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 have a bit of a leaning towards dystopian fiction, nothing as heavy as the Road, but I have read and re read a couple of times

Station 11

and

Never Let me go.

both beautifullly written and thought provoking.

I also surprised myself recently by reading ,and really enjoying , Robin Hobb, who writes sort of fantasy for grown ups. I particularly enjoyed the Rain Wild Chronicles ( even though it has dragons) she creates very believable and sympathetic characters who happen to inhabit a very well imagined if strangely different yet familiar world.

Also echo Kate Atkinson’s other fans!

I feel like this thread is going to shape my reading year!

I enjoyed a couple of Katherine Heiney books for being very easy to read but amusing and thought provoking.

Also Elizabeth Strout as previously suggested - I recently read My Name is Lucy Barton and would say it fits the bill.

Try Hamnet by Maggie o'farrell, beautifully written, easy read

Shameless placemarking to add to my already overflowing TBR pile

Lurking for later

The three sisters by Heather Morris then continue with the other 2 in the series.

Simon mayos books were good

Anything by Clare Keegan, especially Foster

I always think of the Poisonwood Bible when I think of a novel thrumming with intelligence. Terry Pratchett's books are also brim full of wisdom and far, far more sophisticated than you might think.

I love this thread.
Another vote for Kate Atkinson, and for Hamnet by Maggie O'Farrell (unlike a previous poster that is the one book by her I enjoyed, but I have high hopes for the Marriage Portrait).
I don't think these have been mentioned in the thread yet but Still Life by Sarah Winman, any book of short stories by Alice Munro, also Helen Dunmore and Carol Shield

Robert Harris might appeal, Seigfreid Sassoon for an older but very readable author, EM Forster or John Buchan as well. Otherwise agree with William Boyd, Kate Atkinson, Maggie O'Farrell. Happy reading!

Agree what you want is Kate Atkinson. Or Tracy Chevalier or Sarah Waters.

Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell is amazing - I am
in a similar position to you and read it in an afternoon.

Yes to the Poisonwood Bible, Tracy Chevalier and Kate Atkinson - I like the Jackson Brodie books best.

How about the Cazalet Chronicles?

And have you read any Curtis Sittenfeld? I loved American Wife and Sisterland.

I really enjoyed An Officer and a Spy by Robert Harris.
It is based on the treatment of a Jewish officer in the French army at the turn of the 20thC. The Dreyfus Affair. I don't normally read historical novels but this is very good.

Yy to Kate Atkinson, Ann Patchett, Sarah Waters, Sarah Winman, William Boyd, Rose Tremain, Barbara Kingsolver and Tracy Chevalier, plus the first four of The Cazalet Chronicles (I detest the last one written 20 years later) and to add:

The Observations and Gillespie and I by Jane Harris

The Last Hundred Years trilogy by Jane Smiley

Earth and Heaven and The Mysteries of Glass by Sue Gee

Old Baggage plus the other two in the trilogy by Lissa Evans

Ooo yes The Observations was wonderful.

Think someone else has already mentioned Maria McCann - have enjoyed all her novels.

Too many great books to second here but "The God of Small Things" is one of my favourite books, so much so, it got me intrigued by other Indian authors: Salman Rushdie's Midnight's Children is amazing and a mention for Aravind Adiga,
If you like well-written crime, Tana French does it for me.
"The Crimson Petal and the White" by Michael Faber is good too.

I agree with the Observations and Gillespie and I by Jane Harris

She also wrote Sugar Money about some enslaved people on a Caribbean island who decide to escape. It's based on a real life incident.

It was one of those books which I was desperate to finish because I wanted to know what happened but I also didn't want it to end because I was enjoying the writing so much.

I seem to have similar tastes to you OP (other than I loved Cloud Atlas).

A few things I have read recently are:

The Midnight Library by Matt Haig

Remarkable Creatures by Tracy Chevalier

Down and Out in Paris and London by George Orwell (non-fiction)

The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway

Any of Yuval Noah Harari's books (non-fiction)

If you want a good page-turning thriller then Violet by SJI Holliday is good.

Having only discovered how beautifully she writes last year, I'm working my way through her books (very slowly), as I'm spacing them out. I've ordered Frenchman's Creek from the library and am awaiting it's arrival.

Frenchman’s Creek is an absolute blast; pretty ahead of its time, I reckon.

You’ll love it.

Yes I also came to Daphne d M late and I immediately saw why she was so popular. Just a great storyteller. I've only read Frenchman's Creek and My Cousin Rachel so far, so many more to look forward to.

I'd recommend

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
A Thousand Splendid Suns
Captain Corelli's Mandolin
Madame Bovary
The Road
Great Expectations

All very different and elevated from chick lit

I love books! Sorry just had to add this.
I don't think my reading is sophisticated enough.
I've just finished michael robotham.it wz brilliant. Before that Tami Hoag and now Colleen hoover.