Unputdownable Book

[RayofSunshine18]

What is your number one, unputdownable book, that you would recommend to absolutely anyone and everyone that will listen. Either fact or fiction - I am looking for some inspiration!

Kristin Hannah - The nightingale

'How High We Go in the Dark' by Sequoia Nagamatsu. Epic story that I'm still thinking about every day, having read it in one day about 2 months ago.

The girl who loved Tom Gordon by Stephen King made me stay up to read it. Bad idea reading at bed time.

What a great thread to start @RayofSunshine18

Good call. I must reread this! Also his The Moonstone.

I think the answer comes down to whether you mean ‘unputdownable’ in the plotty sense, or in the sense of being plunged into a vividly-realised world you don’t want to leave.

Most recently, in the latter sense, Rebecca West’s The Fountain Overflows trilogy. This was a familiar reread for me, but I literally reached for the next book each time and kept going. They are astonishingly vivid, a sort of family saga about an eccentric family where two of the daughters are gifted pianists, the mother is a formerly famous concert pianist, the father a brilliant political writer and gambler. Set mostly in South London before, during and after WWI.

For plotty people, they may be frustrating in the sense that she left them unfinished at her death — only the first was published in her lifetime, and the others were put together posthumously, so one central mystery is never resolved, or the resolution was only mentioned vaguely in her notes. But I can’t recommend them more highly.

The Enchanted by Rene Denfield, but it’s very very dark.

I don’t usually go for the subject matter (death row prisoners), but the prose is almost lyrical. My favourite ever book.

I found the first three or four books of Jean Auel's Earth's Children series gripping. Unfortunately she went off the rails in the later books and turned them into a sort of prehistoric Peyton Place.

American Dirt - Jeanine Cummins. I've thought about it so often since I read it. It was absolutely gripping!

Invisible Child - it won the Pulitzer last year and is honestly one of the most amazing books I've ver read.

It was really good.

Fingersmith by Sarah Waters.

I was gripped by this many years ago. I must dig it out and re-read it.
I've just re-read Maeve Binchey's Light a Penny Candle, followed by psychological thriller with a love story - I Found You by Lisa Jewell.
I'm also finding the Tudor books by Philippa Gregory compelling, particularly The Virgin's Lover.

O Gosh, yes, I had forgotten Maeve Binch y! And I have all of her books! She has such a lovely easy style of writing, and I love her characters. Loves Light a Penny Candle.

The Power by Naomi Alderman is the best book I have read in years. Truly amazing, unputdownable clever.

Series 2 is due to drop in December, can't wait!

Oh, I have forgotten about this!

Off the top of my head I can think of the following:

The Heart's Invisible Furies - John Boyne
The Secret History - Donna Tartt
The Goldfinch - Donna Tartt
Life After Life - Kate Atkinson
All The Light We Cannot See - Anthony Doerr
The Light Between the Oceans - M.L. Steadman
American Dirt - Jeanine Cummins

Another vote for American Dirt, I felt like I travelled that entire journey with them.

The Secret History
The Crimson Petal and the White
A Little Life
Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell

Most things by Robert Harris

Also Kate Atkinson, Anne Enright, Maggie O'Farrell

I'm encouraged to see American Dirt recommended. I has come up in my 'what else you might like' lists a few times, but I (for reasons I can't remember I haven't chosen to read it. Maybe I will give it a go.

The Coordinates of Loss by Amanda Prowse. Cried all the way through

John Connolly Charlie, Parker series. All up to date until his next book.
I've just start Karin Slaughter, Will Trent series and read the first book in a couple of days.
Also Marian keys and Cecila Ahern books are also brilliant.

What a great idea for a thread, I'm taking notes.
I wholeheartedly agree with Wilkie Collins
Below are the ones that have recently kept me up reading longer than I should...

Rodham or anything by Curtis Sittenfeld - haven't come across a bad one yet.
Little fires everywhere -Celeste Ng
Lessons -Ian McEwan
Betty -Tiffany Daniel

Any Stephen King, lee child or Sarah j Maas crescent city series