What book was so good you couldn't out it down you burned the dinner and let the kids run wild and chaos reign about you?

[TheMoonOnAStick]

I want something that good to read on holiday you see!

I don't care much for chick lit and can't bear Freya North, but other than that don't much mind. Quite like historical but doesn't have to be.

The last books I felt that gripped by were the Shardlake series, so something absorbing and of doorstop dimensions on that level without being too impenetrable would be good

Half of a Yellow Sun
by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

at the end of it at 3 am I cried and thought I would never be able to read such a good book in mylife again

I have just read The Milennium Trilogy (Steigg Larsson) in a week. I have done hardly any housework and I have a washing pile like a mountain. Highy recommend!

Might not be your cup of tea, but when I read Hannibal by Thomas Harris (many years ago) I was reading it on the train to work. I had about 10 pages to go when the train got to my stop and I just couldn't put it down so I walked the half mile to my office still reading it so I could finish it before I got to work.

Soth Riding by Winifred Holtby. It's a wonder my children were fed that week.

South Riding.

I have just read "The Passage" by Justin Cronin

It had that effect on me

I dunno if it is a holiday book though...it is likely to exceed your luggage allowance !

i'm reading Brick Lane, Monica Ali & its easily distracting me from my two dd's!

I loved Brick Lane too

I loved Shardlake too. Just finished The Children's Book, bit of a saga that one.
Just bought Philippa Gregory - The White Queen and Her Fearful Symmetry - Audrey Niffenegger cos i loved Time Traveler's Wife. Not read them yet though.

Agree with princessboo - brilliant books.

Books that have made me a neglectful mother:
Shardlake series
Millennium Trilogy
Wolf Hall
A Suitable Boy
Philippa Gregory's Tudor and Wideacre books (I've saved the White Queen for our forthcoming holiday)
Anything by Marian Keyes and Penny Vincenzi
The Little Stranger, Bram Stoker's Dracula and The Woman in Black (pant-wettingly scary)
The Children's Book & Possession
Atonement
The Moonstone, Armadale, No Name and The Woman in White

House of Sand and Fog

The Angel's Game (nice and thick- wonderfully well written but also a page turner).

A Fine Balance

Dracula/Historical fans try The Historian, took me two goes but seriously worth it in the end.

Ooh you are all fantastic! (Sorry not to have been back sooner - pc keeps crashing) Thanks so much everyone. Some great suggestions here!

We Need to Talk About Kevin.

Not exactly cheery, but I kept slinking off to read it at any opportunity.

If you haven't already read it, I always think of 'Catcher in the Rye' as the ultimate read-in-one-hit book.

Loved Marian Keyes too ttalloo Assumed her books would be superficial and trite due to girly covers... But found them absorbing, touching and quite profound in places - particularly 'Rachel's Holiday' which actually inspired me to train as a psychotherapist!

Forgetting Zoe by Ray Robinson recently had a negative impact on my revision!

Oh, another vote for Atonement too! And Enduring Love.

Portrait of a Marriage by Hugh Nicholson (I think). The lives of Vita Sackville West and her husband, written by their son. Caused a bit of an uproar in the 1970's when it was published.

Not too heavy but riveting.

Snow Flower and the Secret Fan -Lisa See ( wanted to buy one for my best girlfriends)

The Tent the Bucket and me-- Emma Kennedy funny

Kinflicks-Lisa Alther
Women's Room-Marilyn French

by Nigel Nicholson, not Hugh Nicholson!!

Also - one of my fave books of all time is 'The Red tent' by Anita Diamant.

Not too daunting size wise, and very engaging.

Fingersmith by Sarah Walters (don't let anyone tell you the plot) or The Crossing by Cormac McCarthy. Any Norah Lofts for good historical fiction, if you can get hold of it.

Ooo, Fingersmith was a good hliday read, yes!

The History of Love
The End of Mr Y
Natural Flights of the Human Mind

All unputdownable!