Unputdownable, short-ish, not trashy books

[Europeanbanana]

I need books that will grip me so much I won't look at my phone. I don't want anything trashy or too long. Let's under under 350 pages. Any suggestions for really wonderful books that fit the bill?

Mr Wilder and Me - Jonathan Coe. I’ve always loved his books but I adored this when I read it last summer. I remember it being quite short so I just Googled it and it’s 256 pages!

The Great Gatsby

A Fortnight in September

Foster by Claire Keegan ( Small things like these is also wonderful )
James by Percival Everett
A month in the Country
Educated by Tara Westover ( non fiction but riveting )

Rivers of London series. Ben Aaranovich. Brilliant and unique

The Snow Goose by Paul Gallico. This won a Radio 4 ‘Neglected Classics’ listeners vote some years ago.

Anything by Taylor Jenkins Reid (The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo is particularly good) or Ann Patchett ( just finished State of Wonder - amazing)

Anything by Anna Jacob’s.

Flaubert's parrot, Julian Barnes. Chance Developments Alexander McCall Smith

Heartburn by Norah Ephron
Ordinary Time by Cathy Rentzenbrink
Four Seasons by Stephen King (four novellas in one volume)
Sorrow & Bliss by Meg Mason (not sure if it's short but I read it in a day)

Five by Ilona Bannister and Julia by Sandra Newman.
Loved them both.

Diary of a Nobody

That Bonesetter Woman by Frances Quinn

Pork pie pandemonium - Steve Higgs

Boys don’t cry by Fíona Scarlett. Sad , gritty but I read it in a day and incredibly well written

It is indeed very short! Surprisingly so 😂
Around Christmas I saw Cillian Murphy on the telly so settled down to watch and very quickly realised it was a film adaptation of Small Things! Twas excellent, if course. I don't think it veered from the book at all. Small and perfectly formed, much like Mr Murphy himself.

OK- everyone loves it. I just found it boring so even if the book is really short it was too long for me. But I have probably missed something because everybody seems to love it - I would just like to ask why? I give you that the language is perfect but how can you not find it tedious? Genuinly trying to get it.

In Memoriam by Alice Winn

One I bought at an airport and finished waiting for my flight (might have been delayed, or maybe I missed it reading the book...) "And then there were none", by Agatha Christie. I bought it when it was called Ten Little Indians. The book has hopefully now landed on an acceptable title, poor publishers, they've been through the mill with that one 😅

Rebecca is not a quick read 😂

Sara Cox, JoJo Moyes, Graham Norton all excellent

Maybe a bit left field , maybe something a bit different:
The Road - Cormac McCarthy (terrifying but fantastic and very short)
No Country for Old Men - Cormac McCarthy
Queens Gambit - Walter Tevis ( even better than one of my favourite TV series)
Night of the Hunter - Davis Grubb ( dated and showing its age of course but … wow)
The Shape of Water - Guillermo Del Toro
True Tales of American Life - Paul Auster ( inspiring, happy, sad, a collection of very short unusual life event stories taken from ( I think) a radio show.

The Small Hand by Susan Hill. She wrote The Woman in Black. A ghost story but very well written and gripping

I really enjoyed Mad Mabel by Sally Hepworth. It’s marketed as a thriller but it’s more contemporary fiction I thought.
Currently racing through Dungeon Crawler Carl which is nuts

two suggestions from me
A Life's Music by Andrei Makine.
The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox by Maggie O'Farrell.