What are your favourite books that aren't highbrow or fluffy?

[purplefig]

My maternity leave is starting soon and I'd like to have a list of books I can delve into. (Should that opportunity presents itself!)

I'm not after anything too highbrow, but equally not total fluff either. I'm thinking along the lines of...

Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine - Gail Honeyman
The Secret History - Donna Tartt
Notes on a Scandal - Zoe Heller
Casual Vacancy - JK Rowling
Normal People - Sally Rooney
Rebecca - Daphne du Maurier

Any suggestions?

Salaman Rushdie
Some Kazu Ishiguro, never let me go etc are fairly middle ground but not the one with the pianos
Steinbeck
Evelyn Waugh
Thomas Hardy (but don’t finish them if you don’t enjoy books where everyone dies)
Some Dickens like Nicholas Nickleby or Little Dorit

The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton
I’m suggesting the 7 wives of Evelyn Hugo , I wonder if the author has heard of this one above? Seems coincidental! But I would class liane moriarty as fluff, and some might call the 7 wives of Evelyn Hugo fluff, but I think it’s on the other side of the fluff line but a little bit closer to it than Eleanor oliphant.

Isobel on the way to the corner shop and Circe is a good one, and Beloved by Toni Morrison.
Also don’t forget old classics like Arthur ransome , mat leave can be a great time to read swallows and amazons or jane Austen’s.

And if you like Jane eyre, wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys I think. Short.
Virginia Wolfe.

Anything by Zadie Smith. White teeth was fabulous but all of her books are good.

Definitely Olive Kitteridge and Olive, Again.
Pretty much anything by Dorothy Whipple - but Someone at a Distance is best.

But I hate formulaic 'women's reads' like Eleanor Oliphant. Tick-box 'issues' novels for book groups.

Binge-readng Trollope and Wilkie Collins.

Restoration by Rose Tremain

Zen I couldn't read White Teeth at all. I was just thinking about it earlier today.

The Cazalet Chronicles if you've not read them, OP. Easy enough read. And the Penny Vincenzi version - I've forgotten the names of her books but she has a trilogy spanning the 2 world wars that are engrossing. I think the middle one is called Something Dangerous.

I couldn't put down A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth, or the Blind Assassin Margaret Atwood. Four Letters of Love - author name escaping me. Oh Shogun was another book I just couldn't put down.

For the PP who mentioned Amy Tan - have you read Wild Swans?

A friend once described Barbara Kingsolver books as 'mind candy' which surprised me!

I might think of a few more tomorrow.

Anything by Menna van Praag

A Tale for the Time Being - Ruth Ozeki
The Narrow Road to the Deep North - Richard Flanagan
Christodora - Tim Murphy

All 3 were books I couldn’t put down. I could probably think of dozens more but they are the first ones that spring to mind!

Thank you all so, so much for taking the time to reply. My list is looking very plump now! Much appreciated x

TheCrowFromBelow I've only read All the Light We Cannot See (enjoyed!) and a few Anne Tylers (also enjoyed), so I've added the others to my list. Love that yours ended up being read on the commute bahaha...still not a waste of effort though!

AuntieMarys ooo good shout - that's one of those books I heard a few people on about and completely slipped my mind.

OhWellThatsJustGreat loads of suggestions there, thanks! Interesting about Sophie Kinesella but NOT the Shopaholic series, as that's all I know her for!

Blackcountryexile thanks for the recs - I haven't heard of any of them which is exciting!

Nuffaluff ooo thanks for reminding me of him, I loved One Day. I've added Us to the list. Similar snobbery happened when Zoe Heller's Notes on a Scandal ended up on the booker list...it's one of my all time faves.

LeaveBeforeTheLightsComeOn thanks - I always think I'm not a huge fan of historic fiction, but I've surprised myself with a few. (The Essex Serpent was quite good I thought).

CountFosco Can you believe I'd forgotten about Margaret Atwoods latest?! Shocking!

Shosha1 should've said I can't do crime...I'm a massive wimp (and pregnancy has made me even more so). I've added your other ones though.

Heathercob thanks! All new to me, so I'll add to the investigation list!

EnthusiasmIsDisturbed thanks for the detailed list, I've added to mine. Agree with you about G.H - cannot wait for her next book.

BodenGate thanks!

