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I love it when books do this

77 replies

petronella23 · 11/03/2023 09:07

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?

OP posts:
bizzywiththefizzy · 11/03/2023 18:40

MissPattyGilmore · 11/03/2023 14:08

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

I really love this too. I get so drawn in to historical events I spend hrs reading about it on the net .
One particular subject which was fascinating was the matchbox girls at Bryant&May . Their health concerns(Phossy Jaw) and rights as workers .

letshaveanicecuppatea · 11/03/2023 20:15

Aphrathestorm · 11/03/2023 17:31

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've read and adored everything written by Jodi Taylor and would highly recommend all of her books.

I'd also highly recommend the Genevieve Lenard series by Estelle Ryan, for you @Aphrathestorm . I hope you love them as much as I do! 😊💖

letshaveanicecuppatea · 11/03/2023 20:24

Echobelly · 11/03/2023 17:37

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.

Hi @Echobelly Try the JENNY STARLING books by Faith Martin. Not fantasy but it does immerse you. “Jenny is an attractive, intelligent Rubenesque heroine, and the cast of characters above and below stairs are captured affectionately and wittily.” JENNY STARLING is a TRAVELLING CHEF AND FEISTY AMATEUR SLEUTH. Fabulous food, witty heroine who cooks amazing food and fun whodunnit's. Also highly recommended and I wish Faith Martin had written more of them. (Excuse caps, I used copy and paste) 😉

letshaveanicecuppatea · 11/03/2023 20:28

TheGirlOnTheLanding · 11/03/2023 12:33

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.

Have you tried any Barbara Erskine books @TheGirlOnTheLanding ? They are fabulous! Hope you love them as much as I do. xxx

Abracadabra12345 · 11/03/2023 20:39

I’m another one who can highly recommend Jodi Taylor’s St Mary’s Chronicles and the running joke of how it should be catalogued. Adventure? Sci fi? History? Romance? Even Comedy?

I love books where the author writes so well, the characters are more real to you than your own partner / children; they haunt your dreams and you catch yourself worrying about them as if they were real. You recall their conversations at random times, their banter, and you giggle - suddenly, in public and at inappropriate times.

Then the utter devastation when the book ends......

tillytoodles1 · 11/03/2023 20:47

I used to love the Susan Howatch books, Penmarric and Cashelmara. They were about generations of the same family but told in chapters from each person and how they saw things.

KohlaParasaurus · 11/03/2023 20:50

nocoolnamesleft · 11/03/2023 17:29

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

Show quote history

I haven't. Thanks for pointing me in the direction of some new reading material.

squashyhat · 11/03/2023 20:51

I agree about Richard Osman. I like novels set in places I know if they are accurate. I couldn't get on with the books but I know East and West Sussex well and evidently so does he. Same with Peter May and Brighton (although again I gave up on the 'dead' series).

evtheria · 11/03/2023 20:54

PlateBilledDuckyPerson · 11/03/2023 10:12

I like detailed descriptions of food.

I'm trying to decide whether I was a big Redwall fan for its storylines or the descriptions of food...

evtheria · 11/03/2023 20:57

I like when there's a tragic hero, or love story, something you know cannot end well.... Guy Gavriel Kay does it a lot and it is SO SATISFYING to be crying my eyes out over a villain or doomed couple.

glasshole · 11/03/2023 21:12

I really enjoy stories that are tied into the environment in which they are set. I loved Where The Crawdads Sing for the way it managed to seamlessly made the setting and the wildlife part of the fabric of the book. It also worked really well in The Carhullan Army and added depth and complexity.

RubaiyatOfAnyone · 11/03/2023 21:16

I like happy endings. It’s not particularly fashionable, but i really love a book that ties up all the loose ends, the baddies get their comeuppance in a really satisfying way, and the goodies triumph.
this largely means i avoid anything on the Booker long-list, and stick to urban fantasy and whodunnits.

in classic childrens novels, i love a timeslip - Tom’s Midnight Garden, The Children of Green Knowe, Moondial. I’m sure there’s more i can’t remember.

