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Original poster

Isolating and need more books - if I like…..

41 replies

Feenie · 28/01/2022 07:58

Have read and given 5 stars in the last year:

Hamnet
Engleby
Shuggie Bain
The Heart of Invisible Furies
Fingersmith
Imperfect Women

To give some idea of the kind of thing I like. TIA!

OP posts:
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IntermittentParps · 14/02/2022 08:41

Just thought of Patrick Gale too. Most of his novels are great, but Rough Music and Notes From an Exhibition I particularly like. He writes fairly quietly but very astutely about people and their lives. They're more interesting than that sounds Grin

Pootle40 · 13/02/2022 19:20

@NoSquirrels

Didn’t like Life After Life

Shock

Same, couldn't finish I kept thinking WTF is happening
highlandcoo · 31/01/2022 23:19

For anyone who hasn't come across it yet, can I recommend literature map ? I can't do a link but just Google it.

You enter the name of an author you like, wait a few seconds and it will guide you to other writers you might like. Quite accurately in my experience!

hopeso · 31/01/2022 22:07

Oh Feenie, I'm hoping a whole extra world is going to open up for you! It's the library app where you can borrow books from your library straight onto your device. You need to have a library card and also make sure your council participates in the scheme.

www.overdrive.com/apps/libby/

NoSquirrels · 31/01/2022 18:56

Ooh, I really enjoyed We Begin At The End. Good choice!

Original poster
Feenie · 31/01/2022 18:45

No, what is it, @hopeso?

OP posts:
MillicentSpinning · 31/01/2022 18:10

Glad you enjoyed it @Feenie !

I've been coming back to this list for recommendations too!

hopeso · 31/01/2022 18:10

Do you have the Libby app?

Original poster
Feenie · 31/01/2022 18:00

@MillicentSpinning Just finished The Giver of Stars and really enjoyed it, thank you! 🙏

Have downloaded Affinity and We Begin at the End (which, handily, is just 99p today).

Having looked up most of this page, I have decided Amazon reviewers are weird, I don’t know why I pay any attention to them. They either all raving about something or hate it.

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Echobelly · 28/01/2022 21:48

Waterland by Graham Swift
Arcadia by Iain Pears
The Crimson Petal and the White by Michel Faber
Possession by AS Byatt, anything by her in fact
The Fruit of the Lemon by Andrea Levy

Stookeen · 28/01/2022 21:41

If you liked Fingersmith, try Sarah Waters’ next novel, Affinity — also a Victorian setting, centred on a relationship between an imprisoned occult medium and a lady prison visitor, twisty narrative?

If you like Maggie O’Farrell, try Helen Dunmore — Zennor in Darkness? With Your Crooked Heart or A Spell of Winter, also by HD.

Anne Enright? — maybe start withThe Forgotten Waltz?

Colm Tóibín — The Master or Nora Webster? (Not The Magician.)

alloutofcareunits · 28/01/2022 19:58

I enjoyed several of the others on your list so you might like We Begin at the End by Chris Whitaker it's a great book that stayed with me

BunnyRuddington · 28/01/2022 19:24

Another vote for Beartown and it's a great time to read it as it's set in Sweden and with some great insights into how the winter is there.

Original poster
Feenie · 28/01/2022 18:10

Loved The Goldfinch, not so keen on The Minutarist. Will look up the others, thanks.

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BuddhaAtSea · 28/01/2022 14:50

The goldfinch Donna Tart
We, the drawned
A song for Achille M Miller
Girl, woman, other B Evaristo
Midnight library
The miniaturist

Original poster
Feenie · 28/01/2022 14:41

Just downloaded The Giver of Stars 😁

This thread is fab and will keep me going for months! (Please don’t stop though 😊)

OP posts:
Aworldofmyown · 28/01/2022 14:02

I've just read Pachinko,which I loved.
The Dutch House is very good.

Freebus · 28/01/2022 13:57

Run by Ann Patchett, also v good

Freebus · 28/01/2022 13:55

Only read 2 on your list but both brilliant, especially Engleby, what a brilliant book.

I loved Piranesi
Also A Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley
Just read A Town Called Solace by Mary Lawson- v good.
American Wife by Curtis Sittenfield
Life After Life by Kate Atkinson , plus most of her other books, especially the Jackson Brodies.
A Perfect Spy by John le Carre, a bit tough going at first but v good once you get going.

Blackcountryexile · 28/01/2022 12:35

You might like to try
The Girl With the Louding Voice Abi Dare
We Must be Brave Frances Liardet
Mother,Mother Annie McMannus
Her Last Flight Beatriz Williams

AdaColeman · 28/01/2022 11:58

Vikram Seth ~ A Suitable Boy

Anything by Robert Harris, especially An Officer and a Spy

Niall Williams ~ This is Happiness

Anything by Jane Gardam especially Old Filth

The Cormoran Strike series by “Robert Galbraith”

John Preston ~ The Dig

IntermittentParps · 28/01/2022 11:58

Have you read other Maggie O'Farrell books? They're all pretty good.
Also Esther Freud, and to add to the Sarah Moss suggestion, Bodies of Light and its sort-of sequel Signs for Lost Children.
Great Circle? It's a bit of a tome, but if you've got time on your hands...

Hippychickster · 28/01/2022 11:50

I liked all the books on your list. I've just read The Secret Scripture by Sebastian Barry and really enjoyed it.
Also How the One-Armed Sister Sweeps her House by Cherie Jones was a good read.

highlandcoo · 28/01/2022 11:42

Oh, and a bit different from the above list, but because you mentioned Shuggie Bain and Irvine Welsh, try Christopher Brookmyre for a mix of black humour and crime. Really entertaining. Quite Ugly One Morning is his first novel, and One Fine Day in the Middle of the Night is my favourite of his.

highlandcoo · 28/01/2022 11:35

@Feenie, I like the same authors as you, although i wasn't mad about Engleby and have preferred SF's other books.

I think you would love Ann Patchett and would recommend especially Bel Canto, The Dutch House and State of Wonder.

Also, Rose Tremain - Restoration, Music and Silence and The Road Home are all very good.

Sue Gee - Earth and Heaven and The Mystery of Glass.

Amor Towles - A Gentleman in Moscow.

Secret River - Kate Grenville.

And my two all-time favourites are The Shipping News by E Annie Proulx, and The Observations by Jane Harris.