I’ve been trying to read more books. I’ve always been always reading, which is to say, if there’s no open book on my bedside table I twitch. But recently I’ve been trying to read more broadly, across genres, with intent to learn as much as lose myself.
Write one, read a lot?
Anyway I am reminded that I’m picky. Read a lot of books, run into a fair number that you don’t care for. In what I now know is called “upmarket commercial fiction,” I essayed Where The Crawdads Sing and Little Fires Everywhere, with great expectations. Nope. Both widely-read, sold, praised but I felt somehow manipulated – both stories posit a future dramatic ending event right at the beginning of narratives that might otherwise have been reflective and rich enough without. Kind of like entire novels of “Wait For It.” I sulked my way on through.
Picky. Maybe even a brat.
I don’t hate everything, pinky swear. I love genre-specific writers (the major genres I now understand to be Romance, Thrillers, Suspense, Mystery, Women’s Fiction ((usually about families but the category is evolving)), Fantasy and Science Fiction) who do what they do spectacularly. In particular I enjoy mystery and fantasy.
For example, as I’ve mentioned before, I am a fan of Susie Steiner’s Manon Bradshaw mysteries. I’ve been advised to try Glasgow noir, will do. I love N.K. Jemisin fantasy, I enjoyed the Ancillary series, although in general I’m not thrilled by space ships, and now I’m giving the world of Chalion a shot.
Maybe you wonder why a picky reader writes a novel? Exactly because I couldn’t find what I wanted. A good story, accessible, but also something with a thoughtful and textured voice. Plots adventurous enough to keep me awake, not so riveting that I can’t fall asleep, rich characters, occasional poesy.
All of which is a poorly-disguised plea for reading recommendations. Got books?
Have a wonderful weekend. I hope that whatever’s on your bedside table is doing a good job.
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91 Responses
I agree with you. Am very underwhelmed by what is considered hot fiction these days. I can recommend two books I really enjoyed. Less by Greer. Superbly written with much humor and pathos. A lovely book. And a quirky book, Eleanor Oliphant is Fine. Give it 50 pages. One of those books that grows on you. Laugh out loud funny with. Nice little twist at the end. Happy Saturday!
@Claire, Aha! We have similar tastes, as I read both of those and LOVED them. For the reasons you mention:). As I have said before, I liked your book too! Happy Saturday!
@Claire, Seconded. Loved both of these books.
@Claire, I also enjoyed these books both in the large sense (stories) and the larger (the sheer joy of word play.)
I think it’s easier to tell you what NOT to read than to recommend any books wholeheartedly. Or to explain why (IMO) any given book is good in some ways, disappointing in others.
But I will peruse the books that have made it from my bedside table to my own bookshelves (ie, have not been passed on to charity book sales already), and see if any of them might be worthy of your time. I’ll be back!
@Victoire, Thank you! Since everyone has different tastes, I don’t mind non-wholehearted recommendations, in the sense that since they are more specific, I can make more well, sense of them;).
Oh, dear! I hesitate to recommend books as everyone’s tastes are so different. Personally, I am drawn to memoirs and biographies – love reading and am curious about the lives of others. I dislike popular fiction – it’s like junk food to me. So unsatisfying and no nourishment. I’m also into crime novels. I am currently into reading anything by Elizabeth George – love her characters. Have a good weekend of reading!
@Jane, Ah, yes, Elizabeth George! I wonder if there are any of hers I haven’t read…
I couldn’t finish either of those first two novels mentioned – really annoying.
I love Michael Robotham, who writes excellent psycholgical thrillers. I just bought a Susie Steiner mystery on your recommendation.
I feel too much popular fiction is written with an eye towards how cinematic it will be..for a movie, or TV series.
@KSL, OMG I am so glad to have good company in my struggles with those two novels! And I’ll try Robotham on your recommendation;). Maybe it is TV that’s doing this to fiction, or maybe it’s the world of agents and social media and Amazon:(.
@KSL, Seconding the recommendation of Robotham’s books. . .
I just finished Trevor Noah’s Born a Crime. Well-written, entertaining, and I learned a lot, not just about him, but life in South Africa. Highly recommend.
@Donna, Thanks! Am not in general a non-fiction reader, but I appreciate the recommendation as others here will surely take heed.
