What can I read next please?

[janeite]

Have just read a fictionalised version of Scott's bid for the pole - fab;
'A Study In Scarlet' - good but I realised after a few pages that I'd already read it;
Terry Pratchett's 'Nation' - ok;
The Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn - didn't like it much;
The Gargoyle - quite liked this one.

I have just abandoned:
The Glass Book Of The Dream Eaters - over written and tedious;
Shakespeare's Wife by Germaine Greer - too much like very hard, not very satisfing work.

I have a Peter Carey waiting, something about Troy but can't remember what it's called and then I will be bookless again.

I am not a happy bunny when I am bookless!

Tia

Here's a couple of ideas:
A Place of Greater Safety, Hilary Mantel (fictionalised french revolution - I was inspired to read a proper history book after that one)
Music and Silence, Rose Tremain; a great story, with some interesting history woven into it.

Ahh now I have read a few of Rose T's but can't remember that one - will google. I tried Hilary M's latest one about the mediums and couldn't get on with it.

Have all the other readers gone off to bed with a good book?

Asleep? Shurely not, when there's still wine to be drunk!

Have you read Fingersmith by Sarah Waters? Highly entertaining historical fiction with a twist - fan-bloody-tastic. Her novel Affinity is also a bloody good read.

Just read Terrorist by John Updike - an amazing book if you're in the mood for a more modern thriller.

Joyce Carol Oates is a very prolific American author who has written some great books - We Were The Mulvaneys is an engrossong family saga, and The Falls and Black Girl/White Girl are very cool.

And The Stone Diaries by Carol Shields.

Want more? I shall sip some wine and ponder...

You've probably read it, and I can't quite remember the title but Harry Thompson's book about Darwin - something like the "darkest night??. Brilliant, long book, lots of adventure and actually made Darwin quite interesting (unlike the endless tedious BBC stuff about him at the moment).

Read the Darwin one - it's fab. It's called 'This Thing Of Darkness'. Have also read a non-fiction one about Jeremy Button which was also really interesting, the more so for having read the novel.

The Peter Carey one I mentioned is actually by Peter Akroyd and is therefore likely to be completely inpenetrable.

Any more folks - am suffering here!

KHS - I'm afraid I really hated 'Fingersmith' - enough to make me not want to try another of hers. Sorry.

Will google your other suggestions - don't really 'do' thrillers though.

Oh I have 'Brideshead Revisited' to re-read too but that will only take an evening.

'The three of us' by Julia Blackburn. In my opinion this is a beautifully written book. Very sad in places but I was also incredibly moved.

The Diana Gabaldon series is great if your into that kind of thing (history, love, war ect...). It starts with 'Outlander'. But they are a million pages each...yet I would recommend to anyone! Even my FIL read them and was addicted lol

Just finished 'The History of Love' by Nicole Krauss which is a really good book too...and short!

Sorry but I don't think I would like either of those. I am definitely a book snob.

Sorry to be a pain but do please keep 'em coming.

That was about Diana G and The 3 Of Us - am googling History Of Love now.

Hopeful evening bump?

have u read Rohinton Mistry's a Fine Balance?
to kill a mockingbird?

I love TKAMB. Will look out for the other one in the library - had never heard of it but everybody on Amazon loves it!

Well I have enjoyed being reminded of how lovely Brideshead is. But what to read next?

Just finished Secret Scriptures, Sebastian Barry.

Beautifully written imo.

Ah picked that up and put it down again in Smiths a few weeks ago. Will have another look. Thanks.

Tick Bite Fever? True story about a boy growing up in Kenya
love it.

What about Alexander McCall Smith books? I prefer his Botswana lot to the Edinburgh ones though.

Love the Ladies' Detective Agency books but couldn't get on with the others of his.

Must admit I don't much like memoir type books.

ah now, Ick Bite Fever isn't ex-actly a memoir book - I'm not a big fan myself - more a catalogue of disasters really in a black humorous tale - but up to you of course.

I haven't been able to get into Nation - it's so different from Discworld I'm having troubles with it but will persevere.

The boy in the striped pyjamas?

I read it in one sitting. Stunning.

Tick. Obviously.

Have read 'The Boy In The Striped PJs'.

'Nation' is okay - not great but it did make me laugh a few times.

How about Louis de Bernieres? I am not a fan of Captain Corelli, but loved Birds without Wings, and also The War of Don Emmanuel's Nether Parts, Senor Vivo and the Coca Lord, and The Troublesome Offshpring of Cardinal Guzman.

Ooh, and Carter Beats the Devil (Glen David Gold) and Ursula Under (Ingrid Hill).