What was the last book that really gripped you?

[TittyGajillions]

As in couldn't put it down, couldn't wait to find out what happens next?
I'm in a bit of a reading slump and haven't had that feeling of wanting to sit and just read for a while.
I have a long tbr but nothing is quite taking my fancy.

I just finished ‘A Thousand Ships’ by Natalie Haynes. It was the very definition of gripping but then I am very partial to a feminist retelling of Greek myths. You may not be ☺️

What kind of books usually float your boat?

For gripping my first thoughts go to American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins and Fingersmith by Sarah Waters both very different books and genres

“A Family Matter” Claire Lynch
“Three days in June” Anne Tyler

But it’s very much going to depend on what kind of book you like. So the two above are very much about the characters, what kind of people they are, what motivated them to behave in the way they did etc… that’s what interests me, peoples characters and behaviours.

I'm a give anything a go reader!

Edited to add - not dark romance that glorifies rape and abuse of women.

I know what you mean about wanting to get back to the book to see what the characters are doing. Some of these required a little investment but the characters grew on me.

Recently I have enjoyed:
Every Time We Burn - a palimsest
Our Holiday (the lies just kept on coming!)
Transatlantic (the Flight Portfolio) - mid-WWII Vichy France
Spare Brides - Post WWII England
The Midnight Feast (similar vibe to Our Holiday)
Fatal Inheritance - south of France
Slow Dance - contemporary midwestern USA
Vianne - Marseille et environs
After the Monsoon - Scandi detective in East Africa: neatly recycles some clichés

Small pleasures by Clare Chambers. Loved it and have gifted it several times, always with success. Years ago I read Midnight in the garden of good and evil, that was a great read too.

The Infinite and the Divine (thought I'd fly the flag for Black Library - it's an excellent book).

@TheGander I have raved about Small Pleasures to everyone. Such a fantastic book. OP - If that doesn’t get you over your reading slump, then nothing will 😁

I too was knocked out by American Dirt as mentioned above, incredible book.

The worst thing about getting to know the characters is leaving them behind do you can delay that awful day by investing in a series!

I adored Elly Griffiths’ series about forensic archaeologist Ruth Galloway and detective Harry Nelson.

As I ended the series and was grieving the loss of these two, I was urged to read the books about private detective Coroman Strike and the complex relationship with his sidekick Robin (female) which echoes the complexities of Ruth Galloway’s relationship with Nelson. Absolutely no romantic slush though!

I’m currently reading “ Dissolution “ about the medieval detective Shardlake and am happy it’s a series because I invest a lot of emotional bandwidth in my characters!

I also love Me Before You by Jojo Meyes and pretty much everything Jodi Taylor has written

But so much is down to your personal taste

“ Dissolution” reminds me of another good book “Act of Oblivion “ by Robert Harris @Abracadabra12345 . Set around the restoration of the monarchy, and the vengeful hunt for the men who had signed Charles 1st execution warrant. Gripping.

I really enjoy Kristin Hannah's books and am a bit of a reading snob so I didn't think I would but they are gripping.

'The list of suspicious things' by Jennie Godfrey and another vote for Small Pleasures.

Maybe my age or circumstance but the last books that really gripped me as in a miss your tube/bus stop were Crime and Punishment and one hundred years of solitude. Dostoyevsky and Gabriel Garcia Marquez.

Jane Austen’s Emma. I had never read a word of Austen until recently, in spite of a degree in literature. I don’t know why. I just never got around to it. My god she is so good. Totally gripped me from page one. I now intend to read all her novels in chronological order.

Have just finished Warlight by Michael Ondaatje (The English Patient). I loved it. It's about loyalty, motherhood, love and a boy's lifelong yearning to understand the confusing disappearance of his parents.

Just finished a far flung life by m. L. Sherman. Could not put it down!!

Just finished the new John Lanchester, Look What You Made Me Do. Excellent. Other recent good reads have been The Correspondent, and Where D'You Go Bernadette.

I Who Have Never Known Men - I don't ever re-read books but I definitely will with this one at some point. I think about or regularly.
Another one called All My Mothers which was fantastic.
Both made me cry and were very emotional but I'm different ways.

Mark Haddon's Leaving Home. It's an unusual structure, a series of vignettes from his life, illustrated mostly by him and his old family photos. I hadn't realised that he's a talented artist as well as an author. Really enjoyed it, quite a meditative sort of book.

Julia by Sandra Newman. It's Orwells 1984 seen from Julia's perspective.
It's definitely gripping. It's very tense and sometimes a stressful read. I'm loving it!!

The Beartown series by Frederik Backman had me hugely invested and the whole bloody Cormoran Strike series by Robert Galbraith

I’ve been lucky recently. Since Christmas there’s been several reads of the dishes left unwashed, beds unmade, laundry pile towering and cats fed one-handed type.

In no particular order because I loved them all and found them well-nigh impossible to put down. Only sometimes paid work would insist on getting in the way.

Nonesuch by Francis Spufford,
Golden Hill by Francis Spufford,
Cahokia Jazz by Francis Spufford,
Small Pleasures by Clare Chambers,
Ghost Hawk by Susan Cooper,
The Incandescent by Emily Tesh,
Some Desperate Glory by Emily Tesh.

The Rose Field, and before that The Woman in White.

A Killer Question by Janice Hallett (this is very funny as well)

Lucy by the Sea by Elizabeth Strout

Gisele Pelicot’s book.

Also the Names by Florence Knapp. Our Book Group loved it.