Like you, I am a very picky reader, preferring non fiction to fiction. At the same time, I too, think about writing a novel. Go figure.
One of my all time favorite novels is The Prince of Tides by Pat Conroy. His book, The Water is Wide is also exceptional, in my opinion.
As for very current books, I’m reading Four Friends, Promising Lives Cut Short by William D. Cohan. It is about four of Cohan’s classmates at Andover and their lives. I’m almost half way through it and find it to be a very good book.
My favorite genre of literature are the autobiographies or biographies of women writers. All of them as eccentric it seems and like to live life on the edge–so the opposite of me, but I know I admire them and their lives.
One book you might look at if you haven’t already read it is Joyce Maynards At Home in the World. Joyce has taken a lot of criticism for this book (she was an almost teenage lover of J. D. Salinger) but I think the criticism is undeserved. It is a great book. I’ve had the opportunity to meet Joyce a couple of times (at a book talk and at a University of Texas Harry Ransom Center conference). She is, for all of her foibles, a force to be reckoned with.
oooo… I too LOVED the Prince of Tides. So many years ago tho’. Wonder if I’m still that person?
@Susan D, I remember Prince of Tides, also found it really compelling back then. I would be very interested to meet Joyce, it does seems she’s gotten a bum rap.
Finally, I’m not alone in my distaste for ‘Crawdads’!
Thank you, thank you, thank you. I now feel less alone in the world. :)
@Drew, As that’s what the blog does for me in so many areas, I am wholly delighted to return the favor;).
If you’re going to read Glasgow noir, start with Denise Mina’s Alex Morrow series so good (albeit sometimes so troubling). I share your petulance re Little Fires Everywhere. Also like Jemisin, although have been stalling on entering the 3rd volume of Broken Earth trilogy. Last year or the year before, I loved Sara Baume’s Spill Simmer Falter Wither and continue to recommend it. Have you read Raynor Wynn’s The Salt Path? The loveliest memoir about walking Britain’s coast as a response to homelessness triggered by a spouse’s terminal diagnosis (yes, really!). Anything by Kate Atkinson or Julian Barnes or Ali Smith. . . Elizabeth Gilbert’s The Signature of All Things, especially since you have a yen for the horticultural. . . I loved Rebecca Makai’s The Borrower. . . okay, right, might have got carried away. Happy Saturday ;-)
@Frances, I started Elizabeth Gilbert’s The Signature of All Things—and need to give it another chance. It is a fascinating idea.
I get that, Susan. I do think it’s worth a second chance. . . so much Gilbert really does well in this — the convincing but not at all ponderous incorporation of research especially. And the way the characters are formed in response to their historical context. . . .And of course the 19th century itself, as a character of sorts. . .
@Frances, Yes to anything by Atkinson and Barnes!
@Frances, Denise Mina’s exactly what I was recommended, so, now it’s the next on my reading list. Thank you for this.
I too found Crawdads to be irritating. I’ll have to try Steiner. Lately I’ve been reading too many mysteries; they’re my junk food – Atkinson’s Jackson Browne series, Peter Mayle’s Lewis trilogy, Louise Penny, Tana French, etc. All of those are good.
@MJ, I will have to try Atkison and Mayle. Tana French is the high art of literary snacking. I hesitate to call her junk food;).
If you want to dabble in non-fiction, IMHO Malcolm Gladwell is wonderful. Mary Roach is also good fun–am reading Spook right now. Also–try Gladwell’s podcast. Insofar as fiction, the last books I read and loved was Bunny by Mona Awad and Dear Committee Members by Julie Schumacher.
@Kimberly Samuelson, I also enjoy Gladwell’s podcasts.
@Kimberly Samuelson, Noting the Mona Awad and Julie Schumacher on my fairly newly-formed Goodreads list;).
I recently discovered Tessa Hadley. Check her out. Love her.
@Martha, Listed. Thank you!
I’m back, sooner than I expected, to wholeheartedly recommend anything by MFK Fisher!
Went to do my weekly volunteer stint at our local library, and the universe spoke to me: there in the free paperback book exchange sat a copy (in great shape) of a book I once had but then lost – “The Gastronomical Me” by the said Mary Frances Kennedy Fisher, who writes about food and life and love in prose so crystalline and yet so sensual, so engaging, so effortless.
