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Books told in interesting ways, 2024 edition!

40 replies

Bookysh · 06/08/2024 20:54

There was a brilliant long thread last year called books told in interesting ways and I've steadily worked my way through all the books mentioned there that I hadn't already indulged in. I discovered some really fantastic reads, so thanks everyone who made a recommendation!

I especially love books told wholly or partly through letters or diaries - or text messages and the like, more recently. So I thought I'd update with a few in that style that have published in 2024, and it would be great to hear about any new ones that anyone else has discovered.

Are You My Halley Hart? by Claire McCauley is a really fun contemporary romance about a pair of young academics who are looking for each other after briefly meeting in Oxford. He's a British historian and she's an American astronomer. It's about half epistolary and the rest is 3rd person dual narrative.

A Letter to the Luminous Deep by Sylvie Cathrall is cosy fantasy, in similar vein to Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Fairies, but set under the sea. It's pretty much entirely epistolary, and about two different couples, which means there isn't a lot of plot. This didn't bother me and I found it charming. It's the start of a series.

I'm sure there's another one, too, but it slips my mind. I'll peruse my Kindle then update.

OP posts:
Bookysh · 07/09/2024 17:11

I think I came across I, Mona Lisa and I don't recall why I dismissed it without ordering. Your description sounds fantastic so I will now rectify that error!

I just looked up the Laura Barnett and found I already read that one. Just the kind of light but well-written romance I like.

Will take a look at The Last Day of Dogtown and Ancestry, too. Thank you @newrubylane

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OhBeAFineGuyKissMe · 07/09/2024 19:36

Not recently published but The Neverending Story starts each chapter with letters in alphabetical order. It was written like that originally and the translator kept it up.

OhBeAFineGuyKissMe · 07/09/2024 19:47

OhBeAFineGuyKissMe · 07/09/2024 19:36

Not recently published but The Neverending Story starts each chapter with letters in alphabetical order. It was written like that originally and the translator kept it up.

I know it is technically a children's book but it is still enjoyable to read as an adult.

Sadik · 07/09/2024 20:04

Dark Star by Oliver K Langmead - classic noir cop story but set on a planet with no light & told in blank verse. Really good & immersive

quirkychick · 07/09/2024 21:49

Phase2 · 06/09/2024 07:33

Ever since 84 Charing Cross Road I've loved alternatives to straightforward prose. I've bought House of Leaves and am excited to read that.

I came on to say House of Leaves, but it's bloody terrifying!

Bookysh · 08/09/2024 15:20

Sadik · 07/09/2024 20:04

Dark Star by Oliver K Langmead - classic noir cop story but set on a planet with no light & told in blank verse. Really good & immersive

Will look it up, thanks. Not really into noir but getting a bit desperate for more reading matter.

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Sadik · 08/09/2024 15:30

Always Coming Home by Ursula le Guin is another interesting one - it's a post apocalyptic novel but written as a kind of anthropological record, including stories, poems, maps etc as well as more linear description.

Langmead has also written another SF novel in blank verse, Calypso, which isn't noir, but I've not read it.

MillicentMargaretAmanda · 09/09/2024 19:31

I'm not sure whether this is the sort of thing you're looking for but I've just read No 23 Burlington Square. A landlady in the 20s has three applicants for a room. You then get three different narratives for what happens depending on which one she decides to rent the room to.

Also The Cassandra Complex. The protagonist realises she can travel back in time, so starts trying to fix mistakes she's made.

Merryfreddy · 10/09/2024 21:13

I've been through both this thread and the one from last year (some great recs of books I have read and others to add to my list-thanks both OPs!). However, one book I haven't seen mentioned yet is My Name is Red by Orhan Pamuk which is a murder mystery involving miniaturists in 16th century Istanbul with multiple narrators. The first chapter is narrated by the corpse (!) and the other narrators include the murderer, a drawing of a horse, a gold coin, Satan and the colour red.

TuneInThisTimeNextWeek · 14/09/2024 20:47

Anyone read The Turnglass by Gareth Rubin? I’m debating (with myself) whether to start that after my current read. I’m intrigued by the format, but not sure if it’s going to make my brain hurt. Might be worth a look OP.

RedOrangePink · 14/09/2024 20:58

My Real Children - Jo Walton

AprilShowerslastforHours · 14/09/2024 23:30

Ragnar Jónasson's Hidden Iceland trilogy. Whilst the books individually don't fit the brief per se, the first in the trilogy is the most recently chronologically. So by the time you read book 3 you know what's happening in the detectives's life before she does.

One Amazon reviewer gave his wife the series in reverse which makes sense but means you'd miss something. It was definitely interesting to read the books in the order the author intended.

Bookysh · 21/09/2024 10:46

Thanks for so many more suggestions! I've had my surgery now, and already run out of reading matter, so going through these.
My concentration span isn't at its best due to medication so lighter novels told in interesting ways are my speed right now, but I'll save some of the more intensely unusual or heavier reads for the future.

OP posts:
mum2jakie · 07/11/2024 19:23

None of This is True by Lisa Jewell. Listened on audiobook and it has a mix of podcast footage and interviews with different characters as the story unfolds.

OhEs · 08/11/2024 00:52

if it has not yet been mentioned “Monster Love” by Carol Topolski might fit the bill.

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