Anne Tyler fans - any other authors you could recommend?

[Gem13]

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?

Actually gem if you want gravid comfort I'd skip Gerard for now.
Depending on whether you think the C of E or organised religion are of interest or total irrelevancies my favoured PG reads were Catherine Fox's series of linked novels about a group of theology students/young priests/their partners. Seriously!
And I'm not sure what you think of Alexander McCall Smith. I find his literate, humane prose balm to the soul.

Thanks Marina. I looked him up and thought I'd read him once the baby is sleeping through (sleepless nights and pregnancy = at least a years time!).

I loved the Precious Ramotswe novels but I didn't like the silly German one (Portuguese Irregular Verbs) that I think was one of his first.

The Catherine Fox ones sound unusual. I can't quite imagine what they're like so I'll check them out.

By way of trade - my second favourite author after Anne Tyler is Laurie Colwin. She died in her 30s (early 40s?) so her output is fairly limited (plus I think they're only in the US but still orderable). Pretty similar to Anne Tyler but a bit more melancholy and quite often to do with young women with children/husbands/lost loves.

How about Sue Miller?

Oh yes - Laurie Colwin - I have Happy All the Time (somewhere), I love it!

Didn't know she is dead

(Bought in NY btw!)

She was 48 . I've got all of her books. She wrote 2 great cookery books too. Kind of memoir type cookery books rather than recipes as such.

Here are all her titles if you want to try some more Jan.

Another Marvelous Thing
A Big Storm Knocked It Over
Family Happiness
Goodbye without Leaving
Happy All the Time
Home Cooking
The Lone Pilgrim
More Home Cooking
Passion and Affect
Shine On, Bright and Dangerous Object

\link{http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0060955325/qid=1149103750/sr=1-2/ref=sr_1_3_2/026-0085837-4187675\amazon uk have it} - must rummage for mine, haven't read it for aaaages. And buy some others

Try the cooking ones too. Here's a quote from More Home Cooking...

Cookbooks hit you where you live. You want comfort; you want security; you want food; and you want to not be hungry; and not only do you want these basic things fixed, you want it done in a really nice, gentle way that makes you feel loved. That's the big desire, and cookbooks say to the person reading them, 'if you read me, you will be able to do this for yourself and for others. You will make everybody feel better.'

Brilliant stuff!

Thanks for your list, Gem - I just had a v satisfying run through abebooks and found 9 titles, but the postage came to a large amount more than the books did - I think I will have to buy from (shhh) amazon

Just found \link{http://www.literature-map.com/anne+tyler.html\this} - "what else do readers of Anne Tyler read?"

Lots of our suggestions are there, plus:

M Drabble (forgot I like her!) and Pat Conroy - he used to be a favourite of mine years ago - give him a try!

really like this thread!
less contemporary but wonderful are edith wharton: house of mirth / age of innocence (american female contemporary of henry james... but v readable) and barbara pym (v v english about nothing much but beautifully done...). one of my all time faves.
you're right about the gerard woodward marina, it is bleak but v v good i thought....

Have been mulling this thread over and wondering what else might suit. So interested to see M Drabble here, because another blast from the past is Elizabeth Jane Howard - well, some of her books. Well, specifically, "Getting it right", glorious, sweet-tempered social comedy from the 70s.
Must look into Laurie Colwin, I am always keen to explore writers who inspire real affection and loyalty :)
How about Cold Comfort Farm, by Stella Gibbons...or some of HE Bates' elegaic, atmospheric pastoral romances - A Moment in Time, Fair Stood the Wind for France and the fabulous Love for Lydia?
And The Beacon at Alexandria (by Gillian Bradshaw) and Gail Godwin's Father Melancholy's Daughter are both books I could really enjoy when pregnant.

\link{http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/c/pat-conroy/water-is-wide.htm\The Water is Wide} by Pat Conroy - fabulous book (non-fiction)

I also love E M Delafield - Diary of a Provincial Lady and sequels, very very funny; and Nancy Mitford - esp The Pursuit of Love & Love in a Cold Climate but also The Blessing & Don't Tell Alfred. Both in different eras and a different league but very enjoyable (IMHO!)

