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?

Another fan of Jodi Taylor's Chronicles of St Mary's here. I am a big fan of time travel books in general (see also Connie Willis's books if that's you too) but the sheer joy and humour of Jodi Taylor is hard to beat.

I like the characters being described in detail, looks, hair colour, age, etc so you can imagine them.

I love gruff mentor-type characters, with a kind of grey morality - Camelot in The Company of Liars and Moody in the HP books, that kind of person. I find them totally fascinating. Genuinely eccentric protagonists (not Elinor Oliphant) are like catnip for me - Lolly Willowes, for example, or Tarquin in The Debt to Plasure. Any female characters who wield some kind of power and are arrogant and unrepentant with it are my real kryptonite, though - the duchess in Gormenghast, Philippa Gregory's version of Anne Boleyn, etc. Anything that has immaculate world-building and is totally immersive and perfectly crafted - The Road, The Sealwoman's Gift, Tipping the Velvet - are my favourite types of book.

@RomanMum yes! How could i forget that one? Dd will one day discover that her middle name is due in no small part to my taste in literature…😁

Maps.

They tend to only be in older or more "classy" books but frankly, I'd appreciate even just a map of Bridget Jones route to work.

Same with floorplans.

Oh I'd love a book with a floor plan.

Dual POVs have my heart 💖 (in a romance setting) I love multiple POVs in thrillers and mysteries too!

I like detailed descriptions of clothes.

Especially in older books where the different fabrics all seem to match different occasions or levels of formality.

Poplin, muslin, silk, flannel, serge, boiled wool… all that kind of thing.

Oh and taffeta

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.

Me too. I love a good, self-contained story. I think I just find that it all gets overblown and boring 6 books in. Especially in fantasy.

Actually, even if people would just write trilogies these days it might be ok. An epic fantasy tale told over 3 books I can live with. But 7 books, a prequel series, and several spin offs telling the story of every one of the 4000 characters the world has accumulated is just exhausting as a prospect.

And I love maps too. Or just a really coherent and clear sense of place.

And great characterisation . As @Abracadabra12345 says, where the characters feel almost more real than people you actually know.

Well you're all so much better (and more!) read than me, and articulate, too; but I have to say I really enjoy the type of fantasy that has references to our world, thinking mainly of the great Terry Pratchett and his books such as 'The Last Continent' which is commonly known as 'xxxx', and 'Guards Guards', which is loosely based on London and the start of the police force.

Ridiculously, I also really enjoy the books 'written' by 'Richard Castle' from the television series; taken in that spirit it's just like a spin-off from the tv and great fun. I guess I read mainly for escapism and leisure!

Books with scenes set in a luxury setting like the Woman In Cabin 10 on a boutique luxury yacht or The Hunting Lodge (luxury lodge in Scotland) or An Unwanted Guest (luxury Inn). Even better if its a group of people 'locked in' as in both of the last of those two.

@PuttingDownRoots , I know just what you mean about comforting confirmation of what we so uncomfortably lived through. Have you read Lucy By the Sea?

Story within a story - like The Pension Grillparzer in one of the John Irving books / forgotten which one now. Garp? The Hotel New Hampshire?

I read a book set in New York in 2001, and no mention of the terrorist attacks. I found that very odd.

@RubaiyatOfAnyone I also love a children’s time slip book - Astercote, by Penelope Lively, was one of my favourites.

When I read the LHOTP books to the DDs I realised the main thing I remembered about them from reading them as a child was the detailed descriptions of Laura and Mary's dresses.

I like historical fiction and I like to know how much they earn, what they eat, how much the food/rent is. Actually especially the food, what they eat, how they eat it and where. What’s normal and what’s a treat.

it’s so random but it pleases me 😂

I like books which have really good world building - mainly fantasy or science fiction, but also some books with a real life historical or georgraphical setting, that really explore the world they are set in.

Those of you who like books that go into financial details of how much everything costs would love the Mandibles by Lionel shriver.

I really enjoyed the detail in Ballet Shoes of all the rules for children working in theatre, the licence applications and the interviews with the people running the system. Although on a certain level there's a bit of a fantasy/fairy tale element to the book, it also offers a lot of very specific social history, and very practical details of how the systems work, in that book published in 1936. And I do love the combination. My most recent reread was listening to it as an e-audiobook borrowed from the library last year. And I enjoyed the Petrova character who has a geeky interest in cars and the way that the three very different girls all seem to be offered a future which suits them. Though I did worry about one character's future given the history which wouldn't have been foreseen when the book was written.

@RubaiyatOfAnyone posted: 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.

I liked The Children of Green Knowe, but my favourite time slip novels included

Alison Uttley, A Traveller in Time - in the 1930s, a girl staying with relatives at a big country house finds herself slipping back in time and meeting one of the real life people plotting to get Mary Stuart (Queen of Scots) on to the throne.
Penelope Farmer, Charlotte Sometimes - a boarding school story, switching between mid 20th century and Victorian times
Pamela Sykes, Come Back Lucy Another 1960s or 1970s and Victorian era timeslip story

You may like Lucy by the Sea by Elizabeth Strout, if you haven’t already read it.

Yes! Maps and floorplans are such great things. Often to be found in classic, Agatha Christie style country house murder mysteries. I love looking at the floorplans and trying to work out if Mr Suspect could have made it to bump off Mr Victim without Miss Witness spotting him on his way. 😁

SirTarquin I liked Did You See Melody (Sophie Hannah) for this reason - set in a five start spa resort. As ever with Sophie Hannah books I can't remember what happened in the end, or why, but I loved the hot and sunny setting!

Fab thread!

I want to read this Lucy by the Sea.

It's comforting to find any sort of Art which deprived Covid as it helps us work through our feelings about it and realise others found it equally as hard.

Just one of the fab things which books do