This is my holiday reading list - please add/suggest/destroy as necessary!

[HarderToKidnap]

I like postapoc/dystopian, Stephen King (but NOT gory horror), historical, or just generally good books. I'm going away for TWO WEEKS so will need 16 books. No, I don't know how I'm going to get them there.

Gone Girl, Gillian Flynn
The Innocents, Francesca Segal
The new Sophie Hannah (I've read the rest so I might as well)
The new Barbara Vine (see above)
Zombie Fallout by Mark Tufo
How To be a Good Wife, Emma Chapman

Most of them cos I've seen people mention them on here and I like a bit of populist fiction!

I need 10 more books please!

[ThePavlovianCat]

How about The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova. It's about the history surrounding Vlad the Impaler. It's nice and chunky too!

[DuchessofMalfi]

The Historian has got to be one of the worst, most boring books I've ever struggled through, Pavlovian :o I nearly lost the will to live by the end, but I hated the thought of giving up on it.

How about The Night Circus, by Erin Morgenstern. I liked it very much. Slightly disappointing ending, but still a good book. And it's quite long too :o

[DuchessofMalfi]

Oh and I'm reading Atonement by Ian McEwan atm. If you haven't read it, I'd recommend it. Don't want to put it down, it's that good :)

[Feenie]

I really enjoyed What Have I Done?

[RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie]

The Historian is a bit long and indulgent but not bad and certainly long enough for a fast reader on holiday.

But this book on Vlad the Impaler is much better (it is gory though).

If you like zombies, World War Z is good fun.

I hated Atonement, I must admit.

Have you read 'Let The Right One In' which is a Swedish vampire book? I read that on holiday one year and enjoyed it except for imho a weak ending - again, it's quite blood thirsty though.

I'd prefer 10 huge books to 16 books including light weight stuff tbh. So The Passage is big and gripping, for example (vampires but not stupid ones!) and so is The Grapes Of Wrath (bloomin' depressing though!).

[DontForgetTheLightAlesLawrence]

Kate Atkinson?
Haven't read yet, but she's an excellent writer and this has good reviews. A departure from Jackson Brodie, this one.

[DontForgetTheLightAlesLawrence]

I found Sophie Hannah's latest dead dull and irritating. Her last few have been below par. If you have to sacrifice one, I'd say you won't be missing owt if you drop hers!

[DontForgetTheLightAlesLawrence]

Gillespie and I is a great read.

[VerySmallSqueak]

Have you tried 'Last Light' by Alex Scarrow?

It's basically about a Britain without oil and the resulting disintegration of society.

[VerySmallSqueak]

And the David Moody Autumn series of zombie books are good.
I think they are 'Autumn','The city','Disintegration','Purification' and 'Aftermath' though I may have got that a little confused.
There is also 'The Human condition' that ties in.

[RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie]

I thought 'Autumn' was shocking badly written, I'm afraid - just awful.

[ThreeBeeOneGee]

The Passage by Justin Cronin, and its sequel, The Twelve.

[ThreeBeeOneGee]

I would second 'Last Light'.

[ThreeBeeOneGee]

And add 'The Flood' by Stephen Baxter.

[VerySmallSqueak]

I have to say that I don't need a book that'd get any literary awards to keep me amused though Remus .
For me it had a good storyline,flowed well and kept me interested.

I second 'The Flood'. by Stephen Baxter.

[Bjxa21]

Try:
Lanark by Alasdair Gray
Pilo family circus by will Elliott
Daemon and freedom tm by Daniel Suarez (2 books)
The destiny's children series by Stephen Baxter

All are books I've enjoyed, they're easy enough to read, though Lanark can be reasonably hard going on occasion. Also the second Baxter book is quite "hard" scifi. My favourites from that list are daemon and freedom tm. Proper near-future dystopia for when tech goes really really wrong!

[RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie]

Me neither Squeak. I loved The Passage and I enjoy Myra Grant's zombies in the blogging world books, neither of which are great literature by any stretch of the imagination - but 'Autumn' made them both look like Nobel contenders in comparison!

[VerySmallSqueak]

See I wasn't as impressed with the Myra Grant books as the Moody ones.

S'pose it's just different horses for different courses.

One we can both agree on is 'World War Z' - zombie classic for sure.

[VerySmallSqueak]

The Death of Grass by John Christopher is good.

Also OP if you haven't yet read the Philip Pullman books,I'd recommend.

[RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie]

:)

The Grant ones made me laugh, because I like the brother and his 'poking them with a stick' mentality.

Really OP you should be ignoring all of these silly modern ones and reading Dracula though - it is good. You might like Frankenstein too, or some Wilkie Collins.

[VerySmallSqueak]

Yes,they were refreshingly different to a lot of other zombiefiction,I'll say that Remus. I didn't dislike them,as such.

Madeleine Roux's zombie books are good 'Allison Hewitt is trapped' and 'Sadie Walker is stranded'.

[GinOnTwoWheels]

I'm going away for TWO WEEKS so will need 16 books. No, I don't know how I'm going to get them there.

I'm surprised no-one has mentioned a kindle (or other ereader) yet.

Sadly you've missed the Amazon 20p books, but it seems ideal for solving your suitcase space at least. Almost everyone who gets one, including me, loves them, even if they're a complete 'real books' nut, which it seems that you are .

Recently, I have liked 'The Help', 'Nothing to Envy', the Peter James and Ann Cleeves Shetland books and the Monica Lewycka books as well.

[CoteDAzur]

16 books for a 2 week holiday You need to get a Kindle!

Interview With The Vampire (vampire obviously )
The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo (crime/thriller)
This Thing Of Darkness (historical)
Brave New World (dystopian)
The Stand (post-apocalyptic)
Cloud Atlas (6 connected stories over several centuries, incl. 1 dystopian and 1 post-apocalyptic, both very good)

[OneHolyCow]

The new Barbara Vine was IMHO extremely boring and I could not have finished it if it were last in my stack on a holiday with no bookshop in sight. Yes, like that.
Have you read Douglas Copeland? He's got a new one, Player One. Nice bit of dystopia but small enough to read by the pool. Get the Justin Cronin ones for a bit of a more meaty read, which will last you longer.
And yes, you do need a kindle ;-)

[RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie]

Yes to This Thing Of Darkness and yes to Brave New World.

Douglas Copeland's Girlfriend In A Coma,Life After God and Miss Wyoming all good. Generation X quite fun. The others less good.

I love 'A Heartbreaking Work Of Staggering Genius' and it has the added advantage of being useful as a doorstop too.