Recommend me some books please...

books!
someone said they liked Roberston Davies i adore him read all of it very funny.
also like Bill Bryson; david lodge; jose saramago; umberto eco stephen jay gould, lots of fantasie and sci fi too.
these are some of the books i read last year and liked.

old school by Tobias Wolf
american gods by Neil Gaiman
cloud atlas by David mitchell
the half brother by Lars S Christensen
snow by Orhan Pamuk

Notes on a Scandal by Zoe Heller. And Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood.

Really really want to strongly second/recommend Glen David Gold - Carter beats the devil as suggested by Marina, and his partner's book - The lovely bones by Alice Sebold - desperately sad, but lovely too. Love all John Irving, especially a prayer for owen meany, but also liked setting free the bears, more recently also highly recommend the Time travellers wife by Audrey Niffenegger (sp??) and Case Histories by Kate Atkinson

Church of the Dead Girls - Stephen Dobyns.

A first-rate thriller which even my dh loved and he HATES thriller-type books usually.

Will second/third/fourth/whatever A Prayer for Owen Meany.

The Quincunx! (long thread on that somewhere from ages ago)

charlie and the chocolate factory

The Pursuit of Happiness - Douglas Kennedy

Just back from holiday and read four excellent books in the following order:
The Ivy Chronicles
The Death and Life of Charlie St Cloud
The Laments
Case Histories - Kate Atkinson

The first 3 are all 'Richard and Judy's Summer Reads'. I loved them all and I'm now without a book as I can't face starting something else in case I'm disappointed after what I've just read.

The davinchi code by dan brown i think. its a real page turner, could not put it down.

Ndola,ggg. (I think we discussed this before-I was born there.) The author attended the same school as my cousins somewhere in Malawi (would have been mid 70s.) Have you read it? (Silly question I'm sure.)

sorry when writing Ian McEwan I actually meant Atonement not Enduring love..very different quality of story

Oh yes and I agree with janh about Gervase Phinn. His books are moving, funny and very easy to read. You always want more at the end.

Another vote for 'After you'd gone' by Maggie O'Farrell, don't know anyone who hasn't loved it.

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Hello everyone - try louis de bernieres' south american trilogy - absolutely fantastic. Also Maggie O farrell's 'after you'd gone' if you like a bit of a blub.. Kate Atkinson 'behind the scenes of the museum' gosh could on a bit here - Ian McEwan 'Enduring Love' and if you've always avoided them as school texts 'To kill a mocking bird' and catcher in the rye are just wonderful books. Am about to read The time traveller's wife ans am very excited!!!

Moondog, yes that's the one. I loved 'Don't lets go to the dogs tonight', it has such grittiness to it, and was really quite jaw dropping in places.

If you fancy something different, I read Tom Sharpe's Wilt trilogy after hearing my husband laughing out loud whilst reading them. I have never laughed so much at a book. They're not the kind of books I would normally go for, but they were brilliant.

Captain Corelli's Mandolin (Louis de Bernieres) really draws you in, but made me cry as much as Wilt made me laugh.

er, "Robinson". Sybille Bedford's Jigsaw another engrossing book. Trying to remember more...

I buy them for everyone as presents too, Marina. They are brilliant, binkie, and I do tell just about anyone who will listen! Thanks for Robertson Davies, the name "Robunson Crusoe" kept going round in my head, possibly sign of incipient dementia...

Sucked in recently by The Constant Gardener, John Le Carre.

It is chicklit kinda stuff but if you like Mike Gayle you might enjoy The Tenko Club by ?Elizabeth nelson. her first one was the REading Group but I haven't got to that yet.

have you read the Precious Ramotswe books by Alexander McCall Smith? They are great easy reading and very well done. Very touching too.

Also would recommend Fruit of the Lemon by andrea levy

and this which is an acquired taste but really very lovely indeed: Findings by Kathleen Jamie

The ladies Detective series by Alastair Macall Smith - once I read one I had to buy the other 6
Perfume
His Dark Materials Trilogy - Philip Pullman
Memoirs of a Geisha
Any Roddy Doyle book - although be careful some are light-but-still-socially-aware (eg commitments/the Van) but others are very dark (eg the woman who walked into doors/A star called henry)

Enjoy

I will do it in person, Binkie, but have wibbled away on here about them and at my online book group. I give their books as presents and am always sending people their URL!
I think what they are doing to revive good fiction, not to mention the book as pleasing artefact is really refreshing. And ds loves the free patterned bookmarks!
A small, short-term goal of mine is to give my family the slip and go on one of their Readers' Weekends...

Persephone fans, do tell them you love them. Dh closely related to (lovely) founder, & she'd be delighted to hear.

I LOVE Persephone Press GoN - and Robertson Davies too! Salterton Trilogy my special favourite...
Liked The Corrections too...

The older Hollinghursts are brilliant too. Siri Husvedt (too hot can't remeber any titles, bah). Jonathan Franzen's The Corrections if you haven't read it already. Whatshisname who wrote the Deptford Trilogy etc, they are amazingly engrossing (she says uninformatively)... There is a brilliant publishers called Persephone Press who do sort of forgotten twentieth century classics - you can get them off Amazon and they come in lovely silvery covers, have loved all the ones I ordered at random!