Ponderoveryonder · 11/03/2023 21:22

I love it when a book teaches you so much about a place, that when you eventually visit , it’s familiar. Especially if that book has managed to effortlessly teach historical facts and trivia about a a place , without feeling like a history book. I’m currently reading ‘my house in Damascus’ by Diana Darke (non fiction but achieves this brilliantly).

bizzywiththefizzy · 11/03/2023 21:54

Abracadabra12345 · 11/03/2023 20:39

I’m another one who can highly recommend Jodi Taylor’s St Mary’s Chronicles and the running joke of how it should be catalogued. Adventure? Sci fi? History? Romance? Even Comedy?

I love books where the author writes so well, the characters are more real to you than your own partner / children; they haunt your dreams and you catch yourself worrying about them as if they were real. You recall their conversations at random times, their banter, and you giggle - suddenly, in public and at inappropriate times.

Then the utter devastation when the book ends......

I know what you mean , I read a book a while ago now , set a couple of hundred years ago and the way the Dr. treated some of the poorer women had me raging .
I was so pulled in by it I'm sure my Husband thought I was nuts

ElizabethinherGermanGarden · 11/03/2023 22:13

I love it when a really complicated thing is worked out by the characters and explained within the story so you can work it out alongside them - eg when Peter and Harriet work out the playfair cipher in Have His Carcase. I know these are the bits that lots of people skip but I love them.

WGACA · 11/03/2023 22:18

When you can imagine it in your head like a screenplay.

When there’s no typos or errors (rare!)

LesserBohemians · 11/03/2023 22:33

Really well done free indirect discourse, novels where characters are passionate about work, atmospheric settings, reticent characters, novels where there’s very little descriptions of characters’ appearances.

WandaWonder · 11/03/2023 22:39

PuttingDownRoots · 11/03/2023 13:36

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.

Same

Cryingbutstilltrying · 12/03/2023 17:48

I really enjoy short chapters, where you keep getting pulled along thinking “I’ll just read another…” and before you know it, it’s 2am.

Clear voices for the different characters but without being stereotypes. No one is all good or all bad.

Standalone novels that aren’t part of a series - or if they are, can be read out of order. I just don’t have the time or memory for massive story arcs anymore.

Well written female characters always interest me. They are surprisingly hard to find, I think I enjoyed the Richard Osman books because I could believe in all the characters.

Absolutely agree on locations needing to be accurate, if an author is using a real place. I generally avoid books set in Oxford as a result, unless they’re historical, as it gets too jumbled when I know a place well.

Chocolateydrink · 12/03/2023 18:46

in classic childrens novels, i love a timeslip - Tom’s Midnight Garden, The Children of Green Knowe, Moondial. I’m sure there’s more i can’t remember.

Yes, I adore timeslip children's novels.

@Cryingbutstilltrying Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials is very accurate on Oxford. The initial book is set in a parallel world Oxford to ours which is not identical but similar enough to feel familiar but there's a scene in our Oxford that is scarily accurate (then they changed it on the TV series, I was so annoyed).

RomanMum · 12/03/2023 19:53

@RubaiyatOfAnyone Charlotte Sometimes?

InsertSomethingMotivationalHere · 12/03/2023 19:59

I love genuinely unexpected twists that make you gasp when you read them.
Also books that make me know and care the main character to the extent I almost feel like they're in my actual life, or I wonder how they're getting in before remembering they're fictional!

Cryingbutstilltrying · 13/03/2023 00:19

@Chocolateydrink yes! I love Philip Pullman, as do the dc (age 13 and 10) because Oxford works so well. I am so eager for the final part of the Secret Commonwealth it’s insane! I also enjoyed all the Morse books for the same reason. Babel tried hard.

tobee · 13/03/2023 04:20

I love it when I read a book written about a historical period of time and it doesn't jar ever.

I love it when they make me laugh out loud or cry.

EmpressaurusOfCats · 13/03/2023 05:09

I like seeing events & characters from multiple viewpoints.

The only slip I’ve seen in the Richard Osman books is a mention of Lidl / Audi delivery vans.

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