Need recs please - sorry!

I mentioned this on the thread about This Thing of Darkness - Mutiny on the Bounty by JOhn Boyne (Boy in the striped pyjamas). Brilliant book mixing fact with fiction. I was gripped from the first page.

If you like explorer type stuff - Nathaniel Philbrick's In the heart of the sea is a true story about a whaling expedition in C19th America which was apparently the inspiration for Moby Dick, and kept me up half the night reading it.

And I see you said that you liked CJ Sansom upthread. Try 'Martyr' by Rory Clements, or The Red Velvet Turnshoe by Cassandra Clark (the first book in the series - Hangman Blind - is out of print but the library might have it.)

Do you know/like J L Carr, Janeite? "What Hetty Did" made me think of it (since the heroine's main inspiration is her English teacher ), but if you haven't read any of his books, "A Day in Summer" is particularly good.

You will have to let us know if you try any of the books from this thread & if so, what you think of them . . .

One of my recent Bookbag review books was The Magnetic North by Sara Wheeler. It's as much about the people there and a history of polar travel (including some dead and cold explorers) as a story of Wheeler's own travels (some of them with a son in tow, including one expedition with a baby). I loved it.

haven't read six suspects yet but it came highly rec'd (by vikas swarup, the slumdog man)

they're old now but have you read rannulph fiennes book about his polar travels and ffiona campbells book of her walk around the world....both obsessive and not very likeable characters but interesting books

Have you found anything worthwhile readng at the moment?

Do look at The Bookbag website - try reviews by Magda Healey, Louise Lawrie, Lesley Mason, Robert somebody, Jill Murphy (no she's not the author of kids' books though she does review mostly kids' and YA stuff, but she reads proper literary fiction too).

picked up Recollections of a Racketeer yesterday at the library and have had some great laugh out loud moments. Am very much into non fiction ATM

No, I think being opinionated about books is great, I'm sorry if that sounded insulting. I love reading critical reviews of books if they're done properly.

I've just read back on this thread and you're not into sci fi, but you do like fantasy.

I don't read that much fantasy but my bro and dh both do. They both recommend Glen Cook's Chronicles of the Black Company. Haven't read it myself yet though.

I've just finished Robert Graves' Antigua Penny Puce, which was hilarious, about warring bro and sis fighting over a very rare stamp in which neither really has any interest, other than to ensure the other doesn't get it.

I've also just finished No Present Like Time by Steph Swainson, which was quite good. It's the second in a series but I got it in a charity shop and haven't seen the first. I'd probably read the first if I came across it.

How do like real literature? I mean, Balzac for instance?

Oh and Margerite Yourcenar, Memoirs of Hadrian. Someone on here recommended this to me. It is delicious, like drinking cream. Packed full of facts but written so beautifully that they just slip down without you noticing. Half an hour disappeared in the bookshop while I was 'just seeing if I liked it'!

Jasper Fforde?

How are you on sci fi?

Oh Janeite, I thought I was the only person in the world who thought the Quincunx was a waste of time!

Have you tried any Robertson Davies or Timothy Findlay? Or Elliot Perlman?

Now Janeite - I always look up to you and your book choices but I must defend Aggie. I love Poirot. He's so ridiculous you can't help laughing.

If Amazon doesn't work for recs, you could try Gnooks - you type in the name of a writer, & it shows other writers that people who read your original suggestion also like.
It works best with authors who are not too obscure but also not too popular, I find, but it is quite interesting. Mrs Gaskell, for example, gave me authors varying from Christopher Brookmyer to Louisa May Alcott (both of whom I also like . . .)

Have you read the Vitner's luck and The Quincunx?

Both were recent favourites.

Go into the recommendations bit of your amazon account, then click all the HP and S King stuff where it says "do not use for recommendations".

thanks Kariba...i've only read a few of the lyndsey davies ones....i find them good beach reading....i can rec this i think it is part of a series but have only read this one

pollywollydoodle im always going through a roman phase i love the era, i enjoyed Lindsay Davis but i finished with Saturnalia so have to get the other one, I enjoy Robert Harris too read Pompeii twice. There is a series called Emporer by Conn Iggulden and its got four books in it thats really good i enjoyed that. There is another series written by Steven Saylor with the main character a bit like Falco working as an informer/investigator but i only read the first book in the series not as enjoyable as the Falco ones,i kept comparing him to falco and he didnt have that special falco humour/sarcasm so i gave up do you have any recommendations?