...is there a book (fiction or non-fiction) that you have found yourself recommending more than once to various people in your life?

Mine would be Writing Down the Bones by Natalie Goldberg...I've recommended it to so many people I've known who liked to write!

What's yours?

This could be a really long list   ;  )  Leaving off the more common suggestions  (Hiaasen, Moore, Evanovich, Lackey, the usual cozies, etc...)  I'll list some of my less know suggestions.

Fantasy:

Dreams Underfoot: The Newford Collection  Author: Charles de Lint - A collection of the earliest Newford short stories.  A great place to start with de Lint, widely considered to be the father of modern urban fantasy.

Jack of Kinrowan : Jack the Giant-Killer and Drink Down the Moon Author: Charles de Lint - The easiest to find book containing the novel Jack the Giant Killer.  If you prefer novels to short stories, start with de Lint here.

Daggerspell Author: Katharine Kerr - First book in the Deverry series.  So well-written it makes the more well known The Dragonlance Chronicles and R.A. Salvatore books look like middle school essays.

Classics:

Anna Karenina Author: Leo Tolstoy - Beautifully written, great story, well worth every minute.  If you only ever read one of the great novels, this should be it.

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (Penguin Classics) Author: Mark Twain, Guy Cardwell - IMO, the best novel in American lit.  It has everything, action, drama, friendship, conflict and it's fun.

Auto/Biography:

The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin - Author: Benjamin Franklin - Very interesting, easily read and surprisingly funny.

Freedom in Exile Author: Lama Dalai - I tell everyone to read this.  That one human being could be so normal, yet so holy astounds me and gives me hope.

Travel Memior:

The Magic of Provence : Pleasures of Southern France Author: Yvone Lenard - if you're bored with the 'find shabby house and fix it up' memiors but still want something in the genre, try this.  She pays someone to fix her home in a hill-top village and comes back when it's finished...on to the stories of living in Provence.

The Lobster Chronicles : Life On a Very Small Island Author: Linda Greenlaw - You may recognize the name as the woman who was the swordboat captain in The Perfect Storm this is the story of when she went home again.

Cozy Mystery:

Alpine for You (Passport to Peril, No 1) Author: Maddy Hunter - I love the Passport to Peril series. Not great writing, not great mystery...but an all-around fun, easy read.  Most cozies bore me after the first few books, this series still has me reading.

Deadly Nightshade (Martha's Vineyard Mysteries) Author: Cynthia Riggs - Good, solid mystery series set on Martha's Vineyard.  Main character is 90+ y/o old so you won't find much of the frivolity of many other cozies.  Think Miss Marple with #$%%^ (I mean guts) in the 20th C. 

Just fun:

If... (Questions For The Game of Life) Author: Evelyn McFarlane, James Saywell

The Hiding Place by Corrie Tenboom

Some favorites that I've recommended:

The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith

The Uncommon Reader by Alan Bennet

 books by David Liss (for people who are interested in an intelligent, unusual, historical myster/thriller)

The Penderwicks by Jeanne Birdsall (wonderful children's book for girls about ages 8 -12. Adults will enjoy this charming book as well.)

Shogun by James Clavell (great epic)

The Thirteenth Tale  by Diane Setterfield

The Secret of Lost Things by Sheridan Hay

The Agnes Browne trilogy by Brendan O'Carroll (begins with The Mammy)

M.C. Beaton's Hamish Macbeth and Agatha Raisin series.

the Stephanie Plum series by Janet Evanovich (and for those who love that series the Jenny Partridge series by Natalie Roberts has a similar feeling and is nearly as good.)

and many, many others, including many, many classics.

too many to count over time....

lately, Broken for You by Stephanie Kallos and The Kite Runner

Anything by Sarah Rayne.

Haunted by Tamara Thorne

The Association, The Policy, The Store, The Resort by Bentley Little

Island by Richard Laymon

Judge & Jury by James Patterson

Shadows by John Saul

Too many more.

ooo I tell everyone to read I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith. So great!!

and The Black Tulip is another one that I'm in love with.

I also can't put down any of the "Stephanie Plum" books by Janet Evanovitch. Totally fun no thinking reading!

The Out-of-Sync Child by Carol Kranowicz

If you have a child that just doesn' "fit", a "scratchy, itchy" child,this book may help you the way it saved my sanity !

My pediatrician just wouldn't listen. Her thing was,"He's a boy". well duh !

Turns out he had Sensory Integration Disorder. I found this book and then we found an OT !

Saved our marriage and our sanity.

I would recommend this book to anyone with kids. Especially if the preschool teacher is suggesting you have him tested for ADD. Linda

Eye Contact by Cammie McGovern ....... a mystery sort of, very hard to describe I found myself thinking about the characters and what happened to them for a long while after I finished it. 

