Coming off a literary high - please help

[CoteDAzur]

I just read Cloud Atlas and This Thing Of Darkness in quick succession, both epic, fantastic books of great scope and vision.

Now I don't now what to do with myself. Read another book, but what? What can I read now that won't be a huge disappointment after these two wonderful books that I have just finished?

Re: Cloud Atlas - fabulous book indeed but a movie with Hugh Grant, share basildonbond's trepidation

Am loving this thread - not least because I was a huge fan of Cloud Atlas and was just recoiling from reading a FB friend's update which involved her cooing over the Book Thief but left me thinking that I was in need of a good book recommendation. (Now there's a title - read it for my first ever foray into a book club. I completely and utterly detested it, and was the only person who did, which made for an interesting introduction to everyone else as this newcomer ranted inexplicably in the corner at them all...)

After reading this thread last night I downloaded This Thing Of Darkness to my Kindle and started reading, so thanks for that.

I've never got into magical realism either, really. Allende wasn't for me. Also found Marquez impenetrably dense to read. Would sit staring at a page and realise an hour had passed and I had barely shifted a paragraph. Haven't read Middlemarch but did love Silas Marner. Really enjoy being surprised by some of the classics that they really were exceptional yarns, the biggest joy in recent years being Grapes of Wrath - which I'd never read.

(By the way, I have read other Mitchell, and found them variable - but IIRC I quite liked Black Swan Green. The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de wotsit I found incomprehensible.)

Just read "I don't know how she does it" by Alison Pearson. As a rule don't read chic lit - actually don't read much! But as first baby due - half way there - got me thinking about balancing work and motherhood and really enjoyed this book. Can anyone recommend anything similar? Thanks.

londonlottie - I read the Book Thief at my book group and we ALL hated it with a passion. I think it's a dreadful book, manipulative and really badly written.

The book group discussion veered round to the subject of 'how should you teach children about the Holocaust?' and I said much better to read real accounts than some fictionalised version of it.

So, to add to the list, if anyone hasn't read Anne Frank's diary, I recommend it. (The Modern Penguin edition, The Diary of a Young Girl, is good as it put back in some things that were edited out of earlier editions, relating to the approach of puberty, her fallings-out with her parents, etc).

For recent ones how about a brief history of the dead by Kevin Brockmeier - not sure what this counts as - sci fi? fantasy. Also pilo family circus
Does Magnus Mills count?

Re the Dark Tower series- I loved the first 2 0r 3 of these but then it tails off and I thought the ending was very weak.

Jigo I recommend you start another thread. I hope that doesn't come across as nasty, as it isn't intended to be - it's just that your own thread is more likely to suggest something you'll want to read, I think. Congratulations on your pregnancy.

I quite liked, 'My Life As A Fake' and, 'The Kelly Gang' (which I think I mentioned earlier) but I think he's a flawed writer and is particularly bad at endings (but then again, so many books are let down by their endings).

Rose Tremain not bad but probably not 'hard' enough for what Cote wants. I recently read one of hers about an immigrant coming to Britain - it was okay but too much sex for my liking and a bit lightweight.

I really liked, 'The Book Thief' - it surprised me how much so many people on here hated it. I read it thinking it was a children's book but actually not sure if it is or not. I liked the voice of Death - a bit like Pratchett!

I was initially a bit surprised/put out by the Dark Tower ending but on reflection decided it was probably the only way it COULD have ended and on re-reads I've thought it was perfect. Won't say anything else for fear of spoilers!

Remus- i know what you mean about the ending but it was still a disappointment !

THis is a great thread - I was looking for some inspiration myself!
1000 autumns of jacob de zoet (same author) is great - although takes a while to get into. Just finished the white tiger - easy to read but really interesting book. Of course withering heights is always a good one to go back to.

Is Dark Towers 'His Dark Materials'? If so I also thought that ended badly, almost like he disappeared in an overwritten vacuum of his own making. I wanted to love it, as I loved the series in general, but ended up speed reading it to the end which probably didn't help.

Remus - yes, Book Thief is a children's book, and is best understood as that. As a book written for adults it is ludicrously patronising. It is interesting how different people find things - I found the voice of death clunky and cheaty - enabling the author to get around some difficult problems with the story.

Withering Heights? What's that, one of Oscar Wilde's lesser known works?

Book Thief is published as a "young adult" book - i.e. for teenagers. It is a fine introduction to the holocaust, but seriously, after the age of 25 or so, haven't we all read/watched so many better works than that ridiculously shallow book?

One would expect that Death as a character at the very least would have something interesting to say. You know, as the timeless predator that has carried everyone to their end, kind of like vampire Lestat in Interview With The Vampire. But no, Death was rambling on like a mindless android about the colour of this, the colour of that.

Very disappointing. I read it for book club, too. I hate "book club books" with a passion. They are so obviously written for the lowest common denominator.

Another vote for "Love in the Time of Cholera" here.

I liked "The Help" a lot - I thought you would have to be interested in the Deep South and civil rights movement to enjoy it, but strangely, that wasn't the case. It's also much, much deeper and more enjoyable than the movie.

Dark Tower = Stephen King / Dark Materials = Philip Pullman. The end of Dark Materials made me howl, although I agree that there was some tedious crap in the third book to actually reach the ending.

Can't stand Interview With The Vampire. Yawn.

Withering Heights = entirely appropriate name for highly tedious book.

I love Oscar Wilde though! :)

I liked, 'Half Of A Yellow Sun' and love, 'Perfume.'

'The Help' - I liked the first half and thought the second half was terrible and completely trivialised and negated any serious message the book was trying to give. Really liked the film though.

I thought Oryx and Crake was lazy bandwagon jumping and was really quite angry with Atwood for that and Before the Flood, particularly as I'd liked everything else she's done.

Have you tried Toni Morrison or Murakami?

I voted for the sequel to Eat Pray Love in our book club (don't ask) instead of The Help, because I can't imagine a worst fate than having to read 500 pages about servants in Southern America. Please just kill me and be done with it.

I started reading His Dark Materials today. As at page 20 or so, it is quite obviously a children's book. Is it going to get deeper/more interesting soon?

I saw the stage production when it came to Birmingham but (whispers) I didn't like it much. I thought they played for laughs too much and that it lacked the majesty of the books. I did like the angels though.

'Oryz And Crake' I thought was stupid but I quite liked the flood one, as the characters were more interesting.

Oh and the Underworld scene in the play was awesome.

Cote - keep going! :)

marshmallowpies For real accounts of the holocaust, I would highly recommend Charlotte Delbo, particularly "Auschwitz and After" - it's a collection of memories written as poems, short stories and random thoughts. Totally mesmerising. One of the most touching and poignant accounts of the Holocaust I've read (I studied this area of literature at uni). I would also recommend Primo Levi's books. They're a little drier, but also good as they question the implication present in most Holocaust literature that all Germans were bad and all Jews were good - I can't remember the one I read first, but it talks a lot about the Jews who ran the gas chambers (I have a feeling it's "If I were a man" or something similar)