Chocolate and sleep - they always sound good!

History books, yes. Historical novels, probably mostly no.

Although I read my first georgette Heyer earlier this year and think I could cope with another of hers.

How about Dorothy Dunnett? Or is historical not your thing?(and even for a fast reader they might last longer than a day or two..)
..and post MT is definitely possible,I'm fine pre now but post is another matter.Chocolate is the answer.And sleep.

Thanks Pointy.

it's good, yes, but hard reading at times due to subject matter. I am very bad at remembering books other than good/bad.

Nope - is it good?

you read The Bone People by Keri Hulme?

Pointy - usually I'm fine but this time I have the most awful sugar cravings and am tired and snappy.

Anybody want to explain Hawksmoor to me?

Ahundredtimes -

no idea yet. Nothing much has grabbed me yet - am sure there are more books out there!

I don't get pre-mt never mind post-mt. I have annoyed people in the past by insinuating it is exaggerated. I have been put in my place already, though, so please no one take offence.

Finished 'Hawksmoor' - am clearly a thicko because I Just Didn't Get it At All. AT ALL I tell you! WTF was it going on about?

I will return to this thread when I am less stressy and stupid, as I appear incapable of even deciding between biscuit, or cake; black skirt, or purple skirt; sleep or bath at the moment - and books are so much more important than any of those!

I swear I do get post MT as well, or maybe I'm just a grumpy old hag

Right. Have you found anything yet?

Mmmmmm digestives. I did a 'healthy Sainsbo's order' so the worst thing I have in the house at the mo is muesli. have eaten a bowl but it really hasn't done the trick.

Can you get POST-MT instead of Pre? Because I think I have it!

I also feel podgy. Hav escoffed two digestives.

Awww. Am not pissed off - just knackered. Although the headteacher accused me of looking in a foul mood today - I really wasn't, just tired and stressy.

What we both need is a good book methinks! And chocolate would be good - but I haven't got any.

oh don't apologise. I'm tired and pissed off myself

Sorry! I am tired and stupid.

It sounds like the "New Fast Automatic Daffodils" poem. Very interesting.

Sorry again.

<sigh>

here is what I posted on Sunday:

"Tell you what I read a ocuple of years ago and loved. Woman's World by Graham rawle I think. Var funny, pacy, interesting. Try that. Good for a hol, nothing else like it."

Rawle pieced toegther sentences and excerpts from 1950s women's mags to make a novel with a cracking plot. It sounds contrived but it just flows and is so funny.

Woman's World? The magazine? I need WEIGHT woman, not 'twenty ways to cook fishfingers' or 'to perm or not to perm - and other style dilemmas of the noughties' I thought I could rely on you!

Woman's World, that should be. I mentioend it before. It is var funny but no one ever seems to read it.

What the flip is Owman's World?

get Owman's World, for heaven's sake.

Or try Magnus Mills. Funny and dark.

The four I mentioned are all very different in terms of subject matter and (to a certain extent) style. A Fine Balance is in quite a differnt class to the others but all in some ways reflect my obsession with travel, which is why I suggested them as holiday reads!

The only one of those I've read is 'The Other Side of The Bridge' which a colleague lent me. I didn't like it!

Off to google 'A Fine Balance' now.

OK, some books that were surprises to me and that I really enjoyed. They were all recommended to me by a friend who is an English teacher!
Cloth Girl: Marilyn Heward Mills here
Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard: Kiran Desai here
The Other Side of the Bridge: Mary Lawson here
Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil: Jonh Bernendt here
Also, as recommended by someone earlier, if you haven't already read it (but imagine that's unlikely!), A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry. It's epic.

yes he did - I liked it too

Dave Eggers - did he write 'A Heartbreaking Work Of Staggering Genius'? I liked that!

Thank you both.

Tbh work is sooooooooooooo stressful and exhausting at the monet that I just need somethingthat doesn't need much thinking about but at the same time it needs to not be just dross because my teacher-head won't allow it! It's a hard thing to find!

Second vote for Steve Toltz 'Fraction of the Whole'. Also 'Northern Clemency' by Philip Hensher, which is very thick (and good too!)

