Please recommend a gripping, unputdownable book to get me back into reading!

[TheFreaksShallInheritTheEarth]

I used to be a voracious reader; for my whole life until bout 4/5 years ago when my concentration and ability to focus seem to have gone AWOL -probably as a menopause thing - and I've not read a book for an embarassingly long time.

Please recommend books that you couldn't tear yourself away from! I'm hoping that some gripping books will keep me hooked and re-establish my reading habit.

TIA.

Depends what you like.
I read A Secret History by Donna Tartt and loved it.
David Sedaris Me Talk Pretty One Day had my laughing out loud- you just read in his voice though!

Grief is a thing with feathers by Max Porter is gorgeous and melancholic and thoughtful.

On Earth we’re Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong is divine.

The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid is gripping.

Also started the James Blunt book recently and it’s v funny.

Have a Google and hopefully one speaks to you!

Seconded. I read that in very few sittings and stayed up far too late to do so. Same with Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow.

Second Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow!

Alive

For books which aren’t too heavy but gripping and a twist or two try
The Housemaid (cheap in The works at the mo too!
Magpie
Rock Paper scissors
For a more gentle read but still engrossing have you read Eleanor Oliphant is completely fine? I can happily reread that, she’s a great character

Salmon fishing in the Yemen is my favourite book of recent years

I love the Thursday murder club series by Richard Osman.
I enjoyed Vox by Christina Dalcher - not quite the Handmaid’s Tale rip off it looks like at first sight.
Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus is very good, too.

Yes it is a mighty tome lol! But I read it in 3 days on holiday so if you've nothing else to do OP, don't be put off!

I recommend American Dirt by Jeanine Cumins, it had me from Page One.

I read Hamnet within a week after not having read an adult book to myself since having children (now teens).

I second American Dirt, by Jeanine Cummins

I found City of Brass by S.A Chakraborty a catching but easy read- it's the first book in a trilogy
Remarkable Creatures by Tracy Chevalier is another one I really enjoyed.

When I was in a similar non-reading rut I read Donna Tartt's The Secret History and it worked really well! I also quite often read or re-read an Agatha Christie when I want to read but can't quite find the brain space.

Ditto to Dark Matter - I couldn't put it down, I had to get to the end!

That was the book I read before Demon - we obviously have the same taste in books!

Definitely Robert Galbraith

Have you had your eyes tested? I found I needed a new prescription which got me back into reading.

Yet another vote for American Dirt.

Agree American dirt.

And I think for me, it's one I will recommend forever to someone in a rut.

I get like this when I have months of reading free books, then find a thread like this and get a few and off I go again.

pasinphoebe · Today 21:07

who is the author of the housemaid please.

I hit a similar slump last year, nothing held my interest but I found books that had extra bits like case files, texts, emails, diary sections

I find this style really involving yet constantly changing so it peeks my interest and got me out of the slump!

Check out

Murder in the family - Cara Hunter
The Appeal -Janice Hallett
The Appleton angels -Janice Hallett
The Ugly Truth - L C North

Also I recently discovered the author Lucinda Berry absolutely brilliant crime/thriller/psychological reads all 5 stars for me!

Her book Saving Noah absolutely wrecked me! Be warned!

I do think the peri menopause does affect your concentration. I have had similar struggles.

Another vote for Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, Eleanor Oliphant is completely fine and The Nightingale by Kristen Hannah.

Fredia McFadden she wrote the housemaid and the house maid returns both brilliant the 3rd in the series is released soon

Her other books are really good too!

No one saw a thing - Andrea Mara.

No one saw it happen.
Your two little girls jump on the train ahead of you. As you try to join them, the doors slide shut and the train moves away, leaving you behind.

Everyone is lying.
It's only when you reach the next stop that you truly begin to panic. Because there aren't two children waiting for you on the platform. There's only one.

Someone is to blame.
Has your other daughter got lost? Been taken by a passing stranger? Or perhaps the culprit is closer to home than you think?

I studied English Lit at Uni and after being forced to read so many books, analysing them and then writing essays, I lost the joy of reading for a few years.

I’m slowing getting back into it and, depending on your tastes, I’ve loved:

Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow
I am Pilgrim (don’t bother with Year of the Locust unless you want to have several “huh?” moments)
A Little Life

Any of Phillipa Gregory’s books.
Any of Barbara Erskine’s books.
The Seven Sisters series by Lucinda Riley.

Reasonably well written and all give you something to choose immediately after if you like them! Keeps you going.

Some of the recommended reads here are seriously hefty - for something that is great and easy to read I recommend Daisy Jones and the Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid. When you have read it, you can then go and watch it!