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Original poster

I am desperate and need you all to help me please!

239 replies

ColonelBrandonsBiggestGroupie · 30/04/2011 15:39

I have got one and a half history books left and then I am, once again, bookless. I have been to three different libraries in the last ten days and have failed to find even a single book that I fancied or hadn't read before.

I have some Nectar points to spend, so I could have a bit of an Amazon splurge - but what shall I get?

  1. Favourite writers are Jane Austen and Stephen King
  2. I like v well written fantasy (ie Tolkein) or v well written historical who-dunnit stuff (eg Doyle or Sansom) or quirky history books
  3. I am a snob and get very twitchy about shoddy writing but can't stand overly self conscious crap (step forward Ian McEwan)
  4. I am very, very fussy
  5. I read very, very quickly so the bigger the book, the better

Please help!

OP posts:
BerylStreep · 01/05/2011 22:38

Have you read Shadow of the Wind?

Original poster
ColonelBrandonsBiggestGroupie · 01/05/2011 22:19

Have read and loved all of Bryson's and have enjoyed to a differing degree all of the 'Mistress Of The Art Of Death' series so far. Can't be doing with Kate Atkinson and absolutely no to mavis Cheek and Paul O' Grady! Thanks again though.

OP posts:
Leo35 · 01/05/2011 22:15

You might want me to stop because a quick look at my Good Reads pages has reduced me to Jojo Moyes, Elinor Lipman, Kate Atkinson, Mavis Cheek et al. Probably not your bag I'm guessing.

I read an Ariana Franklin (Mistress of the Art of Death) historical crime, which although it rolled along did leave me wondering how the main protagonist avoided the ducking stool. Check the synopsis on Amazon and you'll see what I mean.

Do you like humourous books? Bill Bryson (loved Life and Times of the Thunderbolt kid) or Paul O'Grady's autobiog. I never watch Paul O'G on the telly, but loved his recounting of his life in Birkenhead. Great stuff. I acknowledge that they were both very quick reads.

Original poster
ColonelBrandonsBiggestGroupie · 01/05/2011 21:34

Don't stop! I've read as much of the Lunar men one as I could cope with. The railway one sounds very me, so thank you to your dh! :)

OP posts:
Leo35 · 01/05/2011 20:43

DH was wondering why I was typing so furiously and asked what I was doing. His recommendation is The Last Journey of William Huskisson - Simon Garfield. It's about the Liverpool - Manchester railway, but don't let that put you off. Lots about the politics and historial background.

Jenny Uglow - Lunar Men? nineteenth century - check. However I can't get into it and DH abandoned it as to slow!

Forgot about Agent Zig-zag and Operation Mincemeat. Former is a fab read - rolls along and is almost incredible.

Think I better stop with the recommendations now! Good luck with your next read.

Original poster
ColonelBrandonsBiggestGroupie · 01/05/2011 20:33

Read them - adored them!

OP posts:
SandStorm · 01/05/2011 20:27

Also, have a look at the Otori trilogy by Lian Hearn. It's a historical fantasy set in ancient Japan, but not Japan iyswim.

Across the Nightingale Floor - part one, took me a little while to get into but absolutely loved it.

Grass for his Pillow - part two and I'm nearly finished.

Brilliance of the Moon - part three and next on my list.

Original poster
ColonelBrandonsBiggestGroupie · 01/05/2011 20:22

Thank you. :)

Read:
White Mughals - it's Giles Milton iirc
The floating brothel - quite interesting but she had to use quite a lot of superficial stuff to pad it out
The historian - Kostova (sp?) and obv. Dracula - read both / love both
Middlesex - Eugenides (thinking of the history angle...) - read and liked but liked his debut, The Virgin Suicides, even more
The bolter - read and liked
Wide Sargasso Sea - read
Cannery Row - read all of his I think

Will never read another Hilary Mantell again. Wolf Hall annoyed me and Beyond Black was so crap I wanted to burn it.

Googling the others - thanks again.

OP posts:
Leo35 · 01/05/2011 20:14

Feeling a bit of lightweight now with my suggestions. Better up my game!

