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'm sure the essay is great but 'Catcher' pisses me right off - grossly over-rated imho. Love 'For Esme' though, and v good to see LoveAndSqualor on here!

The essay sucks. But I have many, many icing based biscuits on offer, so you may just about get through it!

Have you read Carter Beats the Devil by Glen David Gold? Really, really good, and such fun!

Endorse the recommendation of a poster above who suggested Memoirs of Hadrian.

Also love Lady Audley's Secret-just bought it in fact.

Just thought of another thing you may enjoy -
www.amazon.co.uk/The-Mitford-Girls-Mary-Lovell/dp/0349115052

I didn't really know anything about them before, but what's not to love about sisters who are Nazis, Communists, writers and very witty. Their lives were just unreal.