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.

Sunday bump! :)

Think this kind of falls under weird but fascinating quirky Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers very, er enjoyable, read.

I'm probably stating the bleedin'ly obvious here but have you read The Quincunx or The Seance by John Harwood (although it's not a particularly fat book)?

That sounds right up my street! Thanks.

Didn't get on with The Quincunx at all - should I try again. I just found the beginning of it quite tedious and since it was recommended by somebody who invariably recommended things that I turned out to hate, I gave up.

Oops - lost a question mark there!

Hmm, don't remember finding it hard-going to begin with, I got completely immersed in the whole exhausting drama of it and loved it. I've seen it recommended over the years by many another MN'ers (perhaps whose opinions you value more???) so I say give it another go

other not another

Tomorrow when the war began, is the first book in a fab teen series. Set in modern day Australia which is invaded by a foreign country. A group of teens evade capture and become resistance type fighters.

I expect you have read them all, but just in case not: Ruth Rendell falls into your last category :) Not the Wexford policeman ones, but the stand-alone novels, and anything she has written as her alias Barbara Vine.

If you're interested in the theme of feral children, Wild Boy by Jill Dawson is great. I love all her books, in fact. She writes a little bit like Helen Dunmore, if that attracts/repels you.

I value all MNers' opinions equally (unless they like James Blunt!). :)

Ruth Rendell/Barbara Vine - does nothing for me, I'm afraid. Ditto Helen Dumore - but I will have a look out for Wild Boy; also for the Australian thing.

Thank you.

Do keep suggesting non-fiction too, please - finding it far more satisfying than most fiction nowadays.

I just finished and really liked Ender's Game (recommended on the previous thread) and I think you would like it. Technically sci-fi, but pretty much the entire book is about strategic thinking, military strategy, forward planning, and the like. And it is about children, so might satisfy your taste for teenage books

For Russian history Colonel Pyatt novels by Michael Moorcock and Nabokov's autobiography Speak Memory

Victorian and very funny but not mystery The Way of All Flesh by Samuel Butler

Beryl Bainbridge does some historical stuff, there's one about Samuel Johnson called Queenie which I liked.

Have read the Nabakov. It may be horrible of me but I just can't bring myself to read Beryl Bainbridge - I am a horrible snob but I just can't do it. 'The Way Of All Flesh' sounds like a goer though and I'll have a google re Ender's Game. Ta, both.

Haven't read the thread so maybe a little late/wrong but have to link to this as it is absolutely one of my most favourite books of all time. Have you read it??

Bugger - now I've read the thread properly!! Me and my big mouth.......

Henrietta Lacks, if you're interested in medical/sciencey stuff? (Apologies if it's already been suggested!)

Oh yes Henrietta Lacks is very good, there's another book which looks good called 'The Emperor of all Maladies. A biography of Cancer.' If you are interested in medicine

Ooh yes to Henrietta Lacks -had forgotten about that. The cancer one too - altough I'm ony interested in medicine historically - once they get into all the science business, I'm lost! Give me the humours and speculation over science, any day!

Maybe I should give The Quincunx another shot.

Oh I came back to recommend the Henrietta Lacks one.

If it's medical non-fiction you're after have you read The Knife Man I read it last year and enjoyed it very much.

Loved The Knife Man! Have you been to the Hunterian Museum? Tis amazing.

No but would love to - may be able to go this summer when I can offload the dcs onto their auntie have some spare time.

:)

Dark Matter by (I think) Michelle Paver.
Artic exploration, tension, supernatural.
What's not to like?

Oh and as I also like quirky/medical (not too technical!) books as well, I have my eye on this one www.amazon.co.uk/Blood-Guts-A-History-Surgery/dp/1846075033/ref=pd_sim_b_2 which looks very good - have you read it?

And this one has been on my wish list for a while.....