I havent read a book in 2 years, please recommend THE one

[Bluetubchairs]

book I shall have time to read during my upcoming holiday.

With two small dc I know there will be precious little time to lounge around the pool with a book and an ice cold drink but I would love to enjoy reading again during the hopefully peaceful evenings.

It can't be crime or thriller sorry but want to relax not feed my tension

Not too 'clever' baby brain won't allow it but definitely nothing too shallow either please. Thought inspiring rather than mind boggling iyswim.

Historical novels are usual up my street but not Kate Mosse.

Could even be non-fiction if really readable and entertaining.

Does anyone feel like recommending a good read? Tia!

I have heard good things about L

Just 'L'? curiously awaiting further ideas.

Thanks Edward. Dh read the night circus recently and liked it. I couldn't get part the first few pages though. Thus would have been up my street but somehow, since dc2, something gas to really capture my interest otherwise I just can't focus on it. Il check the snow child. Thanks.

Apologies for quick typing on predictive keyboard.

How about I Capture the Castle? I think it is officially a teen book, so not too much like hard work, easy to read...but also very good!

The book thief! I read it on holiday and couldn't put it down.

Have you read the hunger games?!

Something by Rose Tremain. Her books are always engrossing with fascinating characters and not too challenging while being very beautifully written.

The Colour is good if you want historical fiction. Restoration is fantastic.

Music and Silence by Rose Tremain is also good.

But most of all I'd recommend The Observations by Jane Harris. It's a great read, intriguing and amusing with an engaging narrator. One of my absolute favourites.

The Girl You Left Behind by Jojo Moyes. Half set in occupied France (historical), half modern day chick lit but brilliantly written. I couldn't put it down.

Also second The Hunger Games.

I literally HATED the Night Circus.
My non-put-down books in the last few years were
Room
Sarah's Key
We Need to talk about kevin
The husband's secret
To be sung underwater
The hundred yr old man who climbed out the window and disappeared

Sorry, not really into historical novels but my favourites from the last couple of years were
The Thirteenth Tale
The House at Riverton

I have read book thief and house at riverton and enjoyed both very much. I'll look up the other suggestions in a bit.

Hunger games is and room too dark for my sleep deprived state of mind.

The last book I read was The Seamstress by duenas and I'm afraid it was sooooo awful, I haven't touched a novel since . I used to have quite a high tolerance to 'chic lit' but this was just too much.

Shadow of the wind
Middlesex
Room
Gone girl
Kate Atkinson's Brodie series
Philip Pullman his dark materials trilogy
The fault in our stars
My year of meats
The road (v quick read so take a 2nd book)
Any Murakami-the wind up bird chronicle

I liked snow child & night circus too.

For non fiction, try Maggie and Me by Damian Barr and A Curious Career by Lyn Barber. Her earlier memoir An Education is good too. All v short, but well written and absorbing.

Shantaram by David Gregory Robert is an amazing story perfect holiday read. Read it before it becomes a crap film

Have you read Wolf Hall and Bring Up The Bodies already?

Not a historical novel but I really enjoyed Water for Elephants. I read it before I'd seen the film and the book brought the story to life even more than the film, it was a page turner certainly.

If you fancy something historical and non fiction try The Duchess by Amanda Forman, a biography about Georgiana Cavendish, Duchess of Devonshire, again something I read before the film. It was really interesting, readable and fascinating really!

A very good historical novel I read recently was Queen's Gambit. It's about Katherine Parr, from the death of her second husband, through her marriage to Henry VIII and then to Thomas Seymour.

It's easy to read but well written, thoroughly engrossing. I loved it.

The author is Elizabeth Fremantle.

Also second the Rose Tremain novel - Restoration. It's wonderful. Very funny, and quite bawdy in places. Loved it, and the sequel Merivel. Absolutely brilliant.

Another Mumsnetter recommended 'One Dam thing After Another' to me.

I really wish that my brain was capable of reading anything highbrow but it just isn't.

It's part romance/drama/historical and easy to read. Great book and there are two more if you enjoy the first

If you like historical fiction then philippa gregory is a good place to start. I've absolutely loved the women of the cousins war books by philippa gregory. The order I read them in was:
The lady of rivers
The white queen
The red queen
The kingmakers daughter
The white princess.

They then go into the Tudor series:
The constant princess (about Catherine of Aragon and Henry 8th)
The other boleyn girl
The boleyn inheritance
The queens fool
And I'm now on to the virgins lover (about queen Elizabeth 1 and her sister mary Tudor).

Phew!!

If you're not interested in the cousins war (war of the roses) you could just start with the Tudor series which was also fantastic. :-)

There may be something there that you like :-)
Happy reading :-)

Sorry I typed L then DC distracted me and I pressed post and then had to go and break up an argument.

I was going to say Longbourn - I haven't actually read it but feedback seems to suggest it is good and not fluffy.

I recently read Meltdown by Ben Elton. I was sure I would hate it but actually was really pleasantly surprised. It is about the recession but not really depressing at all. Unless you are a banker who lost your job then you might not like it.

So so many really.