Books for the intelligent woman with the flu, please!

[clowniform]

The subject line is a quote attributed to Eva Ibbotson, on her own novels. I've also turned to Persephone, Dean St Press, Greyladies, Girls Gone By etc. for this kind of thing in the past, but would welcome some newer recommendations. Doesn't need to be totally Disney or fluffy but nothing too depressing either, please (think early vs late Barbara Pym).

Any genre, although my brain can't handle too many plot threads or literary fireworks at the moment (Shardlake fine, Dunnett or Mantel no). Conversely, non-fiction will need to have some kind of consistent narrative voice because I tend to zone out of anything too bitty.

Have just finished a run of Murderbot, Susan Scarletts and Andrew Taylors, and it's too soon to reread Austen/Pratchett/Slough House, if that gives any more indication of my tastes!

Try also Mary Lawson Crow Lake; Claire Keegan Small things like these; any Curtis Sittenfeld; Ronan Hession Leonard and Hungry Paul; any Elizabeth Strout; Minette Walters The Swift and the Harrier; any Anita Desai and any Jhumpa Lahiri; also any Irene Nemorovsky; Deesha Philyaw The secret lives of church ladies - that was a good one; Willa Cather My Antonia; Anne Youngson Meet me at the museum; Toshikazu Kawaguchi Before the coffee gets cold; Madeline Miller Circe; Pat Barker The silence of the girls; any Edith Pearlman; Lucia Berlin A Manual for cleaning women; Sayaka Murata Convenience store woman; Marina Keegan The opposite of loneliness; David Mitchell The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet.

Another non fiction I found fascinating was Rose George- Deep sea and foreign going. If you like Virginia Nicholson she also wrote another excellent book Millions like us. And Rachel Cooke Her brilliant career.
Hope this will keep you occupied 😁

@clowniform. Likewise (inexplicably) Jasper Fforde, any chance you like him too? 😃

Not tried him, will do now!

How about David Downing's Station series, set in 30s/40s Berlin?

We are all made of glue by Marina lewynka (sp)
Still Life by Sarah Winman
East of Hounslow by Khurrum Rahman

all of the above are great reads with ups and downs and a little bit different

@clowniform if you’re thinking golden age detective fiction, have you read much/any Margery Allingham? The Tiger in the Smoke is arguably her masterpiece but there's a satisfyingly large number of novels featuring her detective, Albert Campion.

See also: Ngaio Marsh.

Seconding Ngaio Marsh for golden age crime!

a random suggestion - but Nella Last’s War is fantastic - diaries of ww2 when she lived in Barrow in Furness

@clowniform
I really enjoyed S W Perry's Nicholas Shelby series, starts with The Angel's Mark. But Andrew Taylor's Ashes of London series is probably my favourite, as I like the main characters so much. I was surprised to be disappointed with The Bookseller of Inverness the latest by S G MacLean

If you're too poorly for Cicero, try RH An Officer and a Spy, as the plot sweeps swiftly along.

Have you read A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles, it's set in a famous Moscow hotel, so lots of rabbit holes to chase down filled
with old photos of the amazing interiors.

As you like detectives, have you read Vaseem Khan ~ Malabar House series, about a young Indian woman detective at the start of her career? Or for a gentle beautiful uplifting read A Month in the County by J L Carr.

It's good to see another Aubrey Maturin fan, I know what you mean about the last few books. As O'Brian starts killing characters off, it gets a bit depressing!
I hope you start to feel better soon!

I was also going to say Ngaio Marsh for golden-age detective fiction. The British Library has also published a series of detective novels by various authors from that era, some of which I've read. They've generally been very readable.

Not the same era, but rather setting the genre, 'The Moonstone' by Wilkie Collins is superb, if you haven't read it already.

Funnily enough I'm reading a book at the moment that feels Eva Ibbotson-ish to me in that it's got a similarly light and charming touch. It's set in late Victorian London and follows the adventures of a plain and impoverished debutante who moonlights with a secret job in a female detective agency.

The Agency for Scandal by Laura Wood.

(it might be a bit too light for you though)

Seconding Nella Last (Housewife 49). Also her peacetime diaries.

The Mountjoy books. Elizabeth Pewsey in second hand print, Elizabeth Aston on kindle. Lighthearted, fabulous characters, the main ones appear to a greater or lesser extent in each of the six books. Definite comfort reads.

Love Nella Last

Curtis Sitttenfeld’s American Wife is, in my opinion, her best, closely followed by Sisterland.

I have never read a Maggie O’Farrell I didn’t enjoy - they’re not lighthearted but they’re very readable. Hamnet and The Marriage Portrait are her recent historical novels. I also liked Instructions for a Heatwave.

The Thursday Next series by Jaspar Fforde. You won't want to get better 😊

If you want something fairly light then Molly Keane’s books like Good Behaviour and her earlier Taking Chances are fairly easy reads.

