I’m not enjoying the books I am reading

[AnnotherReader]

I am not enjoying the books I am reading at the moment. I have read 38 books so far this year and only 2 have been 5 stars and one of them was a reread.

I have been through all my favourite books and picked out common themes. Can you recommend me any books based on my likes/dislikes below. I have also listed some of my favourite books and how they fit with the list.

likes:
time period 1800-1939 (either written in this period or more recent books set in this period)
rural or wild setting
a book within a book or books to do with books/stories/reading
pirates/books set on ships
romance
adventure
magic
crime especially golden age
epistolary novels
the chosen one trope

don’t like:
thrillers
literary fiction
smut/ too much sex

favourite books:
Emma by Jane Austen (time period, romance, rural setting)
Bath Tangle by Georgette Heyer (time period, romance, rural setting in part)
A Month in the Country (time period, rural setting)
The Reader by Traci Chee (rural setting, book about a book, adventure, pirates/ships)
The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood (book within a book, romance)
The Documents in the Case by Dorothy Sayers (epistolary, crime, time period)
Dangerous Liasions (epistolary, romance)
The Liveship Traders trilogy by Robin Hobb (ships, pirates, adventure, some romance)
Wives and Daughters by Elizabeth Gaskell (time period, romance, rural setting)
Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell (time period, magic)
Harry Potter (magic, the chosen one)
The Famous Five by Enid Blyton (rural setting, adventure) - I loved these books as a child and have never managed to find the equivalent adult adventure books

I have read all of Jane Austen, Georgette Heyer, Agatha Christie, the Brontes, Elizabeth Gaskell and am currently working my way through the rest of Robin Hobbs Realm of the Elderlings books.

If you have read all this, thank you, as you can see from my favourite books they don’t have to include everything on my likes list but most have at least 2. Please give me some recommendations for other books I might like.

Francis Spufford On Golden Hill and Light Perpetual
Scarlett Thomas The Seed Collectors

I’ve just read the first in the Seven Sisters series. It’s got a few of your ‘likes’ in it! I really enjoyed it ahd will be reading the next book

The Binding Bridget Collins

Have you read Josephine Tey's books?

What about Sherlock Holmes? Once I had finished reading the originals I started making my way through the ones on the kindle list and am really enjoying them.

I recommend Green Dolphin Country by Elizabeth Gouge - it meets almost all of your criteria in one book! And is great.

Father Brown books?

The Night Ship byJess Kidd

Have you read Patricia Wentworth? She's slightly later than Sayers, Tay etc I think but still v similar feel, and she wrote about a billion crime books (I'm still working my way through them having read everything Christie, Marsh etc wrote)
Also the Maisie Dobbs mysteries - modern but set in the 20s

You might like Elizabeth Goudge - she doesn't seem to be read much nowadays but give The Herb of Grace a try if you haven't read it. It's about a family moving to a riverside inn in the late 40s (was published in 1948), has that beautiful rural setting, romance etc

Sorry just realised that 1948 is a bit late for you but as a pp mentioned some of her other books are set in earlier time periods!

You might like the Rivers of London series - magic & crime but it’s set it modern times.

Northern lights trilogy, Bartimaeus trilogy, Lockwood and co series, the Chrestomanci series, the Artemis Fowl series if you like Harry Potter. I’m a big fan of books about magic and wonder for 12 year olds - they’re so much fun to read 😊

Pirinesi is by the author of Jonathan Strange but is a lot shorter! I liked it, but it is different.

Well I was going to say the Liveship Traders until I saw you had mentioned them as a favourite!

Magpie Murders - crime, book within a book
The Magicians - magic, about books
Six of Crows - adventure, magic

The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi by Shannon Chakroborty is a fun fantasy/pirate story.

1. Anatomy a love story
2. Immortality a love story

Both by Dana Schwartz.

I immediately thought Elizabeth Goudge as well - her adult books are great, but my favourites are her children's novels, especially The Little White Horse and Linnets and Valerians.

If you like rural settings - I've got a bit of a thing for memoir style books about rural childhoods - particular favourites are Laurie Lee's Cider with Rosie, Flora Thompson's Lark Rise to Candleford Trilogy and also Alison Uttley's A Country Child.

Alison Uttley also wrote A Traveller in Time which is one of my favourite books of all time - a children's time slip novel about The Babington Plot.

Cliche answer considering my user name but Jasper Fforde?

The Snow Child - Eowyn Ivey. Rural and magic.

Frenchman's Creek - D Du Maurier. Pirates.

Strange the Dreamer and The Muse of Nightmares - Laini Taylor. Books, magic, chosen one. Dreams. Adventure.

The Happy Prisoner by Monica Dickens. A tad late in time period but you might like it.

Surely you'll have read The Pursuit of Love...?

In Tearing Haste. A series of letters between Deborah Devonshire and Patrick Leigh Fermor which span the early part of the 20th Century. Compelling and fascinating.

Have you tried George Gissing (late 1800s). One of my favourite authors.

I recently read Black Beauty and The Call of the Wild (both written in the late 1800s). A lot of animal cruelty BUT if you can take it, some of the best most amazing books I've read.

A few that sprang to mind for me are:
The Glovemaker - Ann Weisgarber. 1880's Utah, Isolated Mormon community. Set in a very harsh winter.

The White Queen/The Red Queen - Philippa Gregory - War of the Roses. Told from the Queens' perspective.

The Woman in the Lake by Nicola Cormick - piracy and mystery.

Susan Cooper’s The Dark is Rising series. They’re children’s books but they tick a few of your boxes. Although written in the 60s/70s they have a general “first half of the 20th century” feeling, and a certain amount of timelessness woven into the storyline; there is a definite “Chosen One” theme from the second book onwards including some magic/mythology, and they are very evocative of the English and Welsh countryside.

Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys. It’s the “mad wife’s “ story from Jane Eyre. Written around 1912 , kind of a book-about-a-book, fits with other things you’ve read, brilliantly written.

Naomi Novik's Temeraire series - time period, adventure, Navy rather than pirates. Or her Scholomance series - magic, chosen one, a bit of romance, adventure.

Mary Stewart's books (I haven't tried her Merlin series, only the more modern ones). Adventure, most are set partly rurally with gorgeous scenery, adventure, light romance (no smut).

If you hadn't already said you'd read everything by Georgette Heyer I would have suggested her 😄