You know when you finish a book...

[RosieLemonade]

And you just miss it because it was so good. And you just want to talk about it but no one wants to talk to you about it.
Which books have been like that for you?

I’ve just re-read Wolf Hall and Bring Up The Bodies, as I’ve hinted the final book in the trilogy would be a welcome Christmas present.

I’m normally a very fast reader but I found myself deliberately slowing down to savour them.

I would turn to my partner to try to talk about them but he seems convinced they’re some kind of Tudor bodice ripper/historical romance mash-up.

@RosieLemonade that's so weird, I read Silence of the Girls first THEN Song of Achilles and felt the same as you but that I missed the Achilles and Patroclus in Silence! Both brilliant, brilliant books though.

I know this is often mentioned on here but I think for good reason. Eleanor oliphant is completely fine.
I felt like I'd lost a friend when I finished that and couldn't get into another book for ages. I did also love where the crawdads sing and the giver of stars.. but the EOICF stayed with me even longer and just really got me.

Lincoln in the Bardo for me. I was bereft when it ended.

A little life by Hanya Yanigahara. I know some people don’t like it but I wept.

Judging by this thread I really must read where the Crawdads sing!

Oh yes and The Mirror and the Light - I read the last page so slowly, then re-read it, then cried.

The Kite Runner
A little life I felt bereft after reading but it is totally heartbreaking the whole way through

Anything by Douglas Kennedy

@lemonsaretheonlyfruit

I know this is often mentioned on here but I think for good reason. Eleanor oliphant is completely fine. I felt like I'd lost a friend when I finished that and couldn't get into another book for ages. I did also love where the crawdads sing and the giver of stars.. but the EOICF stayed with me even longer and just really got me.

I was just about to post Eleanor Oliphant - I sobbed when I finished that book, simply because it was over. Also adding another vote for where the crawdad's sing. That was a fully realised world. And Circe.

@Gohackyourself

I’ve just finished Jojo moyes “ the giver of stars” Recommended to me when I perusing the book shelves in Tesco , by a lady who runs a book club!! Took a good 2 chapters to get into but loved it. Finished it yesterday and don’t want to read anything different to the storyline I was so involved in.

Me too! I read it in November and have struggled to read anything else since.

The beekeeper of Aleppo, I just couldn’t get it out of my head for days.

Watching with interest, have really lost my love of reading over the last 2 years and looking for inspiration.

OP I loved silence of the girls.

Maybe have a bit of a break between son of Achilles before reading it? But something else from the retelling genre in between? Only it would be a shame for you to not have a clear view of Silence, which I think is genuinely very good.

So, perhaps one of the Shakespeare retellings. There are loads of them, in all sorts of styles and from all sorts of angles. The Winterson is the strongest out of the ones I've read but there's a lot of big names on that list - Chevalier, McEwan etc.

@allycat4 yes totally agree. Douglas kennedy books make me cry and yearn and get turned inside out with all the emotion!

Apart from Woman in the fifth. Hated that one

I'm in a book club and we managed to meet over Zoom. The last book we read was Circe but some of the group hated it! I loved it and have Song of Achilles on my kindle, can't wait to read it, she's such an incredible writer.

Another vote for Lincoln In The Bardo. It's one of the few books I've read and re-read.

@actiongirl1978

Funny. I was about to say.. yes I also love his books as a rule but what on earth was he thinking with that one?!!

F

Not just books for me, I’m like that with movies and tv shows, it always seems no one watches the same stuff 😩 my mum watches some of the same stuff as me but the ones I absolultley love no one I know seems to watch it 😩

I hated The Woman in the Fifth too. I always feel a bit sad when I finish a John Connolly Charlie Parker book. I'm very invested in the series. Looking forward to getting The Dirty South for Christmas.

The Light Between Oceans -ML Steadman
Of Sand and Ash - Amy Harmon

A River Runs Through It. I also liked the series of fantasy books by Guy Gavriel Kaye although he kills someone off he shouldn't; that was heartbreaking. I always liked the Holden Caulfield idea that a good book was one that made you want to meet and talk to the author.

Another who absolutely loved ‘the giver of stars’ not been able to get into another book since. Have Crawdads on my Christmas list though, so have high hopes of that.

I loved the latest Robert Galbraith book. Didn't want it to end!

@actiongirl1978 and @allycat4, couldn’t agree more about Douglas Kennedy and The Woman in the Fifth.