Brilliant books?

[NewSidOnTheBlock]

I'm looking for inspiration.

Please can you name a book you loved?
Especially if you read it in the past few years.

As the result of a disability, all of the books that I 'read' I don't read, I listen to them.
That aside, I'm still after good books, it doesn't matter how you accessed it.

Genre doesn't matter to me.

Just a brilliant book(s) please.

Circe by Madeline miller. Really excellent book I’ve read it several times

If your listening to books then I would recommend the Ben Aaronovitch Rivers of London series. I read the first books and enjoyed them, but the narrator of the audiobooks makes them even better.
I read The Power by Naomi Alderman so don't know what the audio version is like but I thought it was good.
Also I really like Fredrik Backman Britt-Marie was here on audible.

Love love love Rivers of London and agree with the audio books. I have a crush on the narrator, don’t even know what he looks like.

@FleurDeLizz I have this on the side but not read it yet. Is it really good? Can you tell me what it's like without telling me the story?

I've just read the hunting party. I enjoyed it. It was a nice read. Nothing too exciting but nice and twisty.

I like martina coles audio books op

Beryl Bainbridge The Bottle Factory Outing.
Anything by Kate Atkinson. The Jackson Brodie books are brilliant.
Tolstoy Anna Karenina. Brilliant.

Eleanor Oliphant is completely fine.

The Marsh girl

Gentleman in Moscow. Adored this so so much

Hamnet. Gorgeous story and so well written

Girl with the louding voice. Currently reading and really enjoying so far

Crimson Petal and the White. An older recommendation but a properly good read to get into

I’ve recently read A Month in the Country by J L Carr, it’s quite short, I read it in one sitting, because I was enjoying so much.

It’s set in the 1920s, but in lots of ways it is timeless. On the surface, it’s about a young man uncovering and restoring a medieval wall painting in a Yorkshire village church.

But as he does this, he reveals and restores himself also, discovering his own strengths and weaknesses, and finding his place in the network of relationships with the villagers he meets.

It’s funny, clever and interesting, I think it would make a good audio book as there is one consistent narrative voice throughout.

Small Pleasures by Clare Chambers
The Other Side of the Story by Marian Keyes

Kiss Myself Goodbye by Ferdinand Mount was a pretty remarkable true family story nicely told

Piranesi. Really unusual and compelling.

Thank you everyone, I'm going to take a look and sample listen to all of these. I particularly appreciate the diversity of books you have enjoyed, including some that I wouldn't normally have looked at.

Maybe I shouldn't have said that I listen to Audiobooks. It's certainly true that a good narrator can make or break a book, but good narration is subjective, IMO.

Aside from Audiobooks, which books have you enjoyed? In any format?

Recently I listened to Bad Blood by John Carreyrou. If I had seen the physical book I probably wouldn't have read it, as it was an audiobook I gave it a go and it was brilliant. So much so that I have followed the case.

Everyone, including me, will have a genre(s) that they prefer. I'm prepared to listen to anything. My only stipulation is that you thought that it was brilliant.

Thank you again, please keep offering your favourites.

For audiobooks “The Silent Patient” by Alex Michaelides was well narrated and compelling. It’s a psychological thriller that keeps you hooked but the narration elevated the material IMO.

I’ve also heard books where poor narration kills the prose.

Where the crawdads sing was excellent.

Some good authors-
Richard Osman
Lianne Moriarty
Claire Mackintosh
Alice feeny
Sophie Hannah
Shari Lapena
Adele parks
Jill Mansell
Lucy diamond
Sophie Kinsella
Lisa Jewell
TM Logan
Mark Edwards
Lucy foley
Ruth ware
Louise Candlish

@AdaColeman I saw the movie of that with a very, very young Kenneth Branagh and Colin Firth. I didn't know that it was based on a book. I'll have to chase it up.

OP: I like Belinda Bauer books a great deal. For some reason, they linger in my memory. Like my favourite Kate Atkinson's do.

The Go Between LP Hartley
Contains the immortal line ‘The past is another country. They do things differently there’
Nostalgic and excellent.

Untamed by Glennon Doyle. So inspiring

The Power of Now by Ekhart Tolle. Life changing

I am Pilgrim

The night circus

Three hours.

In the last year I have loved

A Gentleman in Moscow
The Wolf Den
The invisible Life of Addie LaRue
The Midnight Library
Rivers of London

[quote nancybotwinbloom]@FleurDeLizz I have this on the side but not read it yet. Is it really good? Can you tell me what it's like without telling me the story?

I've just read the hunting party. I enjoyed it. It was a nice read. Nothing too exciting but nice and twisty. [/quote]
Yes I love it, it’s hard to compare it to anything - I like Greek mythology but didn’t know that much about it so I found it fascinating. I do recommend that you move it up your TBR pile

The Magician of Lhasa by David Michie.

Loved listening to this, got it from the library via their audio books app.

On audible I liked Kate humbles "a year of living simply" she narrates it herself which I like

@FleurDeLizz

Circe by Madeline miller. Really excellent book I’ve read it several times

Song of Achilles too, two absolutely brilliant books!

Just started reading the Buddha of Surburbia which is making me laugh out loud.

Just started Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart
Booker prize winner so expecting good things.