# Recommend me just one book **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 13, 2010, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-just-one-book/553624 "2010-09-13T17:05:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2010, 12:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-just-one-book/553624/21 "2010-09-15T12:30:48Z")
> [@AuntiePam](#): > > …I’ll suggest _English Passengers_ (**originally recommended on this board by Twickster)** by Matthew Kneale. It’s not a nested story, like _Cloud Atlas_, but it has a similar feel and quality. Those two are the best books I’ve read in years. If you liked _English Passengers_, I recommend _Star of the Sea_ by Joseph O’Connor. It has a similar atmosphere to _EP_ and the exploratory parts of _CA_, though its subject matter is very different. But another exceptionally good novel. ---
**Author:** ![Wallenstein](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/b5a626/32.png) [@Wallenstein](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wallenstein)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2010, 12:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-just-one-book/553624/22 "2010-09-15T12:37:36Z")
I’ve just finished [Dissolution by CJ Sansom](http://www.amazon.co.uk/Dissolution-Shardlake-C-J-Sansom/dp/0330450794). Excellent “whodunnit” with a great evocation of place and time, set during England’s religious terror in the mid-1500s so has some powerful resonances with the current socio-political climate. ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2010, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-just-one-book/553624/23 "2010-09-16T23:31:47Z")
> [@jjimm](#): > > > [@AuntiePam](#): > > > > …I’ll suggest _English Passengers_ (**originally recommended on this board by Twickster)** by Matthew Kneale. It’s not a nested story, like _Cloud Atlas_, but it has a similar feel and quality. Those two are the best books I’ve read in years. > > If you liked _English Passengers_, I recommend _Star of the Sea_ by Joseph O’Connor. It has a similar atmosphere to _EP_ and the exploratory parts of _CA_, though its subject matter is very different. But another exceptionally good novel. If it’s comparable to two of my all-time favorites, I’ll definitely give it a look. Just put a library hold on it. ---
**Author:** ![Malthus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2010, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-just-one-book/553624/24 "2010-09-16T23:47:02Z")
> [@jjimm](#): > > > [@yanceylebeef](#): > > > > Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell. > > > > Simply the best book of the new century. > > Seconded with an enormous +1. > > It’s absolutely, breathtakingly, stunningly clever - as well as entertaining and beautifully written, and appealing to lovers of many genres, especially sci fi. > > ( **yanceylebeef** , if you haven’t read it, his first novel _Ghostwritten_ is similarly brilliant, and shares some of the same concepts and characters too.) Heh, I’ve said it before - _Cloud Atlas_ is one of those rare books that \*\*don’t \*\* create writer’s envy, for the simple reason that one cannot fool oneself into thinking that, if one devoted oneself to writing, one could have written it. 😃 Other books in that indescribable category, I think: - _The Master and Margarita_ by Bugalikov - _Invisible Cities_ and _If on a winter’s night a traveller_ by Italo Calvino; - _Ficciones_ by Jeorge Luis Borges - _The Periodic Table_ by Primo Levi - _The Man Who was Thursday_ by Chesterton (already recommended above) ---
**Author:** ![Philliam](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/philliam/32/3011_2.png) [@Philliam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Philliam)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2010, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-just-one-book/553624/25 "2010-09-17T01:00:38Z")
Just one - oh the humanity! two, por favor: The Magus - John Fowles Fifth Business - Robertson Davies Be forewarned that reading either will lead to more Fowles/Davies (to say nothing of Borges. Calvino, Eco, Burgess… ---
**Author:** ![aldiboronti](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9fc348/32.png) [@aldiboronti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aldiboronti)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2010, 6:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-just-one-book/553624/26 "2010-09-17T06:25:06Z")
> [@Ronald\_C.Semone](#): > > _The Complete Short Stories Of John Collier_, hundreds of the most comic and bizarre short stories you will ever read. You will undoubtedly already be familiar with some of them since many of them have been repeatedly anthologized and/or made into movies or tv shows. I’m delighted to see someone recommending Collier. He’s been one of my very favourite short story writers ever since I came across him many years ago. I enthusiastically second this recommendation! ---
**Author:** ![Suburban\_Plankton](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/suburban_plankton/32/219_2.png) [@Suburban\_Plankton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Suburban_Plankton)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2010, 6:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-just-one-book/553624/27 "2010-09-17T06:31:17Z")
[Watership Down](http://www.amazon.com/Watership-Down-Novel-Richard-Adams/dp/0743277708/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1284704871&sr=8-1). Yes, it’s about talking rabbits. No, it’s not a children’s book. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-just-one-book/553624.md?page=1)