Asking a book lover their favorite book can be akin to asking a parent to choose their favorite child. We put Cambridge librarians to the test anyway, asking them: What’s your favorite book of all time? We’ve included lightly edited blurbs from the publishers to explain each title.
“And Then There Were None” by Agatha Christie
“I picked up this book when I was in middle school, and it inspired a lifelong love of mysteries in me; I read it again last year and it definitely holds up. The shady characters, misdirects and red herrings are so effective that I found myself wondering if I had misremembered who the killer was! In my opinion, it’s the perfect mystery novel.” – Abby
Ten people, each with something to hide and something to fear, are invited to an isolated mansion on Indian Island by a host who, surprisingly, fails to appear. On the island they are cut off from everything but each other and the inescapable shadows of their own pasts. One by one, the guests share the darkest secrets of their wicked pasts. And one by one, they die … Which among them is the killer, and will any of them survive?
“Watership Down” by Richard Adams
“It’s a book I first read when I was about 10 years old and have revisited multiple times since, and every time I read it I find new reasons to love it. I think some of the best books are the ones that feel like they age alongside you, where you appreciate different things about them at different points in your life.” – Michael
Set in England’s Downs, a once idyllic rural landscape, this stirring tale follows a band of very special creatures on their flight from the intrusion of humans and the certain destruction of their home. Led by a stouthearted pair of brothers, they journey from their native Sandleford Warren, through the harrowing trials posed by predators and adversaries and toward the dream of a mysterious promised land and a more perfect society.
“Let’s Pretend This Never Happened: A Mostly True Memoir” by Jenny Lawson
“It’s a biography, it’s hilarious and I listened to it narrated by the author. But it’s such a great story about growing up, recognizing and addressing your mental health and being a good human. I think of this book today and it still makes me smile.” – Kathy
When Jenny Lawson was little, all she ever wanted was to fit in. That dream was cut short by her fantastically unbalanced father and a morbidly eccentric childhood. It did, however, open up an opportunity for Lawson to find the humor in the strange shame-spiral that is her life, and we are all the better for it. In the irreverent “Let’s Pretend This Never Happened,” Lawson’s long-suffering husband and sweet daughter help her uncover the surprising discovery that the most terribly human moments – the ones we want to pretend never happened – are the same moments that make us the people we are. For every intellectual misfit who thought they were the only ones to think the things Lawson dares to say aloud, this is a poignant and hysterical look at the dark, disturbing yet wonderful moments of our lives.
“The Count of Monte Cristo” by Alexandre Dumas
“You need a really good translation and an unabridged edition. This book has everything: mystery, adventure, despair, romance, hope, intrigue, revenge. Set in France in the Napoleonic era, this book will take you away on a good long journey.” – Anne
Thrown in prison for a crime he has not committed, Edmond Dantès learns of a great hoard of treasure hidden on the Isle of Monte Cristo. He becomes determined not only to escape, but to unearth the treasure and use it to plot the destruction of the three men responsible for his incarceration. Dumas’ epic tale of suffering and retribution, inspired by a real-life case of wrongful imprisonment, was hugely popular when it was first serialized in the 1840s.
“Relentless” by Dean Koontz
“It’s about a fantastical family who find themselves on the wrong end of a murderous book critic. It’s so funny, bright and charming that I still think about it even though I read it a long time ago.” – Bentley
“Relentless” is a mesmerizing thriller about the battle of wills that ensues when a successful author and likable family man confronts a reclusive sociopath who wields an all-too-deadly poison pen. Respect Shearman Waxx’s opinion and you might escape with your career intact. Cross him and he’ll destroy you, your family and everything you hold dear. The title “America’s most feared critic” is one Waxx takes literally. Now Cubby Greenwich, his wife, Penny, their brilliant 6-year-old Milo and their uniquely talented noncollie, Lassie, are all about to learn the true meaning of “culture war.”
“Jernigan” by David Gates
“Of all the books on my shelf, my copy of ’Jernigan’ is the most ragged. I can’t help but come back to Gates’ suburban tale of failure and self-destruction just to be overwhelmed by the range of emotions it inspires every single time. As one reader said, ‘I couldn’t put it down, but god I hated this guy.’” –Brynne
From Holden Caulfield to Moses Herzog, our best literature has been narrated by malcontents. To this lineage add Peter Jernigan, who views the world with ferocious intelligence, grim rapture and a chainsaw wit that he turns, with disastrous consequences, on his wife, his teenaged son, his dangerously vulnerable mistress – and, not least of all, on himself. This novel is a bravura performance: a funny, scary, mesmerizing study of a man walking off the edge with his eyes wide open, wisecracking all the way.
“How We Fight For Our Lives” by Saeed Jones
“It’s a memoir of a young, Black, gay man growing up in Texas. And that man is a poet, and the memoir he writes is beautiful and lyrical and heart-wrenching and also hilarious. Jones has a knack for vibrant, descriptive writing about the most ordinary and mundane things.” – Kerri
Haunted and haunting, this memoir follows Jones as he fights to carve out a place for himself within his family, his country and his own hopes, desires and fears. Through a series of vignettes that chart a course across the American landscape, Jones draws readers into his boyhood and adolescence – into tumultuous relationships with his mother and grandmother, into passing flings with lovers, friends and strangers. Each piece builds into a larger examination of race and queerness, power and vulnerability, love and grief: a portrait of what we all do for one another, and to one another, as we fight to become ourselves. Blending poetry and prose, Jones has developed a style that is equal parts sensual, beautiful and powerful and a voice that’s by turns a river, a blues and a nightscape set ablaze.
“The Adventures and Misadventures of Maqroll” by Álvaro Mutis
“Maqroll el Gaviero (The Lookout) has a series of hopeless adventures on land and sea during his restless travels around the world. Read if you’re into extraordinarily soulful writing, deep and fascinating characters, Don Quixote or tramp steamers.” – Billy
Maqroll the Gaviero is one of the most alluring and memorable characters in the fiction of the past 25 years. His extravagant and hopeless undertakings, his brushes with the law and scrapes with death and his enduring friendships and unlooked-for love affairs make him a Don Quixote for our day, driven from one place to another by a restless and irregular quest for the absolute. Álvaro Mutis’ seven dazzling chronicles of the adventures and misadventures of Maqroll have won him numerous honors and a passionately devoted readership throughout the world. All these wonderful stories appear in a single volume in Edith Grossman’s prize-winning translation – the first time in English.
This post was updated Aug. 19, 2024, to note that descriptions of the books were compiled from the publishers.
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Gee…how disappointing!