HPandTheNeverEndingBedtime ooo I LOVED Sabrina as a teen

ZenNudist I have a feeling I'll like these as I really enjoyed Where'd you go Bernadette (should've put that on my list actually, as it's exactly the type of thing I'm after). I also love Kate Atkinson's style. Also how on earth had I forgot about Zadie Smith?!

Reginabambina cheers - I find Thomas Hardy too depressing at the best of times

timeisnotaline I haven't heard of it, so it's on the list. Thanks!

katy1213 that's the second vote for Olive Kitteridge, so I'll definitely check it out. Thanks!

SenecaFalls thanks!

Apileofballyhoo mind candy - love it! That is going on the list!!

willothewispa cheers!

Lampan ooo lovely, I've been meaning to read The Narrow Road to the Deep North since 2014...maybe 2020 is the year

Funnily enough I thought "The Immortalists" had a similar "feel" to Ann Tyler although the style is very different.

Daisy Jones and the Six by Taylor Jenkins Read may be a good one. It's a fictional account of a rock band in the 70s (supposedly based on Fleetwood Mac) told from the different perspectives of band members, managers etc. and interviews/articles from the time. I really enjoyed the format and flew through it

Terry Pratchett's Discworld books - fantasy, but realistic normal fantasy and very very funny

Ellis Peters' Cadfael chronicles - mediaeval monk solving murders with herbs and humanity

Jasper Fforde: The Eyre Affair and sequels. Literary detective Thursday Next travels around both books and an alternative-universe country in the company of Miss Havisham and sometimes a dodo.

Helen Fielding: Olivia Joules and the overactive imagination

Charlie Fletcher: Stone Heart and sequels. This is a children's series but I loved it. Based around the stones of London and includes time travel (frost fairs and John Dee!) and scary villains.

Nell Freudenberger - Lost and Wanted, Mary Costello - The River Capture, Valeria Luiselli - Lost Children Archive, Emma Donoghue - Akin, Kiley Reid - Such a Fun Age, Ann Patchett - The Dutch House, Mary Beth Keane - Ask Again Yes, Claire Lombardo - The Most Fun We Ever Had, Leni Zumas - Red Clocks.

Just finished My Sister, The Serial Killer, which was very good.
Reading The Hearts Incisible Furies at the moment. Some very funny lines, but not fluff.

My Sister, The Serial Killer is no. 3 on my list for 25 this year

I loved The Hearts Invisible Furies Very very funny at times

The Passage was a great read even though I never got around to reading the next one/two. If you don't mind scifi fantasy dystopian type stuff.

Katherine is another engrossing book if you like historical fiction.

Thanks for starting this thread OP. I love a good book that's still easy to read.

The Poisonwood Bible is the best Barbara Kingsolver of the ones I've read anyway.

I'd forgotten about Anne Tyler but I'd trouble getting through one once... and her books were once described to me as books where nothing happens if you like that kind of thing - though one of my favourite books in the world is like that (That They May Face the Rising Sun), I love a story.

The Shipping News I raced through though I'd tried an E Annie Proulx book of short stories I didn't like at all. Life of Pi was great after a slow start, if you haven't read that.

Oh how could I forget PD James?

Robert Harris I think fits the bill for neither high brow nor fluff.

Another I couldn't put down was Posession.

Since you already have a JK Rowling one on your list I'd also recommend the Cormoran Strike series she writes as Robert Galbraith if you haven't already read them.

Even if you've seen the TV adaptations the books are worth a read as so much more detailed.

Victoria Hislop ... Starting with The Island or The Sunrise x

I Capture The Castle - Dodie Smith is my favourite comfort read.

I was going to say The Great Gatsby but DD has totally ruined if for me by arguing that, far from being a passionate dauntless romantic, Gatsby is in fact a desperate weirdo stalker.

The Mary Wesley novels are my favourite non-highbrow books - I started reading them in my mid teens, and every five years or so, I re-read them all again, one after the other.

I read Six of Crows earlier this year ... now I really want to read the books in the Grisha story.

Bernadette Evaristo, Mr Loverman
Amanda Craig, Hearts and Minds
Kate Clanchy, Meeting the English
Jane Gardam, Old Filth or A Long Way from Verona (or lots of her other books)
Alice Hoffman