Help - what can I read next please?

[BelligerentGhoul]

So, I've had quite a good run on books lately:

Rose Tremain's 'The Road Home' - I really liked this.

Margaret Atwood's 'Alias Grace' - I thought I'd read this before but actually I don't think I had. Enjoyed it hugely overall, although some of it annoyed me and the ending was a bit silly.

I have no idea what to read next though, or even what to start looking for. Any ideas please?

My favourite ever authors are Jane Austen and Stephen King. No chick lit and no Ian McEwan but other than that am fairly open-minded!

Oh and I re-read 'A Heartbreaking Work Of Staggering Genius' for the first time since reading it when it came out - fab!

I don't think I've ever read a book from Persephone that I didn't enjoy, I loved the Monica Dickens & the Richmal Compton.

Have you read any Dorothy Sayers? I really enjoyed the Wimsey/Harriet Vane books.

Do you like fantasy? William Horwood's Duncton Tales series are brilliant.

Or what about a classic romance like Gone With The Wind?

I couldn't get on with Gone With The Wind at all, even though I really, really tried to like it.

Fantasy - erm...will have a look at those but don't generally like modern fantasy.

Thanks for reminding me about Persephone - I love Miss Pettigrew Lives For A day so should deffo find something on there.

Have you tried Anita Shreve or Margaret Forster?

Never heard of Margaret Forster - will have a look, thanks.

Didn't like Anita Shreve.

Thank you both btw. :)

Keep 'em coming please!

Iain Banks? Whit or Complicity. Sue Gee? Niall Williams?

Tell me more please! What sort of books are they?

Vikram Seth - An Equal Music.

Michele Roberts - any.

Jane Smiley - Moo.

Barbara Kingsolver - Poisonwood Bible.

Books I read that when I get to the end I feel jealous of people that get to read it for the first time!

Big variety but I loved the road home and alias grace (but not he ending) so maybe we have similar taste! Margaret Attwood? Bit depressing but Oryx and Crake and After the Flood are incredible.

Thanks - I didn't like The Poisonwood Bible. Will google the others.

Have read (and didn't like much tbh) Oryx And Crake but not the follow up. I think she's a bit hiss and miss.

Maybe we don't have the same taste! I hope you find something inspiring in among that lot. Avoid Iain M Banks as they are impenetrable science fiction and not to everyone's taste... His contemporary novels are great and written as Iain Banks.

The Passage by Justin Cronin

You can read the first few pages on amazon. I loved it. It was a real page turner, had me staying up late each night. It is also 700 pages so lasted a while. More towards the Stephen King end of the spectrum

Whit is my favourite Iain Banks novel. It is so rare to find a heroine who is so proactive. It is a very funny book.

Mine too. Laughed out loud and cried too. But i am a book wuss. Always crying at novels. I once answered the door half way through reading Birdsong and my friend though someone had died

Will look out for Banks - think I might have read The Wasp Factory a v v long time ago but can't remember anything about it if I did .

I've been sorting my bookcase today - a couple of authors I'd forgotten about,may be worth a look - Mary Hocking and Edith Wharton. (I've got Good daughters and Ethan Frome - both v, good IIRC)

I think 'Jerusalem - The Biography' by Simon Sebag Montefiore looks interesting too.

there was a good piece in the Observer about neglected literary classics - will try and find

here

Have you read any Carol Shields?

Maggie O'Farrell?

Thanks for that link ROH, - I haven't read many of those authors, but I have read Barbara Comyns and would very much recommend her.

Read and didn't much like Carol Shields and Maggie O F, sorry.

Thanks for the neglected classics link - Orange. I haven't read any of them.

Anything by Kate Atkinson.
Johnathan Frantzen?
Middlesex?

just read villa triste - amazing.