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Sorry I know there are book recommendation threads already but all I am looking for is a fiction book that surprises and engages (I'm getting tired of getting ten pages into a book and thinking I've already read something like this, keeping going and finding 'the unique take' isn't that unique, and then finishing the book disappointed. It's not that I rely on algorithm recommendations, although they don't help, I think publishers publish to feed them even down to the cover art.
Can anyone recommend a book they finished wanting more?
It’s a very broad spectrum - what genre/s are you interested in?
Of Human Bondage
Somerset Maugham
If you like horror fiction id recommend John Connolly , best to read them in order, " Every dead thing " is the first in the series.
I've enjoyed these:
fiction book that surprises and engages
Anything by John Niven. Dark and twisted and really, really funny
Start at the start...
Thanks for the suggestions. I've never tried Somerset Maugham so will definitely give that a try. I've been stuck in a few genre ruts. I guess anything in modern literary fiction would be what I'm looking for. Something that takes a bit of effort but isn't too far up itself if that makes any sense
Best books I've read this year are both first novels by the respective authors,
Last one at the party - Bethany Clift
Lessons in chemistry - Bonnie Garmus
I bought Eric Ambler - Cause For Alarm on a whim waiting for a train a while back.
A pre ww2 espionage story set in fascist Italy.
I got into this 4 book series on holiday, and I was hooked until I'd read all 4. A kind of horror/sci-fi/spiritual mix.
I read them on a Kindle
AMAZON.CO.UK Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel
Her latest, Sea Of Tranquility, is good too
Perdido St Station, by China Mieville
This was a present and caught me utterly by surprise.
Death of a river guide - Richard Flanagan
The Master and Margarita, by Mikhail Bulgakov. Not terribly contemporary, but fantastic.
Ithaca by Claire North
A modern interpretation of Greek myth, from the women’s perspective. She’s written a bunch of books under that name, and a load more as Catherine Webb and Kate Griffin. Outstanding writer, wrote her first book during her school summer holiday at 14, had it published the following year. Kept writing while at RADA training as a lighting technician and designer, then while working as one, and she’s now a lighting technician for touring bands. And still writing. Here’s her books as Claire North…
The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August (2014)
Touch (2015)
The Gameshouse (2015)
The Sudden Appearance of Hope (2016)
The End of the Day (2017)
84K (2018)
The Pursuit of William Abbey (2019)
Notes from the Burning Age (2021)
Ithaca (2022)
The First Fifteen Lives... is fabulous, great recommendation. I hadn't realised, or hadn't thought, that she had other books after Touch; must go and take a look
Thanks, I've read a couple of the books mentioned and really enjoyed them. There's a good couple of months worth of books I haven't read so thanks
I've read 'The first fifteen lives of...' and ' The sixteen trees of the Somme' so far. Thanks both brilliant recommendations (I couldn't help making comparisons between The First Fifteen Lives and The Bone Clocks by David Mitchell but being as this was written first and I loved both that wasn't a bad thing. I'm a bit Greek mythed out at the moment after reading quite a few 'retellings' recently but I'll definitely try her other books
The Sixteen Trees... Was the best book I've read for quite a while. If anyone can recommend anything half as good as this I'd be greatful.
Thanks
My most recent reads. Reading the trespassers companion off the back of the book of trespass and who owns England. It's more of a dip in and out book with contributions from lots of people than the other two. Interesting to see a chapter by Dom Ferris of trash free trails who many mtbers will be aware of. Not quite finished it. It's gently radicalising if that's a thing!
I devoured the John Nichol book in a couple of sittings. It's almost a perfect cocktail to meet my interests. Engineering and innovation, aviation, 20th century history and conflict, personal accounts of air combat, escape and evasion, wartime imprisonment and human interest stories of post conflict reconciliation between combatants. Written of course by an author who is very well qualified in the subject matter. Recommended.
