Please post your must reads; old, new, anything goes!

[PenguinTime]

I’m leaving my job this Friday and have been gifted £60 worth of vouchers for Waterstones.
I’ve been meaning to carve out more time for myself to read in the evenings, so would love some recommendations.

I like things with a bit of substance, not really a fan of romance, have read most of the classics, and don’t mind a bit of grit or difficult themes. Extra points if they’re available in paperback!

I could write a massive list but I'll tell you my two absolute favourites
Beloved by Toni Morrison
Cat's Eye by Margaret Atwood
(And all and everything by Anne Tyler and Mary Lawson!)

Anything by Mary Stewart, but especially the Merlin trilogy.

My favourites include:
Station Eleven - Emily St John Mandel
The Cleft - Doris Lessing
Slade House - David Mitchell
Like a lot of the Strike novels by Robert Galbraith

and non fiction
Hags - Victoria Smith
Wilding - Isabella Tree

The Shardlake series by C J Sansom.

All the light we cannot see Anthony Doerr

The Stand- Stephen King
Circe- Madeline Miller
A suitable Boy- Vikram Seth
A Fine Balance- Rohinton Mistry
The Heart's Invisible Furies - John Boyne
The Crimson Petal and the White- Michael Faber
Demon Copperhead and Hamnet

Also books from John Irving, Wally Lamb and Anne Patchett.

Ones that stand out as most enjoyable from my life are:

The Secret History by Donna Tartt
The Interestings by Meg Wollitzer
Cat’s Eye by Margaret Atwood
The Spool of Blue Thread by Anne Tyler
Commonwealth by Ann Patchett
This Charming Man by Marian Keyes
Mr Wilder and Me, Jonathan Coe

Currently reading Verity by Colleen Hoover and I can't put it down.

Eleanor Oliphant is completely fine - Gail Honeyman.

The Rosie Project - Graeme Simsion

Strange Sally Diamond - Liz Nugent

My favourite books of all time:

Bill Bryson: A Short History of Everything
Patrick Fermor: A Time of Gifts
Evelyn Waugh: Sword of Honour
P. G. Wodehouse: Right Ho Jeeves
George Orwell: Essays
Sherlock Holmes
Douglas Adams: (everything)
M. R. James: Collected stories
Anthony Burgess: Enderby novels
Virginia Woolf: Orlando
Daudet: Letters from my Windmill
Dickens: David Copperfield
Robert Graves: Goodbye to all That
Sylvia Plath: The Bell Jar
Oscar Wilde: Dorian Gray
Harold Bloom: The Western Canon
Ian McEwan: Atonement
Edward St Aubyn: Melrose novels

I'm reading a book by Bertrand Russell atm called The Conquest of Happiness. It's basically a self-help book, but written by one of the greatest philosophers of the 20th-century. Crystal clear prose that zips along – and full of so many interesting and clever observations. He wrote it in the 1920s, but my god everything he says is so relevant. It's like he's anticipated social media, 24-hour news, and all the other things that make us miserable.

Cloud Atlas- David Mitchell
Greenwood- Michael Christie
Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistlestop Cafe- Fannie Flagg
What a Carve Up!- Jonathon Coe
Literally any book by Kate Atkinson

If you liked Slade House, have you read The Bone Clocks? They're very much connected!

No!!! Thank you SO much! Just ordered a second hand copy 😊

It's brilliant! If you like it, I'd give Cloud Atlas a go too.

the books I would give as gifts:

Miss Benson Beetle- Rachel Joyce
Small Pleasures- Claire Chambers
The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue- VE Schwarb
The Toll- neal Shusterman
Perfectly Ordinary People- Nick Alexander
Blood Orange- Harriet Tyce
Silence of the Lambs- Thomas Harris

Now that I have read! 🤓

Jay kristoff- empire of the vampire.
Mark lawrence- Red sister
both quite gory gritty and dark x

@Floofydawg my sister has just read this and highly recommends it.
I'm getting my copy tomorrow and I'm really excited as it's been a while since a book has totally gripped me.

Best books I've read :
Heart's Invisible Furies - John Boyne
If Tomorrow Comes - Sydney Sheldon
Kane and Abel - Jeffrey Archer
Francesca's Party - Patricia Scanlan.
And Then She Was Gone - Lisa Jewell

Really enjoyed How To Kill Your Family - Bella Mackie.

Fantasy fan here!
Robin Hobb - especially her series which starts with The Farseerer Trilogy
Kate Elliott - haven't read her most recent but I loved her previous series.
Stephen Donaldson - most of his books are good, but unremitting gloom, but the pair of books called Mordant's Need are clever and not quite so heavy.

I forgot - Savages, Shirley Conran. Love it.

I am a big fan of Lisa Jewell and Diane Chamberlain books.

The Poisonwood Bible
The Barchester Chronicles
Anna Karenina
Jilly Cooper's Rivals
I Capture the Castle
A Mary Oliver anthology-probably Wild Geese.

But I would buy all of those on Abebooks and use the voucher to get some brand new publications.

@CurlewKate I'm another fan of Mary Oliver's poems

To Kill a Mocking Bird Harper Lee
The Sealwoman's Gift Sally Magnusson
A Terrible Kindness Jo Browning Wroe

I absolutely loved Demon Copperhead and from what you say I think it would be your sort of thing.

Second To Kill A Mockingbird (but not Go Set a Watchman) and books by David Mitchell, Robin Hobb and Barbara Kingsolver.