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Original poster

Please help me find some literary(ish) page turners!

91 replies

FatCatSkinnyRat · 12/03/2023 21:36

Dear readers,

In the next month I will be spending 70+ hours on planes as I jet around the world for a couple of family events.

I am loading up my kindle with some novels I have not read - so far I have Frankenstein and Half of a Yellow Sun waiting to go. Am considering Lessons in Chemistry but can see it divides the masses...... I think I need at least five more.

Can anyone recommend some more page turners please - quality fiction that you can't put down? I will definitely make good progress with the two above but might need to switch to something different at some stage - esp on the 13 hour flights!

Not really into thrillers unless it's something like A Secret History (part thriller).

Thanks everyone! Dreading the flights but looking forward to reading time.....

OP posts:
America12 · 13/03/2023 09:30

Goldfinch - Donna Tartt
Larchfield - Polly Clark

Abracadabra12345 · 13/03/2023 09:29

YogaLite · 13/03/2023 09:07

@Luckingfovely, with you on the Oliphant, unreadable!
(Glad it wasn't just me who thought that)

It's one of my favourite books ever 😁

Movinghouseatlast · 13/03/2023 09:27

The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt. Utterly amazing and has stayed with me ( it's a bit over written though)

Daphne du Maurier.

Lollygaggle · 13/03/2023 09:22

Wild swans Jung Chang

Also not fiction Empireland by Santhnam Sangeera

fiction The likely pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce

VanCleefArpels · 13/03/2023 09:22

Also pretty much anything by William Boyd

VanCleefArpels · 13/03/2023 09:21

Cazalets - definitely my Desert Island choice!

The Facts of Life by Patrick Gale, definite page turner beautifully written (although if male gay sex scenes are likely to offend maybe give it a swerve, it’s quite explicit!)

Fredface · 13/03/2023 09:19

The Shardlake Chronicles are excellent. Book 1 Dissolution by CJ Samson. Crime and historical both genres I actually don't like but I couldn't put down this series it's so well written.

YearoftheRabbit23 · 13/03/2023 09:15

Horse by Geraldine Brooks

Lookingformymarbles · 13/03/2023 09:13

Another vote for the Cazalet Chronicles and The Great Circle by Maggie Shipstead

Also, how about:
The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller
The Hearts Invisible Furies by John Boyne
East of Eden by John Steinbeck

foldablefarm · 13/03/2023 09:12

Santasoorplooms · 12/03/2023 22:35

Anything at all by Kazuo Ishiguro

I found The Unconsoled completely unreadable! Did others enjoy it? Other than that, yes to Ishiguro!

YogaLite · 13/03/2023 09:09

OP, would anything set in or about the destinations you are heading for be perhaps more relevant?

YogaLite · 13/03/2023 09:07

@Luckingfovely, with you on the Oliphant, unreadable!
(Glad it wasn't just me who thought that)

Salverus · 13/03/2023 09:06

Flockameanie · 12/03/2023 22:41

The Cazalet books by Elizabeth Jane Howard.

That is all you will need!

This!

WashableVelvet · 13/03/2023 09:05

+1 for the circle (Shipstead) which I’m reading atm, and for the Childrens book (Byatt). Lots of other favourites already on your list and a few I will add to mine.

I also love the Evangeline Gower trilogy by Louisa Young. They are brilliantly plotted page turners and beautifully written, but never seem to get mentioned - I first picked one up in a book
swap. My guess is they’ve been almost discarded as chick lit but they’re an all time favourite for me with wonderful evocations of Cairo.

Almahart · 13/03/2023 09:03

Wilkie

Almahart · 13/03/2023 09:03

Jane Eyre. Total page turner.

Rebecca, Daphne du Maurier.

The Moonstone, Wilke Collins.

Santasoorplooms · 13/03/2023 08:26

wind up bird is Murakami! Ishiguro is a different writer.
Never Let Me Go is wonderful and so is The Buried Giant.

BellaEllaWella · 13/03/2023 08:04

The Circle - Maggie Shipsted

SmokyForTheWin · 13/03/2023 08:01

If you liked Fingersmith, maybe try The Little Stranger. I loved this.
I also liked Piranesi.

