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!

I took seven pages of notes while reading Cloud Atlas, detailing all the references & themes, and I'm almost tempted to write it all down for (admittedly few) MNers who say that it's not a good book.

Like, hands up who realised that the dystopian Sonmi story was a near-perfect allegory of Plato's "Allegory of the Cave"? Who knew that the Latin phrase Frobisher ends his last letter with is from Virgil's The Aeneid, and that Sonmi's password much later is its English translation?

Books like that don't come out often enough, and Remus I won't believe the woman who recommended This Thing Of Darkness to me can't read it

You probably wouldn't hate Water For Elephants but you would find it a bit of a waste of time, although it's fairly quick to read.

I recently read the Wool books. Have you heard about them?

"Like, hands up who realised that the dystopian Sonmi story was a near-perfect allegory of Plato's "Allegory of the Cave"? Who knew that the Latin phrase Frobisher ends his last letter with is from Virgil's The Aeneid, and that Sonmi's password much later is its English translation?"

Don't - because you're just provoking me to write 'who cares?' and then you'll be cross! :)

Richard ford - the sportswriter/ independence day/ lay of the LANs
(trilogy) fabulous
The lacuna - big, for sure, and epic

I won't be cross. I will just say "Go read Water For Elephants, then" and then you will be cross

:)

The Lacuna - is that the Poisonwood woman? I didn't like Poisonwood thingie at all.

Lay of the land I mean

Wool?

It's not just intellectual name-dropping, by the way. These are revoked in a meaningful way, linking ideas and themes across the stories and generations.

If you don't see or recognise them, you might just think there is nothing special there

Yes, Wool. Five novellas of it. Look it up.

Post-apocalyptic. Some people rave about it. I didn't think it was exceptional but you might.

Havent read it but yes, doesn't sound great on wiki précis I admit

Wool. Is this the right book?

Yes, that's it. If you are going to read it, you might as well download the "Omnibus" of the 5 novellas because they read as chapters of a single book and you will want to continue.

I have a proof copy of "The Twelve", second novel in The Passage trilogy. I'm tempted to offer to send it to you. I haven't read it yet though - when are you going away?

I'm reading Shogun. It's silly but fun, and there are lots of books in the series, so it keeps me going for a while.

Have you read Shibumi?

OK how about...
Jim Dodge - Stone Junction
Vanity Fair
Black Swan Green - David Mitchell (I know I know, but v different stylistically from Cloud Atlas, and even better imo)
Paul Theroux - Patagonian Express
If you want really big - Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace, or Mason & Dixon by Thomas Pynchon?

What does this even mean?

"Lila, a doctor and an expectant mother, has been so broken by the spread of violence and infection that she continues to plan for her child?s arrival even as society dissolves around her."

From Amazon page of "The Twelve".

I've just finished House of The Spirits by Isabel Allende - which I really enjoyed - fits the 'long' category.

I've just started The Emperor of Maladies - a Biography of Cancer - not sure what it will be like yet as only a few pages in, but it's won lots of prizes, if that's any indication. I seem to remember you like medical/scientific type things (sorry if I'm confusing you with someone else).

I've also just got Perfect People by Peter James out of the library (after lots of recommendations on here) - his detective stuff is average to OK, but I think this is more of a horror type of thing which he's better at IMO

I can't wait for The Twelve to come out. I loved The Passage and have been waiting two years now. They keep putting the publication date back.

Happy to pass it on after I've read it, maybe to Remus if she wants it as I've offered now and then her to you, or I'll send it to you if she doesn't want it. Pub date on my copy says 25th October!

Have read everything by Isabel Allende - at her best she is sublime, although she is not always at her best. 'Paula' is one of the best books I've ever read - I adore it.

Love Vanity Fair.

Have read most of Paul Theroux's.

Will google the others, thanks.

HarderToKidnap - how did you get hold of that? I think they're saying October for its release date now? It was supposed to be April iirc. I was surprised by how much I enjoyed The Passage. I thought it would be rather like Stephanie M's The Host, but it was much more fun than that.

Yes please, thanks.

I'd love the copy after you've read it, and would pass it on to Viva afterwards.

Kurri - you're not confusing me with somebody else and I think you've mentioned the cancer one before. I like medical stuff but get v scared if they are too scientific. Please could you let me know how intimidating the cancer one is. If it's lots of stories of breast removal with no anaesthetic etc I'd like it but if it's lots of stuff on cells and genetic pre-disposal and so on, it will be over my (v small) head!