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.

[chaptazbru]

Thanks for the tip.

[naomi24]

Too many to choose from - but Jane Eyre and Pride & Prejudice will always be firm favourites - and I thought A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini was absolutely brilliant.

[Frank97]

Neuromancer - William Gibson, I've read it three times so must be my favourite.
I don't think I've ever read anything by a female author, how strange!

[chaptazbru]

Naomi, I forgot about A Thousand Splendid Suns, that is a favourite of mine too, I loved it. Did you read The Kite Runner by him as well?

Too many good books, not enough time !!

[chaptazbru]

I have to go now, please keep your answers coming.

[naomi24]

Yes, I did read the Kite Runner - but I thought A Thousand Splendid Suns far better.

[emmie]

naomi, so many times i have read this book and thought isn't this one of the most splendidly romantic but very clever pieces of writing of any age, and the first lines i can quote from the heart. Just fabulous.

Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice: "It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife."

[naomi24]

Yes, indeed Em, great stuff. It’s a book I can pick up and open at any page – and just read.

Similarly with Jane Eyre. No sex – but what passion!

//Do you think, because I am poor, obscure, plain, and little, I am soulless and heartless? You think wrong!--I have as much soul as you,--and full as much heart! . . . I am not talking to you now through the medium of custom, conventionalities, or even of mortal flesh:--it is my spirit that addresses your spirit: just as if both had passed through the grave, and we stood at God's feet, equal,--as we are! //

Oh, boy! You tell him, girl! :o)

[puzzled54]

Yes, Jane Eyre and Lord of the Rings. Also, To kill a mockingbird.

[naomi24]

I once tried to encourage ABers to read 'The Boy in Striped Pyjamas' by John Boyne, and 'The Book Thief' by Markus Zusak, but since both were written for teenagers, few people took me up on it. If anyone is interested, they are both unforgettable.

In amongst my other reading, it took me a year to get through Lord of the Rings. I really missed it when I finally finished. Great book.

[bigbadmarty]

Catch 22 Joseph Heller
Frankenstein Mary Shelley

[Traci66]

David Ball ..... The sword and the scimitar. Female author.... Robin Hobb .... The Liveship Traders trilogy.

[emmie]

ah Jane Eyre, what a truly lovely but quite gothic story. You should watch if you haven't that is, the TV adaptation with Ruth Wilson as Jane and the fab Toby Stevens as Rochester, i can sit and watch that till my eyeballs fall out.

[naomi24]

I don't know if I've seen that or not, em. Someone bought me the DVD of the Mia Wasikowska and Michael Fassbender version for Christmas. I haven't watched it yet though. When I have, I'll let you know what it's like.

[joggerjayne]

Male - The Name Of The Rose ... Umberto Eco

Female - Middlemarch ... George Eliot

[jno]

LOTR.

Female: Pride and Prejudice probably, but anything by Rosemary Sutcliff would do.

[emmie]

another good BBC adaptation, made around 2006, you will love Toby Stevens, good actor with a very sharp wit..

[overthetop]

Atlas Shrugged, Ayn Rand
Exodus, Leon Uris

[Kiki-frog]

Oh heck, I knew it was a mistake revisiting this thread. So many books.... I have Umberto Eco's The Name of the Rose on my bookshelf unread, but if it's good enough for Joggerjayne, it's good enough for Kiki-frog.

[JonnyBoy12]

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis

and

The Secret Island by Enid Blyton