Books!

JessicaLizzie

Hi

Who likes reading on here? I've started to really get into reading since being diagnosed and am always on the look out for new books. I'm not into sci-fi/dystopian type books but open to anything else. Any suggestions?

noddingtonpete

Hi @JessicaLizzie unfortunately my choice is SciFi/Fantasy. However my wife is an avid reader and like John Grisham, Peter May, Ian Rankin, Ann Cleeves (Vera books) among many others

JessicaLizzie

I not long ago read a John Grisham book and it was great. Does she have any suggestions of ones she really enjoyed? I've not heard of any of the other authors so will definitely have a look. Thank you!

noddingtonpete

Jeffrey Deaver is another author - Title Surprise Ending, Cause of Death, Ninth and Nowhere are recent ones she's read

Val McDermid - Common Murder

A good read which I also enjoyed was the Chronicle of St Marys collection by Jodi Taylor

Hope that gets you started

Jewels

I love reading roberta kray kimberley Chambers or Jessie Keane they all centre around the east end crime fiction really good reads

JessicaLizzie

Thanks guys 😊 hopefully if there's others who like to read we can all share book suggestions. I've got a good few to add to my list there 🙂

stickywicket

For a heartwarming murder mystery (yes, you read that correctly!) how about Richard Osman's Thursday Murder Club?

I'm into poetry. Most kinds. I get a daily poem emailed to my inbox.

frogmorton

Have you ever read any old sci fi @JessicaLizzie ? John Wyndham or George orwell? I am re reading them from when I was a child and they still have a lot to offer 1984 etc... I LOVED Steven Kings 11:22:63

I have also recently read some time travel books - the Midnight Library by Matt Haig for instance.

Mostly I read murdery books like people have already mentioned, but sometimes like a change. Someone here once introduced me to the Agatha raisin series which makes me laugh a lot.

Too many ideas for you I reckon?

Trish9556

Hi @JessicaLizzie

I love to read although it's mainly on my kindle these days. Both proper reading and audible. Amazon (other sites are available) is great for finding new authors by typing free kindle books into the search bar. I'm a cover person and if that appeals I usually download it. That way I've not wasted any money if I don't like it. I've found some great authors that way. If you subscribe to Amazon Prime you can also borrow books.

Mark Edwards psychological thrillers try The Retreat first

Joy Ellis murder mystery

Jack Cartwright murder mystery

Black Pierce and Molly Black both write FBI cop books that are very good

Alex Smith Murder Mystery

Barbara Erskine writes historical fiction that are a site if ghost/current day theme. I've readmist if hers but started with the witch tree

Just a few if the author's of the 160 books I read last year. Don't choose murder mystery but that the way the books end up on my kindle.

I use Goodreads if anyone wants to follow me drop me a pm and I'll let you have my user id/add you

Trish xx

Lilymary

I’m reading “Augustus” by John Williams, which follows the life of Augustus Caesar from when Julius Caesar was murdered, through the battles to gain power, then the lives of those around him (eg Mark Anthony, Agrippa, Cleopatra, Livy, Ovid, Cicero etc) until his own death. It’s nowhere near as dry as it sounds, it’s written in the form of letters and diaries from the many people in his life, following a continuous time line, so it feels very intimate and really brings it to life. It’s totally immersive in Roman culture and very eye opening. What extraordinary times! And of course, if you google their images online, you can see from the amazing lifelike busts of them what they looked like. I don’t normally “do” non fiction or historical fiction, but this has had me gripped, and John Williams is a fantastic author. It hasn’t been a dry or heavy read, as it’s broken into short diary entries or letters, and always written in the first person. Thoroughly recommend.

Lilymary

@frogmorton , if you like time travel novels, try “The Time Travellers Almanac”. It’s a large collection of time travel short stories, and I didn’t find a duff one among them. I downloaded it onto my kindle. Also, The Immortals by S E Lister. For Sci-fi, an excellent classic is Rendezvous with Rama, by Arthur C Clarke.

