If I like these books, what should I read next?

[MildLifeCrisis]

Need to get back into reading. Can you please recommend me a few titles to get me hooked again?
Some of my fav books/genres are:

• dystopian novels (loved 1984 and Handmaid’s Tale for example)
• All Jane Austen’s
• Jane Eyre possibly my fav book ever
• all Agatha Christie
• Not into sci-fi at all but have loved reading Jurassic Park
• loved a few Annie Ernaux books lately

What I dislike: generally never like recent best sellers, I never find them well written imo. I didn’t like Osman’s murder series, found it boring and unnecessarily complicated the plot for no real reason.
Not into fantasy or sci-fi (although as I said above, Jurassic Park is one of my fav books!)

The children of men - dystopian novel also Brave New World or Farenheit 451.

Have you tried the Brontë novels? The Tenant of Wildfell Hall is a one of you live Jane Eyre

Maybe Elizabeth Gaskell if you like Jane Austen.
I too love dystopian/
speculative fiction books. Recent ones I’ve enjoyed include The Book of Guilt by Catherine Chidgey, Under the Eye of the Big Bird by Hiromi Kawakami, Dream Hotel by Leila Lalami and Immaculate Conception by Ling Ling Huang. These are all relatively new books but not bestsellers.

How about some Du Maurier? Start with Rebecca.

Thanks!
i have read Wuthering Highs only from the other sisters

Yes that’s actually sitting in my “to be read” pile!

Try the Christie Affair - a novel loosely based on Agatha Christie's own disappearance!

Barbara Pym. Muriel Sparks.

The Wall by John Lanchester
All our missing Hearts by Celeste Ng
(Both dystopian but could happen in the not too distant future)

Try Atwood. The Handmaid’s Tale and The Blind Assassin really are that good (though I have a friend who bitterly loathes the latter).

I loved Austen and resisted Dickens for years, then had to read Bleak House for a book club and adored it.

I wonder if you’d like Tristram Shandy.

Bleak House is wonderful. Such a complicated story with so many brilliant characters.

Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro (and The Remains of the Day, although they’re quite different).

Dystopian…

The Blue Book of Nebo by Manon Steffan Ros. It’s YA, but don’t let that put you off!

I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman. Deeply strange! I’m still thinking about it and wondering what I read!

Station Eleven by Emily St John Mandel. I really enjoyed this!

if you’re into dystopian romance with smut then you might enjoy Claire Kent. Start with Haven.

Golden Age crime - ECR Lorac/Carol Carnac (same person). Some have been republished by The British Library.

Also look for green penguins/Collins Crime Club by Pamela Branch and Christianna Brand, MG Eberhart and the wonderful Margery Allingham.

Classic fiction - have you read The Moonstone or The Woman in White?

Have a look at The Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys. It's the story of the mad woman in the attic.

In terms of speculative fiction...
I've recently read 'On The Calculation Of Volume' by Solvej Balle and enjoyed it a lot. I also loved Severence by Ling Ma. And another vote for Station Eleven By Emily St. John Mandel.

I love The Blue Book of Nebo and The Wide Sargasso Sea. Both very memorable for different reasons.

Oh yes, I loved On the Calculation of Volume, and there are three books in English so far (annoyingly I think there are 5 or 6 altogether but the rest aren’t translated yet).

Try something by Alice Feeney (author of the novel His&Hers which Netflix have just adapted). I loved “Daisy Darker” which is based on ‘And then there were none’ by Agatha Christie, or Beautiful Ugly.

Also, how about Three Hours, by Rosamund Lupton. It’s about a school shooting and how it all unfolds.

Pat Barker is a great writer - the silence of the girls trilogy about the siege of Troy is good.

Fair Rosalind by Natasha Solomon is a retelling of Romeo and Juliet and is a great read (but it will forever change how you view the play!).

I’ve always said I don’t like fantasy novels, but the ‘Godkiller’ series by Hannah Kaner changed my mind - they’re great books.

Agree with a lot of the suggestions above

PD James (try her books of short stories first)
Ann Granger (cosy mysteries)
Joanna Trollope
Kazuo Ishiguro (have a box of tissues ready though and I don’t recommend him if you’re in a depressive state of mind!)

But as I love all the books you’ve mentioned too OP (I’ve never read Jurassic park though) I’m going to recommend my absolute favourite author of all time to you, Barbara Comyns.

Start with Sisters by a River or Our Spoons Came From Woolworths and see what you think.

Another vote for Never Let Me Go, gorgeous book.

Also, if you like Jane Austen you may enjoy Georgette Heyer’s Regency novels - they’re light but extremely well written and very funny.

Nevil Shute
Delderfield - especially the Swann books and Horseman Riding By
Tenant of Wildfell Hall
The Cone Gatherers
Somerset Maughan
Graham Greene - try Travels with my Aunt

Young adult novels can be helpful in getting back into the habit — try How I Live Now and the Sally Lockhardt mysteries.

Otherwise, try Sherlock Holmes if you haven’t read it
PG Wodehouse
Perfume
The Eyre Affair or Shades of Grey
Anne Tyler
Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day
They Both Die at the End
Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow
The Correspondent

Bit of a random collection but perhaps there’s something that grabs you

For Christie like crime I’ve really enjoyed Japanese crime fiction - but grizzlier

i started with seisho yokomizo

Miss Read...the Thrush Green/Fairacre series' particularly.
Charles Dickens...Martin Chuzzlewit.
Andrea Mara...Hide and Seek.
Dorothy L Sayers...Gaudy Night.
Ngaio Marsh...Overture to Death, Scales of Justice.
Josephine Tey...the Franchise Affair, Miss Pym Disposes.
Rosamund Lupton...Three Hours.
Frederik Bach...Anxious People.

Agree with PP, Severance by Ling Ma and also Swan song by Robert Rick McCammon,

If you like Dystopian also look at The Girl With All the Gifts.

Delderfield - especially the Swann books and Horseman Riding By

I much prefer To Serve Them All My Days, about a boys' school between the wars, following the life and career of a young officer who joined the school as a master in 1918.

I second the recommendation of ECR Lorac. Georgette Heyer also wrote a few contemporary detective novels. And for something very undemanding, Patricia Wentworth's Miss Silver novels. Miss Silver is a former governess who in later life is a successful private detective.