Mumsnet Talk

Nothing about babies/birth or cancer or death.

Not a fan of chick lit but not really likely to be in the mood for some tricky magic realism type literature either.

Authors I love (but have read all of) include Anne Tyler, Margaret Atwood, Iain Banks, Bill Bryson. Have read lots of Scandi crime stuff recently too.

Authors I can't get on with include Thomas Hardy, John Irving, and I thought that The Help and One Day were absolute drivel. No sci-fi.

Can I be the first to recommend practically anything by Georgette Heyer. Very funny historical romances. Not mushy though - and very well written.

P G Wodehouse. My standby for any crappy moments in life. You can't beat Jeeves and Wooster.

Three men in a boat, even though you are going to read it in hospital

The Diary of a Provincial Lady is my sick-in-bed-need-the literature-equivalent-of-comfort-food remedy.

damn was going to recommend bryson .... i tend to go low brow in hospital read all 3 hunger games during stay last year.

There is a book called A short history of tractors in the Ukaine that is good. Its a ficton.

All great ideas. Just the sort of thing I'm after. Keep them coming!

Have read all Jeeves but it could be time for a re-read.

Shockingly Diary of a Provincial Lady isn't available on Kindle.

I'm going to whisper this but Alan titchmarsh writes a decent enough book for holidays or this type of escapism. I've really enjoyed them all. Ill no doubt be laughed on here and I was surprised too in truth but they were really good!

Any in particular you'd recommend?

Unreliable Memoirs by Clive James. Watch out if you have stitches though, it's v funny

I just read the woman who went to bed for a year by sue Townsend. Really enjoyed it. Don't need to think too much and made me chuckle

Starter For Ten is hilarious esp if (like me) you were a teenager in the 80's. I can remember crying with laughter reading it.

Dear Lupin by Charlie Mortimer

WishIwasanheiress - I admit to scoffing at DH for picking up an Alan Titchmarsh novel and reading it recently, but he said it was (surprisingly) rather good. He can tell a good story, apparently. If you're interested, it was called The Haunting. I might even be tempted to give it a go myself

How about 'Diary of a nobody' by George and William Grossmith? Very funny.

Free to download on the Kindle . Excellent.

I thought it might be.

I hope you enjoy it.

PooH! it's Weedon not William, that's what I get for not checking.

Have you read 'an American wife' by Curtis sittenfeld? Or I absolutely loved 'Marjorie Morningstar' by Herman Wouk.

Both well worth it but don't involve too much concentrating!

I gave my DM A Short History of Tractors in the Ukraine when she was in hospital and she got so engrossed she asked us not to visit one day so she could finish it!

How to be a woman Caitlin Moran . It's very funny.

Have read Ukrainian Tractor book, Caitlin Moran (found irritating, sorry), Clive James and American Wife.

Like the sound of the Herman Wouk one but no Kindle edition.

'Peyton place' - grace metalious?

The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey. Best book I have read in years and totally absorbing.

Sorry just saw you mentioned nothing about babies so scrap my choice.

The Ukrainian Tractor book is by Marina Lewycka. All of hers are great, although you will drive the other patients crackers with your giggling. Cold Comfort Farm and The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin are two other comic novels I can read and re-read. I also like Jasper Fforde's Thursday Next books, but I'm sure people must love them or hate them.

I discovered Tony Hillerman's crime thrillers a year or two back. They're set in Navajo country in America & are really well written and gripping, and give such a good sense of place it's almost like a free holiday (plus it doesn't matter which order you read them in). Josephine Tey's 1930s and 1940s mysteries have also recently been reissued and are very enjoyable. Dorothy L. Sayers?

As you like Margaret Attwood, how about Margaret Laurence? Another Canadian writer, although not as well known.

Paul Theroux, as you like travel writing?

Graham Greene -- Our Man in Havana, for instance?

Does the ban on death include nice soothing murders?

If not, try Dan Aaronovitch (the supernatural branch of the Met Police) or Elizabeth Peters' Peabody series (Eyptological murders) or Vicky Bliss series.

I loved The Help!
Anyway, I left my tent in San Francisco is a great funny read.

Oh and Agassi autobiog "open" is fantastic.

Anything by Barbara Pym or Elizabeth Taylor.

The Guilty One by Lisa Ballantyne was good. Well written, thought provoking and easy to read. Covers a murder case and various issues surrounding juvenile crime. Human interest but not of the cry-your-eyes-out variety. Might be worth popping on the kindle.

These are great. Thank you. Almost looking forward to being in hospital now.

P.s. Murders/crime are fine. Just no sad tales abut people dying of cancer etc.

What about Alexander McCall Smith? I especially like the Isabel Dalhousie ones set in Edinburgh.

Excellent idea, Scone (and you're right - it does!).

What about Ian Fleming's James Bond books? They're a good read.

Douglas Kennedy - A Special Relationship, The Pursuit of Happiness or State of the Union to start with. Ignore the namby-pamby covers (not sure if you get covers on eBooks) and give them a couple of chapters. I found them (and all his other stuff) very absorbing, and mostly set against a distinct historical/ political background.

Stuart Maconie's uk travel writing, similar to Bryson but but deeper and less smug. Pies and Predjudice, In Search of Middle England.

Have you read the James Herriot series? Very humourous and most chapters are a short tale in themselves. Not sure which is the first book but perhaps "All Creatures Great and Small"

I bought this yesterday Mapp & Lucia - over 1000 pages for 77p. They are light comedy novels (allegedly) written in 1930s. I thought I'd give them a go anyway.

Seem to remember a tv series from quite a long time ago based on them, so they must be ok. I expect there's some Mapp & Lucia fans on here who can confirm this too

How about Joanne Harris- author of chocolat? I read a few of her's a while back and they're an interesting read.

Sorry from me too; I forgot about babies in the later Isabel Dalhousie books.

Round Ireland with a Fridge is a very funny travelogue by Tony Hawks (I was going to suggest any Bill Bryson book, as they are my 'go to' funny reads)

If you like James Herriot, then a in a similar vein is All Teachers Great and Small, which I was predisposed to hate, but found very absorbing.

and if you like crime fiction, then early Dick Francis books are very readable - the ones co-written with his son are atrociously formulaic though, so best avoided.

The Red Paper Clip about trading up on Craig's List - fascinating.

Three men in a boat as recommended up thread, followed by Three men in a float (book about 3 men [shocker] who drive across Britain in a milkfloat - lighthearted, easy reading, v enjoyable)

I read The Night Circus when I was in hospital and it passed the time quite nicely.

Tales of the City series.
Children's books you love but haven't read in ages.

I didn't rate Tractors- I thought it started off comedic and then took a weird turn. But I will recommend The Hundred Year Old Man Who Climbed Out Of A Window And Disappeared , which is on offer and only 20p on kindle at the moment. It was the perfect balance of humour, adventure and history- a bit like Forrest Gump meets The Italian Job. Beautifully written.

Have you thought about audio books. Some fab ones read by really excellent people. You can get James Bond etc. my brother who travels a lot swears by them. He mentioned a guy (will try to get name) who is the Lawrence Olivier of audio books ! I'm just put of hospital and hard sometimes to comcentrate.

I've posted this in another thread already tonight and promise I don't have shares in it - but I've just finished a book called Angel Maker by Nick Harkaway. It is very funny, sort of a thriller - well, quite a bit of a thriller really, um, complicated in parts but ultimately the best book I've read in a while. Lovely characters (the good guys anyway) and a despicable bad lad of the first degree. Wonderful!

If you like Margaret Atwood how about Carol Shields, another Canadian writer. Unless was my favourite of hers.