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Original poster

I need a book for clever well read 23 year old dil.

111 replies

CurlewKate · 13/11/2025 18:09

She’s doing an English degree and she’s loved some of the books I’ve given her- I try to choose old fashioned sort of classics-she loved Muriel Spark, Graham Green and Evelyn Waugh, for example and A Month in the Country. She didn’t like Kingsley Amis or Barbara Pym. Any ideas?

OP posts:
BigSkies2022 · 14/11/2025 17:55

Another vote for Marilynn Robinson but I prefer the Gilead novels to Housekeeping, but all magnificent. Alice Munro’s short stories. William Trevor The Silence in the Garden was a revelation to me, but it might help to know some history of the English in Ireland and to have read some other colonial tragedies- Camus, for example. VSNaipal’s collection from the seventies, In. A Free State is great - Tell Me Who To Kill will break her heart!

BigSkies2022 · 14/11/2025 17:48

Change of Climate is horrific! The Cazalets are children’s stories pretending to be adult fiction- not necessarily a criticism, btw.

Original poster
CurlewKate · 14/11/2025 17:43

Fasterthan40 · 14/11/2025 16:29

Ugh, have had those kind of book gifts needed before. Trying to work out which book about WW2 naval frigates would be just the right one.

Show quote history

I went left field and got him the first of Mary Renault’s Alexander books! He was glued to it all Christmas….

OP posts:
Trinko · 14/11/2025 17:32

IdaGlossop · 14/11/2025 16:14

English graduate here. Short stories can be very welcome if you have a novel-heavy reading list - collections by women writers, or Katherine Mansfield and Virginia Woolf. Virginia Woolf's diaries are a joy. Kate Atkinson - 'Behind the scenes at the museum' and 'Life After Life' play lots of tricks that appeal to Eng Lit students. Dorothy Richardson's 'Pilgrimage', little read now but the stream-of-consciousness work by a female author.

Good point Elizabeth Strout’s “Olive Kitteridge” would fall into this (kind of) short stories remit.

BlissfullyBlue · 14/11/2025 17:32

Stoner by John Williams. Just beautifully written.

The Crimson Petal and The White.

Sacred Hunger by Barry Unsworth.

Lavender1974 · 14/11/2025 17:25

I second Rebecca and The Woman in White.
The Moonstone.
Portrait of a Lady
Cranford
Bliss and other stories Katherine Mansfield
Small Things Like These Claire Keegan
The Marriage Portrait Maggie O Farrell
The Age of Innocence
Remains of the Day
My Cousin Rachel

Jamclag · 14/11/2025 17:16

These are all novels I read 30 years ago in my early 20s and loved:
Margaret Drabble - The Millstone
Fay Weldon - Growing Rich
Margaret Atwood - The Handmaid's Tale
Lesley Glaister - The Private Parts of Women
Alice Hoffman - Practical Magic

REP22 · 14/11/2025 17:01

It's non-fiction I'm afraid (I like Jane Austen best, but I expect she's read all of those) - but I very much enjoyed "Unruly" by David Mitchell. About early English rulers, written with great intelligence and wit.

I can also highly recommend "The People on Platform 5" by Clare Pooley in the way of fiction.

Stickthatupyourdojo · 14/11/2025 16:47

The Bloody Chamber, a collection of stories by Angela Carter. Wolf Alice got their name inspiration from it.

REDB99 · 14/11/2025 16:44

DelphiniumBlue · 13/11/2025 19:47

Cold Comfort Farm - very funny
Lady Audley's Secret
North & South, Cranford or anything by Elizabeth Gaskell
The Scarlet Pimpernel
The Crimson Petal and the White

I was going to suggest Lady Audley’s Secret!

UpMyself · 14/11/2025 16:43

@Nandina , I don't like being given books as gifts either. I feel obliged to read them, and find them a chore. I rarely enjoy them.

AnAudacityofinlaws · 14/11/2025 16:41

Doris Lessing
Isabel Allende
Kate Atkinson

Ddakji · 14/11/2025 16:39

Cold Comfort Farm

Any Dorothy L Sayers, but I would really recommend Murder Must Advertise

A more light read but I loved Dear Mrs Bird (modern but set during the Second World War)

Pachinko

Lessons in Chemistry

Old Baggage

The Help

Rebecca

purser25 · 14/11/2025 16:32

Winifred Holtby South Riding, The Land of Green Ginger. Maybe some of the books Noel Streatfeild wrote for adults The Witcharts spelling probably wrong.

Fasterthan40 · 14/11/2025 16:29

CurlewKate · 14/11/2025 16:26

Thank you- but not really kind! We always do a family book Secret Santa for Christmas reading, and I love choosing for people. I have really enjoyed lending her books from my shelves she might like- and she’s lent me things she thinks I might like from her reading list. I was so excited I got her this year. Last year I got someone who only reads military history…..🤣

Show quote history

Ugh, have had those kind of book gifts needed before. Trying to work out which book about WW2 naval frigates would be just the right one.

hippospot · 14/11/2025 16:29

Marilynne Robinson, any novel but I really recommend Housekeeping.
She's American, is that ok?

Original poster
CurlewKate · 14/11/2025 16:26

Fasterthan40 · 14/11/2025 16:17

Oh and what about Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell? I loved that at that age. I think you are really kind buying her books that you are tailoring to her taste. I am known as a reader but receive Scottish or political history books from one side (who are interested in those) and Worthy Books from the other. So I have to buy my own, but do envy those who are given good books to read over Christmas.

Thank you- but not really kind! We always do a family book Secret Santa for Christmas reading, and I love choosing for people. I have really enjoyed lending her books from my shelves she might like- and she’s lent me things she thinks I might like from her reading list. I was so excited I got her this year. Last year I got someone who only reads military history…..🤣

OP posts:
TigerDroveAgain · 14/11/2025 16:19

Olive and Olive Again

Fasterthan40 · 14/11/2025 16:17

Oh and what about Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell? I loved that at that age. I think you are really kind buying her books that you are tailoring to her taste. I am known as a reader but receive Scottish or political history books from one side (who are interested in those) and Worthy Books from the other. So I have to buy my own, but do envy those who are given good books to read over Christmas.

IdaGlossop · 14/11/2025 16:14

English graduate here. Short stories can be very welcome if you have a novel-heavy reading list - collections by women writers, or Katherine Mansfield and Virginia Woolf. Virginia Woolf's diaries are a joy. Kate Atkinson - 'Behind the scenes at the museum' and 'Life After Life' play lots of tricks that appeal to Eng Lit students. Dorothy Richardson's 'Pilgrimage', little read now but the stream-of-consciousness work by a female author.

TryingAgainAgainAgain · 14/11/2025 16:13

Rosamund Lehman: Invitation to the Waltz, The Weather in the Streets

Silverbirchleaf · 14/11/2025 16:01

Sophie’s World

Silverbirchleaf · 14/11/2025 16:01

Jonathan livingstone seagull

zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance.

Two books which were huge years ago and she may enjoy.

BigSkies2022 · 14/11/2025 15:59

Another vote for Jane’s , Percival Everett. And could be paired with Huck Finn. I have just finished The Haunting of Hill House which is genre fiction in the sense that it is a horror tale, but very subtle and, if she’s interested in representations of the uncanny and psychological realism within the supernatural, there’s lots here. Shirley Jackson, from 1959, I think. Under Milkwood, for another twist on genre - this time, pastoral. And she can listen to Richard Burton on Spotify!

johntorodesfatcheeks · 14/11/2025 15:49

The Goldfinch or The Secret History by Donna Tartt