I LOVE Allende's The House of the Spirits.

Currently I've only read this and Portrait in Sepia but I have Eva Luna and Daughter of Fortune at home waiting to be read and I'll be back to update soon.

I've read Fingersmith, Tipping the Vlevet and The Night Watch. Fingersmith is one of my all time favourite books. Tipping the Velvet isn't as clever or engaging and is also much more sexually graphic. The Night Watch is quite different as it is set in the 1940's as oppossed to the 1800's, I enjoyed it but wasn't impressed with the ending. I intend to read Affinity as soon as possible.

Of Mice and Men, The Grapes of Wrath and Cannery Row are all SUPERB books. I am a big fan of Steinbeck - he's a literary genius and I will be reading my way through more of his work asap.

I'd say start with Of Mice and Men or Cannery Row as they are slim books. Cannery Row is quite humorous which is unusual for Steinbeck. The Grapes of Wrath is my all time favorite, it's a big book but worth every page.

I've read On Beauty and White Teeth. In my personal opinion I found On Beauty to be a much better book. I thought White Teeth was too long, clumsily written almost and the ending was unrealistic.

Both of these books are wonderful. Read both. Be aware that while The Lovely Bones is fictional, Lucky is about Seabold's teenage rape and is a shocking and blunt book.

I enjoyed The Secret Life of Bee's and was excited to read The Mermaid Chair. Sadly, this book was a disappointment and isn't a patch on The Secret Life of Bees...

Both of these books of fabulous, read them both in whatever order you like!

Cat's Cradle is an amazing book. Slughterhouse Five is worth a read but I always personally thought it was a little over rated. Vonnegut's collection of short stories Welcome to the Monkey House is also exceptional. Don't bother with Timequake full stop.

I've read Atonement, Enduring Love, Amsterdam and Saturday.

I personally think that Enduring Love is the best followed by Atonement.

Although Amsterdam won the Booker I wasn't particularly impressed and that goes for Saturday too. They are good reads but not outstanding.

I have read MANY of Atwoods books which tend to focus on psychological relationships between people.

My Favourite is Oryx and Crake but this is quite different from her usual style.

Personally I felt that the Handmaids tale is over-rated, although the premise is clever I wouldn't start here.

I'd recommend starting with either Cat's Eye or Alias Grace as these are more typical of her style.

The Pennelopiad recently in 2006 is also a really interesting read but not the one to start with.