I promise you all, reading her is better than reading a novel. And since she has written quite a few books, you’ll have a wonderful new world to explore, once you start.
Now please excuse me while I return to my new (used) copy of a favorite book long vanished from my shelves…
@Victoire,
Totally Ditto-ing over here !!!
@Victoire, Thank you:). I read one of her books a while back, I will return and try some more.
Loved the Susie Steiner series. Wish she’d hurry up and write the next one. Ha. Also second Frances’s comment on Denise Mina. Peter May’s Lewis trilogy is one of my favs. Not all of his books are as good as these. Anything Kate Atkinson has written IMO. And I’ve come to love Elizabeth Strout and can’t wait to read her follow up on Olive Kitteridge. I’m an extremely cranky reader, hate books that hit me over the head with their dire warnings, BIG symbols or angsty themes. “Okay, okay, I get it,” I always say before I close the book and shunt it to the bottom of the pile. Must be all those years of marking student work, and reading some severely cringe-worthy stories that I had to finish because I had to find something to say that encouraged them to improve. I’m so done with reading stuff I don’t like!
@Sue Burpee, I agree with just so much of what you say here, couldn’t agree on Peter May because I haven’t read any of his work – onto the list it goes!
I also had to put down Crawdads and Little Fires; loved Elizabeth Oliphant and am reading my way through all of Denise Mina’s books, so will be refreshing these comments!
As a lifelong obsessive reader, I’ve lately come to the conclusion that many of today’s bestsellers (especially those aimed at women) are what I call “Book Club Books”; bought and read as an assignment by BC members who wouldn’t ordinarily be reading that one book a month and may or may not even be enjoying it. Makes me wary of those books at the top of the lists…
@PLK, And yet I’d be honored to have something I wrote read at a book club, discussed by friends. I am guessing this is a Reese and Oprah phenomena?
“Upmarket Commercial Fiction” sounds dreadful but so it goes. Have you read “The Overstory” by Richard Powers published last year? Remarkable book!(I may already have recommended it here-hope not.) I find myself more finicky about fiction than in the past and less willing to finish a weak book. Perhaps because I feel the preciousness of my time; perhaps because there are so many interesting things reaching for my attention – fiction, non-fiction, podcasts, audiobooks, blogs, and streaming television with a banquet of documentaries, movies of many eras, and quality series… (Not to mention nature, art, food and love not in that order) I get a bit cranky when a much-touted book seems to be a shallow waste of time. Or just dopey. Or should have been labeled YA.
@Wendy, Yes, this does seem in part to be about getting older and more chary with my attention. I did read The Overstory. I adored the first half, was rapt, and then got sort of impatient with the second half, although I finished and it made a mark on me.
The Magus – John Fowles
The Sheltering Sky – Paul Bowles
A Confederacy of Dunces – J.K. Toole
Oldies but Goodies all.
You know you’re a cranky geezer when all the new books you try to read force you to exclaim “Jeez, what garbage!”
I wanted to like A Confederacy of Dunces when I tried reading it 25+ years ago. The story of its being published was so compelling and I really liked Walker Percy’s The Second Coming (though not The Moviegoer), so I trusted his taste. I could not read the book. The protagonist was so disgusting and I HATED him.
I know many love the book, and I mean no offense, because you’re no doubt better people than I am, but I can’t subject myself to a book with a revolting, irredeemable slob protagonist.
@Rosie, Yes! Have read them all:). Maybe we’ve just got so many truly good books under our belts, reading for decades as we have, that we are more selective now?
Commenting for the first time, but book-talk is always enough to make me shrug off my hesitancy. I recommend anything Martha Wells has written as terrifically personal yet active SF/F. And she won a Hugo and a Nebula award this year! I’m thrilled for her–she deserves it. And I’m thrilled for me, since she’ll likely be writing and publishing more books. I love them all but her Raksura novels have a big following, as does her MurderBot series, which is ongoing.
Life is too short to read books that aren’t rewarding!
@Maxine, Thank you so much for joining in! I’m going to put this high on my list, when I like a SF/F book it’s often the most compelling lose track of time experience I can have while reading.
