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

the night watch-Sarah Waters
we need to talk about Kevin-jodi picoult
I'm a big fan of audiobooks-easier to multitask

sorry-we need to talk about kevin is Lionel Shriver- I think I was trying to add my sister's keeper which is by picoult

I agree with Memoirs of a Geisha - I read that under my desk at work!!

Anything by Robert Harris is a good holiday read. Really enjoyed Archangel and Fatherland. Have just read Ghost which was good to.

Time Traveller's Wife made me want to hit people - probably one of the most irritating books I have ever read.

Remains of the Day and Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro.

Anything by Christina Lamb - factual rather than fiction but very well written - Sewing Circle of Herat and The Africa House.

Yes to The Historian, Half Of A Yellow Sun, The Moonstone and Dracula.

The American Boy by Andrew Taylor.

Try the 'Mistress Of the Art Of Death' books too - not as good as Shardlake but not bad.

Oh and Frank Tallis' Vienna ones - the first one is the best and they are getting progressively formulaic but better than a lot of the rubbish out there.

Conan Doyle?

This Thing Of Darkness - I can't remember the writer but it is absolutely brilliant. It's based on Darwin's early voyage to Tierra del Fuego and is really meticulously researched but v human and readable too.

Henry James Turn of the screw.

Fingersmith,...brilliantly written and a point in it which blows your mins so much you have to go back and re-read the page you have just read, as you cannot quite believe that what happened has happened.
If you have read it you know exactly the bit I mean!

Silas Marner by George Eliot is beautifuly and brilliantly written, its a great story and it is quite short.

To Kill a Mockingbird... a perfect book

The Woman In White.... a near perfect book

David Copperfield... another perfect book

Great Expectations - perfect

Fingersmith - great read, clever clever clever

The little house by Phillipa Gregory (ive read that at least 10 times)

Several of Jodi Picoults books -19 minutes was my absolute fave.

Did Jodi write 'we need to talk about Kevin'??

Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel.

Sooooooooo good! Honestly, I insist you read it

About Thomas Cromwell, Cardinal Wolsey and Henry VIII. Really vivid, brilliantly written.

nickschick - no, ...Kevin was Lionel Shriver.

pd james dalgleish thrillers
the women's room - marilyn french
anything by jackie kay - prose but really its poetry
margaret forster
irving walsh - bit shocking but compelling
war and peace, tolstoy - though end up neglecting dc's for far too long, it's a massive long novel!
half of a yellow sun - amazing
kazuo ishiguro

oh Wolf Hall me too! Loved it!
Can't wait for sequel!
I know what happens but who cares?

I read Wolf Hall on my last holiday and couldnt put it down. I think you do need a good chunk of time for it, it wouldn't lend itself to dribs and drabs reading

Daphne du Maurier and Wilkie Collins are good page turners. I second Fingersmith too if you haven't read it, it's brilliant

Am I the only person in the world who thought that 'Fingersmith' was rubbish?

The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini

It has spoilt all other books for me so far.

flowers in the attic

i couldnt put it down once i had started, heartbreaking stuff

I have just read Thousand Autumns of J de Zoet and loved it so much even my children (who usually ignore me) were asking why I had my head buried in the book

I've just finished 'Havoc in the 3ed year' - wonderful, didn't do anything else today, couldn't tear myself away.

Anything by Sophie Hannah, any of Susan Hill's 'Simon Serralier' crime books, Ruth Rendall writing as Barbara Vine..

Three books I couldn't put down:

The Beach by Alex Garland. Got it for my sixteenth birthday and stayed up ALL night til I was finished.

The Secret History by Donna Tartt. I read it on holiday when friends came to stay. I felt irrationally irked with them whenever they spoke and distracted me from reading.

And....Stephen King's latest, Under the Dome. I totally lost five days with that one, and ate only food I could manage with one hand, so I was free to tuen pages. And that one's just come out in paperback, so is pefect holiday reading!

I am one who thought Fingersmith was rubbish, also Poisonwood Bible.
And A widow for OneYear. I keep seeing them recommended on here and I shake my head.

Thank goodness, Wukter. I sometimes wonder if my brain is wired differently to everybody else's on the planet. I thought 'Fingersmith' was dreadful and couldn't even finish the 'Poisonwood Bible' because I thought it was so badly written.

'The Help' by Katheryn Stockett - read it on holiday in about three days - ignored DCs and DH completely!

Daphne du Maurier: Castle D'Or, The Loving Spirit and the Flight of the Falcon. I find her books strangely intoxicating and really hard to put down. Nancy Mitford's The Pursuit of Love also fantastic.

Another vote for the Shardlake series, Philippa Gregory, Wolf Hall and Alison Weir's The Lady Elizabeth.

Recently enjoyed Lindsay Davis' recent offering in the Falco series 'Nemesis'.