I have a massive request for you all, if you will oblige. In just under two weeks time I'll be jetting off to bella Italia for a week with my family (so excited) in the sun (fractionally less excited, more apprehensive). I have a few bits and bobs on my kindle that I'd like to read, but recently I've been really craving books of the unputdownable sort. Christie's And Then There Were None was a perfect specimen, as was We Were Liars by E Lockhart. I would like to ask you guys for some holiday reading recommendations that fit the bill. I'm thinking the sort of book that will keep me up desperate to finish, the sort that will have me charging my kindle mid-week because I've just done that much reading.
Can you recommend anything? Something that I can read splayed out on a deck chair, fanning myself vigorously with whatever comes to hand (except the kindle) and trying not to die in the heat.
I'm open to any genre - chuck me a classic, a crime, a thriller, a mystery, even a YA (god forbid) providing it's of an exceptional sort.
I'll be eternally grateful.
If you like Vampire books I can recommend Already Dead by Charlie Huston. It's a very refreshing take on the whole genre.
ReplyDeleteArgh! When will I learn not to write long comments and not copy them for pasting purposes when I try to publish them?! So annoying...
ReplyDeleteThis is the short version because I have a ton of work I need to do before I can go home but I needed to respond to your call for recommendations! (Thankfully you liked And Then There Were None so I'm not on the recommendation black list!)
Have you read The Shining Girls by Lauren Beukes? It's a crime sort of book but with time travel and it's really creepy and good. Also, if you fancy something that's broody-gripping, Bel Canto by Ann Patchett is excellent! There'll probably be some other things when I start working again but those are my initial thoughts!
Also, let's not forget to mention how jealous I am that you're going to Italy - you lucky, lucky thing! :)
Gone with the Wind!!
ReplyDeleteHow about Burial Rites by Hannah Kent? It's a wonderful book.
ReplyDeleteI recently read Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage by Alice Munro which is a collection of short stories about relationships. Easy to read, but with depth. Very jealous of your holiday. Have a wonderful time!
ReplyDeleteI'm going to recommend you not one, but two exceptional YAs: Jasper Jones, by Craig Silvey, and I Am the Messenger, by Markus Zusak.
ReplyDeleteYou might try Zafon, too. He's good at gothic mystery and writes books about books.
THE GOLDFINCH. By Anna Taart - fantastic.
ReplyDeleteHmmm I actually had to look at what I've read recently to see what I've absolutely loved... bad memory, lol.
ReplyDeleteAmericanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
The Martian by Andy Weir
The Humans by Matt Haig
Horns by Joe Hill
The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch
aaaand that's all I can think of at the moment. I actually had to look at my list from last year... I've read mostly Outlander and comics this year :-/
Good luck with your reading!
Julian Barnes' History of the World in 10&1/2 Chapters is substantive yet easy ready. Mario Vargas Llosa's Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter is sheer pleasure. Anything by Margaret Atwood is well worth your time (The Robber Bride, Bluebeard's Egg, Oryx and Crake, The Year of the Flood, MaddAddam, The Handmaid's Tale). If On a Winter's Night A Traveler by Italo Calvino is just plain old worth it. Digging to America by Anne Tyler or anything else she wrote.
ReplyDeleteCase Histories by Kate Atkinson, The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton, The Shadow of the Wind by Zafon, all unputdownables for me!
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