Had a period of time when I couldn’t read after the car accident and concussions. Am finally getting back into the pleasurable feeling of knowing I have a book to dip into whenever I have a moment. Didn’t read either of the books you disliked, Little Fires because I’d read Everything You Never Told Me and didn’t like it, and Crawdads because it didn’t sound good to me. There are many releases I missed in my non-reading time, along with more stacked up waiting because of my mom’s illness and death. I’m currently catching up with those. Adored Life After Life and A God In Ruins by Kate Atkinson. Agree with Frances (as I noted above) that anything by her is a good choice. She is remarkable reading including her Notes. Have you read her Jackson Brodie series? I think it’s wonderful, and hope for more. Also like Tana French’s Dublin Murder Squad Series. When I despair at the new offerings, I choose an existing author to read, or to re-read chronologically. I did that with Barbara Pym, and loved her work. The books, read in order, also provide a window into the changes in postwar England, Pym’s own life, and the sexism that prevented her book career from flourishing. Also adore all of Dorothy Whipple read chronologically. Are you a fan of Persephone Books? They are a good place to find her works in beautiful gray volumes. Also love the Persephone site for browsing for new reads or reminders of old loves. Own all of M.F.K. Fisher and re-read her if I’m at a loss. Have you read Per Petterson? Adored his book Out Stealing Horses, though its translation is an unusual mix of British and American English. When I feel especially disappointed in current reading, I go back to authors such as Austen, James, Forster, Wharton, Woolf and bask in the beauty. One of my all-time favorite books that someone surprising (I can’t remember who, but I think it was a male author) listed as one of his favorite books soon after I’d listed it in answer to a Twitter question about favorite books is Dodie Smith’s I Capture the Castle. Some people consider it a young adult book for a female reader. I consider it a book book for human readers.
@Katherine C. James, Oh thank you. Some of these I’ve read, and I am not one to reread, but some are wholly new, including Dodie Smith. Much appreciated.
Mysteries! Louise Penny – be sure you start with the first, Still Life, and read them in order because there are multiple-book arcs addressed in almost all of them. Also try: Anne Cleeves (Vera series, Shetland series) and Elly Griffiths (Ruth Galloway series.)
@Barbara, I didn’t think I would, but I love Louise Penny! And, I agree, you have to read them in order.
@Barbara, I will try Elly Griffiths. It’s so odd though, everyone loves Louise Penny, I read the first two and didn’t quite get it. Should I keep going?
For non-fiction readers I highly recommend “Rush” i.e, Benjamin Rush by Stephen Fried. He is one of the Founding Fathers but there is so much more. Not only an extraordinary life but began a movement toward understanding mental illness.
I could not recommend Voltaire a Life by Ian Davidson.
@luci, I will not read the Voltaire book;).
Loved, loved, loved A Gentleman in Moscow….I didn’t want it to end.
@Mary, Ditto – a wonderful book!
Yes to A Gentleman in Moscow, as well as Amor Towles’ first book, The Rules of Civility.
Jane not Jabe
@Mary, So many people loved this – I enjoyed it, but didn’t quite love it. Maybe all the gentility hit too close to home;).
Do try Sarah Waters, atmospheric ‘Little Friend’ or indeed anything by her if you haven’t already. Also my book club recommended, and made me a recent convert to, CJ Samson. I have just finished his edge of the seat, gripping and simply unputdownable novel, Dominion. His historical novels featuring Matthew Shardlake are excellent too, if English history is of interest.
I could not agree more. I have lost count of the formulaic books I have started on BC recommendations only to give up; too little time to spend on books that don’t inspire. However, one or two have made the cut, see my comments further down this thread.
I didn’t want to read the Crawdads book because usually when a book is so popular, I find it disappointing. I felt that way about The World According to Garp. None of my friends has recommended Crawdads so I had no opposing evidence and you all seem to agree it wasn’t all that great.
I liked Less, too, though recently I’d been trying to read books with female protagonists. It was a good book.
Recently I read and enjoyed Paris by the Book, and The Summer Before the War, and maybe the best book I’ve ever read , though it was years ago is The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay.
So many books. So glad to have recommendations.
Thank you.
@Cara, I read “The Summer Before the War” a couple of years ago and loved it. When I decided to reread it this summer because I needed a refresh for book club, I got the audio version. It was even better! The British accent made all the difference.
