I've lost my reading mojo - recommend me something good please!

[Queenoftheharpies]

I honestly can't remember the last time I read anything that I liked, can anyone recommend something that's:

• really compelling
  
• not trashy but
  
• not too heavy going
  
  I'm 35 weeks pregnant and holding onto my remaining brain cells with both hands, so now may not be the time to start Ulysses, but I'm not quite ready for chick-lit just yet.
  
  Nevertheless, all suggestions gratefully considered!

[Goober]

Anything by Dan Browne.

[notnowbernard]

Revolutionary Road was v v good

[paranoidpiggy]

I think in pregnancy it's allowed to lose your reading mojo. I couldn't concentrate on anything. I read trashy chick lit that I picked up in charity shops and that did me just fine! 2 that I enjoyed were the Nanny Diaries and Little Earthquakes. And I am an English Lit graduate so normally sneer at such trash . Da Vinci Code was nowhere near as bad as I expected and you will get swept along by it- it's the teeny weeny chapters that do it, I swear none of them are longer than 3 pages. Failing that, I went back to old favourites- Jane Austin, and Mallory Towers

[MarthaFarquhar]

Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day. Very light, frothy 1930s novel. I finished it in one sitting, but it makes a change from chick lit.

[notnowbernard]

The Adrian Mole books are always good for a laugh. I love the way Sue Townsend writes and I love Adrian

[Gertrude7]

I had a weird craving for James Herriott just before I gave birth - very funny stories but while in labour (3-days then emergency CS) I kept wondering why someone couldn't just shove their hand up and pull DS out as if I was a cow in one of the books.
These are some other ones I got through during the long wait - he was 18 days over so really hope you don't get through them all! Good luck.
The Forgotten Garden and other one by Kate Morton
The Other Hand by Chris Cleave is really compelling but quite upsetting.
December by Elizabeth Winthrop
Lottery by Patricia Wood
Notes From an Exhibition by Patrick Gale
No Time for Goodbye by Linwood Barclay
The Private Lives of Pippa Lee
Addition by Toni Jordan

[Gertrude7]

MarthaFraquhar

I read this one and enjoyed it but wondered if you found it slightly anti-Semitic

[TigerDrivesAgain]

A bit of crime or mystery?

[kikidee]

What about The Northern Clemency by Phillip Hensher? I loved it - well written and chunky but a lightish read.

Gertrude7, I am reading December at the moment and enjoying it.

[thehairybabysmum]

Ive just read The Secret Life of Bees and The Road Home.

Both v good but not heavy. I am just trying to regain my reading mojo after too long with trashy chicklit as i couldnt concentrate on owt else.

[teamcullen]

Have you read Twilight by Stephanie Meyer.

Ok it is a teenage romance but dont let that put you off. It has a good story and you really get to know and understand the characters. Its an easy read so you can pick it up and put it down when you want.I dont think I did put it down though, once I started - its really addictive!!

Everybody Ive lent this book to has been hooked and loved it.

[brimfull]

I loved this book
crow lake by mary lawson

[MarthaFarquhar]

hmmm. I do know what you mean Gertrude, but I would take account of Miss Pettigrew's sheltered life experience, in that she was somewhat disparaging to most of the folk she hadn't encountered before.