The Secret History by Donna Tartt and Maurice by E.M. Forster. I started Maurice before a vacation and finished it during vacation because I was reading on the beach, in restaurants, and in taxis. Usually I can't concentrate when surrounded by a crowd but I could not put that book down, my emotions were all over.

Maybe HP and the Sorcerer's Stone? I liked reading before then, but that's when I fell in love with reading.

Otherwise, Piranesi was a really fun book to read for the first time because you have no idea what's going on for the first 100 pages or so.

Two Brothers by Ben Elton

The Stand by Stephen King.

Look, I'm doing this thing where I'm trying not to talk badly about anyone else's creative outlet, so I'll just say I prefer writers with a grasp of the situations they're writing about.

Warrior Cats the first 6 books

Nemesis Games, the 5th book of the Expanse series. I was reading this at the same time as a friend of mine and I remember constantly texting him, checking where he was, because I really needed to talk about everything that was happening.

When I finished, I remember hoping that they would not cancel the tv series before season 5, because I really needed to see it on the screen.

Every book in the stormlight archive series The first 6 and last 3 wheel of time books The cradle series by will wight Tress of the emerald sea

About a year into our marriage, my Mother-in-Law's sole christmas gift to my wife and I was a self-help book called "Boundaries" which was ironic for all of the reasons you would think. My wife had been the "golden child" to her narcissistic mother growing up and I was basically the devil incarnate when I took her baby girl. When we finally went no-contact with MIL a few years later, we burned that book.

I can't think of a better time or reason to have done such a thing.

shatter me.

If I had to pick one, it would be Black Swan Green by David Mitchel.

But others that come to mind are

Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky

On Beauty by Zadie Smith and

The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov

Pilgrim at Tinker Creek by Annie Dillard

The count of Monte Cristo

This reads to me like he had sex with her after she had fallen asleep. Is that how you interpreted it?

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> By means of ejaculations and prayers he stored up ungrudgingly for the souls in purgatory centuries of days and quarantines and years;

This is near the start of chapter four, read with a modern sensibility it sounds like Stephen has began to jerk it in repentance.

The first time I came across 'ejaculate' defined as 'something said quickly and suddenly' was in Zane Grey's 'Riders of the Purple Sage'. While a few cowboys were standing around, the story claimed one of them 'ejaculated' which sent me into a fit of hysterics for about ten minutes. After than I calmed down and looked up how it was meant to be understood. Now I have seen it used multiple times in different books that were mostly written over a century ago.

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Another author who does trauma like crazy but with better prose and without all the smut is Kristin Hannah, in case anyone is looking.

I read this YA book in undergrad for a class--"Cosmos Coyote and William the Nice." Worst book the world. Does not deserve to exist. Burn it, and smash the author's hands with hammers.

I agree. To train up a child is a bad one. I confiscated these from my parents so they wouldn't fall into naive hands again. I keep them for use in therapy to unlearn all the programming. It's basically Pavlov's kids enforced with violence starting at 6 months. They detail how to "break a child's will" as early as possible to mold them how you wish. They belong in a museum so we don't forget the outcomes of several adopted children being murdered by over zealous parents following this depravity. Just a few copies then burn the rest.

The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern and Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery

Banning is strong, but I've told my husband if I have any say in it, our child will not read Twilight. Besides just being bad, I don't want my kid to see that kind of glorification of stalkery/toxic/abusive relationships. I worked with a number of kids when those books were in their heyday and it was really disconcerting how they found it romantic. I don't want my kid growing up thinking "I love you so much I want to kill you" is sweet.

True. What an absolutely classic series.

I’ve never read any of her stuff but the way people talk about them makes them sound like Danielle Steel.