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

not read a proper book in over a year..

36 replies

stuffitllama · 23/02/2008 14:55

by which I mean it's been lots of thrillers and easy reads and I seem to have lost the ability to "work" at a book. Does anyone have any recommendations to get me back into it? I need something with a real plot, kind of a page-turner, but with body, y'know? I can't really explain it. I mean something like a Dickens, basically, gripping but worth reading! I would really appreciate some recommendations. I think I might be looking for a translation. Am struggling through Name of the Rose at the moment and waiting for it to become rewarding. Really don't like fiction which has a precious gimmick (Time's Arrow eg) or is fatally introspective, and I am not keen on American fiction or (sorry) Virago type stuff (sorry for the appalling generalisations).

If anyone can help it would be great. Thank you v much.

OP posts:
New posts on this thread. Refresh page
Original poster
stuffitllama · 25/02/2008 20:22

ok each peach that looks complicated! but something to aspire to
will read alone at own pace for now but really think I am going to have to set a clock.. an hour a day or bust
thanks for further recs too

OP posts:
EachPeachPearMum · 25/02/2008 12:58

If you're going to try Murakami (my favourite author ever ) start with a shorter book first, rather than wind up bird chronicle or kafka in the shore. Maybe South of the border, west of the sun which is lovely.

Murakami is very surreal though, which puts a lot of people off.

I am in the 'second chapter' book club on mn- its been really interesting so far- everyone has such different taste- really good for when you want to move out of your comfort zone and try something you wouldn't normally pick up.

There are threads here

I am also in a rl reading group at the local library, where we get to read lots of books that have just been published, which has helped my bank balance immeasurably!

Original poster
stuffitllama · 24/02/2008 20:38

pollywobble thanks for that.. a coincidence as have just been talking about the joseph story so am going to investigate

hi tea and thanks ..pamuk I don't know. My Name is Red was a toughie and I didn't get far but this is when my brain was starting to fog over. I like the sound of Murakami more. Whoops on the spelling of Maalouf.. have never met anyone who read him except on my rec so and don't you love the covers

Can I ask if you are all in a book club on here, I am not inclined to join one in rl again but how does it work on here? These are such interesting recs it would be really appealing. Am wondering if it's a general free for all or if there is an actual "book club".

Again tks all

OP posts:
Tea71 · 24/02/2008 19:19

hi stuffitllama - if you haven't ordered yet, could try Orhan Pamuk - a bit more difficult than Amin Maalouf (I adored First Century after Beatrice).
Or, the other foreign author is Murakami - absolutely a page turner, not trash but not as difficult to read as Pamuk or Maalouf. Not all his novels are hits though; I'd recommend: Kafka on the Shore and Hard Boiled Wonderland ...

pollywobbledoodle · 23/02/2008 21:13

also anita diamant's red tent....biblical tale from the point of view of the women in the tribe....very readable

Original poster
stuffitllama · 23/02/2008 21:03

Tracy Chevalier .. that's the name I couldn't think of that I can't stand, the Girl with a Pearl girl.

Anyway eachpeach yrs look good too thanks, and second vote for book thief. MIght try, despite what some said on the other thread!

Can I give something back.. Amin Malouf, what a fabulous author he is. His books are swimming in colour, plot, characterisation, just fab.

OP posts:
EachPeachPearMum · 23/02/2008 20:46

Oh- pollywobbledoodle- tis one of my favourites too! I like all his stuff.
Stuffitllama- i was going to reccommend time travellers wife haha, but:
thirteenth tale
Book thief
book of lost things
lost art of keeping secrets

Blueskythinker · 23/02/2008 20:37

Testament of Gideon Mack was fab - started reading it in labour! I also really liked the lovely bones, by Alice Sebold - it was out a few years ago, and may now be a film - not at all Dickensian though.

Original poster
stuffitllama · 23/02/2008 20:25

ghostwritten looks great, am ordering

i have to go and clean up supper now but thank you to everybody and if you have any more inspirational ideas let me know -- I'm back later and not ordering until tomorrow night and half the books mentioned I've never heard of and could be just what I'm looking for so thank you so much x

and thanks glucose for the bumping!

