Absolutely Unputdownable Books

Hoxtonchick and Bundle - I'll be back at work near the Aldwych from late April (I'm on maternity leave at the moment). By then it would be warm enough to have a sandwich in Lincoln's Inn Fields.

This thread is depressing. So many books...so little time

Pre-children I used to read like a demon (worked in a library so unlimited access!)..these days I'm lucky if I manage half a page before falling asleep.

Bought The Red Tent, on jimjam's recommendation, but haven't started it yet. And have been meaning to read Perfume for ages. I do read a hell of a lot of Rev. W. Awdry though

poppyknot, you've read it before? Do you know the answer?

hello bundle, yes, that would be great. am always up for lunch! i shall e-mail you i think.

Robertson Davies esp the Deptford Trilogy.

John O'Farrell for laugh-out-loud

Ronald Frame - Sandmouth People

Alison Lurie

I also enjoyed An Instance of the Fingerpost - Iain (?) Pears. Just read it to find out what the title means.....

All the talk of the Quincunx just reminds me how I don't get the chance to really get into long books now as I have the attention of a flea. But I would love to read it again.

oooh hoxtonchick, how exciting
I work over in the aldwych, but often over your way (manchester sq this am) so we should meet up & have lunch maybe?

Persephone books are fantastic. Very beautiful. Their shop is lovely, & they were very nice to ds when I took him there. It's also very near Coram's Fields so the kids get to run around & you get to buy books - perfect!

Marina, thanks for the link to persephone books. I've ordered the books you mentioned.

hoxtonchick, OldieMum, another Rose Tremain fan here. I loved Music and Silence and Restoration. For some reason I keep thinking of her as much older than she is, perhaps because her novels are so beautifully crafted. We all have a lot to thank the late, wonderful Malcolm Bradbury for!
Did anyone else really enjoy Michel Faber's The Crimson Petal and the White (am thinking that Wilkie Collins and Charles Palliser fans might enjoy the seething Victorian metropolis depicted)?
Oh and a colleague put me on to this superb independent publishing house, set up by two women and reissuing neglected 20th century women's writing. If anyone else on here treasures the book as artefact as well as a "good read", they might like to investigate - I really enjoyed the Monica Dickens and the Elizabeth Berridge short stories.
Persephone Books

bundle, I think I might work near you (KF on Cavendish Square) - if so, you're welcome to borrow my Jane Gardam books.

Jostein Gaarder's Through A Glass Darkly. Very atmospheric, I have read it a few times and always have tears in my eyes after the last few pages.

Yes I have, Oldiemum, and Restoration. Liked them both. I agree with lots of your choices too .

Hotxtonchick - have you read Rose Tremain's 'Music and Silence'? I enjoyed it very much.

Tamum, i'm scared !! Totally agree about Frankie & Stankie - nowhere near as good as her previous ones. I think The Travelling Hornplayer is my favourite. I've remembered some others - Bonfire of the Vanities by Tom Wolfe & Brightness Falls by Jay McInerney & The Way I Found Her by Rose Tremain.

AussieSim - same here. I'm a huge Margaret Atwood fan, but really didn't get on with Oryx and Crake. Borrowed it from the library which was just as well as I will spend out on hardbacks when a new book by an author I like comes out.

I'm really looking forward to getting in to that one, hadn't heard of it before

The Quincunx by Charles Paliser - it's a huge book about an inheritance, and all the mysteries of the families who might profit from it, written in the style of the great Victorian novels. SO you get the mystery, with lots and lots of twists and turns, some Dickensian social bits, and a humdinger of a twist at the end. Buy it, put aside a week and you will get completely engrossed - especially if you are a Wilkie Collins fan.

Wilkie Collins also wrote a book called Basil, which is worht a read but not as good as Woman in White, which does have to be the most unputdownable book ever.

Got it thanks Spaccemonkey, have you read Wozza Shakespeare, which is written by him and his partner about Titus Andronicus in South Africa, if you haven't and you wnat to read it let me know and I'll post it to you.

I loved Perfume too. The writing is really rich.

Someone tell me about Quincunx?

Oooh yes, expatkat, The Moonstone is fab. There's another obscure book by him called "No Name" that is good, but not as good as WinW and Moonstone.

Hoxtonchick, are you me? Many parts of your posts on here could have been written by me! I'm also a big Robertson Davies, Jane Gardam, David Lodge fan, liked Nancy Mitford when I was younger, and just lurve Barbara Trapido. Have to say, though, that Frankie and Stankie was eminently putdownable, to the extent that I have given up on it. Such a shame because her other books were wonderful. Started the Little Friend and didn't get past the first few pages althugh I loved A Secret History. I will go back to it though, honest

Agree with so much that's been listed already.

Marina & Hoxtonchick: another Davies fan here. He was quite popular in American in the 80's & early 90's, and has a lot of fans here (in the US), though he's not so much talked about since his death. I've read the two later triologies, but not the Salterton one.

For fans of The Woman In White. . .I've heard from some that The Moonstone is even better.

Other books (not yet mentioned) I couldn't put down:
Middlemarch by George Eliot
The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen
The Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri

I was happy to see Jeffrey Eugenides on the list. He's a friend & would be chuffed.

Binkie, I'm sorry I found Calvino's If On A Winter's Night big bore. But then I read it when I was about 18--maybe I wasn't ready?