Rosamond Lehman Invitation to the Wsltz and sequel The Weather in the Streets (but does deal with a sensitive subject there).

Antonia Fraser Frost in May is fairly intelligently written and a good read but not too taxing.

I tend to fall back on Austen so Emma, Persuasion, Northanger Abbey.

Virago Victorian ghost stories and non Victorian ones are short but scary enough - so if you can manage a short story they work.

in fact lots of short stories are perfect for illness.

Elizabeth Taylor short stories are a very good read.

If you like Patrick O’Brian, maybe go in for some Bernard Cornwell? I love Sharpe, that’s a comfort read for me.

I’m a bit under the weather too so have returned to Robert Galbraith, who I always adore.

I have a passion for well written, darkly comic dysfunctional family memoirs. Here’s a list of my favourites:

Kiss Myself Goodbye - Ferdinand Mount
Why Not Say What Happened? - Ivana Lowell
Love Child - Allegra Huston
Wild Game - Adrienne Brodeur
A Normal Family - Chrysta Bilton
The Glass Castle - Jeanette Walls
WaveWalker - Suzanne Heywood

The single best book I have read in years is "I Who Have Never Known Man" by Jacqueline Harpman. It's like no other book I have ever read, not complicated, not difficult but very thought provoking.

EH Young fits the bill - Chatterton Square and Miss Mole are great. Love all the previous suggestions too, this genre is right up my alley!

Nothing to add OP but I hope you feel better soon. I’m just bookmarking this thread for ideas!

Welcome all in need of a bit of sensible cosseting. This really should be a proper genre with shelves in every bookshop -- is there a (German) word for digestible-but-not-pap?

As this evolves into a more general thread I'll try to keep responses briefer, but please take gratitude for all suggestions as read 🙂

@hanka Love to see a mix of old friends and some I've never heard of. I have read a few of Virginia Nicholson's other books, though do tend to get them muddled with Juliet Nicolson's at times. Ysenda Maxstone Graham is another who does this kind of thing (less formally). Loved Rose George's Nine Pints, so will look your recommendation up despite the slightly unpromising subject matter 😁

@Svalberg please do try Fforde, and possibly Andrew Caldecott (Rotherweird) too, also in the box of 'WHY don't I love you?' for me. @Eyesopenwideawake he may be your kind of thing too.

@Chickenkorma64 Still Life comforted me greatly through my last bout of Covid; it may be the only example of 'up-lit' that hasn't made me want to up-chuck at any point.

Appreciate the golden-age steers, @Terpsichore @deeplybaffled @MrsW9 Is it better to read these in order (like Sayers) or fine to hop about (Christie) or is there a marked increase/decrease in quality at a particular point (too many)?

@AdaColeman I find Taylor's Restoration setting refreshing; possibly the only other series I've read in this period is Angus Donald's trilogy. Love both AGiM and AMitC(The Harpole Report is another wonderful Carr). Forgot to mention I read all the older (or newer) Harrises as a teen, though it might be good to revisit the German ones having seen what some female writers have done with the same idea (C.J. Carey, Jo Walton).

@KnobbingtonKnobberson light is good! I was tricked drawn into Alex Hay's The Housekeepers recently which has a similar-ish blurb (and a lot more publisher hype). Cardboard AND tripe, would not recommend.

@WhoHidTheCoffee All excellent books/authors but a bit too emotionally stressful for me at the moment! (We shall ignore the body count in many of the books I find cosy.....) In a similar vein, @Chemenger obscure feminist SF is absolutely up my street but the NYT "about as heavyhearted as fiction can get" blurb suggest it's better saved for a stronger-stomach day?

@GonnaGetGoingReturns You are another of my literary twins! Or perhaps sister, as I find short stories more difficult when ill (too concentrated?) and prefer to binge on a series.

@TheHorneSection Galbraith belongs on my too-soon-to-reread list -- very ready for The Running Grave! Sharpe's all yours, though, a bit too dashingly Bond-y for me 🤓

@Mirabai that's certainly another genre that would draw me in any bookshop! Have only read the Mount and enjoyed greatly, will investigate the others.

Heartily share your fondness for EHY @DoraChance
The British Library middlebrow reprints in general seem promising, though in my experience (e.g.) von Arnim and Delafield can do anything from pure fizz to traumatisingly dark so if anyone has tried these and can report on which are least likely to devastate that would be very kind!

Marsh technically has an order, in that the main character’s personal life develops throughout the series, but they can easily be read as standalones.
my personal favourites are Artists in Crime, Scales of Justice and Singing in the Shrouds, together with Light Thickens, but you’ve 33 to choose from!

What about some Penelope Lively or Margaret Forster - I used to really like them.

And Louise Erdrich, or early Barbara Kingsolver - seem to remember them being engaging and not too demanding!