Okay you lot - it's find Remus something to read time again

[RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie]

I am reduced to re-reading 'The Stand' (again) because I am bookless (again).
I want either -

• a big fat Victorian or Victorian-esque mystery (NOT Sarah Waters though because I hate her, and not Wilkie Collins because I've read them)
• anything to do with polar exploration or other historical exploration, shipwrecks etc etc
• anything to do with the history of medicine
• a quirky history book with a v narrow focus (eg the last one I read was how the various kings and queens of England died, by a surgeon)
• something along the lines of Douglas Coupland or Chuck Palawhatshisname

- a really good teenage series along the lines of Patrick Ness

• erm anything that isn't chick lit or Ian McEwan or other pretentious literary fiction or misery set in Ireland or Jodie Piccoult or Marion Keyes or worthy female writers or anything of any of those ilks

Please help - I know I'm bloomin' awkward but I bet somebody can recommend something I'll love! :)

So far on my list = The Master An Margarita / Dune / Slaughterhouse Five but I need lots more.

Remus - I was going to say... How on earth are you "bookless"? Didn't we just load you up with Dune et al in the other thread?

I will take this opportunity to tell you that I ended up enjoying His Dark Materials - just finished books #2 & #3 - although couldn't quite get the point of the "everyone has a death that goes everywhere with him" business and the whole Dust thing sounded very weak. Still, I liked it and look forward to having DD read them (in 8-10 years).

I just started Ender's Game as a palate cleanser before Slaughterhouse Five.

Joanne Harris - only liked 'Chocolat' - really disliked the others of hers I've read.

Have read everything by Pullman.

Liked the first part of 'Room' and hated the rest of it (ie once they'd escaped).

Will investigate, 'Finkler' - what's it about?

SO glad to hear that, Cote (but I bet you hated those bloomin' wheeled things, yep?). :)

I hated Finkler, - (sorry joan, - I think you are right, it divides opinion, - but glad you are enjoying it)

There's one everyone seemed to really like on another thread - 'Sisters Brothers' - haven't read it yet myself but looks interesting

I thought that was a bit stupid, yes, but they had a purpose in the story. "Your death standing next to you" had no such purpose I could see.

And I didn't understand what the "Eve" thing was about. It would have made sense if Lyra & Will were going to have lots of babies with special powers or something but clearly they won't, so what was the Eve thing?

I have the following two going begging if either of them take your fancy. (pm me your address and I'll send them to you if you want them)

Haunted by Chuck Palahniuk

Apartment 16 by Adam Nevill

Dh suggests

The Ascent Of Money

He's into history and etymology (among many other things!) and he really enjoyed this, and said he learnt stuff and he already knows far too much for any normal human being so that surprised me

and I found The Disappearing Spoon on the shelf which looks a little odd to me but he really enjoyed that too.

Dark Matter - Michelle Paver - interesting little ghost story. Set in the Arctic, - just after the war IIRC.

Wedlock by Wendy Moore. 'How Georgian Englands worst husband met his match'.

Ooh I fancy the money one and Dark Matter. Thank you.

Have read the Chuck P one.

Thanks for the offer re the Apartment 16 one - I'll have a look at your link, thanks. Have you read it? Verdict if so?

The Spoon one looks far too scientific for me - I get very confused very quickly re anything Maths/Science-ish!

No, read mine it's the best. Really .

I have read Apartment 16, and it was OK. Not setting the world on fire (for me) but I didn't struggle at any point to finish it. (i can get easily bored if something isn't holding my attention)

A couple of great young adult fiction books:

Mortal Engines by Philip Reeve.

A Gathering Light by Jennifer Donnelly (won the Carnegie Medal a few years ago).

DH says you don't need a scientific brain to read The Disappearing Spoon....

Have read 'Wedlock' and quite liked it and LOVED 'The Knife Man' by the same writer.

Thanks but no thanks then Rollo - I need it to be brilliant because I have so little patience for most fiction nowadays that 'just ok' just won't cut it!

Do you have a kindle? Am halfway through an ebook called 'wool' - not sure if is just self published or what but a friend recommended on Facebook so am trying it - it's really good - the reviews give it lots of comparison to 'the stand' - which I read years ago but enjoyed. You can download a decent portion as a sample so worth a try?

Not sure meets any of your criteria though!

On the ship wreck theme, have you read Making Shore? I've just finished it, it is very good, much better than I expected from the blurb.

Arctic exploration-Amy Sackville, The Still Point (fiction)

History of psychiatry- Sebastian Faulks, Human Traces (fiction)

Last category - Claire Kilroy, Tenderwire (fiction; literary thriller)

Mortal Engines by Philip Reeve - loved the whole series
A Gathering Light by Jennifer Donnelly - underwhelmed by this

My brain is so unscientific that I felt scared even reading the reviews on Amazon about the spoon one!

'Human traces' bored me half to death - I gave up after about 200 pages (usually if I get that far I make myself get to the end but this defeated me).

Quite fancy, 'The Still Point' but would far rather have the history without the modern bits interweaving!

Read them a long time ago, but have you heard of The Death Gate Cycle here? Most excellent read IIRC

Down and out in 18th century London .Timothy Hitchcock, good one.

The World Turned Upside Down: Radical Ideas During the English Revolution by Christopher Hill - very readable account of the weird religious sects that sprang up in the anarchy of the civil war

Immaculate Contraception: A History of Birth Control from the First Fumblings to the Present Day by Emma Dickens

Lavinia by Ursula LeGuin

Octavia, Daughter of God: The Story of a Female Messiah and her Followers [Hardcover]
Jane Shaw - loved this one, a woman set up a whole new messianic sect in the early 1920's in Bedford.

The Technology of Orgasm: "Hysteria," the Vibrator, and Women's Sexual Satisfaction (Johns Hopkins Studies in the History of Technology)
Rachel P. Maines -history of the vibrator and its original medical usage- very good.

This Strange Society of Women: Reading the Letters and Lives of the Woman's Commonwealth (A Helen Hooven Santmyer prize winner)
Sally L. Kitch - about a utopian community in America in the 19th century where women found successful economic independence without men.

Witch Craze by Lyndal Roper - looking at the psychology behind accusations of witchcraft in Europe

A Time to Dance, a Time to die by John Waller -history of the 'dancing plague of 1518.

I also posted a lot of recommendations on the post-apoc thread, lots of good YA etc.

The Lives They Left Behind: Suitcases from a State Hospital Attic - Darby Penney

Bedlam: London and Its Mad by Catherine Arnold

History of Women's Bodies by Edward Shorter

The Blackest Streets: The Life and Death of a Victorian Slum by Sarah Wise

Mutants: On the Form, Varieties and Errors of the Human Body [Paperback]
Armand Marie Leroi

Savage Girls and Wild Boys: A History of Feral Children by Michael Newton

For a victorian-esque mystery try The Glass Books Of The Dream Eaters by G W Dahlquist. I have only just started it and it is great so far and I think it has one of the best book titles ever.
How can you not want to read a book with such a brilliant title. The hardback has a "glass" cover as well.

Thank you all.

Have read Bedlam: London and Its Mad - okay but found it a bit lightweight

Have read Mutants: On the Form, Varieties and Errors of the Human Body - liked the 'story' bits but was terrified by the science

Savage Girls and Wild Boys: A History of Feral Children by Michael New - loved this

Didn't get on v well with 'Glass Book' but agree re title and the cover is beautiful.

Don't fancy the history of the vibrator much, somehow. :)

Have read and liked, 'Immaculate Contraception.'