Can anyone recommend three books for holiday reading?

[Rosieeo]

It might be wishful thinking with two little 'uns, but I plan on buying three books for my hols and don't want to do it last minute at the airport.

I want something really thick and meaty, that I can really get into. It's been so long since I read a book like that!

I (generally) don't like chick or victim literature, not too keen on detective stuff or Dan Brown stylee. I normally like the bookclub type novels but have been a bit with some of them recently.

It would be great to have recommendations, if anyone has any?

I really enjoyed the revolutionary road
Secret History by Donna Tartt is on eof my faves.
I am taking Guernica and Past Imperfect by Julian Fellowes

The Hidden by Tobias Hill. Reminded me a bit of The Secret History: an outsider (an archaeologist) falls in with a charismatic group on a dig in Sparta. Ending is a bit hokey, but the journey is worth it.
The writing is so good, you slow down so you don't miss any of it.

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman, can't beat it. If you liked Stardust you should read this.

Shogun by James Clavell. An oldie but nice.

i liked the island despiote it being shit - her other one was too too bad. loved 19th wife
and you must all read american wife - so good.
also liked Senators wife( very odd btu good)
and the great lover by Gill dawson

harry potter?

omg no

Yes American Wife = unputdownable (apart from the last bits I thought).

Is Senators wife something completely different?

Lots of wives there Badger!

I read this on the beach this week...

www.amazon.co.uk/Love-Cholera-Penguin-Modern-Classics/dp/0141189207/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=125036581 0&sr=8-3

It was really perfect summer reading!!!

just read 2 well above average psychological thrillers in the woods by tana french and the shape of snakes by minette walters both basically whodunnits but a gripping journey to find out..a real couple of shush child and lost sleep books

A Proper Education for Girls (previously known as 'The Peachgrower's Almanac') - a great read about 2 fiesty Victorian sisters. Author is Elaine di Rollo. Here's a link

This Book Will Save Your Life - agree this was good
Private Lives of Pippa Lee - agree this was not much good
Am reading and enjoying The Gargolye

Also really enjoyed 'This Book Will Save Your Life' & 'The 19th Wife'.

Just read Virginia Ironside's 'No I Don't Want to Join a Bookclub' - very good and couldn't put it down, but would class more as light reading than meaty!

Enjoyed all I've read of Anne Tyler (off the top of my head: 'The Amateur Marriage', 'Digging to America', 'Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant') and have a few more in my to read pile.

Others I've read recently and enjoyed: 'Addition' by Toni Jordan; 'Lullabies for Little Criminals' by Heather O Neill, 'The English Harem' by Anthony McCarten; 'Salmon Fishing in the Yemen' & 'The Irresistable Inheritance of Wilberforce' by Paul Torday (to name but a few!)

I am reading This Thing of Darkness for my book group atm.

It's by Harry Thompson about the voyage of the Beagle and Darwin and Fitzroy - about whom/which I am ashamed to say I knew very little - and it's really excellent. I have to keep picking it up to devour more. Such a boys' book (= not normally a hit with me) but it's very goo. 750 pages so plenty of meat there

Otherwise Anne Tyler yes, Time Traveller's Wife I love too.

Restitution by Eliza Graham.

Anything by Pat Barker - not long but really thought provoking.

I can't believe its nearly a year since I asked for some ideas on holiday reading!

I'm going away slightly earlier this year to a place where (I'm told) there are NO English bookshops. This makes me very nervous; I get twitchy if I can't read. So I'm back again, packing carefully a grand total of seven books.

I'm going to go back over this thread as there were loads that I fancied and didn't get, but if you've any new recommendations, I'd love to hear them.

One Day by David Nicholls. was very good.

Douglas Kennedy books are good for holiday reading.

The new Bill Bryson one?

I loved Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver (quite old now) and she has a new one Lacuna.

have you read The Seige by Helen Dunmore? She has a ne wone The Betrayal.

Isa and May by Margaret Forster looks good too.

I loved Jodi Picoult's latest novel, House Rules. It looks huge but I couldn't put it down and finished it within a week. Absolutely gripping and so readable. I wish I'd kept it for my summer holiday

OK, so my Wish List includes the following:

1. The Siege by Helen Dunmore
2. The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver
3. Shogun: A Novel of Japan by James Clavell
4. Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
5. Restitution by Eliza Graham
6. This Thing of Darkness by Harry Thompson
7. The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett
8. The Bronze Horseman by Paullina Simons
9. The Story of General Dann and Mara's Daughter, Griot and the Snow Dog by Doris Lessing

There's no way on earth I can read all of that in two weeks, is there? I need to get it down to five, I think.

I keep recommending this and trying to spread the word but Molokai is an absolutely amazing book.

Totally agree with the posts about The Help by Kathryn Stockett. I read it on a recent holiday and really zipped through the chapters. Plus, it's great if you like your fiction with added socio-political elements.

Worth mentioning The Lacuna too, it won the Orange Prize this year and by all accounts thoroughly deserved it. If you like to try before you buy, you can read a preview here

Plus, if you want some reading inspiration by holiday destination, here's a useful Where To Go & What To Read guide.

I am half way through "The Passage" by Justin Cronin

It is massive...you will only need one book for a weeks hols

I am absolutely enthralled

Gonna start a new thread about it, after I've checked there isn't one already...

rosieeo what did you take in the end last year?

Have you seen this thread too