Recommending 'What is the What?' by Dave Eggers, who almost certainly falls into your 'too clever' category.

But it is a totally absorbing, moving and fairly straightforward story, based on the life of a Sudanese refugee. Fairly relentlessly harrowing though - would not make an R&J list.

Philip Kerr - I think somebody recommended him before - must have a look for that.

Lol at Lady C being 'retro-style' - I like your description!

has anybody read a book called 'The Heretic's Daughter'?

Ooh, yappybluedog I like the sound of the first two books you linked. I'm interested to know what you think of them. Funnily enough it says that customers who bought the David Nicholls one also bought the very book I bought today - Testimony, by Anita Shreve.

Just read the new Sarah Waters...The Little Stranger.Part ghost story,part social commentary.Loved it so much am re reading straight away!
I love spy thrillers,David Downing has written some set in 1930's Berlin.Wonderful.
Philip Kerr's Berlin Noir trilogy a.gain set around WW2,also John Lawton's Troy series.
Have just reread Lady Chatterley's Lover ,am liking retro style fiction at the moment!

I have just bought this

this

and this

I spend TOO MUCH MONEY ON BOOKS

Thank you. I love this thread and keep peeking back at it to see what people have come up with.

I know at least one other person who hated 'Fingersmith' but my dp loved it.

Have read most of those mentioned -
Greene (all of)
The Suspicions Of Mr Whicher
The Kate Atkinsons
Some Persephones (I LOVE Miss Pettigrew).

Bink - you are clearly more intelligent than me as I am finding Hawksmoor a bit of a plod.

Ahundredtimes - yep: English teacher - probably that is the problem, as I over-analyse everything.

ooh I just finished the Other Hand.

Would NEVER have chosen it if it had a description on the outside but it didn't, so I got it in a 3 for 2 thing and it was v readable (I also tend to read v v quickly so it was gone over the space of 2 days).

Janeite, have you read any Persephone books? - there are some lovely titles on their list, and I just got an e-mail re a 3 for 2 offer to celebrate their 10th birthday.
It doesn't seem to be on the website, so...
"Also, for this week only there is a special offer of three books for the price of two ie if you buy two books you may have a third free of charge. This applies in the shop on Thursday only but on the website all this week. (The offer also applies to readers abroad, although the third book will be sent surface mail even if the other two are sent airmail.) If you would like to take up this special offer on the internet please order and pay for two books as usual, but write ‘free book please' and the title of the third book you would like in the Additional Info box on the website." 'Mariana', 'Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day' and 'The Making of A Marchioness' are favourites - easy, enjoyable reads for holiday - you might like their Dorothy Whipple novels too. Two quite different books that have gripped me recently:
'The Suspicions of Mr Whicher' by Kate Summerscale, and 'Forever Amber' by Kathleen Winsor. FA is a good long historical read at 962 pages - not literary, but I thoroughly enjoyed it!

Have not long finished the Kate Atkinson Jackson Brodie ones (case histories, one good turn and when will there be good news)
Not v difficult but page turning, ideal for the beach.

Christopher Brookmyre also v entertaining but might be a bit to lite for you?

If you're reading Hawksmoor so don't mind Peter Ackroyd (I think he's a bit lite) have you read John Banville (Ghosts, The Untouchable, etc.)? They occupy a similar space, for me, but JB is far better.

The Other Hand - Chris Cleave

Graham Greene?

A Fatal Inversion - Barbara Vine

I have been thinking about this Janeite! I think from your list and also a vague memory, that you are an english teacher? Is that right? An english teacher who doesn't like literary stylists other than Beckett! No wonder you are fussy.

I'm now slightly obsessed by trying to guess your taste. I can't work out what it's based on. However I am confident that you won't like American Wife from my first list, and am not absolutely sure you'll like Kavalier & Clay, but still want you to try it someday, maybe not on your holiday.

Have you read David Mitchell? Have you read any Patricia Highsmith? I think you might like those. Also E.L Doctorow or Tim Winton?

heavens, Janeite, I've never heard of anyone not liking Sarah Waters' Fingersmith before! The Night Watch is very different, but of course can't guarantee you'd like it.

