Help me! I need more book ideas!

[redheadbedhead]

Hello. Having been at home with morning sickness for two months I have got through a lot of books. And I'm starting to run out of ideas. My favourite books are by Jonathan Franzen / David Foster Wallace / American 20/21st century - but then again I also just read Caitlin Moran's How to be a Woman and thought it was great! And I love non-fiction books about the mind/brain/psychology ie Oliver Sacks.

I love the quality of writing and usually my favourite books are those with complex characters and family situations.

Can anyone help me with some more ideas?? thanks so much!!

Yes, I've been stuck at home with extreme morning sickness so in the same boat! Have you had your baby yet or are you on the final stretch?

Irving is so hit and miss that I gave up on him for a bit. I think that's why I must have missed his latest. I got bored with too many bears/wrestling/similar themes, but I haven't read Owen Meany for so long now, it might be due a re-read as well.

Reread Garp, I just love that book, not much makes me cry but the ending of that is just heartbreaking! I'm only going on a recommendation from a friend about Twisted River, but he's really into Irving, so it might be one of his difficult ones again!
I'm on the last stretch - 38+3, first baby. Bored bored bored!! How far in are you redhead?

YYY to The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay. It's really good (much better than his other stuff that I've read too)

I'm 15+5 and still sicking up - genuinely and massively disliking being pregnant, hence need for escapism

I also hate being pg redhead - after 4 years of trying tho I'm supposed to be grateful. My DH says that evolution has clearly failed and that there's got to be a better way I was lucky not to be sick though, I really feel for you.
Just been looking through my books for you, pure escapism: have you read the Red Dwarf books? Hilarious. Or the Midwich Cuckoos by John Wyndham? I'm not a scifi nerd at all but they're great reads.
Hope you feel better soon x

if you like Jonathan Frantzen maybe you could try 'All families are psychotic' or 'Eleanor Rigby' by Douglas Coupland.

i prefer the yiddish policemen's union to cavalier and klay, but i could read anything by michael chabon, i really like the way he writes.

different tack, but might work for you, if you like all that american clever stuff: kevin barry's city of bohane. though his next book is likely to be better (or awful, i suppose it could go either). first novel, but he preceded it with a beautifully written collection of short stories, the name of which escapes me.

What about Paul Auster? I must admit, I couldn't finish the New York Trilogy although DH adored it. But another of his called The Brooklyn Follies is good.
Or his wifes, Suri Hustvedt, book What I Loved. Very tender.

jennifer I used to be a massive Red Dwarf nerd, so yes!! read em all! and loved M.Cuckoos, but thanks for the suggestions.

conchita - I think I have an allergy to Coupland, just never got it, don't know why because people always recommend him to me as though I would. Same goes for David Mitchell - Cloud Atlas made me want to kill something, but people keep telling me to read it sorry! thanks tho

stripey That book keeps cropping up on my horizon so I'll definitely give it a go. thanks!

thestring I've read quite a lot of Auster and Hustvedt so I'm looking to find something new, but thanks - you're totally on the money with the kind of thing I'm after!

H

You've probably read this already but, if not, I highly recommend Phantoms in the Brain by V S Ramachandran.

Of similar neurosciencey ilk, Cordelia Fine's Delusions of Gender is a good, interesting and entertaining read.

Yes, try Douglas Coupland. Also Dave Eggers, 'A Heartbreaking Work Of Staggering Genius.' Also a book called 'Mutants' which is v sciency about various physical mutations like Siamese twins etc. The Science was beyond me but I liked the human element.

Owen Meany vastly over-rated imho.

Ah - just seen you hate Coupland!

What about 'The Ninth Life Of Louis Drax' by Liz Jensen - it's about a boy / his mother with psychological issues etc and is v good.

Richard Ford
AM Homes
John Barth

Although you'll probably know them already if you like modern American stuff