read any good books lately?

[Candy]

Hi everyone!
I was wondering what you are currently reading or have read recently and enjoyed? Having just read several by Joanne Harris (Chocolat and Blackberry Wine) and two history books by Giles Milton (Nathaniel's Nutmeg and Big Chief Elizabeth) I'm stuck for what to read next. Any suggestions much appreciated!

I agree about the need for different types of books at different times. The author I used to read as chewing gun for the brain was 'Miss Read' She wrote (dunno whether she's still alive!) warm, fluffy books about village life in England, perfect for a rainy afternoon or when you have a cold.

I find I get fed up reading one sort of book and need to ring the changes. I usually vary books between fiction and non fiction. I like to have what I call 'picture books' to look at, too. I like doing needlecrafts (now you're finding out all my secrets!) so get books from the library related to that, such as quilting or canvas work, or I'll get an illustrated travel book, just so I can look at the pictures.

I have to admit, my brain refuses to cope now with certain books (I've got one by AL Kennedy just sitting around at the mo because I can't get into it) - this is probably the symptons of late pregnancy. Much of my reading at the moment consists of pregnancy magazines and baby books - Gina Ford combined with Penelope Leach for balance.

However I was in my prime (pre-pregnancy days) a keen bookworm, and I agree with many of the recommendations here - Matthew Kneale especially which both I and my partner liked (unusual!) Continuing on an Antipodean theme, and not yet mentioned, Peter Carey is good - Jack Maggs was excellent. I haven't read the latest, though it has just got a Booker Prize nomination. Also Michael Ondaatje's latest (if you have not yet managed to read the English Patient!), Anil's Ghost, is quite haunting and v. good. Jim Crace can be "challenging" - recommend Quarantine and Being Dead, the latest on food does sound a bit off the wall though.

For Harry Potter fans - have you tried Philip Pullman?

Florenceuk, I keep picking up the Philip Pullman books in the bookshop, and then putting them down in an indecisive manner - I would be grateful if you (or anyone else) could tell me if they're as good as Harry Potter, as I've seen/heard them being compared a few times. A couple of years ago I heard Philip Pullman on R4's "bookclub" talking about the first one, and it did sound interesting.
I'm also quite into "chicklit" at the moment - dh never comes home from Tesco without a book of this genre for me, which is great, as I wouldn't buy them myself, in fact I find it quite hard to justify buying books sometimes, when I know I can get them free from the library/borrow them from my sister (exactly the same taste as me). Having said that, I sometimes can't stop myself, which is why I try to ration the time I spend in bookshops.

Emsiewill, Philip Pullman is as good (if not better - dare I say it?) than J K Rowling. Previously I worked in the booktrade and a lot of people thought Pullman did not get the praise he deserved.

Writing of hype; I've just read Tony Parson's Man and Boy. What a load of rubbish! Am now reading Lorna Sage; brilliant!

Philip Pullman is a genius and Lyra Silvertongue kicks Harry Potter to the kerb! Honestly, "Northern Lights" is a superb book and if you're into Harry I think you'd really like it.
I want to read the Lorna Sage book too, Winnie.

My 14 yr old DD loves Phillip Pullman. As well as the Lyra Silvertongue books his older books about Sally Lockhart are great, she says. There are 4 and the series begins with Ruby in the Smoke. Definitely worth a look. But not quite as good as Harry though, not that I'm a Harry fan, either.

Winnie, I loved Bad Blood. What a brilliant book and what a shame she died young. She has a book of essays out posthumously and I really feel I want to read them. If she is as good on lit crit as she is on her own childhood, then it should practically read itself.
Emsiewill, I love Barbara Vine. In fact, I was reading The Chimney Sweeper's Boy right up until the minute I was wheeled off for my c-section. And when I came back, we had our first row as parents, as my husband had helped himself while I was in the recovery room and LOST MY PAGE. Right now I am reading The House of Stairs again.
Thank you for blowing the trumpet for your local public library. Us librarians aim to please.

