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Original poster

Can you recommend an unputdownable book?

232 replies

Seemslikethat · 25/08/2024 19:47

As the title says really…

I enjoy reading fiction and non-fiction. Fiction - some books I’ve really enjoyed are…
Penance -Eliza Clark
All the broken pieces -John Boyne
The day Shelley Woodhouse woke up - Laura Pearson
Wrong Time Wrong Place - Gillian McAllister
Tell Me How This Ends - Jo Leevers
The Nightingale - Kristin Hannah
The Satsuma Complex -Bob Mortimer
The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
Five People you meet in heaven - Mitch Albom
The Stand -Steven King
Catch 22 -Joseph Heller
The Time Traveller’s Wife

I've also read quite a lot by Michael Connelly, Harlen Coben, Joanna Cannon, Jodi Picoult, Lisa Jewell, Hazel Prior, Rachel Joyce, Mike Gayle, Fredrick Bachman and Matt Haig. I hated the Crawdads book and wasn’t keen on the Thursday Murder Club.

Non-fiction - I like people’s travel tales or when they do ‘challenges’ eg Tony Hawks Round Ireland with a Fridge or the George Mahood books. I also like insights into people’s work eg Adam Kay or other medical people or people who work in police / prisons / courts etc. I read a good one about someone who was a disaster victim identification specialist.

Looking forward to your recommendations!

OP posts:
coconutcurls · 30/08/2024 14:48

I Love You I Love You I Love You

All the noughties nostalgia ❤️

WhyamIinahandcartandwherearewegoing · 30/08/2024 14:44

Anyone know when the new Cormoran Strike is out?

LaMadameCholet · 30/08/2024 12:24

deeahgwitch · 27/08/2024 18:23

I read that also but preferred Paul Lynch's Prophet Song.

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Amazon keeps recommending both of these to me and I don’t know which to choose!

ChimpanzeeThatMonkeyNews · 30/08/2024 12:12

The Gossip's Choice and its sequel The Midwife's Truth by Sara Read.
They're excellent.

All the Strike books are excellent too.

prawntail · 30/08/2024 12:01

Still Life - Sarah Winman
swan song - Robert McCammon
station eleven - Emily St John mandel

RaquelWelch · 30/08/2024 08:46

Agree with A Thousand Splendid Suns and also Half of a Yellow sun. I also love The God of Small Things.

I used to read so much, but I couldn't get through Catch 22 and I didn't enjoy The Time Travellers Wife.

NotBeforeCoffee · 30/08/2024 08:40

In memoriam - Alice Winn

I think the best book I’ve ever read, but be prepared to cry

WhyamIinahandcartandwherearewegoing · 30/08/2024 08:07

@Westiemomma young mungo is also awesome 👍

you might like Motherwell by Deborah Orr and Scabby Queen by Kristin Innes if you enjoyed those? X

Mothership4two · 30/08/2024 07:48

@SirStanley

The Shock of the Fall - Nathan Filer

Second this one. Read it when it came out and it has stayed with me.

Mothership4two · 30/08/2024 07:47

The Passage Trilogy was gripping

Westiemomma · 30/08/2024 05:33

Shuggie Bain is absolutey unputdownable! Shocking, harrowing and very bleak but a fantastic debut novel by Douglas Stuart. I hear his second book Young Mungo is just as good as Shuggie, if not better but I haven't yet read it.

Older books - Rebecca by Daphne DuMaurier is one of my faves.
Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt - autobiographical, about him and his family growing up in abstract poverty in South of Ireland. Another unputdownable one.

If you want lighter fun reading Marian Keyes is a great writer and her books can be both heartbreaking and hysterically funny at the same time. Irish chick lit at its best.

Round Ireland with a fridge is also one of my favourite books. Tony's other books are pretty good too though not on par with the Fridge!

Happy Reading!

AlleycatMarie · 29/08/2024 23:39

mamaandbabas · 29/08/2024 19:17

Just read David Baddiel's memoir in 2 days so funny, touching and heartbreaking, loved it.

The Hand Maid's Tale, Margaret Atwood, read it a few times and will probably read it again, fave book ever.

Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart😭😭😭😭, so well written.

I love The Handmaid’s Tale! Also enjoyed the Testaments

Sunnycats · 29/08/2024 23:33

Chris Whittaker All the colours of the dark; The Hearts invisible furies - John Boyne

3woods · 29/08/2024 23:09

awkwardturtle · 25/08/2024 23:02

Still Life by Sarah Winman - in fact anything by Sarah Winman!

100% recommend anything by Sarah Winman, but especially Still Life.

another recommendation is book is When All is Said - Anne Griffin

Mrsuniquename · 29/08/2024 22:45

HesterRoon · 29/08/2024 19:03

Yes American Dirt is a good one as is the autobiography of the girl escaping from N Korea-can’t remember the name. But the one that had me absolutely gripped was The Huntress by Kate Quinn about nazi hunters in 1950s USA. Wonderful novel-it was recommended in The Times and her best one.

The Girl with Seven Names is the book about the girl who escapes from North Korea. I loved that book as well. Also American Dirt, A Thousand Splendid Suns, The Kite Runner, I am Pilgrim, All the Light We Cannot See, Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine, My Sisters Keeper, The Nightingale. The History of Bees by Maja Lunde and How to Look for a Lost Dog by Ann M. Martin are two books that haven't been mentioned much/at all, but I thought were great.

coronafiona · 29/08/2024 22:44

KevinDeBrioche · 25/08/2024 20:29

I love Lisa Jewell for a page turner

None of this is true was absolutely brilliant

WhyamIinahandcartandwherearewegoing · 29/08/2024 22:27

IlovePond · 25/08/2024 21:07

A Thousand Splendid Suns: Khaled Hosseini - imo it’s many times better than The Kite Runner.

I picked it up from a hotel bookshelf on holiday one night, started reading it whilst sitting on the end of the bed clutching my toothbrush and was still reading it, (and finishing it), at 5am the next morning. I cried pretty much all the way through and looked like death the next day!

Despite that, I highly recommend it!

Totally agree with this!

Buffs · 29/08/2024 22:11

‘Born a crime’ by Trevor Noah. ‘The Red Notice’ by Bill Browder.

mrsdolittle · 29/08/2024 21:59

Anything by Liane Moriarty, Lucy Clarke or Charity Norman.

Sun57black · 29/08/2024 21:51

New writer. Fledging by Rose Diell - about a woman’s choice NOT to have children. Note - it’s Fledging not Fledgling. Well written and not preachy and not political

Lollipop81 · 29/08/2024 21:40

Have you ever read the Harry Potter books? I’ve read quite a few of the booked you’ve read (the Kite runner and the time travellers wife among my faves) and I always dismissed the Harry Potter book as children’s books, and then I gave them a go. Absolutely brilliant, so good I may reread them and I rarely do that.

Patiosong · 29/08/2024 21:24

TheGodOfSmallPotatoes · 29/08/2024 20:42

This is a fab book!

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Another one I just picked from the library, thinking typical crime novel. Totally different to what I expected. Much more moving too.

tommyhoundmum · 29/08/2024 21:21

The Shell Seekers by Rosamunde Pilcher

Noseybookworm · 29/08/2024 21:20

If you like nonfiction I'd recommend

Nothing to Envy - Real Lives in North Korea by Barbara Demick

Say Nothing by Patrick Radden Keefe

Fatal Vision by Joe McGinniss

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