ButtonSister · 13/03/2023 08:01

Also The Siege, and Zennor in Darkness by Helen Dunmore

ButtonSister · 13/03/2023 07:58

If you enjoyed Fingersmith you'll enjoy Sarah Waters' other novels - definitely fit your brief of literary page turner.
Also The Marriage Portrait by Maggie O'Farrell.

Original poster
FatCatSkinnyRat · 13/03/2023 07:50

Wow thank you everyone - I am so thrilled I submitted my post, went to bed, and overnight you have all worked your magic :-) I have just had a great time looking up things on Goodreads and have compiled the list below to get my thoughts together. I am taking this very seriously as it is rare for me to get this much time away from home and work obligations and the chance to read read read. Any further suggestions? Keep em coming!

ALREADY READ:
Life After Life by Kate Atkinson
Fingersmith by Sarah Waters (loved - actually a perfect example of what I want!)
Eleanor Oliphant is completely fine
Gone Girl
100 years of solitude -- Gabriel Garcia Marquez (loved)
The Unbearable Lightness of Being -- Milan Kundera
The Time Travellers Wife -- Audrey Niffenegger (loved)
The Night Circus
The Dutch House (loved! - but might look to see if I still have any unread Patchett, thanks for reminding me)
Wolf Hall (loved in the end but I did find it needed concentration)
Olive kitteridge (but not any sequels so that’s a good prompt - thank you)
Mr Norrell and Jonathan Strange
The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo
Pride and Prejudice
Kipling’s Kim
Brideshead Revisited (loved - named my son after a character!)
In Cold Blood

CONTENDERS:
Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver (is it achingly depressing?)
Notes on an Exhibition by Patrick Gale
North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell
Cazalet Chronicles
The Mermaid and Mrs Hancock by Imogen Hermes Gowar
The Muse by Jessie Burton
The Children's Book by AS Byatt (thought I had read this but Goodreads says I haven’t!)
Hamnet
Days without End
Mysteries of Glass by Sue Gee
Carlos Ruiz Zafon (have read Shadow of the Wind and yes that’s a great example also of what I’d like so will look at what else he has)
Edward St Aubyn: Melrose novels
Silas Marner
Picture of Dorian Gray

PROBABLY NOT FOR THIS TRIP BUT GOING ON TBR / MAYBE ONE DAY LIST:
Kazuo Ishiguro - recently read Wind Up Bird so will have a break from KI
Barchester Chronicles - Trollope - Never read any Trollope! Must remedy this ….
Dickens (I read one per year to make up for educational failings - already half way through Great Expectations in paperback at home)
The Nickel Boys (have this at home in paperback but not read yet)
David Mitchell (my DH has all these in paperback - I have only read Cloud Atlas)
The Eyre Affair and the rest of the series - not sure if this is my thing but I have a friend who lives for them so might try one some day

OP posts:
StrongandNorthern · 12/03/2023 23:31

Cazalet Chronicles are amazing.
Demon Copperhead I found so profoundly depressing I gave up.

JoonT · 12/03/2023 23:18

Dickens. Just let him work his magic. I recently read Great Expectations and David Copperfield and was gripped from beginning to end. Wonderful, wonderful man, and wonderful writer. He has stood the test of time for a reason.

Pride and Prejudice
Kipling’s Kim
Wolf Hall
Edward St Aubyn: Melrose novels
Brideshead Revisited
In Cold Blood
Silas Marner
Picture of Dorian Gray

All of the above are beautiful, wonderful books. Personally, I cannot overpraise Dickens. I’m also a huge fan of Thomas Hardy, George Eliot, the Brontes, Graham Greene, Herman Hesse, Aldous Huxley and Anita Brookner.

Abracadabra12345 · 12/03/2023 23:05

I adore Mysteries of Glass by Sue Gee, about a young curate taking up his first placement. Set in 1860 and the writing is exquisite:

“Written with the delicate fluency of a storyteller utterly at ease with her craft ― Times Literary Supplement”