The Patrick Leigh Fermor was on my mental To Read list. Also the Alone in Berlin (given my love of Philip Kerr novels)

Never read the Ackroyd on Frankenstein, but loved the Dan Leno tome (a whodunnit) and started and never finished the ones on Sir/St Thomas More and London

Thought of:

If this is a Man - Primo Levi. A powerful must read
White Mughals - forget who (again sitting on the shelves...)
The floating brothel - Sian Rees (arresting title if nothing else!!)
The historian - Kostova (sp?) and obv. Dracula
Middlesex - Eugenides (thinking of the history angle...)
Laurie Graham's Gone with the Windsors, and The importance of Being Kennedy (ditto on the history angle)
A place of Greater Safety - Mantel (couldn't start it, in all honesty but it's BIG)
Between Silk and cyanide: a code maker's war - Marks (he worked in SOE)
The bolter - Frances Osborne - for the rich are different angle
Wide Sargasso Sea - not big, not historical but good
Cannery Row - Steinbeck - ditto

Oh dear - haven't really upped my game much. I read to relax and tune out, so heavy duty stuff doesn''t much appeal at the moment. Hope these might lead you to some titles or authors, or further recommendations.

Very intrigued as to what you will read next!

Original poster
ColonelBrandonsBiggestGroupie · 01/05/2011 17:05

Can't get on with Mitchell. Read and really enjoyed White Tiger. England's Mistress looks v good - thank you.

OP posts:
juneau · 01/05/2011 14:17

The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet - David Mitchell
The Kindly Ones - Jonathan Littell
England's Mistress - Kate Williams (biog, not fiction)
The White Tiger - Aravind Adiga

RumourOfAHurricane · 01/05/2011 14:05

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Original poster
ColonelBrandonsBiggestGroupie · 01/05/2011 12:38

That is so funny because I picked 'Forever Amber' up in a charity shop the other day then put it down again as it was a bit tattered and they were still asking 2.50 for it. I then came home and stuck it into my Amazon box so I'd remember about it. Wish I'd bought it for 2.50 now!

OP posts:
RumourOfAHurricane · 01/05/2011 11:30

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Original poster
ColonelBrandonsBiggestGroupie · 01/05/2011 11:26

Cool - thank you. Have read 'Wedlock' so 'Knife Man' sounds v much my sort of thing.

OP posts:
haggis01 · 01/05/2011 11:22

Alone in Berlin - hans fallada based on true story about a couple who leave anti -nazis postcards around berlin

Slammerkin - bawdy georgian novel by Emma O'Donoghue

The Immortal life of Henrietta Lacks - Rebecca Skloot

Knife Man - great book about the pioneeing anatomist John Hunter by Wendy Moore also Wedlock by WEndy MOore about a famous divorce in Georgian times

Huge brick of a tome that I haven't tackled yet as its too heavy for my poor weak wrists but comes in at 896 pages plus about british vascillations during the american civil war - World on fire by Amanda Foreman

LawrieMarlow · 01/05/2011 10:57

There's going to be A Suitable Girl published in 2013.

Original poster
ColonelBrandonsBiggestGroupie · 01/05/2011 10:56

I'm getting the message re: A Suitable Boy now, so feel as if I'd better try that first! Some more good ideas here too.

OP posts:
LadyPeterWimsey · 01/05/2011 10:53

A Suitable Boy - brilliant. Intimate and epic, written in what seems to be an effortless easy style but which probably took loads of work, romantic and realistic.

steviesmith · 01/05/2011 10:51

Have you tried Halldor Laxness (Icelandic) or Jose Saramago (Portuguese.) You might find Saramago pretentious but I think he's honestly intellectual rather than a McEwan.

I don't really read much history so probably can't help you much.

sonearsofar · 01/05/2011 10:46

Re travel, a must-read (for me) is 'A Time of Gifts' by Patrick Legh Fermor, an account of how he walked from Hamburg to Istambul immediatly before WWII.

sonearsofar · 01/05/2011 10:40

another vote for 'A Suitable Boy'.
You are going to come back and let us know which ones you've chosen, aren't you?

jeee · 01/05/2011 09:57

Susan Howatch - the Starbridge Sequence. Five or six books about the development of the Church of England in the twentieth century. Entertaining, and moderately well written. And very long.

Original poster
ColonelBrandonsBiggestGroupie · 01/05/2011 09:54

I haven't read A Suitable Boy. I fear it would fail my 'worthy and pseudo intellectual showing off' radar - am I wrong?

Donki - Will have a look at those; thanks.

History books anyone? Tales of death-defying escapes in far climes in the early 19th century, anyone? :)

OP posts:
Donki · 30/04/2011 23:28

Well written fantasy:
Guy Gavriel Kay: the Fionavar Tapestry

Lois McMaster Bujold: The Curse of Chalion, and Paladin of Souls.

Excellent (In my opinion)

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