PS. I also loved Cavalier & Clay.
Christine,
Thanks!
I forgot that I recently read My Mrs. Brown and also found it worthwhile.
This is actually a Reply to Katherine C. James, above. (I couldn’t activate the “Reply” button next to her comment.)
MANY THANKS for the shout-out to Barbara Pym! She is my absolute fave, and the one I go to when “all else fails” – even though I know all her books by heart. But I treated myself to a lot of MFK Fisher when I was immobile following foot surgery over the past winter – what a writer, and what a woman. Glad to know that you are a fellow (sister?) fan…
I love Barbara Pym and also Anita Brookner..have you read her?
@Victoire, Delighted to know we are sisters in our love of Pym and M.F.K Fisher, both so smart, aware, civilized, with an edge. My friend, Harrison Solow, wrote a book called Felicity and Barbara Pym, which I read, and which made me realize I hadn’t read Pym. I began reading M.F.K Fisher in the 1980s, when I was in my twenties, probably because food was central to my family’s life and memories, and I liked an author who wove food into her days in that manner. I saw her at an SF City Arts & Lectures event circa 1988, but it was not a success. She was too elderly to be present, and tired and irritable. I felt impatient with whomever was supposed to be watching out for her. Her books remain stellar reads.
You didn’t mention nonfiction, which is my preference (80% NF to 20% F). Any interest at all? I’m about a third of the way through the audiobook of George Packer’s “Our Man,” a biography of Richard Holbrooke that uses some fictional devices — like the narrator’s voice — that I find deeply engaging. And the reader’s own voice — wry, a little gruff — is perfectly suited to the material. I just finished “The Guarded Gate,” about the nasty entwined history of eugenics and immigration restriction, that — hello — is all too relevant today. I *loved* Gretchen McCulloch’s “Because Internet,” which I reviewed here: https://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/dogeared/because-internet-celebrating-the-way-we-talk-online/ And I enjoyed “A Woman of No Importance,” by Sonia Purnell, about the American woman who led a spy network in occupied France during WW2. (And if that subject interests you, do seek out the novels of Alan Furst.)
Fiction? Laura Lippman’s most recent novel, “Lady in the Lake,” deftly weaves multiple narrators’ voices and tells a gripping and nuanced story set in 1960s Baltimore.. (Again, I listened to the audiobook, which greatly enhanced the experience.) I love everything Kate Atkinson has written, including her most recent books, “Big Sky” and “Transcription,” although nothing can top “Life After Life” and “A God in Ruins,” which I’ve read multiple times.
I had the privilege of reading Cathleen Schine’s new novel, “The Grammarians,” in manuscript. It’s deceptively light in tone and very rewarding.
I got five pages into “Less” and had to restrain myself from throwing it across the room. I managed 109 pages of the much-touted “A Gentleman in Moscow”: ditto, and ugh.
@Nancy, P.S. Speaking of reading, apologies for not reading your post and others’ comments more carefully before posting my own comment.
Thank you so much, Nancy for mentioning The Grammarians. I hadn’t known about this book, or author, and research suggests I would love the book and Schine’s others!
@Nancy, Currently reading Transcription, love Schine, will look at Lady in the Lake. Interested in your reaction to Less, which I loved. I enjoy non-fiction, particularly biography. The collected works of Hermione Lee are a wonder.
Justin Cronin’s The Passage trilogy – post-apocalyptic .
A Constellation of Vital Phenomena: a novel by Anthony Marra
Killing Commendatore: usually not a Murakami fan but this one I couldn’t put down.
Peter May’s China Thrillers series.
Definitely The Overstory – life altering extraordinary
Manhatten Beach by Jennifer Egan
And shame me if you must: the first two books of the Outlander series by
Diana Gabaldon.
I’m totally with you! I nearly lost my mind when “Crawdads” took that trashy, left turn.
Acquaintances and friends who are full-time, publishing novelists tell me that editors and “novel consultants” are forcing them to plot and write to the lowest common denominator.
My book club is now reading and discussing only literary prize winners. We’re currently on a Pulitzer kick. Doesn’t matter how old the books are, we’re betting they’re much better than today’s best sellers.
