I want to read something really intelligent and beautifully written

[SalveRibena]

I have been reading crap on my Kindle for too long and now want to go back to reading Proper Books. Past favourites include Atonement, Bring Up The Bodies, The Poisonwood Bible, The Sea and The Line of Beauty.

Any advice?

Oh gods - The Collector gave me nightmares. I could never, ever re=read it.

The Remains of the Day, Kazuo Ishiguro
Anything by Angela Carter.
Anything by Toni Morrison.
Dance, Dance, Dance and Norwegian Wood, Murakami.

I too am eagerly awaiting the new Donna Tartt!

A Farewell To Arms by Hemingway -How could I forget this?

in no particular order

What I Loved by Siri Hustvedt
The Wind up Bird Chronicle by Murakami
Crossing to Safety by Wallace Stegner

Music and Silence by Rose Tremain.
The Book of Silence or Gossip from the Forest by Sarah Maitland (not fiction).

Alys, Always by Harriet Lane was very good as well.

I enjoyed, 'Gossip From The Forest' overall - especially when she wasn't writing about herself! Some of it is really lovely.

Suite francaise by Irene nemirovsky is beautifully written and if you read up on the author herself and what happened to her, very poignant.

The Collector by John Fowles
The Book of Human Skin (can't remember author's name)
Perfume by Patrick Suskind
What I Loved by Siri Hustvedt
Chekhov short stories are fabulous
The Odyssey (I really enjoyed the Robert Fitzgerald translation)
We need to talk about Kevin - Lionel Shriver
In Cold Blood - Truman Capote
The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
The reader - Bernhardt Schlink
Revolutionary Road
Q & A by Vikas Swarup (may have been republished as Slumdog Millionaire as it's the book the film was based on, but it has far more going on and is a rollicking good read)

The Private Lives of Pippa Lee - Rebecca Miller

The Fire Next Time - James Baldwin (not a novel, it's a collection of two essays. They are incredibly powerful, heartbreaking, beautifully written and so so memorable).

Ooh this is inspiring, I've just got back into reading good stuff after months of 'fun' stuff cough Twilight fan fiction so I will be going through this thread and making a Kindle wish list :).

If you like speculative fiction, Wind-up Girl is good - I forget who it's by, and Flood by Stephen Baxter is a good page turner.

A bit of a departure from fiction, but The February House is a pleasure, describing the lives of Carson McCullers, WH Auden, Paul Bowles, Benjamin Britten and other interesting types during a period when they shared a house in New York, just before WW2.

Also, I've just started The 100-year-old Man who Climbed out of the Window and Disappeared, which seems quite fun so far.

Recently read Night waking, by Sarah Moss - a wonderful description of motherhood with a wakeful toddler, and of how having children makes you confront mortality. Also laugh out loud funny and some interesting Scottish history thrown in. I really, really recommend it.

Would also second Anne Tyler and Alice Munro.

And for something completely different, Dr Zhivago is truly amazing.

Someone here suggested Rumer Godden.

The Book People have three of her books in a set for £4.99 and you can get 10% off with the code Nutcracker if you order from them by 11pm tonight.

The End of Mr Y by Scarlett Thomas is amazing - so clever and really well written

I love that book McFox and I liked Our Tragic Universe as well.

The End Of Mr Y started out so well and it could have been so fantastic. But what was it rambling about in the last 1/4 or so? All I remember is that it made no sense whatsoever.

AS Byatt, any but The Children's Book is excellent. I suspect you other love or hate Byatt...

Anything from the Persephone books imprint (google them)

Just out - Hannah Kent, Burial Rites

Thank you Scares. The 'Diddakoi' was a favourite childrens book of mine alongside 'Miss Happiness and Miss Flower' and 'Little Plum'. I will order her adult books forthwith!

I second the vote for Sarah Moss's Night Waking. If you are an intelligent culture-craving woman who has been through the madness and sleep deprivation of motherhood...you need to read it.

For anybody who loves art history then I can recommend this. The book traces the history of the Arnolfini Portrait by Van Eyck in a meticulous yet evocative and beautiful manner. I love this and return to it time and time again. What Carola Hicks doesn't uncover probably isn't worth knowing.

Flight behaviour by Barbara Kingsolver is 99p on Amazon Kindle offers.

Other offers are-

The English Patient
Pure
Oscar and Lucinda
Crooked Letter Crooked Latter (great)
The Hours
Boxer Beetle
Somewhere Towards The End (Diana Athill)
The American Boy

Here is the page.

I adore The Saddlebag by Bahiyyih Nakhjavani and I've never met anyone else who has read it. A beautiful, lyrical novel.

Thanks for that, mignonette. Although I couldn't find the books you mentioned there, I did see that Pure by Andrew Miller is at 1.49 and bagged it

Remus - Pure might just be your cup of tea.

Yet another vote for Alias Grace by Margaret Attwood - engrossing, engaging and thoroughly enjoyable. Have also read and enjoyed many of the other suggestions. Jim Crace's Quarantine is a vivid re-imagining of Jesus' Forty days in the Wilderness...definitely beautifully written, very sparse but incredibly thought-provoking...was this how Christianity started? Life after Life by Kate Atkinson one of those playful hypothetical novels. Just finished A Commonplace Killing by Robert Peston's late wife, Sian Busby...very evocative of post WW2 London...you could taste the trauma, grime and privations. In that vein, but of course so much more so, Primo Levi and If this is a Man.
For an expansive overview of contemporary London, Hearts and Minds by Amanda Craig. Love most William Boyd and the few Stephen Kings I've read have been beautifully executed. Would recommend his 11/22/63 again a playful re-imagining of the events leading up to JFK's assassination - topical with the 50th anniversary approaching.