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

Something to rekindle my reading...

33 replies

BarrelOfOtters · 25/01/2024 11:51

Don't like gore or horror. It has to be well written. Apart from that anything goes really.

I used to read voraciously and widely - classics, crime, spy novels, modern literature.

The last things I really enjoyed were Still Life, Portrait of a Marriage and Wolf Hall.

OP posts:
New posts on this thread. Refresh page
MsAmerica · 09/02/2024 00:39

This might be a possibility:

For the reader who likes to browse? | Mumsnet

Hibernatalie · 27/01/2024 10:31

Lisa Jewell books are well written and compelling. The House We Grew Up in is my favourite so far.

Divebar2021 · 27/01/2024 10:23

I think I’ll try mr lover man, I heard about it on r4 and it’s been mentioned above…it might just do it!

Yay. That was my suggestion. Hope you love it

Anoisagusaris · 26/01/2024 22:52

Strange Sally Diamond by Liz Nugent

Perfectlystill · 26/01/2024 22:50

Trespasses by Louise Kennedy is excellent

Original poster
BarrelOfOtters · 26/01/2024 22:45

I think I’ll try mr lover man, I heard about it on r4 and it’s been mentioned above…it might just do it!

OP posts:
Moro93 · 26/01/2024 22:07

Don’t have any specific books to recommend but just wanted to make a couple of suggestions of things that help when I’m in a reading slump.

I like to choose quite a short book. Sometimes finishing a book gives you motivation to read more.

Also, I try to choose something like a murder mystery, or any type of mystery really, that will make me want to keep reading.

Sometimes if there’s a film I want to see that was based on a book, I like to read the book first. So if the film is already out/being released soon, it can encourage me to read the book sooner/quicker.

CadyEastman · 26/01/2024 21:28

Have you settled on one yet @BarrelOfOtters?

longtompot · 26/01/2024 11:29

Needmorelego · 25/01/2024 11:55

I had a reading block a few years ago and it was Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty that got me back.

The exact same author for me just recently, just with Nine Perfect Strangers! I was reading it at a residential as it was on their shelf and only got so far so took a photo of the page I was at and bought it from World of Books, along with Three Things About Elsie by Joanna Cannon which I also really enjoyed.
I am now reading the second book in the Atticus Priest series by Mark Dawson

chocolatesaltyballs22 · 26/01/2024 11:24

Anything by Colleen Hoover or Taylor Jekins Reid.

dimllaishebiaith · 26/01/2024 11:12

Peaches and honey

One for the blackbird one for the crow

Gonnagetgoingreturnsagain · 26/01/2024 11:10

Mothership4two · 26/01/2024 00:26

Demon Copperhead? Or other books written by Barbara Kingsolver especially The Poisonwood Bible.

Second Olive Kitteridge books - really well written.

Edited

Couldn't get into The Poisonwood Bible but have been a fan of Elizabeth Strout for the past year or so. Almost read all of her books!

Gonnagetgoingreturnsagain · 26/01/2024 11:09

CreateHope · 25/01/2024 22:00

I’ve just read City of Girls, Elizabeth Gilbert. Really enjoyed it 😊

I read that last year and really enjoyed it too.

NoCloudsAllowed · 26/01/2024 10:19

When I feel like this, I make a bit of time to go to a charity shop, pick the book I like best, then go to a cafe/park and I'm not allowed to leave until I've read at least a chapter.

Merryhobnobs · 26/01/2024 10:16

I LOVED Lessons in Chemistry last year. I have always been an avid reader but children (especially having a baby throughout covid) had reduced my attention span significantly. I'm now reading way more again but mostly very easy books but Lessons in Chemistry was so good. I really loved it. It really spoke to me and reignited reading for me again.

KahloSherman · 26/01/2024 10:14

Intriguing - honestly unlike anything I've ever read - and fairly short - 'Piranesi' by Susanna Clarke

Zaranj · 26/01/2024 10:01

Following

Nonewclothes2024 · 26/01/2024 09:58

Valerie Perrin , Fresh Water for Flowers or Forgotten on a Sunday.

Westfacing · 26/01/2024 08:46

Since Covid times I've been saying to myself and anyone within earshot that I've now got the attention span of a gnat and just can't read for more than 15 minutes as lose interest. Monthly book club reads were left to the last minute then speed-read! It's too easy to get distracted by having a quick look at Mumsnet, newspapers online etc.

However last book club was 'Lessons' by Ian McEwan - my attention span has been restored! You know a book is good when you look up and 90 minutes has passed Smile. A great read.

GoodOldEmmaNess · 26/01/2024 08:35

lol, this thread has generated a mumsnet ad for 'best slow cookers' on my page. I guess that many of the most readable novels are sloww cookers.Grin

GoodOldEmmaNess · 26/01/2024 08:33

Anything by Kate Atkinson will be extremely readable, entertaining and thoughtful. She is very good on the mother/daughter relationship too (eg Behind the scenes at the museum), but perhaps you want distraction from the sadness about your mother, rather than a chance to think more about her loss.

Recently during a time of INCREDIBLE stress I went through a phase of almost obsessive Barbara Vine reading. Real page turners. Crime stories that are extremely interesting psychologically, especially about the relationships among women. The Minotaur and the Chimney Sweepers Son are my favs. (The ones where she centres working class characters are very lame though. She seems to treat all women who are not of her class as a kind of laboratory specimen and studies them under a weirdly distorting microscope.)

stringbean · 26/01/2024 08:24

Mothership4two · 26/01/2024 00:26

Demon Copperhead? Or other books written by Barbara Kingsolver especially The Poisonwood Bible.

Second Olive Kitteridge books - really well written.

Edited

Yes, absolutely loved these two as well Smile

Mothership4two · 26/01/2024 00:26

Demon Copperhead? Or other books written by Barbara Kingsolver especially The Poisonwood Bible.

Second Olive Kitteridge books - really well written.

stringbean · 25/01/2024 22:50

Olive Kitteridge.The most beautifully written book I've read in some time.

coolmum123 · 25/01/2024 22:41

I was in a slump and the Cormoran Strike series by Robert Galbraith got me back into it.

Swipe left for the next trending thread