Lit Fic for ME please

The Diviners I meant!

I love Canadian lit too, the Divinera by Margaret Laurence is one of my all time faves, along with Atwood, shields, Ondaatje, Munro, McLeod. There is a great Canadian novel by Jane Urqhart called Away.

Second Wally Lamb. The hour I first believed is incredible, inspired by Columbine shootings.

When did you last re-read Dickens? Are there any you've missed? I revisit them every ten years or so, as I always see more to them when older :)

I did a DH Lawrence reprise a few years back. It confirmed that he really gets up my nose, but his prose can be spectacular.

Am catching up on George Gissing, and loving it!

Excuse millions of typos. On phone. Grr.

The one I'm reading is called Where'd You Go, Bernadette? By somebody Semple. Had good reviews, cracking start. Reminds me a bit of Jennifer Egan's The goon Squad, if you liked that. Told through emails and letters and notes, the story of a mother's disappearance and the impact on her daughter, set in modern Seattle.

For 'small town' reads I love Sinclair Lewis - Main Street and Babbit. And the Australia Miles Franklin.

Hully, have you read Wally Lamb? Big stomping books which are good on contemporary America. Or Gerard Woodward (especially the family trilogy). Heartbreaking and beautifully written, I think.

For those who like big but literary historical reads a la Wolf Hall, has anyone tried Karen Maitland. Her first book, Company of Liars and its sequel, set during the Plague are well thought of by literary friends. I have them but have not read them yet.

Joyce Carol Oates can be hit and miss. I like her middle period stuff best such as Middle Age (:a Romance?) oh and Richard Powers is another solidly good sign of the times American writer.

Has anyone read anything by Elizabeth Strout? I haven't, but I recently bought The Burgess Boys based on reviews but have not read it yet.

Ah well. The Instructions is quite a bit like DFW, so don't try that.

Sherwood Anderson and Thorton Wilder are more like Richard Ford.

Oh, and for older stuff, Sherwood Anderson (particularly Winesburg, Ohio) and Thorton Wilder (Bridge of San Luis Rey) are relative unknowns who wrote some great books.

Ah, great thread.

Nobody has mentioned Nicola Barker, though, her work is great, very ambitious, interesting writing style.

What about Self? Umbrella was really really good.

I am also loving Richard Ford.

What about David Foster Wallace? Infinite Jest is the best one.

Also: The Instructions by Adam Levin.

Books if you like small town fiction, have you read Richard Russo? Try Empire Falls. Very involving characters.

Another small town setting in Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson - really recommend this too.

I'm about to abandon a crap-ish teen angst book for either The Dinner or that Bernadette one both of which I bought today

I liked Canada, too, probably more than the Sportswriter trilogy.

I have a bit of a thing for Canadian fiction (I know Ford is American). Not come across many duds. Atwood, Munro, Laurence, Shields, Ondaatje, Richler, Davies, Mistry and new kid on the block Kaufman.

And also for frontier/settler and small town fiction generally.

I just nipped into town and bought The Dinner. Not sure whether I'll love or hate it.

Have only read Atomised by Houllebecq, Hully. Which of his is your favourite?

Claire Messud's last book - The Emperor's children is very good also. I've just started The woman upstairs.

BooksAndCuppa

I have read Caribou Island and staying on a Canadian theme- Canada by Richard Ford is great.

I was intrigued by The Astronauts Wives Club by Isobel Kobel, a non fiction account of the Space Programme Wives of the USA. It arrived yesterday and although it is written in a very 'populist' style, it is nonetheless very enjoyable and has loads of retro-cultural detail within.

this looks intriguing as does this. The latter has received a lot of press coverage, multiple good reviews and I'll probably order it.

I do not like my Kindle (am too much of an inveterate book collector) but I did order the Susan coolidge 'What Katy Did' collection as I adored these as a kid and have re read them many times. I also downloaded the Red/Yellow/Blue etc books of Fairy tales which contain stories from all over the World.

I second the recommendation for Candia McWilliam's memoir What to Look for in Winter. When I read it, I turned back to page one and read it again. It is complex, very honest, and so beautifully written.

For those who like noir and metafiction and haven't heard of this, I'd recommend Tony and Susan by Austin Wright which was republished a couple of years ago after falling out of fashion. Really bizarre and quite compelling 'story within a story' thing.

Oh and I love where you said you had unreasonably taken against Sarah Waters (or along those lines). I can't bring myself to try her either and I'm not sure why.

Ooh, I love Paul Theroux's Sir Vidia's Shadow about his feud with Naipaul. One of my favourite biogs (though VS doesn't come off at all well and House for Mr Biswas is also one of my favourite books).

Have you read the Canadian David Vann? Legend of a Suicide, Caribou Island and Dirt: all very dark and very resonant of their setting (frontier ish, the first two anyway; the third is more like southern gothic though not set in the South!) and Suicide is very meta in a Paul Auster like way.

I desperately await a new Paul Auster (or Roth - Nemesis was a real return to form, I loved it).

I'm not a huge fan of Amis (his earlier stuff is very good though lighter - it's not, it's dark in content but frothier in style) but I love his non-fiction - The War Against Cliche (collected essays) is very good.

If you like a difficult non-fiction read, Candia McWilliam's memoir of losing her sight is difficult (intellectually not emotionally) but brilliant.

Actually even though I have Three Men in paperback I am going to get it on kindle for nothing as well. It's nice to know I can dip in and out of it whenever I want to spend a subime ten minutes.