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Original poster

Would anyone like to suggest a book my postnatal brain could deal with?

27 replies

Stevie77 · 07/08/2014 09:40

For months now, even through pregnancy, I've not been able to get into any book. The pile of unfinished books is getting higher and higher.

I'm giving up on The Eyre Affair today after reaching the conclusion I just don't care how it ends or what happens. I've also abandoned Slaughterhouse 5, but was probably a bit ambitious trying to read it while too tired etc. I need a book to get me back into reading, something that would really grab me, that I won't be able to put down. None of the books I have at home are right as too 'literary' (The Kindly Ones, The Goldfinch, If this is a Man etc).

I was thinking Gone Girl? Don't normally read thrillers but maybe that's the sort of book I need?

OP posts:
ShanghaiDiva · 07/08/2014 10:10

Until you're mine by Sam Hayes.
Not too demanding, but a decent page turner.
Gone Girl is also a good read.

Ohwhatfuckeryisthis · 07/08/2014 10:19

Where's my cow? Grin
Do not, like me, decide Sophie's choice would be a good hospital book.
I was a bit meh about gone girl.
, but it's not demanding.

TheMaw · 07/08/2014 11:39

Gone Girl is a good one and so is Until I Go To Sleep by Somebody Watson. I really liked them both. Also Goldfinch is so brilliant, you just have to read it when you're feeling more up to it!

CoteDAzur · 07/08/2014 16:21

Before I Go To Sleep.

I read The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo in the last month of DS's pregnancy, then its sequel when in hospital after he was born. Third book in the series was by my bedside to be read when breastfeeding him. I was totally hooked. My mum thought I was insane Grin

RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie · 07/08/2014 16:26

'Gone Girl' = rubbish imvho.

Could you go for comfort re-reads of old favourites?

Otherwise, 'Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day' is v sweet and easy - can be read in an hour or two, or something like, 'Vile Bodies' or, 'A Handful of Dust' maybe? The latter two are excellent reads and intellectually stimulating, but still short and easy.

TheMaw · 07/08/2014 16:35

Sorry, BEFORE I Go To Sleep - although I nearly wrote 'Until I Wake Up' which would have been much worse.

Original poster
Stevie77 · 07/08/2014 16:41

Thanks everyone. I've nipped to the library earlier and borrowed Gone Girl and will give it a go, hope fully it'll be an easy read. I looked at Before I Go to Sleep and was a little unsure, I could pop over tomorrow and borrow that if Gone Girl doesn't grip me tonight.

I'll check out all your other recommendations, those I haven't yet read. I have a feeling this lull in reading is going to take a while to snap out of!

OP posts:
Hatetidyingthehouse · 09/08/2014 15:36

Gone girl is an easy read

ReigningQueen · 16/08/2014 19:46

The Hunger Games is a good easy read. I really enjoyed it through my post natal tiredness (which is ongoing 22 months later. I also have Gone Girl on my list)

callipygian00 · 16/08/2014 23:24

Young adult fiction is great when you just need something you don't need to concentrate on. I would go for John Green's 'Fault in Our Stars', it's a totally easy read but doesn't lack in quality. Be prepared for tears - it's the only book to make me cry (and don't read the thread on here about it, there are spoilers)!
Other easy but worthwhile reads are To Kill a Mockingbird (Harper Lee) and The Help (Kathryn Stockett), The Book Thief (Markus Zusak) and I second the Hunger Games (Suzanne Collins). If there are any other books with film/tv adaptations you've seen but would still like to read this is a good time to read them because knowing the story often helps keep you following when you're tired.

ThursdayLast · 16/08/2014 23:30

The Stephanie Plum series by Janet Evanovich is an easy read.

ZenNudist · 16/08/2014 23:53

The Rosie project - fluff but good fluff

Don't read gone girl it's pap. Read the cuckoos calling cormoran strike jk Rowling writing as Robert Galbraith.

DuchessofMalfi · 17/08/2014 07:13

If you like The Rosie Project, there's a sequel out soon Smile. I thoroughly enjoyed it. Great story, lots of humour and Don & Rosie are lovely. Can't wait for that sequel Smile.

Janet Evanovich's humour is wonderful. The Stephanie Plum novels are guaranteed to make you laugh, especially the earlier ones.

LottaMarten · 17/08/2014 07:15

Lucy Lawrie's book Tiny Acts of Love describes that post natal fug beautifully and is a good read too - well written I thought and funny and sweet

LauraChant · 17/08/2014 07:47

I know this is adult fiction topic but after I had DS I worked my way through all the Anne of Green Gables series and the out of print sequels to What Katy Did on my Kindle.

Original poster
Stevie77 · 15/09/2014 23:28

So...

I have read Gone Girl and enjoyed it, despite it being a trashy thriller. It was an easy read and very undemanding. Read it very quickly and am now about to finish Before I Go to Sleep, which I'm also enjoying.

Have noted down all the recommendations (some I have read, some we're new to me) so will see what's in the library, but would love some more thriller type recs, like the above, as they seem to work for me ATM. Thanks.

OP posts:
DameDiazepamTheDramaQueen · 17/09/2014 22:22

I don't know why Gone Girl was so popular when Sharp Objects was so much better?Confused I couldn't put it down,I just thought GG was shit.

Killer cupid by Mark Edwards

The Magpies also by Mark Edwards

The Island by Emily Barr

The first book I read post nataly was The Girl with the Pearl Earring.

Minithemoocher · 17/09/2014 22:26

I'm in the same predicament so watching with interest!

DameDiazepamTheDramaQueen · 17/09/2014 22:26

Into the darkest corner-Elizabeth Hayes

The Playdate by..?

My cousin Rachael by Daphne du Maurier

joanofarchitrave · 17/09/2014 22:27

The Pursuit of Love by Nancy Mitford.
In a good light by Clare Chambers. not thrillers though.

burgatroyd · 19/09/2014 16:52

I read
www.amazon.co.uk/The-Examined-Life-Lose-Ourselves/dp/0099549034

Its a series of short essays but was very adductive. I'm normally a psychological thriller reader.

I found Until I go to sleep dreary and childish.
Gone girl is great.

Also recommend The Husbands Secret

spritesoright · 22/10/2014 01:00

I read "A Life's Work" by Rachel Cusk about 4 weeks into DD's babyhood and found it utterly compelling in its description of motherhood. It is the only book I've ever started again as soon as I finished it.
It's not a particularly rosy portrait of motherhood but that's what I loved about it. I got sick of people saying "I never knew I could love this much."
Yes, and...

spritesoright · 22/10/2014 01:02

It's not fiction but she does draw on a lot of literature.

lemonpoppyseed · 22/10/2014 01:11

In my postnatal fug earlier this year I read a couple of Jojo Moyes books, The Storied Life of AJ Fikry by Gabriella Zevin and a couple of books by Lesley Lokko (Bitter Chocolate, Sundowners). All on the lighter side, but with some substance.

HerRoyalNotness · 22/10/2014 01:38

Mathew Reilly writes very fast paced action books which are hard to put down. There is a scarecrow series (military characters/renegades saving various situations) and then a series about saving the world, can't remember the name of first book but six sacred stones is one of them. Really a cracking read