A book (or a series of books) to get lost in

[AKAmyself]

I desperately need something chunky and absorbing to get lost in. A book that will make me call in sick from work and hide in the loo when my in-laws are here.

I adore multigenerational family sagas, I love romance when it's well written and the characters are strong, I love historical books.

I love both high literature and more commercial fiction, not fussy or snobbish about it... have loved everything from War and Peace to Outlander!

Basically I want to fall in love with a world and a set of characters and forget all about the shitty world we live in.

not asking too much, am I? please hit me with your recs!

thanks!

I've just devoured the latest of the Rivers of London books - perhaps not the style that you're after but there are 6 now and I've been totally engrossed by all of them.

Penny Vincenzi series about the Lyttons

Valerie Anand's "Bridges through time" series. Covers >900 years of family saga!

I must be a lone voice but I hated the Cazalet series - nothing happens and then when stuff finally does begin to happen, it turns out that the author died so nothing else is going to happen.

I'd suggest the Century trilogy by Ken Follett (starting with Fall of Giants) or for a gentler read, I like The Camomile Lawn by Mary Wesley.

Harry Potter and Delirium

Another one for the Bronze Horseman and also for the Secret River by Kate Grenville, it's a trilogy (I think) set in Australia.

I'm putting Elena Ferante on my new year reading list

I've been inspired by this thread to buy the Cazalet books - sounds totally up my street. Amazingly I found on eBay you can buy the entire series for under a tenner! Just started the first book today and so far so good

How did I not know that there were two more books in Mary Stewart's Merlin saga?

I have read the first three so many times and I am so excited to find there are more. I think I will get them and read over Christmas

Another recommendation for the Lymond Chronicles.

The series I have binge-read recently have been the Rivers of London books, the Merrily Watkins novels by Phil Rickman and the St Mary's books by Jodi Taylor, which are about a group of time-travelling historians.

I also loved The Bone Clocks.
If you haven't already read Wolf Hall, read it.

For gentle historical romantic reading, especially when I am feeling a bit ill or tired, I love Eva Ibbotson's romances, which she originally wrote for adults but which are now marketed for children/teenagers. The Morning Gift and The Secret Countess are probably my favourites.

Seconding Elena Ferrante's Neopolitan Quartet

Just to warn you the last 2 Mary Stewart ones focus on different characters

Tabby, I couldn't wait till christmas and have nearly finished the fourth one. It is really different in that it is not written in the first person, and I got annoyed when he NEARLY saw Merlin but didn't, but I love it!

Lawrence Durrell-the Alexandria Quartet.
The Baroque Cycle (3 books) by Neal Stephenson.
Another vote for the Rivers of London series-absorbing and funny.
T.H.White's Arthurian saga, The Once and Future King, is old-fashioned now but beautiful and elegiac. The first book is also very funny.
Lots of people I know have banged on about the Dance to the Music of Time books by Anthony Powell but I was put off by what a nasty old bastard he was.

The Mary Russell books by Laurie R King, starting with The Beekeeper's Apprentice. Totally absorbing.
Another vote for the Rivers of London series.
CJ Sansom's Shardlake series, starting with Dissolution (historical).
Ann Cleeve's Shetland series (much better than the TV version)
Alan Bradley's Flavia de Luce series, starting with The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie: great for escaping from the real world.
Some stand-alone novels that take ages to read: The Miniaturist, All the Light We Cannot See, The Glass Palace.
Anything by Tracy Chevalier.
I'm really envious of anyone who hasn't already read any of these books - I loved them all.

I also immediately thought of A Suitable Boy

Barbara Erskine writes beautiful present day stories linking into historical times. May I suggest start with 'Lady of Hay' and 'Whispers in the Sand' they are my favourites. There's no set order to read them in. www.barbara-erskine.co.uk/novels

Pillars Of The Earth
Night Circus
Song Of Ice And Fire

Ken Follet is a good saga choice.
Century trilogy or Pillars of the Earth followed by World Without End.

I binge read the St Mary's Chronicles by Jodi Taylor & I loved them! The Rivers of London books are fab too!

Jane smiley trilogy (though I don't think the third is out yet). But first two are great, miswestern family through the decades starting in great depression/ dust bowl era
The cazalets are ok but it always reminded me of life after life which is soooo much better and by the last Cazalet I'd got totally confused who everyone was and some (most) characters were really tedious to trawl through

I'm really enjoying the Poldark books.

I like the Shardlake series of books. Historical - set in times of Henry VIII.

Delirium trilogy and Harry Potter