If I liked xxxxx, what would you recommend?

[UnderwaterBasketWeaving]

Hello!

The plan is to put mn down and read some actual books this summer!

Please can you give me your recommendations, based on the following list that I've ear and loved:

A thousand splendid suns - Khaled Hosseini (I loved the feeling of experiencing another culture)
The women's room - Marilyn French
Saturday - Ian McEwan
Time Travellers Wife
(it's been so long since I actually read a book, that's all I can think of )

I'm not into the 50SOG, my sisters keeper, lovely bones type things.

Oh, and The Historian. And the one with the woman who worked as an archaeologist in Carcassonne (or am I still thinking of the Historian?!)

I haven't read any of your list but among my personal favourites are:

Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
The Robber Bride /Cat's Eye - Margaret Atwood
The Secret History - Donna Tartt
East of Eden - John Steinbeck
The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath

Just marking place.

Ooh, I've read Memoirs of a Geisha perception, thanks for the reminder. Again, it was the cultural experience thing I liked!

I'll look up your others now.

The Help - film is great, but the book is better!

Possession (or something like that) by Valerie something (not v helpful!) about slavery in the southern US states

The Book of Human Skin (Michelle Lovric) - weird, but a good read!

I've read The Historian but haven't read one about a woman who worked as an archaeologist in Carcassonne, so I'd love to know the name of that one.

Garry - The Help is on my list for the library!

Sherbet - I've got that book in a box somewhere (with all my other books since we moved house 2 years ago, still waiting for bookcases to miraculously appear somewhere!), so can't look it up. It is good though!

one about a woman who worked as an archaeologist in Carcassonne - Isn't it the Labirynth by K.Mosse?

Oh! It's Labyrinth, can't remember the author.

Well done happy!

Half of a Yellow Sun - Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (sp ?!) - similar vibe to Thousand Yellow suns

The Help

The Book Thief

Zoe Ferraris has written 3 books set in Saudi and the descriptions of life there for women is utterly fascinating. They are brilliant and I'm always checking Amazon to see if she has written anything else.

They are police/murder type books which I am not usually keen on but the setting and exploration of cultural issues surrounding the subject matter makes them different to anything else I've read it that genre.

Thanks Tilly.

Frustratingly, there's so many my local library doesn't hold. Hopefully I'll be able to order them in without too much of a wait (6 week deadline, and it'll take me ages to read them in toddler nap-times!)

Personal history of Rachel DuPree
The Pleasure Seekers

The Pleasure Seekers By Tishani Doshi - there's another book with the same title which is of the 50 Shades of Grey variety

A suitable boy - epic Indian family saga
The hare with amber eyes - fascinating family story which takes in many different cultures
The glass palace
Wolf hall

Thanks for all these suggestions, I'm reading the info on amazon & checking the library catalogue?

Thanks for that tip, moog!

The other book you're thinking of is the Labyrinth by Kate Mosse.

I've recently enjoyed:
Wolf Hall (Hilary Mantel)
Gillespie and I (Jane Harris)
Lets Pretend This Never Happened (Jenny Lawson)
The Mapp and Lucia stories (EF Benson)
The Surgeon of Crowthorne (Simon Winchester)
The Love of Stones (Tobias Hill)

If you use the fantastic fiction website and find a book you enjoyed, at the bottom of the page is a list of authors who write similar types of fiction.
www.fantasticfiction.co.uk

My fave is A Million Little Pieces by James Frey, very gritty but brill. I liked your other ones too so you might like mine! Also I like Jasper Fforde, Shades of Grey especially. And am ploughing through Game Of Thrones series at mo.
Last one, Pillars of the Earth in a cheesy, Ken Follett kind of way.

I have read and enjoyed all but the Marilyn French book. Other books I enjoyed and you might too are:

Cutting for Stone - Abraham Verghese
Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
Tiny Sunbirds Far Away - Christie Watson
The Kitchen Gods Wife - Amy Tan

Also love anything by Anne Tyler and Rose Tremain.

I love the summer holidays as I can read loads - am currently compiling my list of books to take away really should get a kindle.

I really enjoyed My Dear I Wanted To Tell You by Louisa Young.

Can I utterly NOT recommend Tom Bowers auto of Simon Cowell. It feels like I have lost days readings about a man with the emotional depth and business acumen of an omelette. It's not Bower I have issue with, rather his latest subject who is better portrayed in Ben Eltons Chart Throb.

Apols OP I digressed from hanging onto tedium by my teeth.

This is brilliant, thanks!

I am going to have to get a kindle, aren't I?!

If you like ploughing through something a bit epic, I really enjoyed Wild Swans by Jung Chang.
For a historical read, Here be Dragons by Sharon Penman is wonderful, it's one of the few historic novels I've actually bought and reread.

You know, Pom, I've actually got Wild Swans on the shelf by my bed. I've had it for ages, but never really got into it.

I'll give it another crack.

PomBearWithAnOFRS Here be Dragons by Sharon Penman aren't availoable on Kindle yet... but will check it up when it is , I like big books and this one is over 800 pages long :)