Find me a new book to love

[LadyPeterWimsey]

I am desperate, desperate I tell you, for new books. I have spent the weekend trying to find things I might fancy and I have lots of samples on my Kindle and nothing I feel like continuing to read.

A few years ago, a lovely MNetter introduced me to two writers she thought I might like - Dorothy Dunnett and Lois McMaster Bujold - and I loved and adored them, especially Bujold. But now I need another hit of new fiction, and the problem is that I am quite fussy, if my weekend of reading downloaded samples is anything to go by. There are lots of books I enjoyed - for example, the last couple I read were Case Histories and Station 11 and they were great - but I want something I love so much I have to read it again as soon as I have finished it and then bore my family endlessly with how wonderful it is.

So if I write down the authors that I read and read again, would anyone be kind enough to cast their eye down the list and recommend me something new? I'm looking for humour, intelligence, excellent writing and a happy ending. (I do not like sad endings.) I love crime, don't really read chick lit unless it is very, very funny, and have a penchant for historical fiction. I'm willing to branch out in terms of genre, but don't do horror. As you can tell from the list below, I love a romantic plot line but don't really like romance novels as such (Heyer excepted).

Here goes:

Dorothy L Sayers (of course) - crime, humour, romance and intelligence. Gaudy Night is probably my Desert Island book choice
Jane Austen - but no Brontes because I don't really enjoy Victorian literature
Georgette Heyer
John Le Carré - earlier books are much better than his later ones
Nancy Mitford
Josephine Tey - very fond of Golden Era detective fiction
John Wyndham - closest I get to science fiction, apart from Bujold, who is absolutely wonderful
Dorothy Dunnett
Douglas Adams
Lee Child -

Books I loved as a child and still re-read when I need consoling:

Emily of New Moon, and Anne of Green Gables
Ballet Shoes, and all the other Streatfeilds
The Sue Barton series
My Family and Other Animals
The Swish of the Curtain
My Darling Villain (I do like other Lynne Reid Banks but this one is my favourite)
I Capture the Castle
Daddy Long Legs
What Katy Did Next
All the Little House on the Prairie books
Eagle of the Ninth and other Sutcliffs

Patricia Finney's Elizabethan trilogy (Firedrake's Eye, Unicorn's Blood, Gloriana's Torch)

Her other persona P.F. Chisholm, the Sir Robert Carey series

Judith Merkle Riley: Margaret of Ashbury trilogy (14th Century) and The Serpent Garden (Tudor - widowed portrait painter)

And I'll just plug my own favourite Sheri Tepper (Grass, The Gate to Women's Country et al) though she isn't everyone's cup of tea.

And do you know the Stephanie Plum series?

Heartily endorse Shardlake and Aubrey/Maturin!

J

LadyPeter I far prefer the Botswana books to the Edinburgh ones. I know the latter were written in serial form for a paper so the format is different and to me the characters never felt real. Although it is a log time since I tried them. He does have a quite a formal and detached writing style but I find it really suits the No1 Ladies series perfectly. I have never read any Jasper Fforde but I remember a couple of bookish friends loved both him and Kate Atkinson so if you enjoyed Case Histories might be worth a try.

Another vote for Flashman here - they’re very tongue in cheek and not at all pc but well written and meticulously researched. Would also recommend I Am Claudius and Claudius the God for historical fiction. There are also a couple of really good YA historical novels by Jennifer Donnelly which I thoroughly recommend - “Revolution” and “A Gathering Light”, which has a crime element to it. If you don’t mind YA the Phillip Pullman Sally Lockhart detective / crime series is good too. Basically all the books

Oh also All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Duerr - one of my favourite new reads from last year.

Two series I’ve read lately and really enjoyed. Genevieve Cogman’s Invisible Library series and Vivien Shaw’s Greta Helsing books. They’re light reading, but well-written and terrific world-building.

If you like Georgette Heyer, try Garth Nix’s Newts Emeralds, which is, I suppose, Regency Fantasy. It’s heaps of fun.

Along the same lines, Carolyn Stevermer’s Sorcery and Cecilia. Light and frothy but very entertaining.

As a one off holiday book, 'Take Me With You' by Brad Newsham is one of my favourite books ever. Very different, fantastic character descriptions.

Author-wise, my recommendation is always (the late, sniff) Pat Conroy - particularly 'Prince of Tides', but anything really.

I was recommended 2 books by DD that I did not think I would enjoy. One was the Godfather and the other, The Count of Monte Cristo. I have never seen a Godfather film, but the book was exceptional. . It reads like a family saga with lots of background from Sicily. The plotting in Count of MC as he gets revenge on all those who put him in prison was beautifullly crafted. I must admit that, on DDs advice, I skipped over the actual years he spent in prison as it was rather tedious

The Crimson Petal and the White. Michel Faber. Have read it again recently and loved it. Again!

Mary Stewart, nine coaches waiting

I do find it slightly annoying when OPs after recommendations never come back to say how they found things, so here is a brief update, with thanks for all your suggestions. I have been busy reserving books at the library (hurray for local libraries!) and finding second hand copies of things on eBay and Abe books, and have managed to read a few of your suggestions.

Mary Stewart was a very big success and I think I have now read all of her romantic suspense novels. Although I wouldn't have automatically picked the genre, I've decided that as long as it is well-written I can read almost anything, and I loved almost all of her books.

I also adored Uprooted by Naomi Novik, and really enjoyed Slow Horses (I have the second one reserved). I'm about to read The Morning Gift which I am looking forward to, and am hoping that the next Elly Griffiths will come my way soon.