@Ann in Missouri, P.S. I also adored Less and A Gentleman in Moscow and enjoyed Eleanor Oliphant is Fine. One of my best reading experiences this year was finally reading Donna Tartt’s The Goldfinch.
Oh, Donna Tartt! Have you read her other novels – The Little Friend or The Secret History? So good!
Hi Lisa, I share many of the likes and dislikes already mentioned. I highly recommend Kate Atkinson, especially Life After Life. For something completely different I would direct you to Group Portrait with Lady by Heinrich Boll (Leila Vennevitz translation) which several decades ago opened my eyes to fiction after years of reading for information. And also Life Before Man, an beautiful early non-political character-driven Margaret Atwood novel.
I too was less than enthralled with Where the Crawdads Sing. It started as such a promising story and faded with an extremely disappointing ending.
Favorite books of mine include The Nightingale, A Gentleman from Moscow, and Ordinary Grace by William Kent Krueger. Ordinary Grace began quietly while carefully developing the characters and ends profoundly….a truly lovely book. I also cannot resist reading Louise Penney’s mysteries.
I don’t read, I don’t have time* and I fall asleep on the second page which means I never get past page 5. Of any novel. So Audible is my best friend. My husband is also not much of a talker, and he’s either out in the garden or at the driving range. Cue the headphones. Others here have mentioned Michael Robotham. Can I further add to his exaltations – although he’d be embarrassed to hear himself spoken of in such terms. He is an Australian writer, I am proud to claim him as a fellow countryman. He started as a newspaper journalist covering crime and all sorts of things. He came up with the wonderful Jo O’Loughlin Series. Jo is a psychologist, set in the UK. I listened to the entire 8 book series. Then he wrote a stand alone book – The Secrets he Keeps – in a woman’s narrative. I couldn’t even go there. His latest one “Good Girl, Bad Girl’ introduces what I hope will be 2 new long term serial characters, as I think Jo O’Loughlin is heading for retirement. I devoured it. The Jo O’Loughlin series is read by a narrator called Sean Barrett. What a master. You’d swear you were listening to a cast of hundreds. Similarly, the actor chosen to read his latest book did an incredible job. I have read (listened to) all the Scandi crime greats and Robotham is up there. I listened to an interview he did, he spoke of his humble country beginnings, and how he started with journalism, and that the books he writes are based on true crimes. Some crimes never hit the papers. After I finished those, I was bereft, so have started a new series by Adrian McKinty – the Sean Duffy Series, set in Belfast during the height of the troubles in the ’80s. He writes lyrically and with intelligence, and I have learned so much about the politics of that time already. I’m on my third book in 7 days. What I love about audio books is that you can ‘read’ and still have a spotless house and ironing up to date, and well walked doggie, because you can do it all while listening and it doesn’t matter if your partner is the ‘strong silent type’!
Well, that’s my 2 cents worth to the Lisa et al community. Xxxxxx
*I don’t allow myself the luxury of sitting and reading, I need to work on that because it is a psychological block. My daughter can read and read, and all hell, filth and dust and washing piles up around her, I can’t stand that and I will never be like that, and I still work full time, so no time to sit for hours, always something to be done….
@TJ,
As someone from the North of Ireland,the fake Belfast accent of the Sean Duffy character drove me insane.
The Sean Duffy series was excellent but I cannot recommend the Audible version.
Can highly recommend Sebastian Barry”Days without End” and John Mc Gathern” Amongst Women” if you like Irish writers.
@TJ,
Sorry,John Mc Gahern
If you loved Jemisin’s work, may I also strongly recommend Naomi Novik? Specifically Spinning Silver, which has absolutely earned every award it got.
(And yes, I will share your dislike for current commercial literary fiction – so much ponderous nonsense. But if you haven’t read Barbara Kingsolver, may I strongly urgey you to do so? Prodigal Summer remains one of my eternal favorites, but her latest, Unsheltered, was really quite lovely.)
And you mentioned romance – I am QUITE a picky romance reader (personally, I look for general equality, good communication, consent, and also plots that don’t hinge on one character being ridiculous/senseless/ignorant and needing to be saved from it, because that is booooring. If you need conflict, I’ll take 2-sensible-adults-who-respect-each-other-pairing-up-to-overcome-obstacles as a trope, thanks. This is RARE. And bonus points if the men in the book take responsibility for their own emotional growth.) So, with that caveat: have you read abything by Cat Sebastian?
