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.

It never gets old! I wish I hadn't already read it so I could read it again like the first time, when I didn't know what would happen! I love the pace, the sense of excitement and anticipation and "who knows what might happen next", but with great pay-outs and developments throughout.

I'm also a fallen bookworm, but I loved "Rebecca" - Daphne du Maurier

I couldn't think of any that haven't been mentioned, so I went to peruse my bookshelf, and 3 that jumped out were The Children's Book by AS Byatt, The Pursuit of Love/ Love in a Cold Climate by Nancy Mitford, and The Shipping News by Annie Proulx. Also Half of a Yellow Sun, which has already been mentioned.

By the way, can I say how I hate hate hate reading choices (or any other pastime) being called pretentious? I have regularly been called pretentious throughout my life for reading choices, food choices and choice of language. What do people think I'm pretending to be?? I'm autistic, and I use long words a lot because sometimes I can't get the short ones out! I like to eat what I eat and read what I read.....it would be pretentious of me to watch Love Island, read Dan Brown and eat KFC in an attempt to prove how "normal" I was, wouldn't it? 🙄

"Fallen bookworm" 😆 Clinging on by my fingernails here....

Another one coming to say Barbara Kingsolver and also Elizabeth Strout.

Also All The Light I Cannot See - just incredible.

I love Maggie O'Farrell but then did just not get on with Hamnet

Also, I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith is really good. A classic, but not pretentiously so. I found it hard to break into at first, it did feel like a chore for the first few chapters at least but I stuck with it (unusually for me) and it's totally worth it in the end, I promise. I loved it.

The Girl with the Louding Voice - a beautiful debut 'coming of age' novel about a young Nigerian girl forced into marriage and desperate to be educated. I've recommended it to a few people who have also loved it.

Another one I enjoyed was a collection of short essays by Natalia Ginsberg 'The Little Virtues' - stories about motherhood, friendships, parental/sibling relationships mainly set in rural post-WW2 Italy.

I'm not much of a reader, although joined audible last year and started with Blood sugar: Laura Shepard Robinson.

She did a follow on which isn't so good..

A Five Year Sentence by Bernice Rubén's is brilliant

I am loving this thread as it's giving me lots of inspiration. Further to my suggestion of BK, last year I also enjoyed The Familiars by Stacey Halls (loosely based on the Pendle witch trials) and currently just finishing an audiobook called the Alice Network by Kate Quinn which is partly based on the female spies in world war 1 in France. It's been gripping as an audiobook.

Ooh some great suggestions here. My first thought was Claire Chambers - I've loved all her books. Also Madeleine Miller and Barbara Kingsolver - The Poisonwood Bible is so good. But my all-time favourite, which might fit the bill, is Miss Smilla's Feeling For Snow, by Peter Hoeg - I re-read that a lot.

If you are looking for history non-fiction, the Timetraveller Guides by Ian Mortimer are good - how people lived in each time period (medieval, Elizabethan, Restoration, Regency). What sort of housing, what people ate, your options to travel, read, entertain yourself etc

I read "I Who Have Never Known Men" by Jacqueline Harpman last year and it is one of the most memorable and intriguing books I have ever read. I highly recommend it, it is unique and thought provoking

Seconded. It is incredible. Kudos to the translator (Ros Schwartz) too.

I was going to suggest Frenchman's Creek

As pp have said Agatha Christie

Blonde Roots and Mr Loverman by Bernadine Evaristo are brilliant reads. She's more famous for Girl, Woman, Other but I didn't think that one was as good as some of her others.

I'd second another poster's recommendation for anything by Isablle Allende. I'd say Eva Luna and Daughter of Fortune were my favourites but all her work is excellent.

Piranesi by Susanna Clarke is excellent and does a really good job to draw you into the character's story. There was a recent Twitter thread about the book which described it as 'perfect'.

I'm reading Pachinko by Min Jin Lee at the minute and loving it. It's an epic story (like literally an epic, spanning multiple generations and countries) but very readable.

Other epics are The Luminaries and A Little Life which are amazing but really huge books that you mightn't have time or headspace for.

Have you come across The Rabbit Hutch by Tess Gunty? It's weirdly-written but well-written. I was absolutely hooked by it but I'm not sure I could tell you quite why. A very strange book but very engaging.

Second Anne Tyler. She's wonderful.
I really loved Captain Corelli's Mandolin.
Tamar by Mal Peet is one that I read recently. Really shocking twist to the ending.

If you were looking for something in the page-turner/detective genre but which were also really well written, then PD James and Ruth Rendell (writing as Barbara Vine also) are both fantastic. And they have such a back catalogue and are so available in libraries that they could keep you going for ages. I have read many of their books multiple times which for books in the crime/thriller genre is a very very good sign of quality.

If you liked the kite runner, have you read a thousand splendid suns

Another non-fiction - Wild Swans. Three generations of women in China, from the war lord era to Mao and beyond.

A good thread, this is the sweet spot I am always looking for (too tired for something really heavyweight but want anything badly written in/inane)

Placemarking for now but I am definitely coming back later to pinch some recommendations and hopefully add some of my own

I’ve loved everything by Tahmima Anam. I like a lot of the stuff in your list.
i also enjoy having the pressreader app (free subscription via my local library) just for an alternative to doom scrolling / mnet.
Nice to read literary criticism or interior articles or restaurant reviews from far off lands as a way of engaging with the world and good writers in a fast/ free/ accessible way.

Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey-Maturin series might hit the spot, starting with Master & Commander.

He's been very aptly described as Austen sur mer, and they're definitely page-turners.

Maybe Anita Brookner? Not the longest or most plot heavy but really intricate and intelligent studies of people's inner worlds, loneliness etc.

@KStockHERO - I heard so many people rave about The Luminaries so I asked for it in hardback for a birthday. I've tried to read it three times and each time I give up, which is pretty rare for me. What was it that appealled to you?