Enders Game by Orson Scott Card.   I recommend it to people who always say they can't "get" science fiction.  Of course this isn't hardcore sci-fi, but more philosphy/quasi-religion taking place in a future world.

Definitely agree with the person above me. Ender's Game (and everything in that series) is fabulous. My favorite was Ender's Shadow.

The Red Tent by Anita Diamont.  An amazing and suprising novel.

Crown Duel by Sherwood Smith

It has to be one of my fav books and my copy is very worn out from lending it to people.

The Red Tent by Anita Diamant, unlike any book I've ever read

The Glass Castle

The Memory Keeper's Daughter

Anne Frank, probably one of the most influential books ever written in my opinion

There are so many I've recommended, but for shoving down everyone's throat because I was so enthralled by a book, well that would be The Mirror, by Marlys Milhiser.  Wonderful story, and there wasn't one person, man or woman, who didn't love it.  I think next for pushing it on people would be The Red Tent, but I'd have to give it more thought.

(Janelle, I love Writing Down the Bones, and have given that as gifts to friends who like to write.  Just last night I started Goldberg's Banana Rose, which has been on my TBR forever, and I am loving it!  Meghan, I have Lobster Chronicles on my TBR (L.G. sent that to me about 2 years ago), and was just looking at it a few days ago.  I recently listened to the Perfect Storm, and thought I should follow up with this book.  I think I will just do that.)

Windchill Summer-Norris Church Mailer (great for book clubs, IMO!)

The Prize Winner Of Defiance, Ohio-Terry Ryan (the movie was excellent, too)

Downtown, King's Oak, Outer Banks, Hill Towns, Colony-all by Anne Rivers Siddons

The Outlander series- Diana Gabaldon

The Cazalet Family Chronicles-series by Elizabeth Jane Howard

Hunting Unicorns-Bella Pollen

City Of Light-Lauren Belfer

So many more I can't remember right now!

Hyperion by Dan Simmons

A Framework for Understanding Poverty by Ruby Payne - an amazing book that helps teachers, community members, peers understand the hidden rules and vocabulary of economic deprivation.  I recommend it over and over! 

To Kill a Mockingbird - I think  everyone should read this book.

The Perfect Storm

All of the Harry Potter books.

Hank the Cowdog and the Shipwrecked Tree - hilarious book to read aloud

Monsterous Memoirs of a Mighty McFearless - Ahmett Zappa - Kids and adults alike enjoy this book

The Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon

A Prayer For Owen Meaney by John Irving

Angels & Demonds by Dan Brown

The Highlander series by Karen Marie Moning

"The Bronze Horseman" by Paullina Simons.  aka "Tatiana and Alexander"  Fantastic book, and there are two follow up books that are hard to get.."The Bridge to Holy Cross" and "The Summer Garden"  I got the second two books through ebay from Australia and England.  Couldn't wait for the US publications. They were well worth the expensive shipping fees.  The first book starts in Russia during WWII and progresses to America.  Wonderful history and a sensual love story. PS  has written other books that are really good too.

Corrie ten Boom's  books are awe inspiring.

Sara Donati's books are great, read them in order of publication.  Historical romance.

Janet Evanovich is fantastic-I can't wait to see what kind of trouble Stephanie Plum and her cohorts get into next.  Truely laugh out loud, funny!

"Outlander" by Diana Gabaldon is a fantastic book.  I'm reading the next in the series "Dragonfly in Amber" now and have the rest of the series on my TBR.

I constantly recommend:

Into the Forest by Jean Hegland

Lamb by Christopher Moore

Suite Francaise by Irene Nemirovsky

Atonement by Ian McEwan

A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving

I'm sure there are remore, but those immediately came to mind.  I actually keep a refernce list on LibraryThing of all the books I would recommend to people.  I can't remember otherwise.

Judy--  I may be wrong, but I believe that Paullina Simons' trilogy is as follows:

book 1 :  The Bronze Horseman

book 2:  Tatiana and Alexander

book 3:  The Summer Garden

(I hope so!! I'm going to start reading when I get #3, which is on its way)

eta:  all are available in the US now.

Gift from the Sea (Anne Morrow Lindberg)

Assassination Vacation (Sarah Vowell)

You are probably right in that  "Tatiana and Alexander" is second but it must be the one aka as "The Bridge to Holy Cross"  It's been awhile since I read them.  Also, be careful on the other books by Paullina Simons because there are others known by other names...like "The Girl in Times Square" is the same book as "Lily"

The latest book i recommend is 'The Mist' by: Stephen King. I recommend the book and the movie!! Usually the movie goes right along with the book, detail for detail. This one, the movie has a surprise ending. Even my Mom liked the movie; the biggest movie critic in the world!! Happy reading.