If I liked Hamnet...

[popopop]

What else would you recommend?

The Wedding Portrait by same author.

Everything by Maggie O'Farrell. My favourite might be 17 brushes with death.

Other authors are Sarah Waters -she's an amazing storyteller. Amy Tan, Louise O'Neill, Sally Rooney, Emma Donoghue, Lianne Moriarty.

John Boyne's the hearts invisible furies is great too.

Another vote for The Marriage Portrait. I love her style of writing, it sometimes feels quite sparse but it conveys so much at the same time. Also agree with The Hearts Invisible Furies by John Boyne. The Romantic by William Boyd is also very good

Rose Tremain, particularly some of the historical ones, like Music and Silence. Barbara Kingsolver.
Euphoria, Lily King.
The Manningtree Witches, A.K Blakemore.
Ann Patchett
Geraldine Brooks

Agree with every title & author you've mentioned here.

I ❤️ Maggie O'Farrell'a writing.

@EarringsandLipstick any other recommendations for me then please?!

@EarringsandLipstick also that kind of made my day 😁

@buckeejit

That's lovely to hear!

I'm having a bad run of it with books recently. My last two were Lucy Worsley's Agatha Christie which I found deathly boring - I had looked forward to it so much & just found it so uninspiring & insipid; and Motherwell by Deborah Orr, another one I'd looked forward to & it didn't resonate at all!

I listened to AJ Pearce Yours Cheerfully on Audible - I'd enjoyed the first book a lot but it was too slight, even for the genre.

I'm not being inspiring at all, am I?!

Just started Kate Atkinson's Shrines of Gaiety and I hear it's great; too soon to tell but I expect to love it (not sure if it's appeared on this thread so far?)

I'm also comfort-listening and enjoying PG Wodehouse's A Damsel in Distress on Audible. It's lovely & perfect to listen to.

I'm finding it very hard to read books atm. Time, in part, but mental state more so, I seem to only able to manage newspapers, and the magazines that accompany them.

Oh yes, I read Stanley Tucci's Taste too. At least 3 people said it was amazing. I thought it was awful. I'm beginning to wonder what's wrong with me!

I absolutely loved Hamnet (and all the other Maggie O'Farrells). I'd recommend Sarah Moss as having a similar feel.

Try Sarah Dunant for more Renaissance feminism.

@EarringsandLipstick I haven’t been blown away by anything for ages either.

Actually really liked both Clare Chambers. Like Jessie Burton too and Celeste Ng.
Just been through & here’s things I’ve liked in last few years -mostly audible, some paper

Bryce Courtenay - the power of one
Eleanor & Park - Rainbow Rowell
The last act of love- Cathy Rentzenbrink
A manual for heartache - Cathy Rentzenbrink
The Goldfinch - Donna Tartt
The secret history - Donna Tartt
A little life - mixed feelings, mostly fury but glad I’ve read it
All Ishiguro - The buried giant I’m still not sure about
Love Murakami-IQ84 is good value for money in audible -50 odd hours. My favourite is the wind up bird chronicle
The Neapolitan novels - Elena Ferrante 💚
Can’t believe I didn’t mention Daphne du Maurier - recently loved the Frenchman’s creek
Our endless numbered days-Clare Fuller
Restoration - Rose Tremain
The diary of 2 nobodies-Giles & Mary from gogglebox
Everyone brave is forgiven - Chris Cleave
Why be happy when you could be normal - Jeanette Winterson
Reasons to stay alive - Matt Haig
Yellow crocus - Laila Abraham
Milkman - Anna Burns
The song of Achilles - Madeline Miller
Where the crawdads sing - Delia Owen
Disobedience - Naomi Alderman
An American marriage - Tayari Jones
The overstory - Richard Powers
All the light we cannot see - Anthony Doerr
Unsheltered - Barbara Kingsolver
The sentence - Louise Erdich
Sal - Mick Kitson
Exciting times - Naoise Dolan
American dirt - Jeanine Cummings
Heaven - Mieko Kawakami
The truth must dazzle gradually - Helen Cullen
Nothing to envy - Barbara Demick
All the young men - Ruth Coker Burks
Atomic habits - James Clear
Piranesi - Susanne Clark
Meg Mason - Sorriw & bliss and you be mother

I really did not like the Salt Path!

Demon Copperhead by Barabara Kingsolver

Incredible!!

I’m halfway through Booth by Karen Joy Fowler and cannot put it down. It’s about the man who assassinated Lincoln and his extraordinary family. So well written and never feels like you’re just being shown all the historical research the author has done.

@buckeejit Thank you for that list! Read a few of them & bought some on the list but not actually read them yet so will get to it but I also wanted to say I too really, really did not like the Salt Path. I mean I’m sorry because it was worthy & all that but Christ was it boring.

@SpikeWithoutASoul Karen Joy Fowler - did she write the Jane Austen book club years ago? But she used to be mainly sci do I think?
Loved JABC.

Sci Fi

Hamnet is so utterly beautiful. I found the passage when he died reduced me to tears.
Thank you Maggie.

Agree with mentions - love Maggie O'Farrell and have read a lot of the others mentioned.

Going to add 'Year of Wonder' by Geraldine Brookes. It's got the historical element (set during the Plague) but at the end of it all it's also an utterly brilliant story with fantastic characters. I recommend it to people all the time.

@SpikeWithoutASoul I absolutely loved Booth as well. It's a great story. I think it's a very apt recommendation for someone who liked Hamnet.

@popopop I absolutely loved Hamnet. I also like Tracy Chevalier especially remarkable creatures, and a single thread. Also love Stacey halls books, I like all of them but the familiars is my favourite