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

I agree with Half of a Yellow Sun - set in 1960s Nigeria and Biafra. My children were thoroughly neglected.

One of the more unusual holidays I had when I ended up in the Seychelles on my own but fortunately with a half a suitcase of of excellent books. The ones I found particularly gripping, poignant and unputdownable for different reasons were:

Seven Types of Ambiguity by Perelman

Any Human Heart by W.Boyd

Betty Blue by Philippe Djian

The Pursuit of Happiness - Douglas Kennedy amazing amazing...love him generally but this is by FAR the best, have read it more than once...

The Bronze Horseman - Paullina Simons plus the 2 sequels to it - Tatiana and Alexander, & The Summer Garden...the type of books you worry about finishing because you won't know what the hell you'll read next -yet hardly anyone I know has read them (except my friends/family I have given them to)

Also her latest Songs in the Daylight was terrific

Ghosts at the Feast - Chris Bojalian, plus most of his other books (loads more)

Sarah's Key- Tatiana de Rosnay, my MIL is currently weeping her way through it

also love Maeve Binchy

currently loving Susan Hill Serrailer series

can't go wrong with Stephen King (well,you can, but the majority of his early stuff is fantastic, and Under the Dome seems to be a return to form)

Is there anything better than a book that makes you neglect real life? (and the dcs!)

The Twilight Saga .

Recentley - The Ice Cream Girls by Dorothy Koomson - read in one day.

The Secrets She Left Behind - Diane Chamberain - took 3 nights as I had to keep turning out the light at 2am as I have been a zombie at work because I just wanted to read and read and read the story - amazing 2 books.

If you like anything that makes you desperate to get to the end to discover the whole truth - highly recommended.

Now what's next !

kate daniels series- all four books great paranormal fiction books and couldn't put them down!

i can truly recommend half of a yellow sun by chimamanda ngozi adiechi. ( i skipped work to read it !)

i thought a thousand splendid suns was shit.

Brother of the More Famous Jack - Barbara Trapido (actually, anything by Barbara Trapido)

Someone earlier mentioned Lisa Alther - I like her later books, Other Women, Bedrock.

Susan Hill's The magic Apple Tree - one of the best countryside books ever (imvho!)

Flora Thompson - Lark Rise, Over to Candleford, Candleford Green - nothing like the TV series. A lovely look at late Victorian rural life.

Winifred Holtby - A Child in the Forest, about the Forest of Dean in the 20's.

Won't get a Booker nomination BUT

Sophie Hannah- The Other Half Lives.

Basically, a thriller type plot but very well written (think she hit her peak with this one because I read "Little Face" as well and it was rubbish by comparison).

Behind the Scenes at the Museum by Kate Atkinson had me gripped. So clever and absorbing.

All of the books by C.J. Sansom

Alone in Berlin by Hans Fallada - oh my, this is a page turning, terrifying book set in WWII.

Fingersmith is one of the worst books ever written. How on earth did she get away with writing the same story twice? Appalling.

L Shaped Room by Lynne Reid Banks, and the others in the trilogy - show how difficult it was to be an unmarried mother in the 50's and 60's.

Muriel Spark? A Far Cry from Kensington and The Girls of Slender Means. Barbara Comyns?

Daphne Du Maurier, Stella Gibbons, katherine Mansfield.

Bang goes the housework today - off to rifle the bookcases.

"How on earth did she get away with writing the same story twice? Appalling."

Jodie Picault's written the same book about 12 times

A Fraction of the Whole - Steve Tolz.

Excellent book, bought it on a wim when I was browsing Waterstones, fantastic book couldn't put it down for days. So underrated!

Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts was BRILLIANT!

Again like CJ Sansom and Philippa Gregory books.

I've just finished Sisters, the new one in Richard & Judy's new book club, it was really good.

There are some great recommendations on here.

Everything I have read by Rachel Cusk

I made myself finish a Thousand Splendid Suns - very depressing

The forgotten garden by Kate Morton

The thirteenth tale by Dianne Setterfield is the last book I read. We were inseperable for a few days. From the cover picture it looked like something my mum might read but don't be put off!