tell me a book you where you said "wow, that was blankety, blank amazing!

[christie1]

I am in a dry spell, been filling it with some solid mysterys interspersed with Dr. Zhivago, but I am craving a reall good read where I fall in love with the book. Help me please! I read anything from chick lit to classics but find everything I pick up, bores me.

Patrick Suskind: Perfume. Get in before they ruin it with the movie. My favourite book of all time.

Are they making a film of Perfume, Eekk - interesting. Who?Tis indeed fab book. And real page turner.

Add to that (am only allowing myself one ...) In the Skin of a (the?) Lion - Michael Ondatje - a bit dense but magically written
Will come back later with another one...

Message withdrawn

Anything written by Jonathan Coe. My fave author.

Perfume - the film . Love the book though.

Have just read Behind the Scenes at the Museum by Kate Atkins, or Atkinson. I rarely rave about modern fiction, but I absolutely loved that book - so intricate.

Also The Tennant of Wildfell Hall, Anne Bronte. Read it in 2 nights as could not put it down.

read atkinson and the bronte book, will look for the coe and perfume book. both sound great.

Atkinson's short stories (Not the end of the World) is fab too

Another of my favourite books is The Mezzanine by Nicholson Baker - quite stream of consciousness (but not in a 'literary' way, more like a good stand-up comedian) about someone's lunch hour, and all the thoughts he has while going out to get a sandwich. Sounds bizarre, but is really entertaining and thought provoking - though very short.

ooooh, I reccommend anything by Martina Cole!

crime and punishment.

I completely fell in love with Rohinton Mistry's Family Matters and was in tears at the end. Bit embarassing as I was in a cafe at the time, but well worth it.

The shadow of the Wind - fantastic I was there in Barcellona with him!

Cross Stich by Diana Gabaldon

Clan of the Cave Bear - Jean M. Auel

Life of Pi by Yann Martell

She's Come Undone - Wally Lamb
My Year of Meat - Ruth Ozeki
Wicked - Gregory Maguire
Was - Geoff Ryman

All books that I would never have picked up without recommendations from friends and were all fantastic.

Cowboys are My Weakness - Pam Housten great, sassy short stories to re-read
Dive from Clausen's Pier - Ann Packer - more thoughtful than chick lit
Year of Wonders - Geraldine Brooks - think it has been mentioned elsewhere on here. Really well told story about the plague village in Derbyshire, but don't let the theme but you off...
Miss Smilla's feeling for Snow - Peter Hoeg, thrills, bit of sex, murders, ice. Bonkers but good.

The Quincunx by Charles Palliser - do a search on here for it to find ramblings of myself and Ks about it. I started it one morning on my last holiday pre-kids and was still up reading it at 3am.

Ooo, I haven't read a really truly gripping book for months but casting my mind back over the last few months...

The Bullet Trick by Louise Welsh - superb atmospheric mystery-ish novel. Not exactly a who-dunnit, more a did-they-do-it and if so how/why/when? I did guess the "twist" before the end but it doesn't really matter as the telling is more important than the tale in some ways. You have to get used to the jumping back and forth in time though.

Game of Kings by Dorothy Dunnett - part one of the Francis Lymond series, he is a sort of Jacobean James Bond. It has rather a slow start but picks up.

Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger - as seen on Richard and Judy hem hem. Loved it, I even cried which is very rare for me.

Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides - lovely, dreamy leap-of-imagination book. It's about a boy
born gender indeterminate but is not at all nasty/prurient. Maybe don't read if you are pregnant though.

What's your recommendation Christie?

Hey, MissGolightly - another Dunnett fan. I love them all - but they do take a bit of concentration and time to read, that I can rarely find these days. A completely engrossing read, and series (and the Niccolo one), and a world that I really don't want to leave, once I've been there.

ghostwritten - somebody mitchell
the wind up bird chronicle - can't spell his name
my year of meat
the kiterunner

Hi Jackie - so glad to find another Dunnett fan! Aren't the books impossible to find? I wish Penguin would do a decent sized reprint.

I've never read the Niccolo series - am waiting for a really long holiday with childcare where I can sit back and enjoy them uninterrupted!

Talking of historical, have also recently rediscovered Georgette Heyer. I had forgotten how good she can be when she's good. I think my favourite is the Masqueraders - complete tosh but superb escapism and so witty.

'in cold blood' - truman capote

'lives of the monster dogs' - kirstin bakis

'fear and loathing in las vegas' - hunter s. thompson

'hypnotism made easy' - marie nimier

'the bloody chamber - angela carter