If my ideal novel is...what shall I read this summer?

[RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie]

Okay. Going on holiday for a week soon. I read VERY quickly and I am VERY fussy (and I have read lots and lots and lots already).

If my ideal novel would be Persuasion, mixed with The Stand, mixed with A Town Like Alice and with a soupcon of Lolita thrown in, what the heck will I enjoy next? Ideally it will be BIG. Non-fiction okay too, providing it is history-related and ideally a bit quirky.

Please help!

White Horse

here

Travel? Read che guavara's motorcycle diaries. Just started Blood River.
Shamelessly hanging around for ideas!

White Horse sounds a possibility, so long as it is well written - is it?

Travel stuff a good idea.

State of the Union or The Pursuit of Happiness both by Douglas Kennedy.

Ignore the stupid girls covers. One of them is set against a background of McCarthyism. In fact, most of his novels have a modern historical/political setting. Am currently reading The Moment, set in Berlin (both sides) in early eighties. All are thick, most have female protagonist. He writes very well as a woman.

You might also like pretty much anything by Bruce Chatwin.

Coincidentally, I started 'Pursuit Of Happiness' this week and have given up on it. I'm finding it horribly boringly written. Does it get better?

I thought it was well written. Really enjoyed it.

Ta. Will give it a few more pages!

I'm scared to make suggestions to you as you're so discriminating, but I loved The Magnetic North by Sara Wheeler, about travelling in the Arctic, but also about the history of travel in the region.

Have read it, Elkie! I love books about the polar regions, but prefer them to be historical - and have read most of them now, I think.

For discriminating, read damned awkward!

Viva - you are me! We agree on everything on other peoples' threads. I have a feeling you live quite near me too.

You read "VERY quickly" but haven't managed to read Dune and Cloud Atlas yet, have you?

Thank you for another thread, Remus. I always get some great recommendations from your threads.

I tried Cloud Atlas again - I still hated it. :)

The library hasn't had Dune in - and, as I said, I refuse to by fiction because so much of it is so dreadful! Am going to the Oxfam bookshop tomorrow though, so if they've got it I'll buy it.

buy

Did you get to the two dystopian & post-apocalyptic stories of Cloud Atlas?

No - I didn't get much further than I got last time. Don't tell me to try again - I just CAN'T get on with it!

I just read Water for Elephants and loved it, also Room was good.

Hurrah - someone else who hated Cloud Atlas. I loved Wolf Hall and am looking firward to getting my hands on Bringing up the Bodies. I loved Rose Tremain's Music and Silence.

I would strongly recommend 'The Passage' by Justin Cronin, Dune is also excellent though not sure it's what you're looking for.
My OH recommends 'The Tenderness of Wolves' by Stef Penney, and 'The Woman in White' by Wilkie Collins.
We're both booksellers by trade. Please don't read Cloud Atlas it's not his best, try Black Swan Green instead.

Room - liked the first half and hated the second half.
Wolf Hall - okay but didn't like it enough to read the sequel. As an idea, I liked it. I liked Cromwell - but I found her writing style v annoying.
Rose Tremain - think I've read all of hers. Okay but not brilliant.
Woman In White excellent.
The Passage - I really enjoyed it.
HATED The Tenderness Of Wolves.

Anything by Louis de Bernieres.... moves from funny to heart-breaking in a second and very very readable.

Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell. Best book ever written. Probably doesn't meet any of your criteria but still - 'tis awesome.

Don't go around asking for post-apocalyptic and dystopian recommendations again, then. What can I say?

Want to read Water For Elephants instead?

I downloaded Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell on my Kindle and will start it next. I'm glad to see that someone thinks it's the best book ever.

I suspect I'd hate Water For Elephants tbh.

Louis de B - quite like captain C apart from the stupid ending and the ranty bits. Not sure I liked it enough to read anything else by him.

I gave up on Jonathon Strange because I was bored by it - do I have to try that again too?

I usually give a book 30 pages, sometimes 50. I've now given 'The Pursuit Of happiness' 35 pages - I can't give it anymore: it's got horribly stilted dialogue and the main character is prissy and irritating.

I have a very low threshold for bad writing, I think. Or rather, I don't so much mind bad writing if it's not thinking that it's good.