Sophisticated but not pretentious reads

[TracyChapmanMemories]

Please help!

Due to having lots on, working, youngish kids, and generally a bit of a hectic life, I have become a captive of Mumsnet. In terms of reading, all I ever do is read MN threads and occasionally post (name changed).

I have no longer the attention span for reading books it seems but I used to be a very avid reader until I had kids 10 years ago. The more I mums net, the less I am able to focus on books movies etc. 😑

So, I would like to get back into reading, but the book needs to hit the spot otherwise I am bound to give up after a few pages, sadly.

I'll try any genre as long as either the language and the story is 'sophisticated' or it's quite fast paced and suspense without being dumb, or if it has some very current topics in it. So called chic lit isn't really for me but I don't think I can get through any classics either. I have enjoyed some non-fiction, which I sometimes thinks it's easier to dip in and out.

Long post, but please can you suggest books that might have a hope of being read by someone whose attention span has been shot to pieces, mostly due to a hectic lifestyle and the quick reward of reading stuff online.

Massive thanks in advance.

I thought you wanted literary but then it seems like you actually want meaningful, worth your effort to care.

What about A Most Beautiful Thing?

Give us an sample of what you think of as ‘sophisticated’. There’s quite a big territory between ‘chick lit’ and ‘classics’.

@lljkk Maybe I'm looking for meaningful over literary but for example I love The God of Small Things, which I read ages ago and enjoyed the language and how captivatingly it was written.

@LiteralSycamore I probably shouldn't have said sophisticated but here is a random list of books I have enjoyed or not so much that I can remember with the help of Google...

Liked or loved
Most books by Murakami but am over that now and wouldn't read again
Jane Eyre
The colour purple
The Help
The Secret History
Adored Americanah but found Half a Yellow Sun boring.
Loved some of the Russian classic when I was much younger
Loved Anna Karenina
Foucault's Pendulum by Umberto Eco
The Book Thief
The Kite Runner
Small Island
The Unbearable Lightness of Being
Wolf Hall
Nineteen Eighty Four
Novel about Camille Claudel (can't remember the name)
The Trial Kafka
Love in the Time of Cholera
Of Mice and Men
Lots of Allende books but can't see myself reading those now

Random selection of books I did not like
The Great Gatsby
Anything by Margaret Atwood
Life of pi
White Teeth by Zadie Smith
Hated The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Cloud Atlas

Non fiction that I recall enjoying
thinking fast thinking slow
freakonomic
Adam Kay This is going to hurt

I hope I am not embarrassing myself with the claim to liking sophisticated books 😂I'm just looking for something that is very readable, well written and also either meaningful or relevant / suspense / relates to current issues and events in the world.

Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan might do the trick. It's short and uses accessible language but is full of meaning and emotion.

What about other classics from South American literature, Vargas Llosa, Isabel Allende, other Garcia Marquez books?

If you liked the Kite Runner, A Thousand Splendid Suns by the same author is even better, IMO.

Have you read any Agatha Christie? Her writing style is quite consistent so once you've read a book or two they're quite easy to read. If you like her there's loads of choice too

I have quite similar taste to you (although we’ll have to agree to disagree on Atwood) and have recently enjoyed:

The Island of missing trees, Elif Shafak
The Crow Road, Iain Banks
Still Life, Sarah Winman
Pschinko, Min Jin Lee

You could also try Kate Atkinson (Behind the scenes at the museum and Life after life are my favourites), The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt and The Heart’s invisible furies by John Boyne. Have you read any Du Maurier (Rebecca and My cousin Rachel)?

How about:
The Goldfinch
Pachenko
The Heart's Invisible Furies
Remote Sympathy
The Magic Mountain

Off the top of my head

As Meat Loves Salt - Maria McCann
This Thing if Darkness - Harry Thomson (I think)
The Master and Margarita- Mikhaïl Bulgakov (make sure it's the Michael Glenny translation)

I am reading a wonderful book called The Story of a Life, by Konstantin Paustovsky. It's long but in short chapters so you pick it up and read one chapter, or seven!

Second “the heart’s invisible furies” and add “burial rites” as a suggestion

10 mins 38 seconds in this small world - Elif Shafak
the island of missing trees - Elif Shafak

both of these books are just perfect.

hamnet - Maggie o’farrell

circe - madeleine millar

If you enjoyed Jane Eyre maybe have a look at Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys. It's the prequel to Jane Eyre, specifically the story of Bertha, the woman in the attic.

Also, you may enjoy The Mothers or The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett.

Anything by Sarah Waters! Fingersmith is fantastic and I love The Night Watch and The Little Stranger.

I didn't like White Teeth (too Dickensian for me) but loved Swing Time. Some (but not all) of the themes are similar to Americanah so you might enjoy that.

What about Claudia Piñeiro? She's an crime writer so ostensibly easy reading but her writing is feminist and political. Start with Elena Knows.

Have you read My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante. Brilliant portrait of a friendship that builds up into a (literary) page turner.

Sapiens

Not sure if this is what you're looking for but I loved Kate Atkinson's Behind the Scenes of the Museum. Also her other books, e.g Life After Life.

I'd second the suggestion of Sarah Waters.

Other writers who seem to hit the sweet spot of being able to write page turners but also produce good quality writing:

Jane Harris
Pat Barker
Kate Atkinson
Emma Donoghue
Robert Harris
Madeline Miller
David Nicholls
William Boyd

Ooh yes, Kate Atkinson. The Jackson Brodie books are fab. Sold as 'literary crime'.

I recently got back into reading and really enjoyed ‘Memoirs of a Geisha’.

I really like Jojo Moyes (except Me Before You).
If you want something to ease you back in, the Reacher books by Lee Child are incredibly easy to read and good fun. Not altogether sophisticated but unputdownable.
Ira Levin has only written half a dozen books but they're all amazing. The Stepford Wives, Rosemary's Baby, A Kiss Before Dying are all superb.

A Gentleman in Moscow is a lovely book.

Agree with lots of these. Also, if you fancy something more 'genre', the Quirke books by John Banville writing as Benjamin Black. Crime novels set in 50s Dublin, with loads of good period detail (clothes, food, cars etc), some serious issues like the Laundries and the general perniciousness of the Church, good whodunnit/whydunnit stories, and because it's Banville it's beautiful writing.

Yes to Kate Atkinson!

I would suggest Rebecca by Dauphne du Maurier.