Have just finnished (a rare achievement these days!) "Midwives" by Chris Bohjalian. I hardly ever read books by men - in fact it's hard to imagine this was written by a man! - and despite the title it's NOT a medical textbook!! Fantastic gripping read - although I'm not sure I'd reccommend it if you're pregnant with your first - or anticipating a caesarian or hoping for a home birth...does that rule out everyone. I had a home birth with my second and the book wouldn't put me off doing the same again! Without giving too much away - it's about a home birth midwife - set in America - they're rare apparently) and after years a birth goes wrong - told from the perspective of her 14 yr old daughter. I found it really gripping/touching...possibly not for the squeamish either...has anyone else read it?

Marina, I too really look forward to reading the postumously published Sage book.

Depending on my mood (and baring in mind that I only get a chance to read on the train) I love Tolkien, Jean Plaidy, Marianne Keyes & Katie Fford
oh yes and I have just finished a rather good edition of the Tweenies!

Diana Wynne Jones - for both her adult and children's books - is absolutely great. She's got an extraordinary imagination, writes beautifully, and is very funny. Her children's books have been republished in the wake of Harry Potter's success - she's been writing that kind of book for over thirty years, but all her books are different. The children''s books are really worth reading even if you are not a fan of kid's books (I am). Charmed Lives or Howl's Moving Castle are good ones to start on - and to read to kids of about 8+. They are less worthy than Philip Pullman, and a lot more thought provoking than Harry Potter. Don't be put off by the 'fantasy' label - she's been my find of the year, and I can't wait for the republication of her last 'old' book in November - except that then I'll just have to be content with what she publishes in future. For some reason it's much easier to find her children's books than her adult ones.

Copper, my sister (aged 26!) has long had a special bookshelf devoted entirely to Diana Wynne Jones which no one else in the family may access without her express permission! I too think DWJ is wonderful. My favourites are "Archer's Goon", "The Ogre Downstairs", "Charmed Life" and "The Lives of Christopher Chant".
I'm also a real sucker for girly kids authors like Noel Streatfield. I'm hoping that my boys will miraculously become interested in ballet and acting so I can read "Curtain Up" and "The Painted Garden" with them at a later date!

Pullman vs Rowling - well they are quite different books. Pullman is a more serious read, with a more challenging and different world view. Rowling's charm is that her world is very familiar, but with magic bits added in (plus I think us female bookworms like to identify with Hermione). My 7-yr old niece loves Harry Potter and Diana Wynne Jones, but found Pullman too hard to get into (and I definitely thought she was too young for them). If you liked (and this shows my age) Ursula Le Guin, Susan Cooper, Alan Garner, Tolkien, or even Stephen Donaldson, I think you would like Pullman's books as well.

Travel/lifestyle books - I didn't like the Drinkwater book (boring), but I did like Extra Virgin - set in Liguria (can't remember the author just at the moment). Tim Parks' books on life in Italy are also very good (better than his fiction!) I liked his comparison of UK and Italian child rearing methods - discipline vs total indulgence.

And on a different vein - cooking/autobio books (recipes plus life musings) - Ruth Reichl "Tender to the Bone", MFK Fisher, Laurie Colwin, and Jeffrey Steingarten (why are these all American - there must be some UK equivalents - other than Elizabeth David??).

Sorry Winnie I loved Man & Boy.

I also found Spit the Dummy by Danny Katz absolutely hilarious. It's a baby rearing book but completely irreverent(sp?). For example he describes getting a nappy on a kicking toddler as professional baby wrestling which if you think about it is absolutely spot on. Even my partner found it great and he hates parenting books with a vengeance. I thoroughly recommend this book but it's not easily available. I only found a single copy by chance in the parenting section in Borders but haven't seen it there since. You can get it from Amazon though.

Extra Virgin by Annie Hawes was very enjoyable in a 'I'd love to do this but know I never will' kind of way!!

I am also a sucker for Kathy Reichs'/Patricia Cornwell books - although I am getting slightly bored with Kay Scarpetta (gasp...heresy!)

