Hi all

I love reading and listening audio books but i'm at a loss at what to read/listen to next so any recomendations would be gratefully received please :-)

Really i'm being a big wuss as i'm pages away from finishing The Amber Spy Glass, i've enjoyed it loads and don't want it to end but if i've got another book to start on naybe i can just bear to finish this one :-D

Paula

Hi Paula,
depends what sort of book you're after. What genre do you enjoy reading?

Any really i'm a book freak, i always have my nose in one :-)

At the mo i'm going through a Northern Lights type book phase, but i can't really say i like one genre more than another, hopeless aren't i, LOL

Paula

Well in that case, i recommend:
PS I Love You. The film was recently released(haven't seen it yet) but the book was lovely. Funny, heartwarming and sad. Basically a young woman nurses her husband through a brain tumour. He unfortunately dies and after the funeral she finds a box. He has written 12 letters, one to be opened on the first day of each month. He gives her challenges and things she must do in order to move on from his death. At the end of each letter it is signed PS I Love You.The book follows her through the grieving process and the challenges he sets her for the 12 months after his death. It was really lovely and i highly recommend it.
Would also recommend Lisa Jewell as an author. have read several of her books and they are alsways easy reading but good.
There are a few others i can think of but offhand i cant remember the title. Will let you know later on.x

Have you read Time Traveler's Wife? I couldn't put it down! A time-travelly romance, really good.

I love anything by Marian Keys!!!

Can't wait to see the film P.S I love you. The book is fantastic and has een read loads of times in my house!!:-D

I have just finish a book called 'Mr Golightly's Holiday' by Sally Vickers, it's not my usual type of book but I can high recommend it, it has a lovely pace and atmosphere.  A lovely gentle read that also makes you think.  I also enjoy a bit of chick lit and Marion Keyes is IMO the best.  :D

Right i'm going to put this lot on my list and have a good read of them, thanks everyone ;-)

I did look at the Tome Travellers Wife so i think that could be my next read.

Yep i like Marion Keyes as well, in also like Jilly Coopers books for a good laugh.

Paula

I'm one of the minority who just didn't 'get' The Time Traveller's Wife. Seems to be a love it or hate it book. I got through it, but it was a struggle.

Usual recommendations from me:

The Kite Runner (Khaled Hosseini)
The Woman In White or The Moonstone (Wilkie Collins)
Take Me With You (Brad Newsham)
Memoirs Of A Geisha (Arthur Golden)
Prince Of Tides (Pat Conroy)
We Need To Talk About Kevin (Lionel Shriver)

They're my all time favourites. Don't usually keep books after I've read them, but apart from the above (which are getting very well worn), the following have stayed on my bookshelves for re-reading:

A Thousand Splendid Suns (Khaled Hosseini)
The Girls (Lori Lansens)
A Short History of Tractors in Ukranian (Marina Lewycka)
House of Sand and Fog (Andre Dubus)
Watchers (Dean Koontz)

M.

Oh yes i loved The Woman in White & The Moonstone as well.

Another one i love and will read again & again is Wuthering Heights.

My pet hate is when they bring films out from books, i know they can't put every little detail in a film but i also expect them to, LOL

Paula

I really hope you like Time Traveler's Wife, I couldn't put it down and it made my cry in places too, so gripping and fab!

Like Lily Mc mentioned, "The Girls" by Lori Lansen is a great read.

I'm glad it's not just me who's cried when reading a book, the ending of the one i've just finished (The Amber Spyglass) had me sobbing like a fool, it was nearly enough to put me off reading for life :-)

Paula

I read Northern Lights a couple of years back and again, how addictive?! MAde me bawl too. I found some of the religios references a bit hard to follow though.

Have you read Harry Potter?

Have you tried Pullman's other stuff? My friend who loves Northern Lights also loves all the Ruby in the Smoke ones.

Have you tried "Never Let Me Go" by Kazuo Ishiguro, a bit of a sci-fi heart-strings read? Also made me cry, but v good read!

Cheers
Alex

Yep read Harry Potter didn't like the first couple but loved the rest, specially the final one.

Not read anymore more of Pullmans stuff but i believe he's doing a talk in Feb at a university not far from me, so if i can find out more about it i'm going to try and get to it.  I'm going to wrap myself round his ankles and beg him to write one more Dark Materials book :-D

I've put Never Let Me Go on my list now, the title rings a bell but i know i haven't read it.

Think by the sounds of it i'll be buying tissues in bulk though, LOL

Paula

You've got some great recommendations there, Kite Runner is amazing, the film too was very good.  PS I Love You is the only good book Cecila Ahern has written & the film adaptation is rubbish IMO!  Other reads I can recommend are:
1. The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon and Lucia Graves
2. Winter in Madrid by C.J. Sansom
3. A Spot of Bother by Mark Haddon (same author who wrote Curious Incident...)
4. Anything by Alice Seabold - Lucky, Lovely Bones & Almost Moon

That should keep you going for a while, I'm a bit of a book worm myself & tend to find the Rich n Judy Bookclub recommendations are always good, also most books that make it onto the Shortlist for Man Booker prize will be good.

