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Stella Gibbons "She liked Victorian novels. They were the only kind of novel you could read while eating an apple."

127 replies

TeaAndStrumpets · 24/04/2025 10:09

I think this quote pretty well describes my literary taste these days. However the books churned out for light reading are often so dire. Who buys them? Had to bin The Thursday Murder Club, and that awful one about a very naive female whose name I have mercifully forgotten (sorry, can't recall...think she was meant to have autistic traits but it was laid on with a trowel.)

I thoroughly enjoyed Of Mice and Murder. I love Jasper Fford. I read a lot of 1930s fiction over lockdown, Angela Thirkell and also Miss Silver for light relief. There is probably a lot of Golden Age detective stuff I could read, but I have worked my way through loads of it over the years. I would really like to see what modern fiction has to offer.

What do you read which is enjoyable and doesn't annoy you? No dead children, mutilated women, etc etc.

OP posts:
ThisCatCanHop · 24/04/2025 10:12

If you like detective fiction, try Robert Galbraith (JK Rowling) - some of them are quite long but I’ve really enjoyed them so far.

I also love Kate Atkinson, and Maggie O’Farrell (though I’m sure at least one of her novels features a child who died).

LobeliaBaggins · 24/04/2025 10:12

Very little modern light fiction, I agree. I still look to the past.

Do you mean Eleanor Oliphaunt? It was terrible.