I have some amazon vouchers - what 5 books shall I buy?

[Raggydoll]

I'd like a bit of variety. The last 5 books I read and enjoyed were:

1. The Book Thief
2. The Handmaids Tale
3. The Shadow of the Wind
4. The Bell Jar
5. On Chesil Beach

if you liked The Shadow of the Wind try Winter in Madrid by CJ Sansom
I can recommend his Shardlake books too

What are the shardlake books about loobylou2?

Oh yes, I loved Shadow of the Wind and then read Winter in Madrid. It's very good. I was going to suggest Book Thief but see you've read it!! Fottprints in the Sand is a good chick read if you like love/adventure stuff with a bit of mystery thrown in. Randon Acts of Heroic Love? I enjoyed that too.

How about

Cat's Eye
Madame Bovary
Cloud Atlas
The Grapes of Wrath
Unless

the twilight set (ooh, edward cullen........my soul belongs to him!)

you need these books!

bugger......try again

I second Randon Acts of Heroic Love
The Outcast is great too

1. Lovely Bones
2. Before I forget - Melissa Hill
3. Lady Oracle - Margaret Atwood
4. The curious incident of a dog at the night time - Mark Haddon
5. The Memory Keeper's Daughter -

Kim Edwards

I second 'Lovely Bones' but big thumbs down for 'Random Acts of Heroic Love'- my book club unanimously loathed it.

Oooh. Lovely Bones is on my book group's list of forthcoming attractions. Mark Lawson, though, made a disparaging remark about it tonight on Front Row. Is it good?

lovely bones is turgid gloopy read badly written and sorry hated memory keepers daughter

what about
1984 white teeth rebecca grapes of wrath grass is singing

oh whatever you chose,what a fortunate position to be in

Second Lovely Bones and The Curious Incident. After looking through my bookcase here are a couple more:

The Eyre Affair - Jasper Fforde (if you like something a bit unusual)
The WElsh Girl - Peter Ho Davies
The Island - Victoria Hislop
The Savage Garden - Mark Mills (if you like easy read murder mysteries)
The Interpretation of Murder - Jed Rubenfeld (if you like harder to read murder mysteries)

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night time is wonderful.
Lovely Bones I thought was crap.
Memory Keepers Daughter was double crap.
I like a good biography, what about a biog of Evita Peron, Jackie Kennedy, Quentin Crisp were all ones I thoroughly enjoyed.

I am just re-reading East of Eden by Steinbeck and its FAB.

curious incident was VG easy read

Time Traveller's Wife, Kite Runner, Love in the Time of Cholera, anything by Ian Rankin, Peter Robinson, Sarah Paretsky.

But I love crime fiction....

Absolutely hated - The Alchemist.

Thanks everyone - sorry for not coming back sooner... I am now on amazon and adding items to wish list for further consideration.

From your recommendations I have already read...
Curious Incident
Madam Bovary
Rebecca

Added to wish list for further consideration-

A town called alice
Grapes of wrath
The memory keepers daughter - i like the sound of the title - does the book live up to it?
love in the timeof cholera

I've read some great books this yearand its going to be hard not to be disapointed I think.

Not Lovely Bones! Hated it! Not fond of The Memory Keeper's Daughter either...

How about:

Resistance - Owen Sheers (set in Welsh valley in alternative past where Germany had succeeded in invading during WWII)
Regeneration - Pat Barker (Owen and Sassoon's time at Craiglockhart being treated for shell-shock.) Fantastic novel.
Brave New World - dystopian satire
Atonement - MNetters divided on this one
The Outcast - Sadie Jones (I think)

The Memory Keeper's Daughter is dreadful; sorry! I also hated "Random Acts Of Heroic Love".

Please try "Winter In Madrid" or the Matthew Shardlake books, which are brilliant - really well researched and gripping.

How about "Oryx And Crake" if you liked "The Handmaid's Tale" - it's another Atwood dystopia-type novel; even weirder than The HM's Tale though.

I've just read and enjoyed "Pillars Of The Earth" by Ken Follet and "King Solomon's Mines" - I clearly have eclectic tastes!

okay in my basket i have...

regeneration
resistance
birdsong - sebastian faulkes

thats alot of war related novels

also

love in the time of cholera
the grapes of wrath
a town called alice
brave new world?

Do i need something a bit lighter to balance it out?

notes from an exhibition - patrick gale
the secret river- kate grenville
small island- andrea levy
fingersmith-sarah waters

i just checked out the sypnosis of winter in madrid. I've added to basket. I do like a book with a historical/war interest.

I've read fingersmith - very good and not depressing at all.

final purchases were:

Birdsong
Winter in Madrid
Resistance
The Outcast
Cider House Rules

Many Thanks everyone

I was just about to post that I have just finished reading The Cloud Atlas, it is fab, I really enjoyed it, could hardly put it down... Of your choices, I have read Birdsong, I like Faulks too.