I really enjoyed the other Patricia Cornwell books (second of which is called Southern Cross but can't remember the other) as a change from Scarpetta. I also like Kathy Reichs but the blurb about book 4 sounds awfully like a mix of the last 2 Scarpettas - I wish she would try not to be so much of a rival. I finished The Handmaid's Tale (Margaret Atwood) over the weekend which was a bit freaky in the light of all that has happened in the last couple of weeks - fingers crossed that it's not too prophetic! Not sure what to read next. Kitchen Confidential sounds like a good read - anyone know? Frank Lean is quite good - more detective stuff but based in Manchester.

PS I am another avid library goer - I couldn't afford my reading habit otherwise!

Sorry, really do not have time to sift through entire chain (is that the correct techno term?) so if these have already been recommended please forgive.

Best female detective around still has to be VI Warshawski. Written by Sara Paretsky last year's Hard Time put her back at the top of the list.

But for a damn fine laugh, and we all need one of those, the Janet Evanovitch Stephanie Plum novels are brilliant.

I am finding both Scarpetta and Lucy increasingly annoying, although have theory that Lucy is now involved in the dark side. How did Scarpetta really escape death at the end of the last one?!?

Jonathan Coe What a Carve Up and House of Sleep both brilliant. Am waiting for The Rotters Club to either come out in paperback or be in local library.

And as Ian McEwan has to be the greatest living british writer am planning to splash out on his latest in hardback for forthcoming holiday.

you bet!

I had forgotten about Sara Paretsky. Try also Michael Collins, Ian Rankin and Quintine Jardine. The last two both set their books in Edinburgh which just reminds me of home .... but with a side I don't want to become acquainted with!

A slightly offbeat Scottish thriller writer is Paul Johnstone who sets his stories in a not-too-far-in-the-future Edinburgh. V good, funny, satirical etc. There about four of them (hero is a Quintillian Dalrymple) I think one is called The Blood Tree not sure of the others.

Tried Ian Rankin and couldn't get into it. Is there a best one to start with if I were to try again?

I think that the first one is called Knots & Crosses - I guess in terms of following additional storylines re family & promotions and stuff it's best to start with the first although they could be fairly stand alone.

On the not detective story front another really good writer is Isla Dewar - somehow she gets it just right in her little observations of life as a woman. She has written four books and is thankfully still alive and writing - I can't wait for her next one. They are all stand alone; I think Keeping Up With Magda is my favourite but have enjoyed them all.

I had to add to this discussion, as I've just finished Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver - what a wonderful book. After being very disappointed with Chocolat and White Teeth, it's like a breath of fresh air to find something I like.
Last year I read all books by Daphne Du Maurier - I can't believe I hadn't read them earlier. I loved Rececca and Jamaica Inn particularly.

I also love Gabriela Garcia Marquez - 100 Hundred Years of Solitude is one of my favourite books.

Sorry, haven't gone through all this but if anyone hasn't yet mentioned 'The Best a Man Can Get' by Tim (or maybe Jim!) O'Farrell, then I'd STRONGLY recommend this.
I miss reading terribly but my partner was actually bought this book by his sister who insisted he read it (he rarely reads) and he so enjoyed it he said I'd love it. So I made myself sit down and read it - what a laugh. It's (very)basically about a couple with kids and I couldn't believe how many of the silly rows that the author mentioned that I'd actually had with my partner too!
If you have kids, you'll LOVE it. Haven't laughed out loud like that for ages. GET IT!

Oohhh, just flicked quickly down and came across someone who mentioned Armistead Mauphin's books, 'Tales from the City' and so on. I defy anyone to read the first of this series of books and not be hooked. I loved all of them (I think there's about 6 in the series) and seriously still dream about visiting San Francisco (where the books are based) and finding the haunts of the books.
Absolutely one of my favourites.

I'm sure she's been mentioned but I just love Anne Tyler - quirky, intelligent and warm. Best thing, all her books are currently in the 3 for £15.00 deal at Waterstones.