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Original poster

Please recommend me a book. I have a criteria :)

170 replies

Greyworm · 18/07/2019 18:33

Title says it all. I'd really appreciate any suggestions as I love reading but struggle to choose as I don't want to waste a read. I'd like to read a book over the next few weeks and I have been given a voucher for waterstones so I'm really excited.

I like books that have had the below features but not completely nessesary

  • a focus on an individual /family that span over many years/decades
  • a love interest which is very deep and complicated
  • cultural - so I may learn about another culture/time in history
  • I LOVE dystopia films and TV programmes but find some books are a it depressing as I want a sort of holdiay/light read. So I really enjoyed 1984 and a handmaid tale but don't fancy one of those.
  • I love space films but not tried to read nay spacey books yet.
I like books where a story is told by many different characters too.

Books I have read again and again, so some old favourites:
Memoirs of a geisha
The horse whisperer
The thornbirds
Fear and loathing in Las vagas
I capture the castle
The rum diary (loved this)
I liked 'one day' but couldn't get into his other books.

I can't think of many more off the top of my head but I've always loved reading. I also read a story like biography of egon schiele which I really enjoyed too. So I'm pretty open. I love art and I have an interest in classics (Greek mythology) I don't fancy reading the odyssey again though.

I'll be really grateful if anyone has any suggestions :)

OP posts:
Thunderpunt · 18/07/2019 18:58

Or for something quite grueling at times but an incredible story - exodus by Leon Uris

BikeRunSki · 18/07/2019 18:58

“Both by”, not “bits by”.

TheOnlyLivingBoyInNewCross · 18/07/2019 18:59

Classics - The song of Achilles and Circe, both by Madeline Miller, are very readable and absolutely fascinating.

Revolutionary Road is a great novel set in 1950s America but possibly a bit bleak for a holiday read.

Hellohah · 18/07/2019 18:59

I was going to suggest Ken Follett too... The Century Trilogy is good. But I would also try The Pillars of the Earth and its follow up, World Without End.

whatsthecomingoverthehill · 18/07/2019 19:00

The Goldfinch maybe? But it doesn't tick off all that many on your list.

White Teeth has multiple characters over a few decades.

Toadsrevisited · 18/07/2019 19:00

Wuthering heights

Or

Non fiction but ticks all the boxes - Mitford Girls biography by Mary Lovell

Lucked · 18/07/2019 19:00

Also The Good Earth triology by Pearl S Buck. about epic family struggles and fortunes in China

OneKeyAtATime · 18/07/2019 19:01

The Rougon Maquart saga by Emile Zola?

MirandaGoshawk · 18/07/2019 19:02

I loved A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles. It starts in the !920s and comes almost up to date. Learning about Russia was very interesting, but it's not a heavy-going book; there's a lot of gentle humour and I absolutely loved being in the gent's company.

OneKeyAtATime · 18/07/2019 19:04

G

IsolaPribby · 18/07/2019 19:04

Having reread your OP, The Time Travellers Wife by Audrey Niffenegger.

grincheux · 18/07/2019 19:05

Try 'Master Of The Game' by Sidney Sheldon. It spans four generations of a wealthy, powerful family.

Outsomnia · 18/07/2019 19:07

"The Hearts Invisible Furies" by John Boyne.

It is addictive from the first page. If you decide to read it, you will NOT be disappointed. I guarantee it. And it is not often I say that either.

OneKeyAtATime · 18/07/2019 19:07

East of Eden by Steinbeck

Laterthanyouthink · 18/07/2019 19:10

The Glass Palace, Amitav Ghosh

InMyOwnParticularIdiom · 18/07/2019 19:10

There is Jane Smiley's trilogy about an Iowa farming family, the first one is Some Luck. They start in 1920 and then there is a chapter for each year down to the present day.

There's also Cynthia Harrod-Eagles' Morland Dynasty, 35 books to date covering the history of a fictional English family from 1434 onwards.

bringincrazyback · 18/07/2019 19:10

The Silence Of The Girls by Pat Barker (re-telling of the Iliad from a female perspective)

TheVanguardSix · 18/07/2019 19:13

The Jewel in the Crown (Book 1 of the Raj Quartet) followed by the other 3 books!

LauraPalmersBodybag · 18/07/2019 19:14

Seconding ‘A suitable boy’ by Vikram Seth. Whilst not a dystopian story it hits all of your other criteria and I really enjoyed it.

LauraPalmersBodybag · 18/07/2019 19:16

Also, Gone with the wind

gerbo · 18/07/2019 19:18

Came on to say 'the hearts invisible furies' like Outsomnia- it's fantastic. By John Boyne.

LauraPalmersBodybag · 18/07/2019 19:19

For Dystopia, read ‘A brave new world’

1Wanda1 · 18/07/2019 19:21

Any Human Heart
Love Is Blind - both by William Boyd

The Heart's Invisible Furies by John Boyne

ThinkIveFoundYourMarbles · 18/07/2019 19:22

The Thread by Victoria Hislop
Wasn't really my kind of book but it fits most of your criteria.

Charley50 · 18/07/2019 19:22

Middlesex by Jeffry Eugenides - fits all criteria apart from space / sci-fi.

A family saga that starts in Greece after an event in WW1 or WW2.. (or before but based on real historical events - have a poor memory ), and has a strange love story in the two Greek characters who move to the US, and set up a life there. Has a twist or two, but isn't a thriller. Has multiple characters but not too many that you can't follow. Is very funny and very well-written, is a multi-generational family saga, and explores social history and politics etc. Ooh I've sold it to myself.. gonna re-read this summer! Grin