Active discussions

Please or to access all these features

Talk
What we're reading

Find your new favourite book or recommend one on our Book forum.

Original poster

Bed-bound and bored

62 replies

LadyHester · 06/03/2023 09:24

Have just had a fairly major operation (successfully) and will be confined to barracks for some time. I’d organised lots of Improving Literature to keep me entertained but am now in pain, fed up, and just don’t fancy anything I’d planned.
I need recommendations for well written trash - please come to my aid!

OP posts:
New posts on this thread. Refresh page
DumpedinKilburn · 10/03/2023 00:23

I would consider a few of those on the Scratch Off poster trash, so you should be ok there-although I agree it does look pretty.

Snoopystick · 09/03/2023 21:07

I would reread all of Paullina Simons books.

Original poster
LadyHester · 09/03/2023 21:02

@Chevyimpala67 Of course!

OP posts:
Chevyimpala67 · 09/03/2023 19:32

P G Wodehouse

Stoechas · 09/03/2023 19:31

LadyHester · 09/03/2023 19:19

So have you read Don Quixote?

I have not.

Riverlee · 09/03/2023 19:21

Not books, but ‘Shakespeare and Hathaway’ is my go-to tv series post hospital operations. Well worth watching - the storylines are interesting enough and varied to be captivating, but aren’t too heavy, plus there’s a lovely dynamic between the main three actors. (BBC - if you are reading this, please make a new series).

Original poster
LadyHester · 09/03/2023 19:19

So have you read Don Quixote?

OP posts:
Stoechas · 09/03/2023 19:06

@LadyHester scratch off 100 books poster. It’s a bit American-lit heavy but looks very pretty hanging up (we’ve also got the movies, tv series, anime and board games posters).

Original poster
LadyHester · 09/03/2023 08:14

No no no @Stoechas I shall obtain said tome forthwith. Any narrative prose fiction can meet the trash criterion if held up to Jane Austen’s imagined anti-novel interlocutor in Northanger Abbey.
And if there are too many long words I can look at the cover.

But - 100 greatest books scratch-off - where can I obtain such a thing?

OP posts:
Stoechas · 09/03/2023 07:17

Apologies OP. Just read your spec for well written trash. Which obvs the Count is not.

I’d go with a re-read of Lace then.

Stoechas · 09/03/2023 06:46

In addition: brooding

Bed-bound and bored
Stoechas · 09/03/2023 06:44

I’ve had a period of recent ill health which coincided with a ‘Hundred Greatest Books’ scratch off poster at Christmas.

With wearisome resignation I downloaded The Count of Monte Cristo (and bought the book as well as it’s a fecking BEAST) in a ‘well I better get on with it and get this one done’ move.

After an extremely tedious start I wonder if Dumas’ wife started covertly feeding him meth when Dantès arrives at the Château D’If.

2am I was listening to it this morning, and not because of insomnia.

Slightly wishing I could get another minor ailment now so I can just stay at home with the Count.

Pomtiddly · 09/03/2023 03:53

The Cazalet Chronicles Not trash but interesting, easy read family saga starting in the 30s. A series of 5, the first 3 are the best, by Elizabeth Jane Howard. 1st is The Light Years.

Anything by Maeve Binchy, I enjoyed The Scarlet Feather.

Grown Ups by Marian Keyes

Well written, easy read funnies..
The Reader by Alan Benett, more a novella. The Queen finds a mobile library in the palace grounds

And Away.. Bob Mortimer's autobiography

Absorbing dystopian trilogy, Wool is the first book. Hugh Howey.

tobee · 08/03/2023 23:58
  • to give up
tobee · 08/03/2023 23:57

HappyHolidai · 08/03/2023 03:34

@tobee - yes! Everyone in that book is horrible. Heyer's detective novels are pleasant enough but it's the romances that are stand-out. Almost all regency, with a few historical novels set in different eras too.

I did look at someone's review on Goodreads when I was umming and ahhing about whether to give. He posited that Heyer wrote her detective books as boringly as possible to piss of her publisher as a protest at her contract. 🤷🏻‍♀️

The front covers of her detective books published by Arrow are fabulous. Like gorgeous advertisements from yesteryear!

Sorry to digress.

hidingmystatus · 08/03/2023 20:24

If you like crime novels:
JD Robb (alter ego of Nora Roberts)
Alex Gray (Glasgow based)
SR Garrae (NY setting)
Ben Aaronovitch, as upthread
Ann Cleeves (Shetland, Vera, etc)
Charlaine Harris (Lily Bard, etc. Also does southern US vampires, True Blood)
Dorothy Sayers
Elizabeth Peters - Amelia Peabody
Georgette Heyer's mysteries
Helen Cox
Kelley Armstrong's Rockton series
Kerry Greenwood's Miss Fisher series
LJ Ross (Northumberland setting)
Ngaio Marsh
Patricia Wentworth
Peter Robinson
Robert Galbraith (not "easy" reading)
Ruth Dudley Edwards (satirical ripping into the Establishment)
Simon McCleave

Other things for easy reading
the Don Camillo stories
Jodi Taylor
Lois McMaster Bujold

Original poster
LadyHester · 08/03/2023 08:24

QueenOfWeeds · 08/03/2023 03:10

I came on to say the Sweet Valley High books might still be on Kindle Unlimited, but possibly not what you’re after!

Natalie Haynes has some fab books inspired by Greek mythology. And a podcast (I normally can’t stand podcasts).

I knew NH many years ago and just can’t take her seriously I fear.

Stepping back a little and putting my feminist hat on - it’s interesting how many books have come up on this thread which are well-written and plotted, with strong characterisation, powerful sense of place, compelling and nuanced relationships - but which are dismissed as literature through the double whammy of romance genre and female authorship.

OP posts:
mrsmacmc · 08/03/2023 03:57

Not romance but One Red Paperclip is a good read ❤️

Dartmoorcheffy · 08/03/2023 03:38

I love anything by Lisa jewell. Always a really good plot.

HappyHolidai · 08/03/2023 03:34

@tobee - yes! Everyone in that book is horrible. Heyer's detective novels are pleasant enough but it's the romances that are stand-out. Almost all regency, with a few historical novels set in different eras too.

tobee · 08/03/2023 03:16

HappyHolidai · 07/03/2023 22:03

Wouldn't call Georgette Heyer trash <quite offended> but definitely recommended for a light-hearted and fun read. Except Penhallow. Avoid Penhallow.

Came on to suggest Forever Amber: a great romp - and very long!

Hmm that's interesting about Penhallow. I thought I read on here a recommendation to read it and I thought first GH might be a good one; not regency but detective.

I got about 60 pages in and thought "come the fuck on" with something happening. And too many characters and I don't care for any of them!

So I was right to give up?

QueenOfWeeds · 08/03/2023 03:10

I came on to say the Sweet Valley High books might still be on Kindle Unlimited, but possibly not what you’re after!

Natalie Haynes has some fab books inspired by Greek mythology. And a podcast (I normally can’t stand podcasts).

RiverSkater · 08/03/2023 01:18

What about Barbara Bradford Taylor. A woman of Substance and To Hold The dream?

Then you can watch the favourite 80s mini series (they were fabulous of the time!)

Original poster
LadyHester · 08/03/2023 01:02

So many fabulous suggestions! Now I have always meant to read Forever Amber…

OP posts:
Elodie09 · 07/03/2023 22:06

Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout, beautifully written. You could maybe try the Matthew Venn series by Anne Cleeves .

Swipe left for the next trending thread