What is the most gripping, incredible book you have ever read that you just couldn't put down?

Orangina - I love that Wally Lamb book. His other one is great too. This much is true (I think it's called). He needs to write some more.

I can't beleive I haven't realised that you have twins and triplets and I'm moaning about my two leaving me with no time , duh, sorry.... hope all is well with you all, and you can come back to this thread for reading tips in about 10 years time!

Most things by:

Jeffrey Eugenides (Middlesex)
Douglas Coupland
Barbara Kingsolver
Adhaf Soueif (esp if you like Naguib Mafouz)
Kate Atkinson (loved her latest one, name escapes me...)
Ian McEwan (Chesil Beach, but all fab)
Robert Sole (another lovely Egyptian trilogy)
Amin Maalouf (especially The First Century After Beatrice, couldn't put it down...)
Richard Ford (The Sportswriter, Independence Day)
Wally Lamb (She's Come Undone)

Oh, I could go on..... I love books, haven't read properly for what seems like years (2 dc under 3, augh!)

Also, Olivia Manning - anything really, but esp 'The Rainforest' and 'Fortunes of War'

Lawrence Durrell - Alexandria Quartet - esp the first one 'Justine'

I've also loved all of Emily Barr's books and agree they're real page turners.

Other fab books:
The Life of Pi - Yann Martel
Any Human Heart - William Boyd
The Poisonwood Bible - Barbara Kingsolver

If you like thrillers, anything by Nicci French (and her non thriller books on her own as Nicci Gerrard are fab too)
Also Simon Kernick - Relentless is a recent read and couldn't put it down

on the road - jack kerouac

crime & punishment - dostoyevsky

My Sister's Keeper- Judy Picoult
To Be Someone- Lousie Voss

so glad you like Emily's books, by the way, she's a clever girl and quite my favourite person to get an email from. even they contain a macabre twist or two... i get a thanks in the new one, by the way... [proud] she's so cool. i recommend her books too, fellow MNers, terribly jolly and witty and utterly readable when you're knackered and really just want something to tear through at bedtime.

The Pursuit Of Happiness by Douglas Kennedy (on no account to be mixed up with that will smith film of similar name!). Absolutely brilliant!!!

Gould's Book of Fish by Richard Flannigan, god it's good, if a bit mental

susie! emily's a friend of mine, i'm going to email her this Right Now. you'll have made her year already!

Tales of the city, armistead maupin, has been mentioned a few times, its a great read, and there are amore than one in the series... well worth a look.

Also, I've just read another Emily Barr book. have now read three or four of her books. Not been able to put any of them down until finished. May not be amazing literary masterpieces or anything. However, in my opinion, any book which keeps you turning the page for more and more is a bloody good book and her books do just that. On the surface, they are lovely looking stories, then as you dig deeper, they all end up having a really dark and sometimes slightly disturbing 'climax'. Well worth a read.

One of the titles: "Cuban Heels " the story begins with a woman who buys her sister a baby monitor, and decides to try it out on her flat. She turns it on and is suddenly able to hear all the conversations in her neighbours flat, via their baby monitor......... what a great idea hey?

If you like things like The kite runner, then The Gift of Rain by Tan Twan Eng is very gripping and moving in a similar way.

Would also second anything by Daphne Du Maurier for the "unputdownable" factor. Am currently reading Jamaica Inn and am gripped.

I doubt tripletsandtwins has time to read now!!

Read her profile!!

congratulations btw!!

a maidens grave by jeffery deaver in fact anything by him. Jilly cooper sad but i love her and jackie collins faces by martina cole or jack reacher series by lee child

a maidens grave by jeffery deaver in fact anything by him. Jilly cooper sad but i love her and jackie collins

I third 'The Tenderness of Wolves'.

Tully by Paullina Simmons

also The Red Tent by Anita Diamont

And Georgette Heyer - not literary genius, but pretty good for bed rest I think.

I read Ernest Shackleton's "South" on the 24-hour flight from Australia to the UK, on the bus from Heathrow to Wales, in the Burger King waiting for my pick-up, and after dinner, a shower, and tucking up on her sofa, I STILL had to finish it!

You've probably got enough to be getting on with now but I just wanted to put in a word for A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth. A huge book but conveniently divided into nice small chapters! I've read it a couple of times and love it. Would also recommend the Cairo Trilogy. In fact I want to read them again but since we've moved house I can't find them anywhere .

Enjoy the rest, if you manage to get any with all the reading!

Carter beats the devil by glenn David Gold
The Magus by John Fowles
The secret history by Donna Tarte
The wasp factory by Iian Banks
Miss Smillas feeling for snow by Peter Hoeg
The woman in white by Wilkie Collins
Tales of the city by Armisted Maupin
His dark materials by Philip Pullman
The cement garden by Ian McEwan
The way I found her by Rose Tremain
.....I could go on!.....
Just one more!
Wild Swans.

He also had British policemen routinely carrying guns. Everyone know British policemen don't (usually) carry guns.