To ask you to name a book you couldn't put down?

[pinklite]

I've started getting into reading again and now looking for book recommendations. I don't know if it's just me not enjoying reading as much as I used to, but some of the titles I've read/attempted to recently just don't seem to grab my attention and I struggle to get through them.

I'm currently reading People Like Her by Ellery Lloyd. It's ok, but a bit slow.

I prefer mysteries and thrillers.

Please give me some ideas!

I work in a library. I got asked today for some recommendations, so stated the kind of books I generally like to read. Customer informed me she did not like that kind of book, so I suggested a few more which she also vetoed, then got huffy when I said that reading books are a personal preference so it would be tricky to help her 🤣 So, what I'm trying to say is that the following are books I have enjoyed, but that does not guarantee that you will. I hope you do.

• American Dirt
• The Kite Runner
• A Thousand Splendid Suns
• The Beekeeper of Aleppo
• Where The Crawdads Sing
• The Tattooist of Auschwitz series
• The Reading List
• Hamnet
• Anything by Fredrik Backman
• Books by Liane Moriarty
• The Bridgerton books (to my surprise!)
• The Manningtree Witches

I did not enjoy

• Thursday Murder Club series
• Eleanor Oliphant

Currently struggling through

• Death of a Lesser God by Vaseem Khan

Just finished 'Hello Beautiful' and loved it, just like pp.
Hammer is also wonderful.
I thought I'd really like Tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow but found it boring and the characters annoying.

I do like Thursday Murder Club series. I disagree that they're badly written - I think he writes characters beautifully to the point where they come alive in your mind.

I'm just reading Welcome to the Hyunam-Dong Bookshop which is gentle and interesting.

Do not recommend these at all, they are so dreadful on so many levels.

I just read my first Stephen King book, Carrie, and although it wouldn't be written today, I enjoyed it and got through it in 2/3 days. It's a quickie.

Strange Sally Diamond
Anything by Jeanette Winterson
Midnight Library
Wuthering Heights
Anything by Jane Harper
Shardlake series
Anything by Erin Kelly
Anything by Jeffry Archer

Another one who was very disappointed with Thursday Murder Club. I really like Richard Osman and thought he would have written much better than he actually does.

Ah yes. I struggled with one of the Shetland books earlier this year; in fact I gave up. Badly written and well, boring to be honest. Glad you’re enjoying Morse. X

Good page turners recently for me were

Broken Harbour by Tana French
Strange Sally Diamond by Liz Nugent
Hunted by Abir Mukherjee

(As a pp said it’s all subjective - I also love the Richard Osman Thursday Murder Club books and imo think people can be a bit snobby about them - they’re more cosy crime than thriller)

Great thread

Day of the Jackal
The Godfather

Just finished seven husbands of Evelyn Hugo , really enjoyed it , great holiday read

Verity by Colleen Hoover.

I hadn’t read for a while and was struggling to get back into it.

Someone recommended it and I honestly couldn’t put it down!

The Thursday Murder Club books are the Midsomer Murders of literature. Cosy is exactly the word!

Any Lisa Jewell or Gillian McAllister books. All absolute page turners!

Cormoran Strike books by Robert Galbraith aka JK Rowling

Throne of Glass series by Sarah J Maas

Martina cole. The Ladykiller is a page turner. I loved this. Read most of hers but this one stands out.

Labarynth by Kate Mosse. It’s a brilliant read set in 2 time periods. It’s by far my most favourite book ever. I read on my kindle now but have kept my paperback copy of this one.

Barbara Abel, Mothers Instinct

Sally Morgan, My Place
Shirley Jackson, The Haunting of Hill House
Djuna Barnes, Nightwood

Also - Some Must Watch by Ethel Lina White. Like a fantastic game of Cluedo!

I love John Marrs books they are quite twisty. Harlon Corben books are all really good. Twisty but not overly graphic. I loved Lee Childs Jack reacher series

I’ve recently started I am Pilgrim and am finding it a bit hard to get into and I’m not finding it easy to follow what’s happening.
I take it I should persevere!

Seconding the suggestions of:
American Dirt
The Heart’s Invisible Furies
Strike series

I also recently enjoyed the Nightingale

I cannot get on with these at all!
H gave me them for Christmas. I have struggled to get halfway through Wolf Hall. Please tell me it is going to improve at some point. I don't want to give up on them, but oh god, it is tedious.

Antonia Hodgson was mentioned earlier. I recently reread A Devil in the Marshalsea and then read the 3 sequels. They're page turning thrillers which are set in the 18th century. She's brilliant at evoking time and place as well as being an excellent plotter.

I've just finished The Wonder by Emma Donoghue. Started one evening and finished it the next morning. Couldn't put it down.

It's very different - set post Crimea, an English nurse sent to a poor Irish village to watch over a young girl who is said to have survived for months without eating.

It's a slow start because it gives the reader lots of time to get to know the characters and to understand the culture.
I enjoyed that part anyway but would encourage anyone who likes faster paced books to persist because you get to a point where there's revelation after revelation and a lot of tension about how things can be resolved.

The Lisa Jewel books are so good for fun mysteries/ page turners. I’ve read 3 this summer- i really like The Night She Disappeared- not finished it yet

The Robots' Rebellion

Homecoming-Kate Morton