Okay, I am weighing in with some fiction suggestions:
Hotel du Lac by Anita Brookner, which I recently re-read. I think it’s her best (won the Booker Prize), and has (what is for her) a happy ending. She is a perfect stylist, a bit reserved and formal, but always astute and close to the bone. (I think of her as a kind of cold Barbara Pym.)
Other good authors of a somewhat earlier era are Shirley Hazzard (The Bay of Noon, The Transit of Venus) and Elizabeth Bowen (Death of the Heart, and several others). Molly Keane writes wonderfully funny and acerbic novels about the Anglo-Irish gentry (Good Behaviour, Time After Time).
And for warm sprawling novels, try the totally excellent Michael Malone (Handling Sin, Dingley Falls), who also has several detective novels set in North Carolina (Time’s Witness, etc).
And I can’t leave without mentioning the great Regency romance novelist, Georgette Heyer – my faves are Venetia, The Grand Sophy, and Cotillion – but she’s written so many to choose from! ( I don’t really recommend her mysteries, however, which are currently being republished in a matched series of paperbacks – although some people love them.)
I hear you, loud and clear. Buying books – or even browsing in the library – can be a tedious exercise in negation. So: enter bookshop, come up against piles of Highly Recommended or Summer Reading or Three for Two…in the words of the song, walk on by. Anything with a pastel cover, a woman standing on a beach, a lively cartoon of a woman going shopping with a handbag, a quizzical title involving a female name in an enigmatic sentence, veto. Women writers who make me feel desperate because they write about things so miserable and serious, usually tortured relationships and appalling men – no, thanks. Stuff pretending to be significant but really light – adios. Violent death, thrillers which are incomprehensible due to appallingly long sentences and piles of jargon about weaponry and lots of acronyms – I’ll adios them, too. And anything tagged as beach reading. Having once gone down that route and found a character actually called Brie (yes, she was meant to be quirky), twice shy.
No wonder I am writing my second novel. And wondering when I can read your first.
Write on, sister.
Lisa, I have heard others say it took them more than one try to get into the Gamache series, but it is worth it. See whether the third, The Cruellest Month, gets your attention, and then the fourth, A Rule Against Murder. By then the characters are all fleshed out and more than one long story arc will have begun.
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Agree with @KSL on Anita Brookner, which I’ve added to my re-read in chronological order list.
@Katherine C. James, which = whose works *Sigh*:)
I’m so glad you love her too. It’s been years since I’ve read her, so might do the same, chronological order.
I have a daily bus commute and fortunately I can read on the bus, but nothing too continuous so essays and books with short chapters are key. Currently reading stunning essays by Elizabeth Hardwick. The dense novels have to wait for the weekend. I just finished White Teeth, by Zadie Smith. She wrote this Dickensian saga when she was 24. All I can do is marvel.
I’ve really enjoyed reading through all the comments- thank you everyone! I do enjoy good SF/F; I’ll be looking up the recommendations. I just finished Circe by Madeline Miller, and it was wonderful!
Random recommendations:
EllyGriffiths especially magic men series
Alex Grey murder mysteries
Barbara Nadel especially ww2 funeral series—truly!
Cay Rademacher series set in post ww2 Germany
Andrea Camileri of course!
I am not a reader of non fiction but like the old Barbara
Tuchman history books I have enjoyed Troublesome you g men and subsequent books by Lynne Olson— page turners
The book titled Less about a middle aged writer with writers block —
See if any of these appeal!!!
I too can’t get into Louise Penny and I have to work up my courage to read Testaments
Oh and anything in the British library classic crime series!!!
Ooooo I can’t believe no one recommended Sally Rooney! You are in for a TREAT. Unfortunately she’s only written 2 books so far. I read Normal People and Conversations with Friends and they are the best thing I’ve read in the last 5 years. It’s just straight up fiction, no genre, and the main characters are very young, as is the author, but somehow I felt like she was saying things in a way I’d never seen before, without any ridiculous stunt writing. Just great stuff.
Just love being a part of this community….have to bookmark this page when in need of some inspiration! You’re all fabulous. Xxxxx
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