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Recommendations please

34 replies

hanksforthememories · 17/12/2024 16:41

For the first time ever, DH & I are going away for 3 weeks over Christmas.

I use Audible, a lot. I average 150+ books a year. It's true that I read, or listen, a lot.
Please can you recommend titles for me?

This is only a small sample of books I like/don't like:

• Crime fiction; I prefer grittier crime e.g The Max Wolfe series by Tony Parsons, M J Arlidge, Jane Casey.
Not necessarily gory, but smarter novels. IMO Belinda Bauer particularly is good at intelligent crime writing without gore.

I'm going to duck when I write this. I don't like the Richard Osman novels. I really appreciate that he is writing rounded, older characters, but felt the stories were predictable and the humour was too obvious.

• Fiction by women (I'm not going to call it chick lit!) e.g. Marian Keyes' This Charming Man, Liane Moriarty though I prefer her earlier novels, Promising Young Women, Taylor Jenkins Reid.

I don't like anything 'dumbed down', while the Shopaholic series might be fantastic, the subject doesn't interest me.

• Humour. I love humorous novels; Jonathan Harvey, Graham Norton, Ruth Jones, Amy Tintera, Sandi Toksvig, Sue Townsend, earlier Roddy Doyle, Dolly Alderton etc.

• Darned good fiction writing; The Goldfinch, The Crimson Petal And The White, Ken Follett's Kingsbridge series, Sebastian Faulks, loads more.

Please recommend good novels for me?
Thank you Xmas Smile

OP posts:
bigcheesematrix · 18/12/2024 16:37

I absolutely loved Miss Benson's Beetle by Rachel Joyce on Audible. The relationship that develops between the two female characters is so touching.
I am listening to Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus at the moment and I'm really enjoying the feminism (set in the 50s - America).

Clarice99 · 18/12/2024 16:09

I love Belinda Bauer and Jane Casey.

I've enjoyed every book I've read by thriller writer Catherine Ryan Howard, especially The Liar's Girl and The Nothing Man.

Greer Hendricks & Sarah Pekkanen - The Wife Between Us

Jacqueline Bublitz - Before You Knew My Name

LoafofSellotape · 18/12/2024 15:53

Have you read any Barbara Vine ?(Ruth Rendell) I avoid the books with inspector Wexford but some of them are really dark and gritty.

The Poison wood Bible by Barbara King solver and I'm about to start Demon Copperhead by her too.

** Just realised you want audible recommendations, I've only read the above.

nocoolnamesleft · 18/12/2024 15:45

Chronicles of St Mary's. A bunch of madcap historians exploring major historical events in contemporary time (don't call it time travel). Crosses genres: humour, action, history, scifi, bit of romance, more humour. Great female lead. (Great female author) Excellent narration. Bloody addictive.

Boffle · 18/12/2024 13:55

I have no idea about listening to books as I can't get on with it. However I can recommend a few that seem to fit with your likes.
The Rose Code by Katie Quinn
Life After Life by Kate Atkinson
The Pearlers Wife by Roxane Dhand
The Ruth Galloway series by Elly Griffith (Well written crime with strong female protagonist)
Tim Weaver's David Raker series

Lobstercrisps · 18/12/2024 13:26

Crossroads by Jonathan Franzen is the best audible book I've ever listened to.

Second choice is the Galbraith Strike books on Audible.

Also adored 'The Son' by Phillip Meyer on Audible.

Dappy777 · 18/12/2024 13:02

If you like crime, why not try Sherlock Holmes read by Stephen Fry. I love laying in a hot bath listening to Fry read Sherlock Holmes or P G Wodehouse. It’s funny, I don’t think any crime writer has improved on the Holmes series, just as no fantasy writer has improved on Tolkien and no ghost writer beats MR James. Agatha Christie is surprisingly good as well. I picked her up expecting stuffy, tame writing and was very pleasantly surprised. She really is good.

So far as female writers go, how about Anita Brookner? She’s criminally underrated. I think she’s a better stylist than Virginia Woolf.

As for humour, for me P G Wodehouse and Evelyn Waugh are the funniest writers in the English language. There is an audio recording of Michael Maloney reading Waugh’s Decline and Fall. Nothing ever made me laugh more. Actually, the only thing that came close was Brian Blessed’s autobiography read by the man himself. I had to stop the car I was laughing so much. Douglas Adams is also amusing - and very thoughtful and interesting as well,

localhere · 18/12/2024 07:39

Here are a few I've listened to recently. All very different but such good, compelling stories with incredible narration.

Piranesi by Susanna Clarke
Still Life by Sarah Winman
Antkind by Charlie Kaufman
The Bone Clocks by David Mitchell

BabCNesbitt · 18/12/2024 06:52

I’m going to give the same recommendation I always give whenever someone asks for an Audible recommendation, and that’s the Rivers of London series. The narrator is incredible and it’s the perfect combination of police procedural and magic. (I’m not usually a big fantasy fan but it really works!)