What are the bes novels you have read recently?

[Bbq1]

I'm a voracious reader but going through cancer treatment atm and then recovery i have even more time enjoy it. I enjoy a wide range from Thrillers, Classics, Contemporary, Fantasy,/magic, historical and books that move between past and present, time slip novels, ghost stories. I like strong storyline and characters that draw you straight in. Both that's too depressing a la Angela's ashes.

I have mostly read 19th-century classics this year. Dickens’s Bleak House, Kipling’s Kim and Evelyn Waugh’s Vile Bodies are the novels I most enjoyed. I hardly ever read contemporary fiction. I have completely lost faith in the literary establishment I’m afraid. They seem more concerned with diversity and ‘inclusivity’ than with great writing. I can’t remember the last modern novel that impressed me.

Sorry to hear you’re having a hard time. In general, I’d say keep faith with the classics. They are classics for a reason, and they rarely let you down. Anything that has been admired by successive generations is bound to be good.

Do you like P. G. Wodehouse? No one on earth cheers me up like he does. Laying in a hot bath listening to Stephen Fry read Wodehouse is my idea of heaven. If you like historical fiction, I’d definitely recommend C J Sansom. Robert Graves wrote lots of great historical fiction (not just I Claudius). Oh, and C S Lewis wrote a wonderful science fiction trilogy, as well as a fantastic historical/fantasy novel called Till We Have Faces. I’d really recommend them. He blends history, sci fi and fantasy in interesting ways. He’s also a superb stylist. And if you like ghost stories but haven’t read M R James you’ve got a treat in store.

More generally, these novels always cheer me up:

Kipling: The Jungle Book and Just So Stories
Waugh: The Sword of Honour trilogy
Patrick Leigh Fermor: A Time of Gifts (actually, it’s a travel book)
Wodehouse: Right Ho Jeeves
Douglas Adams: Hitchiker’s Guide
Jane Austen: Pride and Prejudice
Bronte: Jane Eyre
Virginia Woolf: Orlando
Aldous Huxley: Crome Yellow
Oscar Wilde: Dorian Gray

I also love Robert Graves’ Goodbye to all That, Bertrand Russell’s popular writings, anything by Carl Sagan or Richard Feynman or Kurt Vonnegut, Orwell’s non-fiction, etc. For some reason they give me a lift.

Hope everything works out for you OP x

Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver. It has a main character that jumps out to sit next to you from the very first page and you don't want to say goodbye to at the end. It ought to be depressing and has some tragic bits, but somehow it never quite is. I think because she has drawn the people so well.

Thanks @JaneyGee and for your fab list. I've read Jane Eyre (I'm a huge Bronte fan), Bleak House and Pride and Prejudice. I am going to read through your list. Particularly keen to try Orlando as I've heard a lot about it. I tried Wodehouse once but despite loving the Tv adaptation i couldn't get into it. Same with Agatha Christie.

I've never heard of Demon Copperhead. I'll look into it. Thanks .

I try and go to the Bronte Museum once a year - the staff there are always so helpful if you have any questions. Jayne Eyre (IMHO) has that one incredible moment ("it's you Jane!") and WH is unlike any other book - there's Bronte's knew how to devise a plot better than many - but I actually enjoyed Anne's The Tennant of Wildfell Hall more than any of them - a feminist novel way ahead of it's time.

Pamela Hartshorne writes some fab time slip novels - House of Shadows is my favourite one so far.

Wishing you a swift recovery OP x

If you like a crime thriller then I would definitely recommend the Cormoran Strike books - I’m not usually a fan of the genre but they have me hooked. The Audible versions are my go-to at the moment!

For time slip, historical try the Outlander Novels by Diana Gabaldon. I've read them all and avidly waiting for the 10th and last to come out.

I absolutely agree. Haworth is my favourite place in the UK and has been for 43 years! We have stayed in a cottage in the village many times over the which is wonderful. WH is my favourite novel and I reread it at least once a year. Yes, The tennant of Wildfell Hall is way ahead of it's time but them i think all if the sisters works were in their own way

Sounds good, definitely one to look up.

Thank you @Rattenbury

Thank you, so many great sounding recommendation! I must make a list!

I've just read 'Eighty Sixed' and its sequel 'Spontaneous Combustion' by David B Feinberg and really enjoyed them. 1980s New York AIDS memoir/roman a clef stuff written at the time. Fascinating and darkly hilarious.

Sorry to hear you are going through chemo.

Have you read The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt? Her writing is very heavily influenced by Dickens and it's a hell of a story.

The Bee Sting by Paul Murray. Amazing story telling. If you enjoyed Shuggie Bain then you'll like it.

Another vote for Demon Copperhead.

I just read Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin which was really good. And it reminded me of A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan which was a tour de force though not uplifting.

The Bone Clocks by David Mitchell is astoundingly good, a real thrill ride mix of genres which shouldn't work but does.

Sorry I missed that you wanted something uplifting. Not sure mine fit the bill!

For ghost stories I recommend two Michelle Paver books:

Dark Matter
Thin Air

Kate Mosse also does a good creepy tale.

Have you read Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett? It's an incredible book about cathedral builders in Norman times. An absolute banger of a book.

I also liked Robert Harris Pompeii.

The Fear Index (also Robert Harris) was good too. Both thrillers.

Have you read The Northern Lights Trilogy by Philip Pullman?

Wow, so many good suggestions . I've read Dark Matter but not Thin Air so. I will try that. I'll also read The Goldfinch as that sounds right up my street. I love an eerie tale. I just can't read anything truly depressing/horrific

Thank you for all the well wishes too. X

Bits of The Goldfinch are quite dark in terms of the protagonist surviving a terrorist attack and struggling to find his way in life as a result but it is an incredibly well written book with an epic plot.

I don't normally like anything modern, but I would recommend 'Ghosted' by Jenn Ashworth. The plotline revolves around a disappearance, but there is no detective character, so it avoids the normal cliches of crime fiction.