I have run out of books - suggest some?

I enjoyed "American Gods" hugely. And "Anansi's Boys" by Neil Gaiman too (in fact even more than AG).

I like the list a lot idea from rebelMum so will list a lot here: apologies if repeating earlier posts at all:

Some of my favourite books ever:

All Jane Austen's - obviously!
Of Mice And Men
Vanity Fair
Stephen King (although you say you don't like horror in the op) - The Stand / The Dark Tower series / Insomnia ? Bag Of Bones / Misery
Evelyn Waugh - Brideshead Revisited / A Handful Of Dust
Nabavov - Lolita
Isabel Allende - Paula
Everything by Bill Bryson
Miss Pettigrew Lives For A Day
The Ninth Life Of Louis Drax - Liz Jensen
The Matthew Shardlake mysteries - CJ Sansom
His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman

Mind's gone blank and I can't see any bookshelves from here - will try and add to this later.

Ooh, I'm adding loads of these to my Bookmooch wishlist (desperate plug as you obviously all have lots of the books I want to read ).

Recent good reads have been:

• Several books by Scarlett Thomas, I particularly enjoyed PopCo and The End of Mr Y
• I've been re-reading Molly Keane, Good Behaviour, Devoted Ladies, Young Entry
• Staying with Virago Modern Classics, I never miss a chance to recommend Invitation To The Waltz, Dusty Answer and I Capture The Castle
• American Gods by Neil Gaiman. One of the best books I've ever read

(btw, I appear to have broken Bookmooch at the moment But do go and have a look at it if you don't know about it. I've been trying (and failing) to operate a one in/one out policy as all my bookcases are double shelved and overflowing. This is a good way to give away books you don't want and get ones you do)

Ghost Children by Sue Townsend

quick read and moving.

Oh my, there are so many great book suggestions here, this is a FABULOUS thread

I find it's useful when people mention lots of books they like, then you can see which ones you've read and enjoyed and can sort of assume you might like some of the others they've suggested iyswim.

So, in that vein:

• anything by Margaret Atwood (though have not yet attempted Onyx and Crake)
• anything by Anne Tyler (a VERY late find for me!)
• Ghostwritten and CloudAtlas by David Mitchell (would really, really recommend Ghostwritten!)
• Jane Gardam has written some great stuff, particularly Faith Fox and Old Filth
• anything by Kate Atkinson (wonderful collection of short stories - Not The End of the World)
• earlier Joanne Harris (up to and NOT including Coastliners) and then Gentlemen and Players was not bad
• Nick Hornby for intelligent lad-lit (but not Long Way Down which was crap!) particulary How To Be Good
• Secret History by Donna Tartt

• a bit cliched by I really like Anita Shreve, particularly The Weight of Water and The Last Time They Met

I'm sure there are more, but I can't see my bookshelves too well from the pc (the light is too dim and I can't be bothered to get up and look!)

Am also getting out pen to write down some of the others suggestions, there are some great sounding books.
Last time I asked for suggestions on here, I ended up staying up all hours desperate to finish the books, so you all have v. good taste

yes jeniete...........very heartwarming (altho also tearjerking) books.

Time Traveller's Wife; Poisonwood Bible; The Hungry Tide; the Glass Palace; Thousand Splendid Suns;

Is he the "Five People You Meet In Heaven" guy? "Tuesdays With Morrie" (I think that's what it's called) is an absolutely amazing, warming, shattering, tear-jerking, life-affirming read: really not my usual thing at all but I adored it.

any of 'mitch albom' (think that is the spelling). he is fab

altho the books are readable in one day, so you will be back here quickly!

I love that wedding present idea!

Sorry to contradict sleep and Rach but I absolutely hated "If Nobody Speaks Of Remarkable Things" - I really couldn't see the point of it and kept reading and reading until the end (must have been a sparse book week with nothing to replace it with) but didn't engage with it at all.

If nobody speaks of remarkable things - by Jon McGregor - absolutely seconded - brilliant.

Of course I meant William Boyd not William Boys.

Paul Auster is very variable. I struggled with the New York Trilogy, but adored Moon Palace and thought The Book of Ilusions was incredible.

Murakami is brilliant though. I don't know anyone who hasn't absolutely adored The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle.

Other books I think are worth reading - Barbara Kingsolver's The Poisonwood Bible, anything by Rohinton Mistry but particulary Family Matters, Such a Long Journey and A Fine Balance. Jill Paton Walsh: Knowledge of Angels. Vanity Fair. North and South. Wodehouse (Jeeves and Wooster are inspired). Fingersmith or The Night Watch by Sarah Waters. another vote for Oryx and Crake (need a sub thread for brilliant dystopian fiction, I think).Trollope's The Way We Live Now could've been written last week, so perspicacious is its social and political commentary. Kyril Bonifiglioli's books are wickedly funny especially for Wodehouseians. Zoe Heller's The Believers and Notes on a Scandal. David Sedaris is surely America's best humourist - Me Talk Pretty One Day and The Santaland Diaries are genius. If anyone hasn't read Elizabeth Jane Howard's Cazalet books you're missing out on an absolute TREAT (the first one is called The Light Years). Garrison Keillor's Lake Wobegon Days. Tom Wolfe's Bonfire of the Vanities and A Man in Full if you like machismo, Americana and pacy writing. E Annie Proulx's The Shipping News. Phillip Pullman's trilogy is just wonderful whether you like fantasy or not (I don't, and they still made me weep like a baby). Will Self - Great Apes and The Way We Live Now.