Read 'London' and the Antonia fraser. Will google the other one. Thanks.

VIII of course....

Ackroyd's London the Biography is very long and enjoyable (if you are into history, natch).

Antonio Fraser's Wives of Henry VII?

Anthony Beevor (although haven't read his new one yet)?

My favourite Gaiman ones are 'American Gods' and 'Anansi's Boys'.

Have read most of the stuff that comes up on that King thing - don't really like horror, except King.

Not liked much this year,although have read a lot:

- 'The Gargoyle' - liked it
- some teenage fiction: especially 'The Knife Of Never Letting Go' - brilliant
- re-read 'The Crucible' - superb, as always
- re-read 'Godot' and 'Endgame' - brilliant
- re-read some Waugh
- read 'A Clockwork Orange'- astonishing
- quite liked the Kellerman one I mention in my OP
- a history of surgery - brilliant
- am currently reading 'Hawksmoor'

As a slight aside, Gaiman has never entered my radar before but, after having googled him, his books looks interesting - which one (s) would you recommend particularly?

Have you ever tried this website - here's what putting in stephen king comes up with

Can you say books that you do like rather than what you don't? Is easier that way - other than your favourite writers - what have you liked that you've read over the last year?

Read Pepys.
Read Carter Beats The Devil (didn't like it).

By 'clever' I mean self-conciously, self congratulatory clever such as 'Attonement' and that ilk, where you can almost hear the sound of the writer slapping him/her self on the back and imagining the reviews.

Not hugely fond of biogs but I do like history books.

American Wife - Curtis Sittenfeld

The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay - Chabon

Carter Beats the Devil - Glen David Gold

I am a bit nervous of your 'mustn't be clever' stipulation. All the above are clever and good and interesting and readable and hugely enjoyable and I'd love them on a holiday. They are also LONG. I have no idea if you'd find them too literary though.

Both the Dragon and the Played with Fire - takes you to five. One more. You should revisit something, or make yourself read something different. Do you like biography? Samuel Pepys one is the best I have read in many year, also I am enjoying the V.S. Naipaul biog v much at the minute. Might not be your idea of an enjoyable read though. Do you like Barbara Vine?

What else - other than Austen and King - have you enjoyed recently?

Water for Elephants, an enjoyable fast read

I don't know!

I need at least six huge books.

So what are you going to read?

Read Ya Ya. Read Wodehouse (although maybe time for a revisit).

the YaYa Sisterhood is that kind of good holiday read

have only just read my first one but what about a pg wodehouse?

Have read 'The Virgin Suicides' (loved it) and 'Middlesex' (okay); deffo don't do true-crime stuff.

Looks like the dragon girl and Mr Meany are winning so far!

Thanks both.

Have just added 'Swallows And Amazons' to my list, after reading another thread.

What else? Something lovely and happy and exciting and gripping. No worthiness; no overly 'clever' writing; no really deep themes; no chick lit; no misery manuals; no Tony Parsons!

Books I have read recently and enjoyed (although I am not exactly up with the times!):

A Fine Balance - Mistry (brought a tear or three to my eyes and I am not a sentimental person)
Middlesex - Eugenides (and Virgin Suicides is also supposed to be v good).

Will second Owen Meany - one of my fav books but I love John Irving and think lots of his stuff is worth reading.

Also almost anything by William Boyd (loved the New Confessions).

Have you read In Cold Blood by Capote for a bit of 'true crime-lit?

I also second/third the Girl with a Dragon Tattoo - very involving.

Did you say you don't like thrillers? Sophie Hannah's books might come under that genre but very clever and involved writing, imho.

I forgot - I am just coming to the end of Go Tell it on teh Mountasin re Baldwin. Very well written

oh yy I enjoyed reading Engelby (but there were bits I didn't like)

Oh lots more lovely recs. Thank you.

Have read the Philippa gregory Tudor ones. I liked the first couple than thought they got a bit samey.

Owen Meany sounds worth a look.

Gah to Dickens.

