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Original poster

Anne Tyler fans - any other authors you could recommend?

46 replies

Gem13 · 30/05/2006 20:59

I've just finished 'Digging to America' which I loved - like the others except 'The Amateur Marriage'.

I love her anyway but it is especially fab pregnancy reading.

Any suggestions?

OP posts:
Cappucino · 30/05/2006 21:08

Carol Shields?

Piffle · 30/05/2006 21:08

Anita Shreve, although Anne Tyler is very special :)

brimfull · 30/05/2006 21:09

Margaret forster is one of my favourites.Try Diary of an ordinary woman,Precious lives,and her biographies are fab.
Also Deborah Moggach is good,try Changing Babiea and Tulip Fever.

brimfull · 30/05/2006 21:10

babies not babiea

Piffle · 30/05/2006 21:11

deb moggach is ace - mavis cheek also tongue in cheek good read

Marina · 30/05/2006 21:11

I'd second Carol Shields and also Margaret Forster.

Rowlers · 30/05/2006 21:11

I love Alice Hoffman
Not quite the same style, a bit more "imaginative" but great stories nonetheless

FrannyandZooey · 30/05/2006 21:14

Elizabeth Berg is a lovely writer.

Marina · 30/05/2006 21:15

Oh, and Elizabeth McCracken too :)

controlfreaky2 · 30/05/2006 21:17

gerard wodward: "august" and "ill go to bed at noon"... but there are few as fab as at.

Rowlers · 30/05/2006 21:18

Ooh, Elizabeth McCracken - I did wonder at one point Marina if anyone else had read her books as no-one I know has ever heard of her.
She has written two crackers - The Giant's House and Niagara Falls all over again.
She may have written more by now?

Piffle · 30/05/2006 21:20

The Time TRavellers Wife is a divine read also

JanH · 30/05/2006 21:21

Mavis Cheek is fab.

Also Marika Cobbold.

Also some others I can't think of just now - will be back!

JanH · 30/05/2006 21:24

Margaret Atwood good too but some books harder work than others. (I love the Edible Woman)

Mary Wesley.

Alison Lurie.

brimfull · 30/05/2006 21:25

Don't lets go to the Dogs tonight,by Alexandra Fuller is a great memoir .

A Thousand Acres by jane smiley

Rowlers · 30/05/2006 21:27

Also try "A gathering Light" by Jennifer Donnely

controlfreaky2 · 30/05/2006 21:31

agree re alison lurie. think if you like at you'd definitely enjoy her books...

controlfreaky2 · 30/05/2006 21:31

agree re alison lurie. think if you like at you'd definitely enjoy her books...

skerriesmum · 30/05/2006 21:51

Alice Munro, but she's mostly short stories.
I love Alison Lurie too.

Marina · 31/05/2006 09:54

Oh Rowlers, I loved that Jennifer Donnelly book!
E McCracken did also write a lovely collection of short stories before her novel, "Here's Your Hat, Where's Your Hurry", but I don't think it's currently in print in the UK :(
And Alison Lurie :)
For a more vintage read Gem13, try "The Group" by Mary McCsrthy. Beady-eyed Socialist journalist does chick-lit all the way back in the 1930s...

anorak · 31/05/2006 09:57

Marge Piercy
Rosalind Pilcher
Helen Dunmore
Barbara Kingsolver

and I second Mary Wesley.

christie1 · 31/05/2006 11:55

I really like Maeve Binchy, very light reading but still engaging story. SHe is not as good as ann tyler imo but still good. Have you read all of ann tylers, her older books are so great, too.

Original poster
Gem13 · 31/05/2006 15:38

Cool - lots of suggestions! I have read all of the Anne Tylers unfortunately.

There are some authors here that I should really try again as I have tried the odd one in the past and not got on with them - Carol Shields, Margaret Atwood (although every book seems to be different), Helen Dunmore and Mary Wesley. The Deborah Moggach babies one was pretty horrid wasn't it (especially considering pregnant state -when I want everything to be nice!)?

I'm struggling with the Margaret Forster cancer one at the moment (again, not a great choice!) but I love her biographies so I shall get a couple more of those.

Loved Turtle Moon by Alice Hoffman too but the next one I picked up by her was very similar so I should try her again.

Read The Group years ago when a feminist teenager Wink.

I must try Mavis Cheek - I read an interview with her where she said her xH was furious with her keeping his name but she thought it was fab. Right on!

I read the Giant's House years ago in the US which I enjoyed but I didn't like the ending. I'll try the other one though.

I don't know Elizabeth Berg or Gerard Woodward so I'll check them out.

I used to live in the same road as Maeve Binchy but haven't read any of hers. I might recognise our street!

Thanks all.

OP posts:
Marina · 31/05/2006 16:26

I found the MF cancer book (her SIL, right?) profoundly disturbing because of its honesty about the process of dying. I finished it and am glad I did but it's a book I will never re-read, I think. She is a superb writer.
Gerard Woodward's books are also memorable but not an easy read. I have done them back to front (read I'll Go to Bed at Noon earlier this year and have August for holiday reading) and am wondering if knowing the fate of some family members will make the first book unbearably sad. He is an original voice and I'm surprised he doesn't have a higher profile. Maybe he prefers it that way.

JanH · 31/05/2006 16:29

Oh, just thought of another - Jodi Picoult (? sp?)

I don't get on with M Forster at all Sad. Do like D Moggach, most of, though.