OP posts:
pollywobbledoodle · 23/02/2008 20:20

and ghostwritten by david mitchell...story links accross lots of different cultures...one of my fave books

Original poster
stuffitllama · 23/02/2008 20:19

hhmm amy tan
i wonder

OP posts:
shreddies · 23/02/2008 20:19

Rebecca got me back into reading after having DS, it's fantastic

Original poster
stuffitllama · 23/02/2008 20:18

yellow sun looks interesting tks have just googled, but would like to see it in a bookshop for the style --
i'm so out of practice that if it's written in a certain style, for example with odd punctuation (er like me) or with three "first persons" i could really struggle

OP posts:
pollywobbledoodle · 23/02/2008 20:18

anything at all by amy tan (kitchen gods wife/bonesetters daughter/recent one ?saving fish from drowning? etc) really well written page turners about chinese women sometimes in china and sometimes in america

Bel Canto, ann pratchett.....a hostage story set in south america....engrossing, realistic flawed characters, funny and moved me to tears...

Restless was a great book

sillyhead · 23/02/2008 20:15

I agree with Testament of Gideon Mack, was very original.
Half of a Yellow Sun was absolutely excellent and about a topic I never would have known anything about, read it!

I could go on, as am a complete nerd about books but those I'm sure you'll get 101 great suggestions.

Original poster
stuffitllama · 23/02/2008 20:10

thanks ratbunny it's in my amazon basket with restless and gwtw.. still not sure about mf and haven't had a proper look at persephone yet
you guys are great

OP posts:
ratbunny · 23/02/2008 20:06

'the testament of gideon mack' was also very good - really readable and gripping, and fascinating! I don't know anyone else who has read it unfortunately..

Original poster
stuffitllama · 23/02/2008 20:04

that's a great link glucose, i fancy a bit of that
hopefully nothing to woolf-ish, find her and bloomsbury completely unreadable

OP posts:
glucose · 23/02/2008 20:02

This publishers always have something I like

www.persephonebooks.co.uk/

also enjoyed this, and it was reviewed in the Guardian too, I now feel much more well read than before I got onto the thread!

books.guardian.co.uk/reviews/history/0,6121,1519031,00.html

possibly getting a bit too virago ish now

Original poster
stuffitllama · 23/02/2008 20:00

wow thanks everybody
Rohinton Mistry is on our shelves. Maybe I'll try it again. Last time I tried I was a bit over-asia'd in book terms but it's been so long since then maybe it will grip again.
there was a thread about the book thief, I'll go and hunt it.
(I was just thinking a book like Rebecca might do the trick as well shreddies)

OP posts:
glucose · 23/02/2008 19:55

shreddies was going to day Du Maurier, but I have never read Dickins so I was not sure if it was of similar standing.
Have really enjoyed Du Maurier Rule Britannia in particular

Original poster
stuffitllama · 23/02/2008 19:54

hi glucose and thanks I am bashing on!
Guardian has a nice review of Restless -- that looks like a really good bet
MF has produced a lot! Will need to investigate further

Hoping for a list of five for Amazon order tomorrow night

Love finding insights into other cultures.. I was in a book club but got a big fed up of the books, I think there might be a "book club" type of book which I find off-putting .. I really did not like "Kevin" at all, and found the "Girl with a Pearl" author most irritating, also lots of American family introspection ..

The sort of book I need is the Time Traveller's Wife.. except I've already read it.

OP posts:
ratbunny · 23/02/2008 19:50

the bookthief. very clever and very readable. can't remember who wrote it I;m afraid

shreddies · 23/02/2008 19:50

Or, I've just remembered, Rohinton Mistry, A Fine Balance or Such a Long Journey. Both v good

shreddies · 23/02/2008 19:47

Daphne du Maurier? Or is that too much of a page turner type thing?

Or Olivia Manning, The Balkan Trilogy, that's a grea book, lots going on.

I second Margaret Forster, esp The Battle for Christabel