Bink - I am 100% serious about King. My tastes are nothing if not eclectic (music = The Smiths, Jesus And Mary Chain etc and Wham!!!).

Keep em coming - I lurve threads like this.

If you like Neil Gaiman you might like Rupert Thomson.

I've just been raving about him on the 'Any recommendations' thread so I won't repeat it all.

Playing with the Moon, Eliza Graham.

I've always found summer holidays really brilliant for reading Books That Should Be Read - it sounds odd but it really works. It's how I discovered War and Peace. I'm going for Turgenev this summer, and taking a couple of (hitherto unread) Dickens

You might like this - not well known but absolutely wonderful

I also read a lot of history on holiday - and it's the only time of year I ever read any history.

One last suggestion - dunno if you ever purge your bookshelves - but I did this quite recently and took boxes and boxes to the charity shops. Once the last box was delivered, I had a sneaky browse and bought a dozen or so, and they are just things I would never have bought at Waterstones or from Amazon and they've been so much fun. Margery Allingham and JB Priestley and all sorts. Try it and see.

I second (or is that third) The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and the Girl who Played with Fire. They fit the gripping and exciting category. I have recommended them to two others (male) and they both loved them. I also like a big chunky book for the holidays and I have Wally Lamb - The Hour I First Believed but any of his are good. I am reading the Northern Clemency by Phillip Hensher - 700 pages if it's bulk you're after. Do you think you could be tempted by a hit of historical action? If so, then I recommend the Tudor Court novels by Phillipa Gregory. That might be a bit too far outside your brief but she tells a very good story and I find them gripping. Let me know if I'm on the right lines and I'll try and think of some more.

James Baldwin and Trollope are also on my genius list, just by the way. If you haven't done the political Trollopes (Can You Forgive Her and thereafter), that's a summer feast.

Have you tried David Mitchell? - as in Ghostwritten, and Number 9 Dream, not so much Cloud Atlas, and not (as far as I'm concerned) Black Swan Green? The first two are on my genius book list (and I bet you a great deal I am fussier than you are).

I also rate James Robertson, of Gideon Mack and (even more so) Joseph Knight.

Currently I am admiring Barack Obama - I am finding Audacity of Hope even more neatly articulate than Dreams From My Father.

(Can I just say about Stephen King - you are having us on, arncha)

owen meany (john irving) is a great book and an easy read...owen is a tiny boy who has an odd voice who people are drawn to and things happen around eg he accidentally kills his best friends mum with a baseball...made me laugh and cry

You hated Never Let ME Go? hmph

Didm't realise this was your thread, jane.

Tell you what I read a ocuple of years ago and loved. Woman's World by Graham rawle I think. Var funny, pacy, interesting. Try that. Good for a hol, nothing else like it.

Thanks. I know nothing about any of them so will have a peek on Amazon.

erm, let me think. I have been a very poor reader recently, just not getting stuck in. I liked Engleby a lot. And I quite enjoyed Be Near Me (O'Hagan) even though there's something about him (author) that I don't like. Have just started Out Stealing Horses by a Norwegian, can't recall his name, and it is very promising

What have you liked recently, Pointy?

oh yes, kevin annoyed me too.

Lots of books annoy me enough to use cap-locks but none more so than - LET'S ALL TALK CRAP ABOUT KEVIN....ERM, NO...LET'S NOT, EH?

sHADOW ANNOYED ME. (Although not so much that I wanted to use caps)

Read the Dean Koontz ones - okay but not a patch on King!

Read Notes from An Exhibition, which I liked apart from the ending.

Couldn't get on with 'Shadow...'

What about Patrick Gale? Have you read Notes from an Exhibition or Rough Music? And he's got a new one out now.

Have you read The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón. It's similarish to Winter in Madrid by CJ Sansom.

If you like Neil Gaiman, you might like the Odd Thomas Series by Dean Koontz. The first book is very creepy and an easy read. The rest are okay but not as gripping.

Okay - thanks. Dragon Tatoo one looks worth a go.

