Any recommendations if I liked Small Pleasures and Miss Bensons Beetle

[Guardup]

I’ve absolutely loved getting back into reading this year. My two stand out books so far are Small Pleasures and Miss Bensons Beetle. I’ve also loved Hamnet, Half the World Away, The Invisible Life of Addie Larue, Midnight Library, Blood Orange, any Lisa Jewel book, Troubled Blood, Where the Crawdads sing. I also read all the Hunger Game books and loved them.

Now I can’t find anything else that is captured me. Has anyone got any gems they could recommend based on my reading list?

Away with the Penguins - has same, slightly quirky feel as Mrs Benson Beetle

The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry - gentle book about a man walking across the country

A Single Thread - Tracy Chevalier

Seven Sisters - Lucinda Riley, really good books

The Chronicles of St Mary’s

@Standrewsschool thanks so much for taking the time to reply.

All added to my book list - thanks. Most of them I’ve not heard of so I’m excited to give them a try. I’ve tried to read the first of the seven sisters but put it down quite quickly after starting - it seemed so far fetched. As it’s on my book shelf, I’ll give it another go today.

Thanks so much x

Have you tried Nina Stibbe novels? I loved Small Pleasures too and the style reminded me of hers.

I really enjoyed Away With the Penguins too.

Lissa Evans has 3 related books including V for Victory as the most recent. So lovely to read - start with the first one published

Frederick Backmann - the less serious ones are great.

Emma Staub - all great, e.g All Adults Here.

Recent Anne Tylers also.

Oh yes to Lissa Evans too.

And definitely Nina Stibbe as PP said.

Oh Fab! Loads of new authors to try out. Thanks so much for taking the time to reply @Ulysses

I’ve read a few Frederick Backmann books and enjoyed them so I know we are on the same page @borisforexample

Fab! Looks like I have my reading list for the next few months. X

My first thought was Lissa Evans trilogy set in the 1940s and 1920s. Tracy Chevalier's A Single Thread is another recently published novel about a single woman in post-war England.

Perhaps Kate Atkinson, Life After Life and A God in Ruins.

Several publishers have brought out reissues of fiction by women written through the 20th century over the last few years. I love Barbara Comyns' books, many reissued by Virago, though she has a slightly quirky writing style. There are lots of good books published by Persephone from the period. D E Stevenson, Miss Buncle's Book and Dorothy Whipple's novels might interest you. And Dean Street Press have published lots of reissues under the wonderful name Furrowed Middlebrow.

One read which I really enjoyed this year was The Once and Future Witches by Alix E Harrow, feminist fantasy about women using magic to fight for their liberation in a sort of historical setting which looks a bit like 19th century New England in the US>

Following as I have the exact same taste as you OP!

Enjoyed both of those last year.

Agree with a Single Thread by Tracey Chevalier.
Inheritance by Jenny Eclair.
Giver of Stars by Jojo Moyes.
The Weekend. Charlotte Wood.

The Glass House by Eve Chase.

I read these around the same time I read the two books in the title of your OP.

I wouldn’t say the Lucinda Riley series fits though. I used to like her books but the Seven Sisters series seems silly to me. Her earlier books are diverting enough though.

I tried all of Claire Chambers past books on the back of Small Pleasures and none came close to how good it was.

You might want to try The Sealwoman's Gift and The Ninth Child,both by Sally Magnusson.

I’ve read and enjoyed 4 of the books on your list this year so think we’ve got similar taste!

I have just finished The Girl With The Louding Voice by Abi Dare and really loved it. It’s about a Nigerian girl and her struggle to overcome societal expectations and become educated.

I also loved Graham Norton’s new one - name escapes me for a minute - really good.

Thanks so much for all the wonderful recommendations.

@elkiedee and all that suggested A Single Thread. I bought it on audible and absolutely love it - it has the same feel as Small Pleasures and is a great recommendation. A perfect book to soften the dum drum of housework.

@Chickoletta thanks for the book suggestion - I wouldn't have ever looked at something by Graham Norton without your suggestion, but will take a look!

I have, since I posted this thread, also read Away with the Penguins. What a wonderful book. I read it in about 2 days!

@Tittybittybangbang (great name by the way!) thanks for the list. I read The Glass House and loved it so will definitely look at your other suggestions. I also agree with the Seven Sisters. I can't get on with how far fetched it seems to be. I think I prefer less glamorous books!

Next on my list in the Ninth Child @Blackcountryexile

Thank the Lord for authors! TV is so dull and I absolutely love being absorbed in a book. I am also reading the Day I Fell into a Fairy Tale and Evies Ghost with my daughters. Childrens books, but I am really enjoying them too!

Thanks for coming back to us. I wasn't actually the first person to suggest A Single Thread, and sorry to the person who did for not making it clear that I thought it was a great suggestion already made.

Nothing wrong with reading children's books, with or without your children's involvement.

There's even a very short book by Katherine Rundell called Why You Should Read Children's Books, Even Though You Are So Old and Wsie.

I'm currently rereading a book I had as a child and have discovered that I wrote out a list of all the characters in rather wobbly handwriting at the front - it looks as if I'd just learned to join up my letters.