I need reading material - any recommendations?

My favourites (ones I go back to again and again):

The Bronze Horseman - epic love story set in Russia WW2, so well written

Fingersmith by Sarah Waters

Time Travellers Wife

Jane Eyre if you haven't already read it

His Dark Materials series by Philip Pullman (what the Golden Compass was based on)

I'll be back with more I should think....

Thanks Spacecadet - I've read or already own all but The Bronze Horseman so off to have a look for that now. ?

Do you like stephen king at all?

His new one is great,currently reading that also any stephen kings are pretty good apart from cujo.Didnt like that.

Cant help much otherwie as i read a lot of chick lit xx

Not my bag at all, I'm afraid. Thanks though.

On the back of what you've enjoyed I'd suggest having a look at Neal Stephenson's Baroque Trilogy, they're amazingly written and really interesting.

Just back from a two week holiday where i polished off most of mine and had to resort to the hotel's collection - usually a nightmare but they did have a few i'd heard about and meant to get round to:

The Island by Victoria Hislop - it's a nice enough story but a bit cringeworthy at the start and end (writing-wise), a light beach read but good story to pass the time!

White Teeth by Zadie Smith - I was probably the only person in the world not to have read this yet but it was good.

Star of the Sea by Joseph O'Connor - i had read this but read it again and still love it. Great story.

I took quite a few Bill Bryson books with me for a reread and still loved them, laughed out loud at some points too. I'd go for his travel ones first:

Neither Here, Nor There
Notes from a small Island
Walk in the Woods
Notes from a Big Country
Thunderbolt Kid

I also picked up Russell Brand's Booky Wook at the airport. Not sure if you like him at all (i'm a huge fan!) but i really liked it. Alan Bennet's Untold Stories is also brilliant if you like auto/biographies. Also took Peter Suskind's Perfume and enjoyed that.

If you liked Kite Runner, try A Thousand Splendid Suns. I read it after Kite Runner and preferred it.

Have you read

Special Topics in Calamity Physics

The Welsh Girl

The Lucifer Box Novels

Sky Burial

Oh, the bronze horseman, and the sequel Tatiana and Alexander are both fab!

This is also very funny, as are any of his/Tony Hawks' books.

I have the perfect book for you if I'm not too late.

The Testament of Gideon Mack by James Robertson - it's about an atheist minister who meets the devil - brilliant, funny, interesting theology/philosophy - it was longlisted for the 2006 Booker.

I loved it and read it in a day.

I've also been 'doing' boarding school books (technically Young Adult but both well written and interesting):

Happy Ever After (Adele Geras) - a modern retelling of Rapunzel, Sleeping Beauty and Snow White

Charlotte Sometimes (Penelope Farmer) - time travel between 1960s boarding school and 1st WW/1918 influenza epidemic at the same school

I've just read and loved the vanishing act of Esme Lennox, by Maggie O'Farrell, it is a fabulous book.

Oh,and there's my favourite persephone books

Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day (Winifred Watson) - pure escapism

Mariana (Monica Dickens) - I Capture The Castle meets EJ Howard's Cazalet books

[aside: I'm sure you have read the Cazalet books but if you haven't, DO]

Lady Rose and Mrs Memmary (Ruby Ferguson) - high romance, poignant and lovely

anything by Dorothy Whipple - vastly underrated and wonderful - particularly Someone At A Distance and They Knew Mr Knight.

I'm currently reading a lot of Daphne du Maurier as I haven't read much of her before. I've just started Rebecca which I am ashamed to say I haven't read before. I've also just finished My Couisin Rachel and a collection of short stories (the name of the book escapes me just now). Both are brilliantly politically incorrect, especially the short stories as they were written in the 30's. I would be really happy to RAHK them to you if you'd like them. I won't be at all offended if you say you don't want them BTW!

And if that's not enough, my absolutely favourite book of the last year is Animal's People by Indra Sinha - Booker shortlisted 2007 - and in my opinion vastly superior to The Gathering (Anne Enright) which won it.

I always end up nominating my favourite novel in these threads - John Kennedy Toole's A Confederacy of Dunces.

