inspire me, I Desperately need good book to read., no horror, something fairly recent.....................

[katierocket]

Really want a good read but need inspiring. Hate horror, don't want anything really intellectual. here are some of my favourite books in no particular order to give idea of what I like.

Secret History
Wild Swans
Memoirs of a Geisha
Anything by Donna Leon
Pursuit of Happiness
Perfume
Wuthering Heights
Driving over lemons
Crow Road
The Beach
I don't know how she does it
anything by Marian Keyes

help please, otherwise I will be forced to try and finish sh*te cecelia ahern book 'where rainbows end' which is making me want to bite someone.

I have just finished 'Sophie's Bakery for the Broken Hearted' by Lolly Winston - please don't be put off by the title - I have to say it is the best book I have read in ages! It is about a woman who loses her husband to cancer, and how she deals with her grief- it is actually quite funny and amazingly well written- when she has to put on a form who the authorities should contact in case of emergency, she puts George Clooney!

It is so so much better than that Cecelia Ahearn attempt which I gave away after reading two chapters!

Also, agree Marian Keyes very good, so is Jane Green - Babyville especially, Adele Parks books are easy to whizz through, and so are Wendy Holden's! Must admit to also being a Jilly Cooper fan and can't wait for her next book!

I am trying to get as much reading in as poss before birth of ds2, so threads like these are a godsend!

Girlfriend in a Coma - Douglas Copeland
My Sister Keeper - Jodi Picoult
Star of the Sea - Joseph O'Connor

Agree that the Janet Evanovich "Stephanie Plum" books are entertaining though am getting a bit bored now with the same old stuff (but this is now book 11!)
Can I strongly recommend 2 very funny and light(but not insipid and intelligence insulting) novels that are perfect for holidays?
"No Wonder I take a Drink" and "Nobody Loves a Ginger Baby" by Laura Marney. Of these, the second is the best though both are good.

thanks all. am busily going through the suggestions that I haven't read and ordering on Amazon

I second cardy but would extend it to say anything by Douglas Coupland - whislt he has not yet, in my opinion, written the absolutely exquisite book which I think is inside him somewhere, they are very very good. I especially like "Life After God". Also - have you read "The Time Traveller's Wife" or "The 9th Life Of Louie drax" - don't remember who they are by (2 different authors) but they are both superb.

recent recommended reads:

The Master by Colm Toibin

We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver (although it verges on horror in places - but I couldn't put it down)

Bel Canto by Anne Patchett

The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood

Have you read Villette by charlotte bronte? Fab book

I find " Heat magazine" has the right level of erudition for me

Amy Tan's books are excellnet, would really recommend them.

Also Margaret Forster's are good.

You mentioned Wild Swans, how about her new one, about Mao, although it looks a little heavy going.

A Town Like Alice?
Anna Karenina?
Passage To india?

If you like a light read, Peter Kerr's books are good, all about moving to Mallorca.

Ya Ya Sisterhood series?

Janet Evanovich?

Litle house on the Prairie? Don't laugh, I have just re read the entire series, so lovely to read.

who is a ponce?
I like lisa
but she is very chi chi isnt she
I love maggie forster - my fave gal

My ex-boss's husband left her for Lisa

I love Margaret Forster too, the Diary of an Ordinary Woman was really involving. Just about to read The Falls by Joyce Carol Oates, so a bit early to recommend it, but I read We Were The Mulvaneys last summer and it was v. good and absorbing, though sad. Very memorable, which is saying something for me.

twalking if made uo buiogs
did oyu read private eye this week?
hilaripous bit about mcartneys wife ( the legless one)

No, what did it say? (allegedly)

Yes, really He's quite famous himself, though not with us any more. I feel bad about naming him, which is ridiculous....

well it summarised wherether or not she was at live aid - and told a charactersitc long tale about ehr being kidnapped by pirates adn havning her head buitten off by a shark but she sewed it on herself

she is a total fantasist isnt she?

No, I meant coddy and the "legless one" as she so charmingly put it when I said "what did it say". Boy, this is confusing.

lol at the shark- yes, completely, I think.

i love private eye, i am going to buy a copy forthwith

llikw htis too