Long haul flight book recommendations

[Flourshiba]

I’m off to NZ for Christmas so will have two very long journeys & reading is my favourite way to pass plane time.

Things I’ve read recently & enjoyed

All the Colours of the Dark
The Wedding People
Small Pleasures
Homecoming
Kala
Intermezzo
Good Material

I know that’s bit of an eclectic mix, but I’ve enjoyed all of them.
I don’t love flying so I’d prefer nothing too gritty or tense (Kala, All the Colours of the Dark etc) but love a good story with interesting characters.

I haven’t tried any cosy crime yet? Richard Osman etc as thought I might find it ‘meh’, but everyone seems to rave about it.

So do you have any suggestions of good, engrossing (not too bleak, or anxiety inducing) reads that could help while away many, many hours on a flight.

Thank you ✨

The extent to which you gel with Richard Osman will depend on how happy you are with dialogue-heavy feelgood reads with workmanlike prose and the basic premise of ‘Old people, even if they watch daytime tv and are obsessed with Costa Coffee, are cooler than everyone else.’

If you liked Intermezzo, one of Sally Rooney’s earlier novels?

For happy, engaging, thoughtful novels that are strong on setting and character, Barbara Kingsolver’s The Bean Trees and its sequel Pigs in Heaven, or Prodigal Summer?

Lily King’s Writers and Lovers?

I also loved Wedding People Kala Good Material and Small Pleasures.
Based on those I also recently liked Consider Yourself Kissed, The Rachel Incident, Blue Sisters, Romantic Comedy. They're all lightish reads. Dolly Aldertons other book Ghosts is also good.

Eleanor Catton has two long books set in NZ -the Luminaries and Birnam Wood - definitely long enough for your flight and not dark subjects but quite dense if that makes sense. I enjoyed both but they're not "easy" reads.

The Crazy Rich Asians series is very light and fun.

Personally did not finish the Thursday Murder Club.

For a bit of not gruesome crime and I'm having a thing of reading female authors
Horse by Geraldine Brooks
VI Warshawski series
Cormoran Strike series

Lessons in Chemistry is a great read.

@AmberBeaker I enjoyed The Luminaries too though it got a little repetitive towards the end. It was a book club choice and I was amazed to learn I was the only one who stuck with it to the end.

Another good NZ set book is The Stranding but definitely not for your flight out OP.

The Magpie Murders and related are good.

If you are into older books, (and don't mind a romance set throughout the British Raj) try to find a copy of The Far Pavilions by MM Kaye. It's a long saga that was a monster hit back in the 1980s. I also enjoy her book "Trade Winds" as well as her shorter, light mystery novels.

Ugh, don't waste your time with Richard Osman – bland, third rate stuff. If you want something scary, try M R James. Vastly superior writer in every way. And if you like crime, read Sherlock Holmes. Forget all the films and all the cliches. As with Tolkien, a whole industry has built up around Doyle's Holmes books. If you forget all that and just pick up a collection of the Sherlock Holmes stories (or just read The Hobbit), you realise why they've lasted so long – because they're really, really good. People will still be reading Holmes and M R James when Osman is long forgotten.

Ken Follett Pillars of the Earth

Lessons in chemistry and remarkably bright creatures are both good. Also just read the women by Kristen hannah and thought that was good.
I also like the comoran strike books.

A god in ruins by Kate Atkinson

Thank you for all these great suggestions! I’m excited to start looking them all up.

I loved Lessons in Chemistry, so the fact a few of you have mentioned it makes me know we’re on the right track 💐

Lie back and listen to the audiobook version of Project Hail Mary, even if you don't like sci fi, and you will not want that plane to land so you can keep listening.

I'm going to suggest, They Were Sisters by the great Dorothy Whipple. It's well written with good characters and it's hard to put down.

I really didn’t enjoy Richard Osmans first book and never bothered with later ones . I’m currently reading where there is evil , a true story and enjoying it . I enjoyed all the light we cannot see asee well .

I loved The Names, the Heather Blazing and Nesting.
Also enjoyed careless people the Facebook book ! What a treat I love a long flight fir the reading immersion
Have a wondholiday
Ps i enjoyed the audiobooks of the Richard Oman's!!
I'm
Easily pleased I guess

A couple of ones I love which would definitely keep you going on a long flight are East of Eden by John Steinbeck and The Stand by Stephen King. Probably keep you going on several long flights actually 😁

The Stand is a really good suggestion. Any of the early Stephen King - Salem's Lot, The Shining. Cujo. Pet Semetary. Some of the novella collections.

After that he sort of goes off the rails into the fantasy realm.

Have youu considered something like the Count of Monte Cristo? An oldie but a goodie and IMO really gripping

God of the Woods.
Ripeness. Sarah Moss.
The Frozen River. Ariel Lawhon
The Corrections. Jonathan Franzen.
So Good to See You. Francesca Hornak
Albion Anna Hope
My Year of Rest and Relaxation. Ottessa Moshfegh.
Tomorrow, Tomorrow, Tomorrow. Gabrielle Zevin
You Are Here. David Nicholls

I can recommentd Anxious People by Fredrick Backman for interesting characters and character-driven plot. It's a really easy read, it's not a conventional cozy crime novel but more about the relationships between the characters.

I love Pillars of the Earth, one of my favourite books, but it does have some pretty tense and gritty scenes.

I admit that I have no idea about any of the books you've read, so these suggestions might be WAY off. I have done long, long haul like this far more times than I can recall though- so do sympathise and find a book a great way to pass the hours go by. All of these are so old that you'd pick them up from ebay for a few £'s.

-Call the midwife books- I think 4 in the series
-Bill Bryson. He did one called Down Under, but obviously you are going to NZ
-All Creatures Great and Small (several books in the series)
-Kon-Tiki expedition

The Covenant of Water - good long book.

Seven Susters series - Lucinda Riley

Thorn Birds

As you're a fan of Claire Chambers, her more recent novel Shy Creatures is also good. I would also second Kate Atkinson's Life after Life and its companion novel God In Ruins. Both long reads too. I loved Paul Murray's the Bee Sting which is another long read but one I couldn't put down. Joanna Glen's All My Mothers is a lovely book.