I am desperate and need you all to help me please!

[ColonelBrandonsBiggestGroupie]

I have got one and a half history books left and then I am, once again, bookless. I have been to three different libraries in the last ten days and have failed to find even a single book that I fancied or hadn't read before.

I have some Nectar points to spend, so I could have a bit of an Amazon splurge - but what shall I get?

1. Favourite writers are Jane Austen and Stephen King
2. I like v well written fantasy (ie Tolkein) or v well written historical who-dunnit stuff (eg Doyle or Sansom) or quirky history books
3. I am a snob and get very twitchy about shoddy writing but can't stand overly self conscious crap (step forward Ian McEwan)
4. I am very, very fussy
5. I read very, very quickly so the bigger the book, the better

Please help!

Yes to the King/Straub collaborations - v good indeed and almost seemless on the way they move from one writer to another, although Straub on his own is absolutely rubbish imho.

Absolutely HATED "Never Let Me Go' to the point that I wished that they would all just hurry up and die. I found the characters really irritating and his style bores me, although I know that lots and lots of people on here love him. Will google your others - thanks.

Harder - I haven't totally discounted it yet! Maybe if I saw it as a teen novel, I'd expect a bit less? I do read a lot of teen fiction.

Tried and hated 'We need to witter on about Kevin.'

Oh poo, my next book is a Straub (my first of just him).

Patrick Ness's review of Darkmans, if you haven't already read Darkmans

have you tried
lee Child awesome jack reacher character
Alafair Burke and her father james Lee Burke

presume youve read all Dean koontz?
Ive just re-read Dolores Claibourne
my fave stephen king's are Gerald's Game and the girl who loved tom gordon. worst are Cell and Lisey's tale boring.

Have read quite a lot of Dean Koontz's but he gets very samey and is a bit too much of a preacher for my liking. I can cope with him in small doses, when desperate.

have you read Shirley jackson The Haunting
easy reads - Jodi Picoult.

I just finished a good one about 3 victorian age women settling in india - was marvellous, unhelpfully I can't recall author/title though...cover was turquoise lake scene I think

agree- dean koontz

have you read The House That jack built like a stephen king, with gruesomeness of Koontz

I liked the one about the blind boy (From the corner of his eye?) and the one about a girl who was an alien (title= something to do with heaven).

did you read the millennium trio? what did you think to those?

have you tried the Snowman? i couldnt get into that at all

Have read the Shirley J and didn't like it much - horribly cliched, although King loves it.

oooooh try Michael ....something or other...
Blindsight
Grace

all of his are brilliant
love all the Michaels - MichAEL Connolley
Michael Crichton

Read The Snowman - thought it was shite.

Gave up on the millennium trio for being crap and reading like they were written like a trainspotter.

I don't like and will not contemplate anything that looks as if it might be sold at a small stall on a train station - so no to Crichton etc. Sorry, I did say that I was a snob! Thank you so much for all of these though - even if I dismiss some, I will look at others.

And nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo to Jodie P - would rather eat my own snot - and hers too.

avoid Richard Laymon then!!

oops - blindsight was robin cook , to be fair he is a bit shite

Airframe by Crichton is actually vvv good, tense

my favourite novel is a russian spy novel, Ive re-read it about 4 times over the years, it's quite long,
will go and dig it out, as cannot remember it either.., it inspired me to teach myself russian for a while

Nope - sorry but I absolutely won't go there! You will never convince me. :)

Drood by Dan Simmons (dark, quirky, historical, and very long book)
Ilium by Dan Simmons (fantasy and mythological)

He is a very good author who writes in starkly different styles.

Harder to Kidnap - I think you were thinking of The Observations by Jane Harris - a good read

Have read 'Drood' and my complaints about it are somewhere down the thread! I thought it showed promise and was clearly well-researched but it just got more and more stupid as it progressed. Thanks though.

China Mieville? I've only read Perdido Street Station but enjoyed it despite some wildly flailing prose.

Diana Gabaldon - if no-one has mentioned her already. Also Sharon Penman, Kate Smedley and Barbara Erskine.