/B00DNWZEC6?ie=UTF8&qid=1466306666&ref_=la_B00CFR9VS8_1_2&s=books&sr=1-2

Also read the sequel. They're both really funny and the characters are great. Not much of a plot in either one, but the wonderful characters make up for it.

[Vijaya Posts: 7,104 Status: Offline Encourage]

Thanks Betsy, I'll have to give it a try. I'm rusty as can be though because I never developed fluency in either French or German, even though we were there for 2 yrs. To improve, I had the usual language books but I read children's books, fairytales mostly during lunch and the other postdocs thought it most entertaining.

[Engsis]

I'm an English teacher and an avid reader and a lover of classics and this task is delightfully impossible! I have a list I tried to narrow it down to. A heads up, the list is not very narrow:

Beloved (and pretty much anything Toni Morrison has created, but this one tops the list)

Pride and Prejudice

The Great Gatsby (I hate this book actually, but think it's one of the most well-constructed books ever and the language and imagery is so powerful. I hate it because I get so wrapped up in the characters and how horribly everything ends)

Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison

Things Fall Apart

Grapes of Wrath

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

To Kill a Mockingbird

Gulliver's Travels

The Color Purple

Fahrenheit 451

 :reading

[Vonna Posts: 1,669 Status: Offline]

I'm also going to nominate THINGS FALL APART by Chinua Achebe, even though it is probably the most depressing book I've ever read. It was riveting, and though I read it decades ago, I still think about it.

[Betsy Posts: 2,106 Status: Offline PICKY EATERS]

Talk about depressing--I really, really don't like to read war novels, but I can't let this thread go on without mentioning ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT. I would never have read that book on my own, (too incredible depressing) but our daughter was reading it in high school, and she read passages to us. So then I really got into it. As you mentioned, Vonna, it's one I still think about.

That's a really great list, Engsis. A couple of my favorites that no one has mentioned yet.

[Arona Posts: 449 Status: Offline The house didn't fall on me. It fell on my sister.]

I adored the man as a human being and his writing: Vonnegut. I think I have everything he ever wrote yet can't remember one stinkin' word from any of his works. 

However, Slaughterhouse Five was big in the day. Not the best ever written but perhaps noteworthy.