Who's read any of these authors?

As someone else has said, Tremain's books can be very different from each other. I read a couple I didn't much care for, but loved 'Music and Silence'.
Also loved T.C. Boyle's 'Water Music', but I believe it was his first novel and very different in style compared with his others.

I also loved Fall on Your Knees by Anne Marie MacDonald, and would recommend the Canadian novelist Margaret Laurence (note spelling) (author of The Stone Angel) very highly.

There is an American writer of a historical crime series called Margaret Lawrence with a "w" whose work I like a lot - Hannah Trevor is a midwife who doesn't really fit in very well in 18th century New England. But I don't know if the books are in print at the moment. Hearts and Bones is the first.

miranda july also has a good website and related non-fiction book learning to love you more in which people respond to tasks she sets in a creative way. some people will hate it, but i'm a big fan!

What is Literature Map? Is it something where you put in your favourite authors and it recommends more? (anticipates hours and hours and hours of timewasting...)

I love Jeffrey Eugenides and Paul Auster-- more an American Kazuo Ishiguro than M. Amis, I would say (don't worry Eachpeach, I won't pick him for our next book swap!) T.C. Boyle is amazing for short stories and his novel Tortilla Curtain is an incisive snapshot of the west coast of the U.S. Also, men really love it. I'm not quite sure why. But I always wind up talking about books at parties and so on, and that was one that kept coming up when I was talking to guys. So I read it and I thought it was brilliant.

Have never read Miranda July but 'Me and you and everyone we know' is a clever and quirky film; I really want to read her now!

I second A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry - I recommend it remorselessly on here but it is SUCH an extraordinary and wonderful book.

Lots on there I haven't read. For some reason I just don't have a good thing going on with Rose Tremain. I ought to enjoy reading her, I'm sure, but I just don't.

I've read Jeffrey Euginides (Middlesex) and Mark Haddon (The Curious Incident of the Dog In The Night Time and A Spot of Bother) off your list. Enjoyed them all.

Rose Tremain is careful and delightful
Rohinton Mistry is predictable but delightful
Jeffrey Eugenides is decidedly odd but unforgettable

Does any of that help?

I'm a Robertson Davies fan, recent Elliot Perlman convert, and loved Special Topics in Calamity Physics, so may have similar tastes to you .

Have you tried Richard Powers (maybe starting with his most recent, The Echo Maker), or Barbara Kingsolver (my favourite of hers is Prodigal Summer, but many prefer the Poisonwood Bible). Also pretty much anything by William Boyd, Russell Hoban (The Bat Tattoo), John Lanchester (The Debt to Pleasure is brilliant), Helen DeWitt (The Last Samurai), and I've recently read a couple by James Wilson (The Woman in the Picture, The Dark Clue) which were good.

Hope you get plenty of book tokens...

I love Miranda July, though i'd imagine some people would be put off by her "quirky" quotient. her book of short stories "no one belongs here more than you" is very funny. she also made a great film called "me and you and everyone we know".

i like "the music of chance" by paul auster and "the virgin suicides" by jeffrey eugenides, but admittedly haven't read that for ages.

Absolutely loved Rohinton Mistry's "A Fine Balance" but it was very distressing in parts. Also very much enjoyed "American Wife" - an easy read.

I really liked Mark Haddon's "A Spot of Bother" and "The Curious Incident..." I hated Rohinton Mistry's "A Fine Balance" - tried 3 times but couldn't finish it, which is unusual for me. I'm looking forward to reading "American Wife" &, on the strength of this thread, will look out for Rose Tremain. Happy reading! Let us know how you get on.

I've read, and enjoyed, Rose Tremain, Paul Auster, Mark Haddon. Read - and thought pretty good - Anne Marie Macdonald. Read and LOVED, Jeffrey Eugenides - especially Middlesex.

Oh TC Boyle is one of my faves.
Like littlepolly, I'd really recommend Drop City
Budding Prospects, Tortilla Curtain, Friend of the Earth all also great.

I have read:

The Road Home by Rose Tremain. It was alright. I bought it as it had won the Orange Broadband Prize. It certainly didn't make me want to read any of her other books.

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Mark Haddon. I read this a few years ago and liked it.

I am currently reading American Wife by Curtis Sittenfeld and really enjoying it.

Rose Tremain is great and every book of hers is different, so if you don't like one, don't be put off trying another. I particularly enjoyed "The Road Home" and "Music and Silence".

Love Jeffrey Eugenides, can't stand Paul Auster (think US Martin Amis grrr)

I can only manage one - The Road Home by Rose Tremain. Like the curate's egg, good in parts.

Anne Marie MacDonald has just written the two ramonaquimby mentions, but they are totally brilliant, if not especially happy books. I'm desperate for her to write another! Rose Tremain also brilliant, if serious.

Ann Marie MacDonald is brilliant, but can be tough at times. Both her novels were incredible reads, she is an amazing writer. Try to get past the sometimes slow beginnings - she is well worth it.

Paul Auster one of my favourite current writers. He is brilliant.

I love Rose Tremain - she is an utterly brilliant writer. Anne Marie Macdonald - I've only read Fall on your Knees which I think is probably the bleakest, most depressing book I've ever read (Thomas Hardy's Jude the Obscure excepted). I like Mark Haddon's Curious Incident but was less keen on the other one.

Margaret Lawrence's The Stone Angel is fab

Curious Incident is brilliant but I hated his other one: A Spot Of Bother.