(Sci-fi) Adrian Tchaikovsky Children of time, drop kicks very writing trope to the kerb & it works as a stand alone book. As book2 isn't nearly as good, and book 3 expect me to remember all of the character names from book2, from 3 years before.. will get to eventually
i dont read many books, but ive only ever read one book that i thought afterwards 'where do you get your inspiration from, youre a genius!!' and that was And The Ass Saw The Angel by Nick Cave. but then again, he IS a genius 🙂
Don't bother with Andy Weir - Artemis, I only read it because I bought it on Apple Books.....a schoolkid could write a better novel.
ive only ever read one book that i thought afterwards 'where do you get your inspiration from, youre a
I had that feeling with Perfume and The Wasp Factory.
In this queer polyamorous m/f romance novella, two metamours realize they have crushes on each other while planning their shared partner's birthday party together. Ernest, a Jewish autistic demiromantic queer fat trans man submissive, and Nora, a Jewish disabled queer fat femme cis woman switch, have to contend with an age gap, a desire not to mess up their lovely polyamorous dynamic as metamours, the fact that Ernest has never been attracted to a cis person before, and the reality that they are romantically attracted to each other, all while planning their dominant's birthday party and trying to do a really good job.
Thanks for the recommendation but I'd rather stick knitting needles in my ****ing eyeballs.
In this queer polyamorous m/f romance novella, two metamours realize they have crushes on each other while planning their shared partner's birthday party together. Ernest, a Jewish autistic demiromantic queer fat trans man submissive, and Nora, a Jewish disabled queer fat femme cis woman switch, have to contend with an age gap, a desire not to mess up their lovely polyamorous dynamic as metamours, the fact that Ernest has never been attracted to a cis person before, and the reality that they are romantically attracted to each other, all while planning their dominant's birthday party and trying to do a really good job.
Thanks for the recommendation but I'd rather stick knitting needles in my ****ing eyeballs.
I read that book somethingion as thols taking the piss out of it
Me too but, Christ on a bike....
This is what is see on my screen.....
In this queer polyamorous m/f romance novella, two metamours realize they have crushes on each other while planning their shared partner's birthday party together. Ernest, a Jewish autistic demiromantic queer fat trans man submissive, and Nora, a Jewish disabled queer fat femme cis woman switch, have to contend with an age gap, a desire not to mess up their lovely polyamorous dynamic as metamours, the fact that Ernest has never been attracted to a cis person before, and the reality that they are romantically attracted to each other, all while planning their dominant's birthday party and trying to do a really good job.
Thanks for the recommendation but I'd rather stick knitting needles in my ****ing eyeballs.
I read that book somethingion as thols taking the piss out of it
EH?....somethingion is changed to somethingion in my post?
is ai running the forum and this is/we are a hallucination?,
heh, you can't trust the written word in a thread recommending books
Highly recommended for a surprising, emotional, beautifully written, unusual and recently published book -
(part 2 is essential after reading part 1, but is unfortunately a bit disappointing)
(Sci-fi) Adrian Tchaikovsky Children of time, drop kicks very writing trope to the kerb & it works as a stand alone book. As book2 isn't nearly as good, and book 3 expect me to remember all of the character names from book2, from 3 years before.. will get to eventually
Book 1 - excellent
Book 2 - excellent but a bit weird
Book 3 - really weird
Book 4 - coming out this year, I'll probably pass
Mrs Bruce recommends Endemic by James Harding-Wallace. It’s about a search to see the flora and fauna which is found in Britain alone.
Some recent(ish) favourites -
Dusk by Robbie Arnott. Hunting a panther in Tasmania - or as Amazon puts it .. "The explosive story of outcast twins Iris and Floyd as they join a hunt through the wilderness for a man-killing puma. But there is a threat closer to home . . ."
The Land in Winter by Andrew Miller. "'I love The Land in Winter so much... It's really, really, really, really good'
GILLIAN ANDERSON"
and I think I recommended it before, but if you haven't read this, run, don't walk, to your bookshop..
Old God's Time by Sebastian Barry. Don't know how to describe it - poetic, moving. "A beautiful, haunting novel, in which nothing is quite as it seems, Old God's Time is an unforgettable exploration of family, loss and love."
If dense, massive, intricately plotted but brilliant is your thing, then I highly recommend The Baroque Cycle - Wikipedia