can you reccmoned some novels fo me please( esp modern ones)

[CODalmighty]

htink i need bossykate - she likes books i do

ok have liked int he past:
secret history
Mitford biog
piers moron
that zoe heller
margaret forster
isabel allende
last king of schotland

etc

NO chick lit

NO dead babies or kids in horibel circstmancces( is we need to tlak abotu kevin terrible?)
no indian books
no farking grails

this is fab too

HM tale - it was disturbing......

Balanced though at the time with "Woman on the Edge of Time" from Marge Piercy. Uplifting..just brilliant. Not had such a good time reading a book before.

Ledodgy: heard that on R4 - it was brilliant

no never read rebecca
ro dont THINK so

ok added the bat ( fgs) and crawford loke great
adn dtepehne fry
and the du mariere and wesley

I would second "A Widow for one year" mentioned below - I find John Osbornes books very mixed - some I love, others I abandon half-way through (still haven't finished the most recent one, whatever it is called...)

I liked Lovely Bones - not at all what I thought it would be like (thought it would be "kids in horrible circumstances"...)

What about "My Sister's Keeper"? I thought the subject matter was interesting but the characters were too 1-dimensional....

Have you tried Douglas Coupland? He is one of my fav modern authors - very light and easy to read in some ways but good at capturing modern life.

Did you mean John Irvings ??

Oops yes I did - put it down to being up at 5.30 with ds2....

What about Jonathan Coe?

David Mitchell i love him. REad Black Swan Green - about being 13 in the 80s, its so familiar its wierd. Also Cloud Atlas and ghostwritten by him.

Rebecca is great. Best Evelyn Waugh is definitely 'a handful of dust'.

You are right, his early stuff was excellent but I find his later stuff formulaic and if I have to read another passage about a) Wrestling b) Germany then I will go bonkers.

If you like Maggie O'Farrell her new one is good. Its about a woman needless held in an asylum for 60 years for being eccentric

Have you read Steinbeck? Grapes of Wrath and East of Eden are my favs.

maggie ofareel is chcik lit non?

grr the du maruier biog is too logn on dealy

I guess O'Farrell is a bit chick-litesque in that most men would not be interested. But it is way better written and more intelligent than most chick-lit. Her stories are very haunting and memorable. Never about shopping, shagging or child rearing. I hate most chick-lit but love her stuff.

Cod, what's the Last King of Scotland like? I really fancy reading it? Is it very heavy going?

Read david lodge for A Level English - what was that one that was made into a tv serial, about a working class man and a middle class academic woman who have an affair? Was that nice work? I always remember my lovely male english teacher blushing and stammering when he got the an explicit sex scene involving a blow job. Had a little sexual awakenign in that class.

Cod, on the Richard & Judy link, my gut feeling is that you would like the Hislop book, but not The Historian, going by what you've said you've liked and disliked.

Kate Atkinson? Mavis Cheek? Deborah Moggach?

sarah kate lynch! love her stuff!!!

oh yes hadv done lodge
alst king of scotland nto heeavy goign at all

loved it

If you enjoyed the Mitford biog, you might enjoy Nancy Mitford's novels Love in a Cold Climate and Pursuit of Love. Both v witty.

Have you tried any Kate Atkinson?

Certainly recommend Rebecca, and other Du Maurier novels, umm, Jamaica Inn for example.

The No1 Ladies' Detective Agency was a good, easy to read series.