Holiday reads.....what would you say was this year's 'must read'?

I too get accused of reading too much. Just been away and read 9 books in 2 weeks. Didn't take enough of my own and ended up reading trash but some of the good ones:
The Kite Runner (although I suspect I'm horribly behind on that)
"Can any mother help me" - fantastic. Historical, sociological and an easy, but intelligent read
"The Widower" - Ray Klun - I couldn't put that down

Have just read the thriller No Time For Goodbye by Linwood Barclay in one sitting - everyone in my house had to fend for themselves for their dinner! It wasn't the most literary of reads, but it had a really gripping plot, about the mystery of what happened to a teenaged girl's family who disappeared from the house one night with no clue why. 25 years later, it is stirred up again, but not in a good way...

Another tip for later in the year: The Other Hand, by Chris Cleave, due out in August. I was lucky enough to get an advance copy of this as I work in a bookshop, and it blew me away: if you enjoy books like The Kiterunner,i.e. moving, at times funny, and intelligent) I heartily recommend this book. I read alot, and this one really stood out for me...

Hope this helps you find something you like over the next few months, and tell us what you ended up taking!

Yiddish Policeman's Union is good.

Oh and if SF/Fantasy is to your taste, the Night Watch series by Sergei Lutyanenko is very good.

I really enjoyed 19 minutes by jodi picoult recently. I also read the kite runner, a thousand splendid suns, the bookseller of kabul - all of which were excellent.

Am reading and loving Engelby by Sebastian Faulks atm

I loved Suite Francaise nkf
I read French so will look out her earlier novel David Golder when over there this summer, I'd like to see what her prose is like in the original IYSWIM
For our hols I also have

yiddish Policemen's Union

I used to know that

1066 and all that

Whatever makes you happy

and

The Rest is Noise, which I have bought for three other people but only dipped into so far

Must now go off and investigate Gideon Mack!

I'm reading Suite Francaise which is extraordinary.

I really enjoyed Gideon Mack and Reluctant Fundamentalist too.

For this year - I would say In the Wood by Tana French and Child 44 by Tom Smith if crime is your bag at all.

oooh - I LOVED testament of Gideon Mack.
another good book is the reluctant fundamentalist (I devoured it in a night I think!)
and the book thief.

have you looked at richard and judy's book club - strangley enough, all of the books I have read on there have been good, though I cant stand R&J personally!

Just finished Testament of Gideon Mack.

It gets the formal Bink Seal of Approval - a properly good book. About five a year (out of innumerable candidates) get that.

Ds (9) asked what it was about: I said "Scotland and superstition" - if you find those things (plus atmosphere, literary tradition, small-town-cast ensemble characterising) interesting, go for it. (There's a marvellous bit of a poem, a really good bit of poem [also a rare thing], as the epigraph too - Andrew Young, will be following that up.)

Have just finished the Outcast by Sadie Jones. It is amazing.

Robert Harris's GHOST.

Blardy funny and very clever too.

Dh bought me the new James Patterson book on Friday. DD1 is visiting for the weekend and read it cover to cover from 10pm Friday until the wee small hours then finished it yesterday afternoon.

I started it last night around 7.30pm and finished it at midnight, Couldn't put it down.

I only realised how long I'd been sitting in the same position when I tried to look up and found my neck locked for a few seconds

Oh, and "Lottery!", sorry can't remember author.

Another vote for the 13th Tale. Also if you haven't read the Giles Waring Haters Club, that's v good too and funny.

I read and enjoyed Engelby a few months ago. Was quite suprised by it, but was good, absorbing read.

I'm quite enjoying Testament of Gideon Mack - I like its conscious contemporariness, none of that Vaseline-filtered retro setting stuff. It's dense, though, so a few pages at a time does me: so maybe not a settle-down-for-hours holiday read.

I'm tempted to read Barack Obama's memoir - I suspect if there's a book masses of people are getting outside in the next few months it's that.

Otherwise (and non-current-publishing-list-wise) I feel something is saying it's Faulkner revival time.

I have read and enjoyed most of the books on this thread, so am going to suggest the temeraire series by naomi novik, which I recently read my way through

books.google.co.uk/books?as_auth=Naomi+Novik&sa=X&oi=print&ct=title&cad=author-navigational&hl=en

I love Jodi Picoult books!

I also love any crime reading stuff, my collection includes Patricia Cornwell, Karin Slaughter, James Patterson, Mark Billingham, Kathy Reichs, Harlen Coben, Lee Child, Elizabeth George, Tess Gerritson, Val McDermid, Ian Rankin, Mary Higgins Clark.... plus a few others I can't remember the name of!

My DP thinks I must have been a serial killer in another life because I love reading these types of books and watching these types of programmes!!!

OOhhh....I love Jasper Fforde. He's tops. I also like a little sci-fantasy (Tad Williams and Robin Hobb) and recently got into an embarassing genre of non-human chick lit. A woman called Kelley Armstrong wrote a book called Bitten which was the start of a series of science fantasy chick lit type books. Werewolf related, in case you weren't sure . I've now read the entire series and am looking forward to the next one!!!

I'm reading Cornelia funke's Inkheart, after loving Dragonrider (I know it's for kids, but this stuff is so easy to slip in around the housework/kids) and Memoirs of a Geisha (for the second time as part of a bookclub thing).

I love Diana Wyn Jones too and I've read a couple of Boris Akunin books, which are odd, but strangely compulsive.

I've also bought a couple of Sebastian Falkes books (he's mentioned on book threads a lot) and am looking forward to reading them next.

You might enjoy some Jasper Fforde, The Eyre Affair is prob the best to start with if you're not familiar with his stuff.

I read all the time and love almost anything from Robertson Davies (literature) to Diana Wynn Jones (kids' stuff). Enjoy yourself.

Squilly and Bridie - more suggestions pls. I seem to have similar (eg if it moves read it) tendancies so keen to hear more of your must reads!

Bridie3...you are so clever.

Frap lit will get changed to crap lit, unfortunately, by the literati on here...but I love it! I may use it from now on for all my frothy books...

And I'm off to get playing with the moon now. Amazon here I come!