You can even read part of it online, courtesy of Amazon - and if the first two paragraphs haven't already got you laughing, it's probably not for you. But if you're a Roddy Doyle fan already, I suspect you'll be on the right wavelength.

Hickory, I usually love Joseph O'Connor's stuff but couldn't get into Star of the Sea. White Teeth I loved and Bryson is, as far as I'm concerned, bog reading - for dipping in and out of. Loved his 'Shakespeare' though.

JaneyH, I LOVED The Forgotten Garden - will look at your other recommendations.

Rache, love the idea of that one - will put it in my basket, thanks. I bought myself a copy of 'Charlotte Sometimes' last year - I'd read it as a kid and loved it.

MrJK, I'll look into that too - from the excerpt there it loks like James Joyce and Roddy Doyle's unhinged love child wrote it. Fab!

OMG - this is going to cost a fortune ?

? everyone.

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So... I've ordered:

That's a very fair description! ?

Actually, what attracted me to it was a mid-1980s interview with John Waters, who said it's the only novel he ever wanted to adapt into a film. I'd been vaguely aware of its existence before, but only as a Pulitzer Prize-winning Great American Novel, so I'd mentally filed it away in the "worthy but probably very dull" category - but when a diehard trashmonger like Waters champions serious literature, it's got to be worth checking out.

And I can see exactly what he meant, though I'm very glad all attempts to film it have foundered - including a version adapted by Stephen Fry.

Too late for this batch of ordering, but I'd recommend:

Haruki Murukami - Norweigan Wood

Garrison Keillor - Love Me, Radio Romance, Lake Wobegon Days

John Irving - Hotel New Hampshire, A Prayer for Owen Meany, The World According to Garp, A Widow for One Year, Son of the Circus

(Janey - Mr W bought me Shantaram for my birthday - it's next on my list to read)

Oo - the last book thread you said you were going to read that - you liked it then?

this thread has ever so slightly increased my wishlist ?. And i want so many of the Persephone books, but I have a massive pile of books I haven't read yet, and reall, really can't justify buying more. I may ask for persephone books for christmas.

Oooh, I read that one last year. Very good book. Very absorbing.

I've just finished The Knife Of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness. Absolutely excellent.

It's supposed to be a book for "young adults", but the author says he just wrote the book that he wanted to write and then took out the swearing! The only real evidence that it's aimed at a younger audience is that the protagonist is a teenage boy. I found the first chapter slightly hard going, but once I was hooked in, I read the rest of the book within the day. It's part I of a trilogy, and the ending is very open indeed. Part II is due in May next year.

Recently I've really enjoyed both 'Cloud Atlas' by David Mitchell, and 'Charlotte Gray' by Sebastian Faulks.

I'm currently reading 'The Mayor of Casterbridge'. It's the first Hardy I've read and I'm liking it a lot.

I highly recommend Case Histories by Kate Atkinson, don't be put off by the fact that it revolves around a murder investigation, it's more a family epic with a mystery. I love the way she weaves different stories and generations into a fluid history. You could also try Human Croquet by the same author or Behind the Scenes at the Museum.

Daphne Du Maurier is one of my favourite writers, after Rebecca became one of my favourites years back. I bought a set of 10 on The Book People website a while back for a fab £10. I've since passed most of them onto my grandmother in preparation for moving to the US, but won't part from Rebecca or Jamaica Inn ?

Lumpy, do you use the Visual Bookshelf application facebook? I keep mine up to date with what I'm reading if you ever need further inspiriration. Im currently reading Hardy's "The Mayor of Casterbridge". Recently I've got through Joanne Harris' "The Lollipop Shoes" and "Blackberry Wine", "The Pirate's Daughter". I've got "The Resurrectionist" waiting to be read.

oo, snap ?

Loving this thread btw, I've just extended my own wishlist quite considerably. ?

Is it really unhelpful if I suggest to everyone that you should get this even if you've got a long list already?

I got it last Christmas and I've discovered so many wonderful books I would never have read.

Seconded. I'm working my way through it very slowly?

I recently thoroughly enjoyed Small Island by Andrea Levy and am now enjoying The Road Home by Rose Tremain.

I really liked Small Island too.