Incidently Time Travellers Wife is supposed to be being made into a film with Brad Pitt playing the lead!!!

Now i read Lovely Bones and i found it unbelievably sad but i still couldn't put it down, there just seemed no way that there could be a happy ending, i don't know if i could read it again but i'm glad i did.

I've read a couple of Richard & Judy books, Riverton House, which was better than i thought as it didn't appeal to me when i read the blurb about it.  The other one was Gideon Mack, now this was really good, very quirky, but probabaly a book you'll either love or hate.

Paula

Ooh yes Spot of Bother was good too although hard to read because of what the main character was going through, but really gripping too. I am going to try Alice Sebold's "Almost Moon" too, I have read and enjoyed her first two and didn't know there was a third, thanks.

I didn't know TTW was being made into a film, yay! Looks like it's the Incredible Hulk not Brad though, boo! according to the cast listed at http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0452694/

> Really i'm being a big wuss as i'm pages away from finishing The Amber Spy Glass

i love that trilogy.

what sort of things do you like?

i'm a huge terry pratchett fan for something light and silly, getting very into the Rebus novels by Iain Rankin just now, marian keyes is great, if you like historical stuff Conn Iguldens's emperor series is brilliant...

depends on your genre i suppose

> I'm glad it's not just me who's cried when reading a book, the ending of the one i've just finished (The Amber Spyglass) had me sobbing like a fool, it was nearly enough to put me off reading for life :-)

lol i still can't re read it without sobbing!! its the end, and the bit where they leave someone behind for a bit (don;t want to say incase anyones reading it).

lol, i;ve actually got my copy sitting next to me for my big sis to read...

oh, juliette mariller is good to, the sevenwaters trillogy she did is great, so is Wolfskin.

I love reading and mostly read thrillers.  Authors I like are James Patterson (Cross Novels in particular), Mark Billingham (Tom Thorne Series), Karin Slaughter (Grant County Series), Mary Higgins Clark and Joy Fielding and, more recently, thanks to Richard & Judy's book club, Simon Kernick.

tess gerriston is great, she writes about a pathologist who works closely with the police on crime scenes, very CSI, also anything by Stephen King IMO is amazing, the man can do no wrong.
For a lighter read, Fannie Flagg is an amazing author, she writes about life in the deep south, all about family and neighbours and small towns together, i love her stuff. For romantic novels you cannot beat Nicholas Sparks, he wrote books such as the notebook, the wedding, message in a bottle, amazing and you will cry!

> Really i'm being a big wuss as i'm pages away from finishing The Amber Spy Glass

i love that trilogy.
what sort of things do you like?"

Love Terry Pratchett if ever you need a mad laugh, there the ones to go for, there was one called the Postman or Postmaster, anyway i read it, gave it to my Mum who works in a post office and she reckons life in a real PO isn't so far apart from the book :-D
Anything like His Dark Materials Trilogy i love but i think i get to involved in them to the point where the books go where i am and i'm looking for excuses to read them, LOL

Also enjoyed the Jean M Auel Books, The Clan of the Cave Bear series.  So much detail and very good writing.

Paula

I have to admit I haven't heard of half of the books mentioned on here, and I thought I was quite a heavy reader!!

Mind you, I do tend to stick to the same genre, which is crime/thriller books, Jame Patterson, Patricia Cornwell, Tess Gerritsen etc. I do read the odd different book if someone lends it to me, but I really should make more of an effort to read different types of book from now on.

I think that might be my belated new years resolution :-)

Claire

I like books by Brock and Bodie Thoene, historical fiction.

Loved most of the books already suggested, a few more are

Dissolution,
Dark Fire,
and Sovereign   by C. J. Sansom - fab reading!   He's got a new one out which I'm looking forward to ~ Revelation, can't wait :)

The Tenderness of Wolves which I read just after Christmas - again very atmospheric

A Quiet Belief in Angels - which I've just read, didn't want to put it down and didn't want to finish it!

Other books I've loved

Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
Catcher in the Rye - J D Salinger
To Kill a Mocking Bird - Harper Lee
1984 -       George Orwell

Have Fun!

Has anyone read the Brad Newsham book that I suggested, out of interest?

I have recommended it so many times on different forums, including this one, but have never heard anyone else comment on it. Would be interesting to know if others enjoyed it as much as I did. I find the character portrayal and ways of life in the different countries fascinating.

M.

No I have never heard of it before - have just looked it up (always looking for something different to read!) and it looks interesting.  I enjoy travel so this may be one that I will try and read one day.  Have read the few sample pages available.  Have read quite a few of your list already.  Must get through my Christmas books first (most of them dog books!).

Just tasken delivery of a few from amazon myself...........
Ttouch.
The Russian Concubine.
The Thirteenth plane (or is that level)?
Also others for OH.

Karen