Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Protection built in.

Meet the Other Phone.
Protection built in.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
What we're reading

Find your new favourite book or recommend one on our Book forum.

Original poster

Can anyone recommend me some novels? Funny/feisty/feminist or insightful without being overly poncy...

51 replies

MadameDuBain · 04/12/2009 21:43

I have a book token to spend but am just not getting grabbed by anything out there. I love Zoe Heller's books, also the two Jenny Eclair wrote, but I've read all theirs; I like Daphne du Maurier and my fave book ever is Jane Eyre. Have read all Margaret Atwood, Ian McEwan etc.

I don't like "poetic" and pretentious-style writing and wishy washy sentimentalism which seems to be in vogue and I'm not really into historical novels, especially set in wartime, and I don't like chick lit.

I wish I could just discover another Zoe-Heller-alike until her next one comes out... can anyone point me in the right direction? TIA

OP posts:
Original poster
MadameDuBain · 04/12/2009 21:44

btw have to get an early night soon but will be back...

OP posts:
pointydogg · 04/12/2009 22:00

woman's world by rawle. var funny

curlychloe · 04/12/2009 22:09

These are the favourites from my all women's book club:

The Tenderness of Wolves (Steph Penny)
The Road Home (Rose Tremain)
White Tiger (?)
Sea of Poppies (Amtiv Gosh)

You might also like Barbara Kingsolver, start with the Poisonwood bible.

pointydogg · 04/12/2009 22:12

oh yes, I liked the road home

Original poster
MadameDuBain · 05/12/2009 08:57

Thanks! I have read poisonwood bible and loved it, but then got stuck on another of hers (prodigal summer maybe?)

Will try the others, any more?

OP posts:
FiveGoMadInDorset · 05/12/2009 09:00

The Spare Room - can't remember who wrote it but is very good.

TheFoosa · 05/12/2009 09:29

I would say Marain Keyes even though you say no chick-lit

The Spare Romm is by Helen Garner

brimfull · 05/12/2009 09:33

curtis sittenfield's The American Wife and Prep are both really good

brimfull · 05/12/2009 09:34

Have you read any Margaret Forster books ?- she is my all time favourite

FiveGoMadInDorset · 05/12/2009 09:36

The Senators Wife was quite good as well.

mrmump · 07/12/2009 22:47

The womans room by......
All about a woman rebelling in 1960s America. it was much better than I thought it was going to be.

elkiedee · 09/12/2009 10:26

Mary McCarthy's The Group has just been reprinted in paperback - it was published in 1963 and was a sort of historical novel as it's set in the 1930s (I know you said you don't like them but this might be worth making an exception for). It's about a group of young women who've just graduated from university in New York in 1933.

I've just been recommending Purple Hibiscus about a girl/young woman growing up in Nigeria.

Can't think of a Zoe Heller-a-like.

Anne Tyler and Kate Grenville might be worth a look.

iheartdusty · 09/12/2009 10:55

Hilary Mantel - not her historical stuff (altho's that's good) but her contemporary fiction. Am engrossed in 'Beyond Black' at the moment.

I know you said not historical, but if you like Du Maurier can I strongly recommend 'The Priory' by Dorothy Whipple - absolutely gripping. her other titles are on my Christmas list.

Sarah Waters.
Mavis Cheek
Jane Smiley
Kate Atkinson ('behind the scenes at the museum' and many others)

slug · 09/12/2009 11:55

Anything by Rita Mae Brown works for me.

SkaterGrrrrl · 04/01/2010 20:16

Margaret Atwood is great. Second Sarah Waters.

I am currently reading my way through the Persephone book imprint, interwar forgotten classics by female writers now reprinted.

www.persephonebooks.co.uk/

inveteratenamechanger · 04/01/2010 20:21

Yes to Sarah Waters and Jane Smile. I also really like Charlotte Mendelson - very Heller-esque.

SkaterGrrrrl · 04/01/2010 20:27

More on Persephone books

clemette · 05/01/2010 00:16

I would recommend Anne Tyler - start with any of them.
Have you read Time Traveller's Wife?
Mr Mump - The Women's Room is by Marilyn French. It is my favourite book of all time

VoilaAnotherGimlet · 05/01/2010 09:09

Perhaps Margaret Forster's Diary of an Ordinary Woman? It's light but engrossing and although the lead char's life spans the 20th century isn;t really "historical".

Another light read is Anita Shreve - The Pilot's Wife for example (I also liked The Weight of Water, but this is a bit historical).

A Town Like Alice by Nevil Shute? - WWII story, great heroine. (Written just after WWII therefore not strictly "historical"!)

(Another historical one (sorry!): Margaret Atwood Alias Grace - I mention it as it has a fascinating lead woman. It's a fictionalised account based on the true story of a servant girl who may or may not have murdered her employers with an axe. One of Atwood's best I think.)

VoilaAnotherGimlet · 05/01/2010 09:11

Hmmm just re-read OP & noticed "not wartime" - sorry! In defence, A Town Like Alice isn't really about the War per se, it's mostly set in Malaysia around the true story of a women's POW camp made to walk the length of the country as the Japanese army didn't know what to do with them.

VoilaAnotherGimlet · 05/01/2010 09:13

The Secret Scripture by Sebastian Barry? - I thought this was so beautifully written (though I think the MN jury is divided).

VoilaAnotherGimlet · 05/01/2010 09:14

(I must learn to read the OP not just skim-read it and guess the rest - you've read the Atwood books, apologies for repeating!)

Iklboo · 05/01/2010 09:15

Sue Grafton's Alphabet series is good (A is for Alibi etc) - strong female lead character is a private detective in 80's USA. Funny and quite exciting

elkiedee · 05/01/2010 11:09

If you like Margaret Atwood, another Canadian, Margaret Laurence's novels might be worth a look? I was reading her in memoriam piece about Carol Shields this morning. If you're not against short stories, Alice Munro and the lesser known Mavis Gallant are excellent.

arionater · 05/01/2010 11:33

I really like Margaret Drabble, especially her earlier novels (from the 60s/70s/80s) - easy to find in second hand bookshops at the moment, she seems to be rather unfashionable. I think she's a better writer than A S Byatt (they're sisters), and I find I keep coming back to her novels and getting more out of them as I get older. As a teenager I only really liked "The Millstone" but I've enjoyed all the others more as I've got older. Of her more recent novels, 'The Red Queen' is good, and very memorable (although nb that it is a historical novel unlike the others, though not a very traditional one).

You might like other novelists from that sort of period too - e.g. Doris Lessing ('The Golden Notebook' et al); Lynne Reid Banks ('The L-Shaped Room'). All "feminist" in interesting ways and much tougher and more interesting than the chick lit stuff.

I think someone has already mentioned Carol Shields, who writes very well.

If you haven't read any Byatt, I think her best ones are the more traditional novels - 'The Virgin in the Garden' and 'Still Life' especially.

For male authors, I really like Richard Powers (especially 'The Time of Our Singing') and Iain Banks (he is Iain M. Banks in science fiction, no M. if it's not straightforward fiction). I like Douglas Coupland too but he seems to be a bit of a love/hate author.