I enjoyed Cranford more than I thought I would, and am trying to psych myself up to North and South but I really don't enjoy most Victorian fiction, unless it is very pacy, like The Moonstone. I also enjoyed Angela Thirkell but probably need to be in the right mood to read more. And I found the Lark on the Wing online, and randomly enjoyed that too!

Two big hits which weren't mentioned on here but which I somehow found anyway were The Silence of the Girls by Pat Barker (I found that incredibly moving, and a good antidote to the Wilson translation of the Odyssey which I am reading very slowly) and The Beacon at Alexandria by Gillian Bradshaw which completely ticked my boxes for historical fiction set in the ancient world with a female protagonist.

On the negative side, I read Flashman, but found him very hard to love, and just could not get in to the Vicki Bliss novel I tried. The Song of Achilles should have been my thing but I struggled with him as a character. Maybe I will have more luck with Miller's Circe.

I am determined to try again with du Maurier, and also Robert Harris, and I have got Life after Life and Dissolution ready to go. I am also waiting for some non-fiction (Invisible Women, The Secret Barrister and How Not to be a Boy) and for Jane Harper's new novel - I really enjoyed her first two.

There are lots more of your kind suggestions to try at some point in the future - thank you all. And if you can think of anything else that might appeal, hit me up. I have some enforced reading time coming up, and need all the help I can get.

I’m delighted you found some things to love - and then, when you find things you don’t love, at least you’ve been aster something new.

Here’s some random things I love.

Keri Hulme’s The Bone People. It will break your heart; but it’s an extraordinary book.

Susannah Kearsley’s romantic suspense books, usually with a slight paranormal twist. I think her talent for describing landscape is akin to Mary Stewart’s. The Splendour Falls is a good one to start.

Deanna Raybourn’s historical mysteries. She has three series; I like her Veronica Speedwell series because they’re often very funny.

If you like your Victorian literature a bit pacey, Bram Stoker’s Dracula rattles along and is very creepy.

If Dorothy Sayers is your jam, look for Margery Allingham and Ngaio Marsh. Allingham is one of my favourite writers and Ngaio Marsh is underestimated I think.

Laurie King’s Sherlock Holmes series, starting with The Beekeeper’s Apprentice are an absolute joy. She also writes a couple of other series well worth reading, and her standalone Folly, about a depressed woman building a house alone on an island, is much more entertaining than it sounds. it’s a book I have reread several times.

Emma Bull doesn’t get enough love. Her War for the Oaks was one of the first in the urban fantasy genre and still one of the best. I keep suggesting Freedom and Necessity, which is a wonderful love story set around the history of the English Chartist movement, with a fantasy element and told entirely in letters. What’s not to love. But if you have the patience for Dorothy Dunnett, you should give it a try.

If you like McMaster Bujold, have you read The Curse of Chalion and the other two set in the same world? I prefer them to Miles V and have reread them often.

For something completely different, the late and much lamented Peter Temple’s crime novels. He’s a brilliant writer, The Broken Shore is deservedly his best known book, his Jack Irish series is excellent.

For thrillers, Zoe Sharp’s books. Edge of your seat stuff with a kick ass heroine.

Part PI detective series, part thriller, part very creepy supernatural, Irish writer John Connolly’s Charlie Parker books. He’s a wonderful writer with a real talent for unsettling you.

These are a few of my favourite things. :-)

Three more. The Women in Black by Madeleine St John, it’s a slender book but a terrific one.

The Dressmaker by Rosalie Ham. They made both of these into films, but I haven’t seen them - I really enjoyed the books though.

And an older book, but a long time favourite of mine, Kylie Tennant’s Ride on Stranger, about a young woman coming of age in the years before the WWI.

And while we’re talking coming of age books; Barbara Trapido’s Brother of the More Famous Jack and Jane Gardam’s wonderful Bilgewater.

Off the beaten track, but try SR Garrae's Death in Focus. Easy-to-enjoy crime fiction with a romantic element. Good reviews, but almost unknown.

Agree with Ngaio Marsh and Margery Allingham - I love them both.

DanceLikeEmmaGoldman thank you so much. My library reservations list is lengthening rapidly as I download some samples of your recommendations on Kindle, but then am too cheap (and too keen on supporting the library) to buy the rest of the book.

I have read The Curse of Chalion and Paladin of Souls, and really loved them - Bujold has so far made me think I could read sci fi and fantasy after all, so maybe she'll have a go at another genre to broaden out my reading. (Didn't enjoy the Beguiling Knife series as much though.)

And yes, hidingmystatus I really must try Marsh and Allingham. Any suggestions as to where I should start?

Kate Quinn's Rome series is good (even though the next book is nowhere to be seen yet!) She has others too but I've not read them yet.

Marsh - there is a reading order, though it's been so long that I can't remember. Try A Clutch of Constables first: I think it's near the beginning of the long term arc. Allingham - I don't remember it ever mattering.

A few to spin off authors you already know.

Mary Stewert - she did a Merlin series, starting with The Crystal Cave. Beautiful books, although I do like that era. Very different from her romances.

Have you tried the Daddy Long Legs sequel, Dear Enemy? Not as good as the original but still worth a read.

I don't like Jane Austen spin offs. Except for one. www.amazon.co.uk/Confession-Fitzwilliam-Darcy-Mary-Street/dp/1402218133/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?ref=plSrch&keywords=confession+of+fitzwilliam&dpPl=1&dpID=5185AHoNvZL&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_FMwebp_QL65&tag=mumsnetforu03-21&ie=UTF8&qid=1553450637&sr=8-1 This one is a bit of a comfort book for when I feel down. Provides a nice hug! Very much based on the BBC series.