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Original poster

What book are you reading now because it is doing my head in that I can't find something I want to read so am going to steal your ideas instead..!

168 replies

foxinsocks · 21/02/2010 15:17

I finished Ordinary Thunderstorms by William Boyd (which I enjoyed but it wasn't a can't put down book - I stopped it and came back to it but did finish it and ultimately enjoyed it).

I am half way through Little Stranger but cannot make myself finish it. I've got to the stage where I half hope the whole of Hundreds Hall goes up in flames with Dr Faraday in the middle of it.

I've also started 2 other books - A Week in December (Sebastian Faulks) and Fifty Grand (McGKinty) and they are grabbing me but not in the way I was hoping they would. I imagine I'll finish both but I'm really hoping for a great book next iykwim.

So what are you reading and would you recommend it?

OP posts:
Original poster
foxinsocks · 26/02/2010 21:04

I'm glad I perservered with Ordinary Thunderstorms - can totally see why you gave up on it though. I gave up and came back to it and was glad I did but I had to force myself through a part of it. End of it far better than the beginning (strangely).

I read The Other Hand - there are some threads on it here - read it in one go. Thought it wsa readable but v stereotypical.

I will look at that Tobias Hill - had not heard of it at all

pointy - aaah to have had a teacher like you

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janeite · 26/02/2010 21:00

Kate A is okay. Jackson Brodie is a good character but the coincidences etc are annoying.

CarmelitaMiggs · 26/02/2010 20:57

I gave up on Ordinary Thunderstorms and A Week in December about 40 pages in, but massively loved The Little Stranger -- so I'm probably your un-ideal reader, FIS. (Though I liked Engleby too. Very odd book!)

yy to American Wife.

My nomination would be The Hidden by Tobias Hill, not 100 per cent successful -- but truly astonishing bit of writing, esp the first half. There's a fascinating bit set in a nasty Athens restaurant which I can't get out of my head and I read it months ago.

The only book I have actually finished recently (my local library is brilliant so I've got rather used to tossing books aside contemptuously after a few chapters, if they're not doing it for me) is Blacklands by Belinda Bauer. Pretty mediocre writing, but a decent idea.

Mirrorball · 26/02/2010 20:56

Has anyone read "The Other Hand" Chris Cleave? I'm not sure whether or not I liked it!

Another vote for A Thousand Splendid Suns and The Kite Runner. Brilliantly told, but harrowing tales.

About to read When will there be good news - Kate Atkinson, is it any good?

pointysayhiphip · 26/02/2010 20:51

A kid said to me the other day 'oh no, I don't remember that story you read us the other week' (that we spent hours doing many different activities on and that we had to write up a summary for).

I said, it's ok, I've typed up the main events for us. The relief on his face.

Original poster
foxinsocks · 26/02/2010 20:49

then not now ffs

can't even remember that

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Original poster
foxinsocks · 26/02/2010 20:47

I was like that as a child now. infuriated my teachers as I would take a book home, read it, but couldn't write anything about it!

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janeite · 26/02/2010 20:44

Chokes...Me? I barely know my own name, most of the time!

pointysayhiphip · 26/02/2010 20:43

oh janeite, don;t you say that. You always sound like you ar e memory queen and now you are as confused as the rest of us

janeite · 26/02/2010 20:40

Me too. Dp says it is because I read too quickly. I spent ages today trying to remember something that was set in maybe Portugal, maybe Spain, maybe somewhere else, involved a diary, was in translation and had a pretty cover. I have no idea what it was though!

pointysayhiphip · 26/02/2010 20:38

it is terrible, fox. I say 'oh this was a brilliant film/book, you must see it/read it ' and then I remember bugger all about it to convince them.

I am left with a feeling of its goodness, nothing else.

Original poster
foxinsocks · 26/02/2010 20:38

(ps thanks everyone!)

OP posts:
Original poster
foxinsocks · 26/02/2010 20:37

so am I, terrible. Have always been that way - think it's a live in the moment thing.

have ordered american wife in the mean time (like the look of that) and have about 20 on a wishlist from this thread. Some great ideas.

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pointysayhiphip · 26/02/2010 20:34

yes, maybe that was it. Some serious editing to just leave the good bits and get rid of the waffle. I am hopeless at remembering books. Hazy hazy.

janeite · 26/02/2010 20:28

It's in adult fiction. Not confusing but long and drawn out in places - other bits were magnificent. Overall though, I think it needed some serious editing.

pointysayhiphip · 26/02/2010 20:26

where's youe thread? It's been years n years since I read meany. From what I remember, some very good bits but confusing in between. Maybe I should re-read it.

chocolateshoes · 26/02/2010 20:19

Have just fin ished The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Bolsover. It is brilliant but long!Very goo & quite tragic!

janeite · 26/02/2010 20:11

Thanks CaptainNancy and Su. Looks good.

Now, who wants to talk to me about Owen Meany on my thread?

pointysayhiphip · 26/02/2010 20:03

tell me something either good and funny or good and tragic

FiveGoMadInDorset · 26/02/2010 19:56

The House on the Strand = Dapne Du Maurier

rotool · 26/02/2010 19:55

Try anything by Susan Lewis, I have burnt many a dinner whilst having one of her books on the go, you just can't put them down.

satc2bringiton · 26/02/2010 19:53

Im reading 'Today im Alice' at the moment, not a book I would choose (bookclub) but I can't put it down.

SuSylvester · 26/02/2010 19:49

it is VERY EVRY GOOD.

i got he berlin thing in waterstones

CaptainNancy · 26/02/2010 19:49

Voila! Janeite. They have changed to cover for the paperback, but that is on amazon too.

BadGardener · 26/02/2010 17:12

Wildwood by Roger Deakin, having just finished his Notes From Walnut Tree Farm.

I've got most of the way through William Hague's biography of William Wilberforce but I got as far as the bit where he manages to finally get the Atlantic slave trade banned and it all feels a bit anticlimactic after that.