5 Genres - 5 Books

[thepetitpear]

Hi All,

I've rediscovered my love for reading, it's sure been a while. Well, perhaps 15 years + to be exact!

So with this in mind and wanting to find genres/ styles/ authors I might like to read more of, if you had to pick your favourite book/s out that fit in to one of this genres, what would it be?

Chick Lit
Classic
Fantasy
Crime
Romance

Thank you :)

Chick Lit-Marian Keyes Rachel's Holiday
Classic-Gone with the Wind but it's 1000 pages so maybe Rebecca as an alternate.
Crime-Dennis Lehane Mystic River
I'm going to combine fantasy and romance and say the True Blood books by Charlaine Harris.

I'd also recommend Alice Hoffman, Ann Patchett and the early Douglas Kennedy books.

1 Cecilia Ahern seems very popular
2 Dickens perhaps try David Copperfield or Great Expectations first
3 Lord of the Rings
4 Shardlake series for historical crime or Michael Ridpath's Iceland series
5 Bridget Jones

Just some quick answers off the top of my head:

Chicklit: Something like The Holiday Home by Fern Britton. I actually laughed out loud at some points in this book. Also Rosie Goodwin or Jessica Stirling are pretty good for some light chicklit.

Classic: Anything by Anton Chekov. His short story collections are excellent and very well translated.

Crime: The DI Max Wolfe series by Tony Parsons. I've just finished this series (so far) and it was great. Easy to read but pacy and well written with some dry humour here and there.

Fantasy: The Blood Magick Trilogy. And yes that is the correct spelling of Magick! I don't normally go for fantasy, but once I'd read the first one of this trilogy I just had to go on and finish it.

Romance: Again, not a genre I generally tend to go for, but if you want easy reading with a bit of a Downton Abbey feel, then try anything by Jessica Blair. For something more modern day then Debbie Macobmer would be worth considering.

Have fun rediscovering your love of reading!

Thanks both.

mmack, I really enjoyed the True Blood TV series so will definitely give the books a go.

AdaColeman, I remember reading Great Expectations at school and loving it. I will definitely read it again.

Thank you waycat, I'll look into those.

Oh, I like this idea, interesting to see others choices. I'd say:

Chick Lit - I'm not big on chick lit per se - tend to read fantasy/romance instead. Maybe The Rosie Project? Would that count?
Classic - Either Mansfield Park or Pride and Prejudice, hard to choose between them.

Fantasy - I love fantasy, so hard to pick an all time favourite. Recently I've really enjoyed the Between Two Thorns series by Emma Newman
Crime - The City and The City by China Mieville (police procedural set in an alternate reality)
Romance - has to be a Georgette Heyer, probably Devil's Cub. If you want something more modern (and indulging my love of fantasy) then the Mortal Instruments series by Cassandra Clare.

Chick-lit: I don't read this genre but I will suggest some literary fiction centred on women instead - American Wife by Curtis Sittenfield and Where'd You Go Bernadette by Maria Semple

Classic: Anna Karenina, Tolstoy/Pride and Prejudice, Austen/The Woman in White, Collins/Middlemarch, Eliot (can't choose just one!)

Fantasy: YA but His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman

Crime: Shardlake series, starts with Dissolution or Raymond Chandler

1. Romance: Persuasion by Jane Austen

Don't why I started numbering them on the last one

Chick Lit - How to Find Love in a Bookshop by Veronica Henry ( I haven't read many but just read this one and managed to miss one station on the Tube )
Classic - Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
Fantasy - 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami
Crime - The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins
Romance - Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell

Crime - in fact I would recommend We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver, I couldn't put it down

Chick lit - I don't read it but if I have to choose one, either some Georgette Heyer or Bridget Jones' Diary

Classic - Wilkie Colins 'Woman in White' or 'No Name' or 'A Clockwork Orange' by Anthony Burgess

Fantasy - King's Dark Tower series

Crime - Raymond Chandler - Farewell my Lovely or The Long Goodbye

Romance - Jane Austen - any of them but especially Pride and Prejudice or Sense and Sensibility (save Persuasion until last)

Oh good idea

I don't do much chick lit these days but will go for a family saga type. The Wheel of Fortune - Susan Howatch

Classic The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald or Cold Comfort Farm. Also agree with Austen, Anna Karenina.

Fantasy - Assassin's Apprentice - Robin Hobb, & actually more so all the books that follow it but you need to start at the start.

Crime - Still Life - Louise Penny, really like this modern take on cosy crime set in a Canada.

Romance - Thornbirds - Colleen McCullough. Because everyone wants what they can't have.