[Fatima99]

These are not necessarily the best books I have read but they're the books that have stayed with me

Accordion Crimes AND The Shipping News, Annie Proulx
The Little Friend, Donna Tartt
Captain Corelli's Mandolin, Louis de Bernieres
Enchanted, Rene Denfeld
Still Life - Sarah Winman (in fact any book written by Sarah Winman)
The Lincoln Highway - Amor Towles - so good I miss the characters and have no idea what to read next

[soleighce]

I can't say I've read the best book. But like Fatima above, there are books that can be considered the best for me and not for others, because they were able to touch my heart (metaphorically speaking).

They were mostly Mitch Albom books. The first one I read was The Five People You Meet in Heaven.
And then followed by Tuesdays with Morrie, Have A Little Faith, For One More Day, The Time Keeper, and The First Phone Call from Heaven.
The last I've read was The Magic Strings of Frankie Presto.

Mitch' books have these elements in a book that'll make you rethink life, and how you live it. And even other people's lives. How things can change without notice... without warning.. and still you remain the same. How people come and go, never knowing they have affected you already. And that changes you.
I've learned a lot of things from his books, and I treasure all of them. I can't wait to read the next he'll make. I still have two of his on my TBR though.

Heh. One day, Sol. Read them, one day. xD