Book recommendations

[juliet]

One of the things on my 101 things list is to get 10 book recommendations from friends, read & review them. So: anyone who wishes to recommend me something is welcome to.

(I will read most things, with the exception of horror/thrillers & other similar likely to give me nightmares[0]. I have no objection at all to decent trashy fiction :-) )

[0] I don't actually get actual nightmares; but I do get bad things in my head which cause me upset.


Edit: A list (with links to reviews)! Thanks for all recommendations...
1. "Moll Flanders" (katstevens)
2. Liz Jensen "My Dirty Little Book of Stolen Time" (invisiblechoir)
3. Anne Tyler "The Amateur Marriage" (mrs_leroy_brown)
4. "The Immortal Class: Bike Messengers & the Cult of Human Power" (envoy)
5. Bret Easton Ellis "Glamorama" (mr_tom)
6. David Mitchell "Cloud Atlas" (catsgomiaow)
7. Phillipa Gregory "Wideacres" (booklectic)
8. Barry Unsworth "Morality Play" (thekumquat)
9. Delia Sherman "Porcelain Dove" (webcowgirl)
10. Hornblower (damerell)

Comments

[lnr]

Iain Banks' "The Crow Road" springs to mind. It's one of the few of his that doesn't get at all gristly, and I found it really quite charming.

Otherwise I'd have recommended "Perdido Street Station" by China Miéville, but that might be a bit grim in places.

For really trashy fiction I still find it hard to beat Jilly Cooper's "Riders".

[juliet]

I've read all three of those already :-) I love The Crow Road; and v much enjoyed Perdido St Station (it is a bit grim in places but it's not all about the grim, if you see what I mean?).

I prefer Polo or Appassionata to Riders, but then I haven't read Riders in bloody ages. I confess to having several Jilly Cooper.

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

Moll Flanders! It is the best book I've read this year, definitely.

[juliet]

I did read your review & think that that sounded good! OK, shall read that :-) Any chance of borrowing yr copy?

[abi]

i_ludicrous insisted on lending me The Third Policeman by Flann O'Brien this week, and it has bits about bicycles which make me think it would be an appropriate recommendation in the circumstances.

[juliet]

Read that too... (it's ace)

[mrs-leroy-brown.livejournal.com]

I'm going to be predictable and say Anne Tyler's The Amateur Marriage and I just so happen to have a spare copy as I saw it in a charity shop and it's so amazingly good I had to buy it for someone! So you are welcome to that if you'd like.

[juliet]

Yes pls!

[envoy.livejournal.com]

The Immortal Class: Bike Messengers and the Cult of Human Power

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Immortal-Class-Messengers-Human-Power/dp/0375760245

I also have a copy I'd be happy to let you borrow my copy, it's a really cool book.

BTW, what's a good e-mail address to use to e-mail you, I've got a question I wanted to ask you!

[juliet]

That looks v interesting, I'd love to borrow it!

Email address on profile (& on rest of internet...) works.

[mr-tom.livejournal.com]

I preferred "Nerves of Steel". YMMV, obv.

Also well worth a shufty in the slightly-obsessive bikenerd section is "Put me back on my bike: In search of Tom Simpson".

And everything that Bret Easton Ellis writes - but especially Glamorama.

[catsgomiaow.livejournal.com]

Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell, THE FRIENDLY YOUNG WOMEN by er some lady, it's a Virago obv, The 4.50 from Paddington by Nagatha Christie... I've read loads of stuff lately, why can't I remember any of it?

[juliet]

What are the first two like? I think I may have burned out on Nagatha Christie as a kid, although having said that maybe I shd give her another go...

[booklectica]

Wideacres (and sequels) - Phillipa Gregory. Arguably trashy historical fiction, but utterly page-turning.

I can think of a hundred other books, too - maybe could pick a few of mine and lend them to you? I love lending people books.

[juliet]

Wideacres sounds good - I rather like trashy historical fiction :-) (There was a series of trashy-historical-fiction books that I've forgotten the names of again that I read as a kid when Mum borrowed, & then got out of the Bodleian stacks to use as rewards when I was in the Bod revising for finals.)

Yes pls to being lent books!

[thekumquat.livejournal.com]

Stardust by Neil Gaiman, illustrated by Charles Vess (it's somewhat different to the film, but just as charming).

The Glass Palace - Amritav Ghosh - fascinating saga of a family getting embroiled in events of the last 150 years in mid- and South-East Asia

The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster - one of my favourite childrens books ever, and recently republished. Fantastic humour and line drawings, especially small soggy creatures known as the Doldrums.

[juliet]

Read all of those too :-) I enjoyed Stardust lots, & quite liked The Glass Palace iirc although don't remember it that clearly. The Phantom Tollbooth I *love* and have been keeping an eye out for in charity shops for years. I borrowed it off someone a year or two back & it was still just as great as I remembered.

(Didn't know it had been republished, though; might have to acquire copy!)

[d-floorlandmine.livejournal.com]

The Dark Is Rising sequence by Susan Cooper, if you haven't read it. Especially before the film comes out, because it's very different! [grin]

[juliet]

Yup, read (repeatedly) & loved. I have absolutely 0 intention of seeing the film because I am positive that they will have wrecked it!

(I might reread it, like, RIGHT NOW, though - will have to stop typing in a sec as thumb beginning to throb, & reading is about the only interesting activity that doesn't damage it!)

[webcowgirl.livejournal.com]

Porcelain Dove, Delia Sherman.

And of course "In Search of Lost Time," but that's a bit of a project.

[ciphergoth.livejournal.com]

A-ha, have you switched from "Remebrance of Things Past" to "In Search of Lost Time" then?

[damerell.livejournal.com]

Susanna Clarke's "Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell", but you must have already. The Hornblower books. Flint/Drake's Belisarius series (first couple in Baen Free Library).

[juliet]

Yep, read JS&MN. Not read Hornblower, though, or the other one (Baen Free Library I like!). Thanks!

[mstevens.livejournal.com]

Random Acts of Senseless Violence, Jack Womack. A bit disturbing, yes.

"Jack Womack has been compared to both William Gibson and Kurt Vonnegut - though Gibson admits, "If you dropped the characters from Neuromancer into Womack's Manhattan, they'd fall down screaming and have nervous breakdowns"."

[carsmilesteve.livejournal.com]

ha, all the books i've read recently have been about FOOPBALL, which may not, i think, be yr cup of tea :)

i can't remember the last fiction book i read...

[lnr]

Oh: Nick Hornby, "A long way down". Definitely the best new book that's not SF or related that I've read in the last year or so.

[dogrando.livejournal.com]

I assume that anything of mine that you haven't read is probably not to your taste...

[xxxlibris.livejournal.com]

ooh! ooh!

"Un Lun Dun" by China Mievielle - got it as a birthday present and is absolutely fantastic.

[juliet]

I have just finished it! Agreed that it's fab :-)