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MNHQ

Isolation reading recommendations

128 replies

SorchaMumsnet · 21/03/2020 15:51

Hi all

If you're self-isolating, or indeed just spending a lot more time at home now, what are you currently/planning on reading and why?

We're creating a page with recommendations so would love your help - whether you're doing any of the following (or something completely different):

-Seeking out time-appropriate dystopian reads (ie Station Eleven mentioned on this topic already)?
-Steering clear of that and plumping for escapism/light reads?
-Deciding it's time to tackle that 600-pager you've been putting off?

All the best, and happy reading Brew

MNHQ

OP posts:
AndNoneForGretchenWieners · 22/03/2020 09:45

Dorothy Koomson - gripping standalone books
Angela Marsons - police procedurals that you will read in a Dudley accent
Faith Martin's Hillary Green series - a bit like a female led Morse

GiveMyHeadPeaceffs · 22/03/2020 09:21

I absolutely love Natasha Pulley's novels The Bedlam Stacks and The watchmaker of Filigree Street. Beautifully written books that have just a hint of the extraordinary.

BadMoon · 22/03/2020 09:06

My ultimate comfort read is My Family and Other Animals - I am going to re-read and imagine I am sitting in the Mediterranean sun!

Books I have finished recently and enjoyed:
The Familiars - Stacy Halls
The Light Between Oceans - ML Stedman

On my list are:
The Rosie Result - Graeme Simsion
Normal People - Sally Rooney
Wakenhyrst - Michelle Paver

chilling19 · 22/03/2020 08:41

I signed up to book bub a while ago. They send you a daily email based on your subject choices of e-books on offer from Amazon Kindle and/or iBooks

www.bookbub.com/welcome

Abelino · 22/03/2020 08:29

I normally love a dystopian but I'm avoiding anything even remotely dark at the moment. Which means there's only one author that'll do for me - PG Wodehouse! I'll probably take a break to re-read Three Men in a Boat, too.

Footle · 22/03/2020 06:38

@AdaColeman , oh of course , thank you. I'm reading Verily Anderson's Spam Tomorrow, with fascination at the WW2 parallels and differences, especially in medical and child care.

ILiveInSalemsLot · 22/03/2020 02:02

I’m really enjoying Emily Barr at the moment.
She’s a travel writer too so her stories transport you to some amazing locations. Really needed when in isolation.

AdaColeman · 22/03/2020 01:24

@Footle ~ Few Eggs is published by Persephone Books, so it is currently available.

IfOnlyOurEyesSawSouls · 22/03/2020 00:09

The Foundling .

Whatelsecouldibecalled · 21/03/2020 23:41

The power

LangClegsInSpace · 21/03/2020 23:41

I misread that too!

middleager · 21/03/2020 23:40

One more thing.....

Marcus Corvinus by David Wishart,

I had to re-read the surname - I have Coronavirus on the brain Sad

middleager · 21/03/2020 23:32

Year of Wonders sounds good Lang. I was only reading about the village today.

middleager · 21/03/2020 23:31

The Stand, Stephen King.

Can somebody remind me of the name of the book of the family (from Liverpool?) whose fortunes go from good to dire, but their wealthy family won't help.
Is it Ken Follet?

LangClegsInSpace · 21/03/2020 23:29

Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks. It's a fictionalised account of Eyam and is strangely uplifting.

hurryupautumn · 21/03/2020 23:01

📚

nauticant · 21/03/2020 22:33

There are so many good recommendations here. I'm wondering whether to start my AbeBooks account up again and bulk buy.

Surely one of the best for classy read plus escapism must be Cold Comfort Farm. It's like an ultra rational AIBU inhabitant heading off into the country to sort it all out. You can read it in a day or very pleasurably spread it out over a week.

bimbimbap · 21/03/2020 22:21

i remember loving the historian years ago! currently reading steven king’s the stand, seemed pretty appropriate Confused

TheCanterburyWhales · 21/03/2020 22:10

I'm on R.F Delderfield. Currently reading The Avenue about a series of families and their ordinary lives in the post WW1 period.

I'm alternating this sort of thing with 99p Kindle psycho killer books. Loads of them are crap but you get through them quickly.

Also rereading children's classics Lion Witch and the Wardrobe last week.

And listening to HP on Audible.

LonnyVonnyWilsonFrickett · 21/03/2020 22:08

@SorrelBlackbeak Rosamunde Pilcher is exactly what I need right now.

I love, love, love the Chronicles of St Mary's series by Jodi Taylor - it's series of time travel books set in an alternate universe, but it's very jolly hockey sticks with a great female lead. Cheering at the best of time and there are around 10 books so will get you through the whole sitch.

Footle · 21/03/2020 20:57

@Nowisthemonthofmaying, is the Few Eggs something you've acquired recently?

borntobequiet · 21/03/2020 20:56

Love in the Time of Cholera, Gabriel Garcia Marquez - started so many times but never finished so far. Maybe I’ll finish it this time.

dementedma · 21/03/2020 20:00

And of course, Georgette Heyer for some romantic escapism

rosegoldwatcher · 21/03/2020 19:33

@RamsayBoltonsConscience - The Mirror and the Light is book at bedtime(?) on radio 4. Episodes 1-5 on iplayer at the moment - read by Anton Lesser (he who played Sir Thomas moore in the series) - www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m000gcvz

SorrelBlackbeak · 21/03/2020 19:27

The robin hobb books are great!

Lionel Shriver - the mandibles is a nice bit of dystopian fiction

Rosalind Pilcher is lovely peacefulness

Classics are nice and meaty - a good time to read war and peace or life and fate by vasily gross man for a Second World War novel.

With thanks to my teenager, Sarah J Maas is a really good fantasy read and the books are huge! Very very readable...

I'm planning to re-read Wolf Hall and Bring up the Bodies and then the Mirror and the Light. Depending how I'm feeling, I'm going to try middlemarch!