What is the best book you have ever read by a male author and a female author?

[chaptazbru]

Mine is The Pursuit of Happiness by Douglas Kennedy

and

The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton.

[lady-janine]

i'd forgotten Quiet flows the Don and also As i walked out one midsummer morning and Wolf Hall. just so many excellent books.

[Jeza]

To Kill a Mocking Bird by Harper Lee

The Chequer board by Neville Shute.

[shaneystar2]

Yes I loved Poldark Anne ..read all the books ..got the whole series on DVD :)
Winston Graham wrote some other wonderful books too .Marnie and Fortune is a Woman to name but two .

[naomi24]

Shaney, Yes, Penmarric and Cashelmara. I don’t think I’ve read any of the others though, but if you recommend it, I'll try the Starbridge series

[DaisyNonna]

Have all the Neville Shute books, read them all more than once apart from On the Beach which absolutely devastated me. Cried for ages.

[DTCwordfan]

Lady J and Ladybirder, I love the Sholokhov trilogies, they do run a close second.

For the scifi-s and talking trilogies, Asimov's Foundation.

[shaneystar2]

I think you'll like them naomi .She also did The St. Benet's Trilogy which is a sort of follow on .It's fiction of course but you be the judge .She's a woman who made money with her family sagas and then questioned what to do next .
I'm not getting into any religipus discussions here but she found her faith and the novels evolved from that .

[lady-janine]

what about Zen and The Art of Motor cycle maintenance. i'd forgotten that one too.

[pips1]

'Her Benny' by Silas K Hocking, wonderful book.

[sunny-dave]

Female - Middlemarch ... George Eliot

Male - Barchester Towers ... Anthony Trollope

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Non Fiction - Bad Science ... Ben Goldacre

Contemporary - more difficult, but I guess that Terry Pratchett has given me more pleasure than any other living author - and he's a lovely man too.

[owdhamer]

black beauty anne sewell

[Zacs-Master]

My my, what a popular thread. Rendezvous with Rama by Arthur C Clarke would be one that springs to mind.

[paddywak]

I've not gone through all the posts so they might already be in the system , but the best I've ever read by female is Harper Lee's "Mocking bird" , by a guy there are so many but I think it must be "A tale of Two Cities" closely followed by RLS and "Treasure Island"

[DTCwordfan]

Lady J, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy........Mr Adams - bring on Marvin the Manic Depressive Robot!

[Nodger]

What a wonderful thread. I've been reminded of so many books that I'd forgotten about, and are worth a re-read.

I see lots of people have mentioned Lord of the Rings,The Hobbit etc. Hmm. Never taken to these. I know they are extremely popular but, although I do read a lot, and love contemporary/historical/fictional/horror/crim
e
etc etc etc I just can't take to the sort of Tolkien/Fantasy genre. Might be because when I was a teenager it was shoved down my throat as 'cool' (or whatever equivalent word was used in the 70's - can't recall).

[shaneystar2]

Oh that's a lovely book owdhamer . I still have the Childrens Classic my parents bought me .Another tear jerker. Anna Sewells house,where she was born , is in my neck of the woods.It's now a tearoom .
http://shadowness.com...5/138881/image_t6.jpg

[DTCwordfan]

is that a tea-room or a tear-room, shaney?

[Zacs-Master]

The wierdstone of brisingamen by Alan Garner. The first fantasy book I read when I was about 11. Got me into the fantasy sci fi genre. Thank you Mr Garner.

[craft1948]

I'd recommend James Herbert's The Ghosts of Sleath.............

[paddywak]

Just spent the last five minutes going through the earlier post and so many great books have been mentioned and how could I forgot mention Terry Pratchett probably my favorite contemporary author.