(Just discovered that EMD's actual name was Edmée Elizabeth Monica Dashwood )

Thanks for your chart thing Jan. It was interesting to see how any authors came up. Richard Russo is another favourite of mine (Nobody's Fool is fab). I saw him at a reading in Philadelphia and he was really flattered that DH and I knew who he was!

Marina - thanks for staying up until midnight thinking! I loved Cold Comfort Farm, DS was nearly called Seth which is still a favourite name. He has an even better Jewish name though which he thinks is fab .

Well, a disappointing trip to Waterstone's and Borders today. To great excitement I took in a huge list and the children were being fantastic But... there was nothing in Waterstone's - so rubbish! As an old employee I wanted to think better of them but it really does seem like a glorified Smiths now. They've eaten up the independents and then peddle Dan Brown to the masses.

Borders was slightly better so I have come home with...

Jennifer Donnelly - A Gathering Light
Sue Miller - Lost in the Forest
Elizabeth Berg - What we Keep

That's it I'm afraid but it should keep me going for a while and I am looking forward to reading them. I found out too that Melissa Bank's (Girl's Guide to Hunting and Fishing) second novel is out in paperback today but neither had it in (of course).

I love the quote on the back of the Jennifer Donnelly - 'If George Clooney had walked into the room I would have told him to come back later when I'd finished'!!!

In Tesco this evening I got \link{http://www.tesco.com/books/product.aspx?R=0340835494&bci=4294708915|Jodi%20Picoult\Jodi Picoult's Vanishing Acts} and \link{http://www.tesco.com/books/product.aspx?R=0552770027&bci=4294703567|Joanne%20Harris\Joanne Harris's Gentlemen & Players} for £3.73 each.

(The website has the JH at £5.24 and says published on 5 June????)

Get down to Tesco, Gem!

Thanks for that Jan. I tried Jodi Picoult's 'The Pact' but didn't like it.

I haven't read any Joanne Harris - although have seen Chocolat - so I will give her a try.

I try to boycott Tescos (5 men in suits looked at their feet like 8 year olds when I asked them who was the manager once - was complaining about lack of milk...) but we have a fab discounted chain here which stocks a lot of more popular authors (plus hardback Anne Tyler for £9.99!).

Patrick Gale - Check him out you will be surprised. Interesting how every suggestion is for another woman writer. Patrick is gay so it might explain why I thought of him. Have you ever read Tales of City by Armisted Maupin .

Also Toni Morrison's -Beloved (she is astonishing)

I have read most of Alice Hoffman and like most of them.
Isabella Allende.

Thanks drosophila. Don't get me started on Tales of the City! Probably the only book I'm so sad I've read as I loved the series sooooooooo much. Another couple of years and I will read it again. The only time I have wept with laughter on the train. Sad the '70s dream' had turned into '80s money'. I wanted to live with Mrs Madrigal and have Michael Mouse as my best friend and went on a Tales of the City search when in San Francisco. Didn't meet them though! I met Armistead Maupin once and could hardly speak and then when I did I kind of gushed while whispering my admiration - not like me at all! Sadly I didn't get on with the other books, especially 'The Night Listener' - made me feel quite uncomfortable, especially as it was true.

I like Patrick Gale and must try his latest ones. I haven't read them for ages after reading a lot of his when I first discovered him.

Isabel Allende was a bit 'magical' for me. I enjoyed it as good writing but not as a good read IYKWIM.

Gem - Anne Tyler...Melissa Banks - if you like funny, quirky deadpan then Jonathan Franzen's The Corrections is a stunner. So bloody funny and brilliant about a bonkers American family.

Marina, like you I read the Gerald Woodward's the wrong way round but it feels right in retrospect.

I enjoy Anne Tyler and have also read almost all of Charlotte Bingham's. Not very good at summarising though, so not sure how similar they are. Almost all of CB's are about women in past times eg. "coming out" as Debutantes in London society, or living in villages in wartime.