I love it when books do this

[petronella23]

I started this thread about what people hate in books

I hate it when books do this http://www.mumsnet.com/Talk/whatweree_reading/4760537-i-hate-it-when-books-do-this

but got me thinking about stuff that I always like

For me, it's when an author is really explicit about money - how much the characters earns, how much the house cost, how much debt they're in and how they pay it off. So often people gloss over it and I love knowing the specifics!

I also like one character, third person, past tense traditional storytelling

You?

If it's a mystery/whodunnit book, I love it when one of the detectives sums up the case and says what happened and you think yay that's fantastic! Then the other detective says yes that's what I thought too, until.... so you have 2 brillant endings (instead of completely disappointing ones)
Ruth Rendell's Wexford books are classics if this type of ending.

Yes! This is such a good one

I like detailed descriptions of food.

I like detail about a historical/political time/place. Not text book style, but reference to news reports, constraints on moving around, other events going on etc. Douglas Kennedy does this really well eg: A Special Relationship is set partially in Cairo, and you get a real feel for the impact of the conflict at the time of writing.

I like learning things in normal straightforward series in unexpected ways

Trivia type things

I really like it when the author has done enough research (e.g.of historical period or a geographical area) to be convincing but isn't shoehorning details in to show off their research in a clunky way. Hilary Mantel is the obvious one that springs to mind - the background detail never gets in the way of the story or the characters.

I also really like when I pick up a book thinking it's going to be one genre but it turns out to be something else entirely (Reservoir 13 by Jon McGregor, for example, where I though it was going to be a crime novel about the disappearance of a teenager but instead it expands into something much broader than the original starting point). Of course, that depends on you picking the book up without having read reviews and the blurb not giving away too much.

What I love about Elizabeth Jane Howard's books, eg Cazalet chronicles, is how well she captures the way a character sees/thinks about themselves, and how other people see them, and the big gulf there often is between the two. The character of Villy in the Cazaet chronicles - she has a lot of personality traits that she thinks are brave and romantic, but they really get on other people's tits

She tends to cover events more than once from different characters' perspectives too, so I guess that's the narrative tool that I enjoy

I used to really love ballet shoes because of the anxious working out of how much stuff costs (can strongly relate!)

This may be odd... but Covid.

Not being about Covid, but a book set in 2021 mentioning face masks for example. Or people working from home.

It its sort of weirdly comforting.

I like books that are told by different people. So different chapter by a different person. Maeve bunch used to do it and it was magical. (Miss her books!)

Yes! I also remember liking this - same as OP says too, being specific about money.
I guess it is rare for authors to do this as it does ‘date’ the book but I think it really adds to the story (I’m a lover of details) and it will be interesting to look back on

I’m another one who enjoys detailed descriptions of food (and sometimes a bit of cooking?)

I also really like books where you learn stuff about other times or cultures without it being a chore.

It’s fairly obvious with the historical context books (eg/. Guernsey Literary & Potato Peel Pie Society where Channel Island occupation and post-war London is key to the story, or The Help about US attitudes & racism in 1960’s) that we will absorb some learning if we didn’t know it already but other books such as The Slap - it was a surprise to me to learn quite a bit about modern/current attitudes to Aborigines in Australia etc

Thank you @petronella23 for starting such a positive thread - I’ve never really thought about this before - and it’s good to see positivity instead of whinging

I like the all seeing authorial voice. It's quite unfashionable in modern books, it's all first person unreliable narrators these days but I love reading what the different characters are thinking and the gaps betwen them.

Really? I'd hate that in a book, don't want to be reminded of that dreadful time and nothing awful happened to me personally.

Agree re Hilary Mantel, sheer genius

I love a book where I learn about a place, historical period or subject I didn't know much about as a by-product of a galloping plot with engaging characters.

I love when the author doesn't stick strictly to the formulas of their genre and introduces unexpected elements to the story.

For absolutely any book, film, TV programme etc, I always love it when they have a scene set at a big party. I get really excited.

Have you read the Chronicles of St Mary's? Really fits this billl.

I love a well researched book.

I like a clear setting so if it's current I can look up the location on google maps!

I like to be informed of a different culture and learn things about different lives.

I like books to be women centred and have multiple well developed female characters who dont just exist to be victims of crime or fuck toys.

I like books that aren't too long and I can finish in a week if not a day or two.

I like a good solid ending.

I like books with a political purpose.

I like a nice colourful cover and soft smooth pages and reasonable sized print.

I like female characters that arent automatically slim but aren't a 'fat' girl either just for being a size 14.

I like some 90s nostalgia. I want to know what's on the radio/tv, what their furniture is like and how much they earn!

I really like that too. It's off-putting if you read something set in the past and you happen to remember that something huge was going on (e.g. General Election, major disaster) and it's ignored - easy enough to check as Wikipedia will tell you what the main events of any particular year were - and it's rewarding when someone has researched and woven this in, even if only in passing.

Great thread! I’m another who likes the money descriptions/explanations as it really adds context and understanding for me.

What I really love though is a sort of “Cinderella style” transformation- whether it’s a person doing up a house, or going on a diet, or glamming themselves up, or beefing up their work performance, or something like that.

I agree with the PP about the Cazalet Chronicles and the various devices- I really like Villy though and think she was given a very hard time but the characterisation is excellent anyway. I love it when Hugh and Sybil do things for each other that they think the other one wants, and they end up with neither of them being happy but being too unselfish to say so. It’s quite comical really even though in dire situations!

I look books with good descriptions of food, especially fantasy worlds. George RR Martin does this well - it's something that gives you a really good idea of place.

I love a book that really immerses you in a time or place.

I love it when an obnoxious character gets a proper comeuppance!

If a book is set somewhere I know, I like it to be accurate in terms of travel times and routes. I like the Richard Osman books for this.
Actually, thinking about his books, I like the general sense of practicality that runs through them. I may have misremembered but I think all meals are mentioned or, if missed or late, are referred to.