I think that's enough to be getting on with...

If nobody speaks of remarkable things - by Jon McGregor - an amazing book, set in present time, very 'real', about a street and its inhabitants. It seems v slow to begin but suddenly you will find yourself completely absorbed as it is just so evocative and beautifully written.

The War of Don Emmanuel's Nether Parts by Louis de Bernieres is also a favourite - it is very funny (also a bit gory) and I think much better than Captain Correlli's Mandolin.

I have to say I am pretty random when it comes to choosing books and I am usually so tired since having DC's that unless a book is amazingly gripping I rarely manage to finish them as I get through them so slowly I lose interest!!

Rather than having a wedding list, DH and I asked our wedding guests to get us their favourite book ever and write a message in the flyleaf. We have a very eclectic "wedding library" as a result and one day I will get round to reading them all - I can send you some titles from there if you like...gives a great insight into some of our friends psyches!

How do I chose?

By going to the charity shop and buying whatever takes my fancy - I do tend to judge a book by the cover.

I can second The Corrections and Middlesez - both absolutely fab.

I love William Boys. His "Any Human Heart" is wonderful - funny, sad, moving... Also "The New Confessions".

Try Jonathan Coe "The Rotters Club". Brilliant and hilarious.

ggirl that literature map ting is amazing... but I am slightly worried- I typed in my favourite author (Haruki Murakami) and the 2 closest matches were authors I absolutely hate! (Martin Amis, and Paul Auster)
Lots of the other matches were very good for authors i like though!

I'm loving all these suggestions.

My 2 cents:

Barbara Kingsolver - anything, but definitely the Poisonwood Bible.

Anne Tyler - again enjoyed all her books - beautifully written.

The secret life of bees

Another vote for Jonathan Frantzen - Corrections & Middlesex & Small Island

Sebastian Faulks - Birdsong is just a beautiful/haunting book. Just finished Engleby as well which I enjoyed (although definitely a bit disturbing).

I'll stop now and start writing down everyone elses recommendations .

I too really enjoyed "Pillars Of The Earth" and "World Without End" - they are huge mediaeval sagas, essentially: occasionally a bit cliched but still really gripping and with characters who get under your skin and force you to care about them.

I third the Rabbit books and for those people (and also OP) I would strongly recommend the novel Old School by Tobias Woolf - fabulous writing

chocolatedot, apart from the amazing writing, I also liked how it named so many adults' and children's books. I'm going to have to go through and make a note of them. It's like a great big reading list!

I just finished World Without End by Ken Follett
It is meant to be a sequel of sorts to Pillars of the Earth, but def could read it on its own.
I loved both of them.

A second (or third?) for Middlesex.
I quite like Sarah-kate Lynch...although they are not "grounded"...I loved Eating With The Angels".

I love love loved "The Girl in Times Square" by Paulina Simons

I mooch around 2nd hand stores, and go to the library to choose - I very rarely buy, as I read so much, i'd rather save the money and borrow them.

Laugs, I've just finished American Wife too and thought it was fab. I had zero interest in Laura Bush but it is so well done and while it is fiction, I felt it gave me a terriffic insight into George W.

I've just read American Wife, by Curtis Sittenfeld and couldn't put it down. It's a fictional account of the life of Laura Bush, but far better than that makes it sound.

Actually I like all Sittenfeld's books esp Prep. She has an light, natural style that makes her books very easy to read.

I've also recently enjoyed His Illegal Self by Peter Carey and The History of Love by Nicole Krauss.

'Everyman' by Philip Roth - humane, gripping, infuriating slice of life stuff - but be warned, takes a very, very male view of the world. But is therefore intriguing.

'The Road' by Cormac McCarthy - makes you think. Bloody depressing, takes a while (?40 pages) to get into, but once in, you won't get out til the end (nb apocalypic sci-fi-ish stuff, which I usually hate, but lots of insight into Human Condition).

'Hangover Square' by Patrick Hamilton - infatuation and mental illness in 1930s London (but honestly, really good!!).

Anything by Barbara Trapido.

" " " " by Elizabeth Taylor (not the actress! - the other one).

Mr Phillips by John Lanchester (again, more life from the male point of view).

And, like Singersgirl, I LOVE the Rabbit books. I think they're a triumph of 20th-century-literature. JU's 'Couples' is also really good.

I've gone on too long....

It's great isn't it,have just discovered Jane Gardam as an author similar to Mary Lawson (loved Crow Lake)
Why have I not heard of her..must check her out on amazon.I have bad habit aswell.

Some really good suggestions here. I loved 'Oryx and Crake' (love most Margaret A actually) and thought 'Cloud Atlas' was interesting and clever.

I always recommend John Updike's Rabbit books; I think they're brilliant, but lots of people don't get on with them.