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.

I was thinking this exact thing earlier today...I have three half read books at my bedside. Just can't get into a book and miss it. I used to read every evening instead of watching tv/scrolling. Just don't have the focus/patience at the moment.

Agree with American Dirt, really enjoyed that book as well as the Seven Husbands. The Paper Palace good also.

Fever Dream by Samanta Schweblin. Don’t read anything about it. I picked it up at the library, thought I’d read the first three or four pages while having a cup of tea - and didn’t move until I’d finished it. It was literally unputdownable!

Don’t be put off by the speech style it’s written in. You very soon get into that and it becomes totally natural. It’s only a short book but utterly compelling, I found.

For an easy read but gripping thriller I recommend Box 88 and it's sequel. Judas 62 - written by an ex-spy. I've also just finished The Scapegoat by Daphne du Maurier. Recommended by someone here on MN. She's a brilliant writer, of course, and this one is set in France. Also just about anything by Rose Tremain. Restoration and its sequel. Merivel are my favourites. He is a very memorable character. Another is A Gentleman in Moscow by Amir Towles.
I loved all of these.

I've been in a similar rut and have just read The Offing by Ben Myers. I really enjoyed it, very lyrical but still easy to read, but the most remarkable thing is that it has made we want to write poetry. Out of nowhere!

How about reading something funny like The Girl Who Saved the King of Sweden?

I just finished All The Broken Places by John Boyne,I couldn’t put it down!

Its a sequel to The Boy in The Striped Pyjamas but you don’t have to have read that first (I haven’t).

Agree with all of these!!

I also like Ken follet and wwe.

😂😂😂😂

Joe Simpson. Touching the Void. Oddly life changing

Recently I’ve enjoyed Dear Mrs Bird by AJ Pearce, and Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus; they’re both books you can immerse yourself in

Yes! I was going to say Wrong Place, Wrong Time. Best book I've read in ages!

For something light but interesting you could try Kate Atkinson's Jackson Brodie books, they are really easy but entertaining reads to get you back into the swing.

I also second Still Life which I absolutely loved.

The Reading List by Sara Nisha Adams. My son recommended it to me after reading it himself, its an incredibly thought-provoking and moving book.

Books by Peter James, especially the Roy Grace series

The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah. This author also write The Four Winds and The Great Alone which I enjoyed too.

American Dirt by Jeanine Cumins

Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver

I read this recently and really enjoyed it too.

I’ve not read for a while and read the 3 dahlias by Katy Watson found it hard to put down. Easy going mystery. And be just finished Homecoming by Kate Morton. I couldn’t put it down.

Yes. Anything by Michelle Paver (her adult books - she also writes for young adults).

I am currently reading The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle, I wonder if one was inspired by the other?

I also struggle to engage in books nowadays but was a voracious reader back in the 80s/90s. The one above which I’m reading is the first book in a long time I’m able to engage in and read a bit everyday. Not sure I’d call it unputdownable as I’m not sure I can do that anymore with any book (my attention span has been shot to pieces since SM).

A pp has recommended The Scapegoat by Daphne du Maurier which was the first of her books I read and I'd recommend pretty much anything written by her. I've just started Jamaica Inn as my route back into reading. I think looking at and reading stuff on your phone kills reading books and I also studied for a professional qualification so was reading text books for hours on end for several years which meant I didn't want to do more reading on top of studying in the evening.

A year of Reading Dangerously, by Andy Miller. It’s a true account of someone who used to read a lot, and like so many of us are lost to our phones and shorter attention spans. It’s funny, entertaining, and his wife gives home the best advice-just commit to reading 50 pages a day; it’s a bit like taking up exercise. It’s the habit that matters more than the intent.

I second Robert Galbraith/ J.K. Rowling.
I’ve been having similar issues as you, OP, but the Strike novels are definitely gripping!

I absolutely loved "Fall At Your Knees" by Anne Marie MacDonald. It's very disturbing in places, though, but still, I found it gripping, to the end.

I read this 800 odd page book in 8 hours. It is so, so gripping I literally couldn't put it down.