Literary fiction - any good reads lately?

[JulieBilly]

I have just worked my was through last year's Orange Prize nominees (have a baby, so have been starved of reading time) and have ordered this year's nominees, too.

What else can I read? Any books you have read lately you can recommend?

I don't like chick lit, misery memoirs. Fantasy/scif fi and historical fiction need to be really, very good for me to bother.

tia

And I just have to put in another recommendation for captain corellis mandolin,having spent the day preparing to revise it with A level students. God, it's good. Makes me cry every time.

If you are put off by the naffola film with nick cage, don't be. The book is amazing.

'Dune' is still on my list but the library is useless, unless one wants Scandinavian crime fiction, Irish misery sagas, or Richard and Judy stuff (which I really, really don't).

Captain Corelli is v v gd up until the ending WHICH IS TOTAL SHITOLA

Cryptonomicon shouldn't really be sci-fi but it won quite a few sci-fi awards so I'm happy to consider it as such. Maybe because it's written by Neal Stephenson?

I absolutely love Stephenson's book and have been a big fan since the moment I reached page 200 of Snow Crash (where the seemingly unrelated bits about ancient Mezopotamian history, languages and Tower of Babel, hacking the brain stem (seriously!) etc come together) although I'm a bit disappointed by his last book Reamde. His previous one Anathem was the work of a genius, and I could feel my brain hurt while trying to understand some parts of it. It is brilliant

Remus - What is this with you and the library? You need a Kindle!

No no no to Henry why write a sentence when you can write 17 pages James.

No.

Alone In Berlin - Hans Fallada
The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet - David Mitchell
The Vagrants - Yiyun Li
The Summer Book - Tove Jansson
Into The Darkest Corner - Elizabeth Haynes?

Don't think I'd like a Kindle - I like pages!

Anyway, I have vowed not to spend any money on fiction (apart from King, of course) because so much of it is such utter crap; so I get fiction from the library and spend my hard earned dosh on history books and cookery books instead.

I liked pages, too, until I realised that most of my books are 800+ pages and I just can't carry them around with me.

Cookery books? Library? How old are you?

97 - I look bloomon' good for it though. :) I have slippers too...

bloomon???

Adds reading glasses to old person list of requirements...

You see, hullygully, that's what I thought. But am strangely drawn into it, nonetheless...

Im a huge Harry Potter fan and regularly visit John Granger's site which is the best of the HP sites (IMHO): he treats HP as serious literature and ran the recent HP Conference at St Andrews that all the papers wrote about.

Recently, he has been talking up a HP re-write called "In Defence of the Dark Arts", www.hogwartsprofessor.com/daring-fan-fiction-in-defence-of-the-dark-arts/ which I'm pretty sure I came across on MN about a year ago. Anyway, he liked it and I love it, as do my HP-crazy DC's.

It's at www.voldemort-the-real-hero.com & on Amazon & is a lot of fun (esp if you don't like HP!).

Remus

True about the ending of Corelli - always gloss over that bit. Crowd-pleasing cack.

some great recommendations on here. so I have got to dive in again...
cloud atlas, I could not read it either, so dull ...
why has no one mentioned Edith Wharton - what a great writer, my favourite probably The Age of Innocence or The House of Mirth - if you find H James wordy, this does the same period much better, i m o, though I do often reread Washington Square (as it is short ...)
Or Rosamond Lehmann, try The Echoing Grove, brilliant plot and so cleverly written (her other books are good too)
William Boyd - Any Human Heart I think my favourite
Also have you tried Jane Smiley (A Thousand Acres or Barn Blind) or Carol Shields (The Stone Diaries)?
Can't wait for Bring up the Bodies hope paperback out by my summer holiday buying spree ...
Glad someone on the thread loves Siri Hustveldt too ...

With Corelli it's the bit where he sees her with the baby...and JUST WALKS OFF. No no no no. You would ask. You would.

'All those people meekly waiting for their early demise'

Cote, that's the POINT! That's precisely why it's so sad, and horrifying, and troubling.

softpaw, have PMd you. You can get to my reply through the Inbox ? top middle of the homepage, next to the 'Log in/Log out' button.

If you're after good writing and want something new, here are my two top tips for new / "undiscovered" authors.

The Last Summer of the World by Emily Mitchell

The Lives of Ghosts by Megan Taylor

Hang on a minute, I've just reread your first post "I have just worked my was through last year's Orange Prize nominees (have a baby, so have been starved of reading time)"

I didn't manage to read one single book in DS's first year. Hats off to you! I have no idea how you've managed it but I'm very impressed! :)

I second Jamrach's Menagerie by Carol Birch. Just read it, it's incredibly vivid and convincing, and unpredictable (if a bit gruesome towards the end).

I would say the Poisonwood Bible is one of the best books I've ever read, just stunning.

For a lighter read, I love all of Isabel Allende's novels.

Oooh, mention of The Poisonwood Bible has made me remember Prodigal Summer, also by Barbara Kingsolver, her masterpiece IMO.

And for some reason I missed the earlier mention of Ann Patchett's Bel Canto, but have to agree it is a miraculously good novel.

Only the first half of Jamrach, second half is a cop out a la Life of Pi.

Barbara is just an all round Good Egg really, isn't she?

Barbara K? Yes, I love her somewhat. I want to go and live with her and her family on their Good Life-style smallholding only for a while, mind, I go mad in the countryside after about 4 days