Have read 'Rebecca' - AS Byatt maybe a bit too lit-fic. I don't want anything too self-conciously 'clever' (so no Ian McEwan for example!). Just something that will grip me and be an easy-ish read without being brainless pap.

One of my favourite holiday re-reads - Bonfire of the Vanities by Tom Wolfe. His cast of characters are brilliant - I love it

Just borrowed the new AS Byatt 'The Children's Book', but it looks fairly hefty

Reading 'Rebecca' and three cups of tea at the moment, both highly recommended

to the publisher

I've read loads of good books recently and am very fussy

were you asking to be told about the dragon tattoo book?

it's written by a swedish journalist who delivered the trilogy to the published but died before they were published. The first one (the girl with the dragon tattoo) was published and it was a massive success.

Don't want to give too much away but starts with the story of a journalist who is being prosecuted for writing an inaccurate story. Actually, it's quite complicated lol so don't want to give too much away.

It's good though. Took me a chapter or so to get into it then it draws you in.

Sarah Waters eh? read and loathed The Fingersmith - is it better than that?

Sorry - I am very fussy.

Read 'Never Let Me Go' and hated it, sorry.

Read the William Boyd ones.

Don't really like thrillers tbh but might try a Remus to see.

Can't be doing with Rushdie tbh.

Haven't read A Prayer For Owen Meany - what's that about?

A big fat new Neil Gaiman or something of that ilk would be good. Or something like 'Arthur And George' or somesuch.

I have a book for you - The Night Watch by Sarah Waters. About civilians in London in the Second World War. Told backwards, swooningly beautiful prose and so CLEVER!

Have you read any Ian Rankin Rebus books?

William Boyd - Restless and am currently reading Any Human Heart which is a v good read.

Never Let me Down by Kazuo Ishiguro

have just read melvyn bragg's the soldiers return...about a man returning from burma and he and his family trying to readjust to each other

jesse kellerman the one who wrote the art mystery has also written a thriller called sunstroke.

His mum faye kellerman wrote a load of thrillers...her early ones linked to an orthodox jewish community aregood...prayers for the dead and the ritual bath.

His dad jonathon writes psychological gripper type thrillers...pick any one from 20!
ps there are 3 more kellerman kids so watch this space!

never managed to read a salman rushdie before but i loved the enchantress of florence...you need a good sitting to get into it tho...its not a pick up, put down one

hated cloud atlas but loved ghostwritten by david mitchell(?right name)

and theres always a prayer for owen meany!

Any more?

Thank you. Not read those - tell me more?

ooh yes. I agree with The Dragon Tattoo. Haven't read the follow-up yet but looking forward to it.

the dragon tattoo one and its sequel, the girl who played with fire

Evening bump.

I quite like Coupland - although I still think that he has a better book inside him than any of the ones he has written thus far.

Now - what can I reeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeaad?

I am monstrous when I am bookless - please help to save dp from my wrath!

Ah yes - I have Girlfriend in a coma - must re-read - and think I will ask my mum to dig out Charlotte Sometimes!

Awww - thank you! I re-read it every year (did it last month in fact) and find myself singing for days!

I love books linked to song references and vice versa: Girlfriend In a Coma / Killing An Arab / Reel Around The Fountain etc.

Hi Janeite

SOrry I can't really offer advice as I've not read anything decent lately, was browsing in Waterstones the other week for summer reads and sure there are less good new books out this year - or is it just me?

Thought I'd post anyway as I always look out for your posts as I love that although I've only been on MN a couple of months I've already seen you reference Charlotte Sometimes more than once - am a fan of both book and song!

Long summer holidays coming up, including two weeks in Greece.

What can I read?

I need gripping and exciting novels (no chick-lit, no overly lit-fic) that will last me for a day or two each (read very, very quickly).

Things I have enjoyed recently are:

- all the CJ Sansoms
- World Without End and the other one
- A murder-mystery featuring Oscar Wilde
- re-reading Brideshead Revisited
- the Frank Talis Viennese mysteries
- somebody Kellerman - a mystery about an artist - was a Richard and Judy

Favourite authors ever are Austen and Stephen King but of course, I've read all of theirs.