But I reckon you can't go wrong with some of the old classics like John Steinbeck and Neville Shute.

For gentler Reading, Anne Tyler is very good, also Elizabeth Strout, or Celeste Ng. Amor Towles is also very readable. All very well written.

Tim Winton, Chris Hammer (Scrublands) and Peter Carey are great of you want some gritty Australian tales.

and for a bit of bonkersness, Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons is still hilarious, despite its age

TLee

They're not for everyone (my husband thinks I'm crazy), but I have been reading or re-reading 19th century novels, particularly those of Dickens and Trollope. I find so much humor in them that I feel I probably missed previously. I also love the delightful descriptions of scenes and characters. I find them the ultimate escape, not only to a different place but a different time.

CCM

@JessicaLizzie

Go electronic. either the Amazon Kindle route or there is an App called BorrowBox that gives you access to your county library digital books.

You can read on your iPad/tablet/computer. Much easier to get comfortable with than a book, though I do miss the turning of the pages.

CCM

stickywicket

I think this is a personal preference thing. A friend (PsA) loves her kindle. I just can't get on with one although I find holding any book, let alone thick ones, difficult. I find I'm forever fiddling down or sideways rather than just reading. My own tablet is a very small, lightweight one but I can't even hold my husband's larger one.

Trish9556

@stickywicket

My husband bought my first kindle as a Christmas present many years ago and I told him in no uncertain terms I hated it and didn't want it. It was 5 years before I even took it out of the box and the only reason I did was because I had a bad shoulder injury and couldn't hold anything let alone a book.

Since then I have had almost a dozen - wore them out and now wouldn't be without it. I can read a book if my hands are strong enough on that day or I can listen to the same book so never say never - I do miss reading a proper book it's very rare I do these days. I read so many books (160 last year) I couldn't possibly afford to buy them all as real books! Perfect for taking on holidays too as I don't need a separate suitcase for all of m books.

love n hugs

Trish x

JessicaLizzie

@CCM thank you for the recommendations. I am a bit like @stickywicket -I just love the feel, smell, and texture of real-life books in my hand. Nothing beats it! I do find it painful, and really I should embrace technology with me being of that generation! I do have the original Kindle, but I have just never gotten on with it. I tend to buy books cheap on eBay, which keeps the cost down, but doesn't help with the whole pain issue. I have found having a V pillow wrapped around my waist, with the book resting on the pillow is the most comfortable way for me, and if it is a new book, I use the weight of my mobile phone resting on the pages to keep the book open.@Trish9556

@Trish9556 I thought that I was doing well with 56 books last year! 160 is a mean feat and puts me to shame! I do find that I become quite attached to the books and so find it hard to get rid of them, but on a good day I am ruthless with them and pack a lot up for the charity shop (I know, I know, wouldn't have this problem if I used my kindle!!).

Loggiemod

If you like a long read try the Robert Galbraith Cormoran Strike books (J K Rowling in none Harry Potter guise)

JenHB

I enjoyed 'The Midnight Library' by Matthew Haig

Lilymary

I'm afraid I'm stuck with reading an e-book as my eyesight is goosed and I can't read standard print size easily, or for long. My kindle is a godsend, even if my chosen font size means I'm constantly turning pages! I've got so many books on there now, and my memory is so bad, that I'm saving a fortune by going back to read some of them again :-)

CarylW

Hello @JessicaLizzie

I love reading too. One of my favourite authors is Elly Griffiths. There is a series about an archaeologist and her relationship with a detective. Well worth trying but you need to start with the first in the series!

Best wishes

CarylW

Fran54

Hi.

I love reading as well, mainly thrillers. I have read most of author Harlan Coban books, which I admit are rather far fetched but take you on a fast thrilling journey. I have just started reading ' Blue Lightning ' by author Ann Cleeves about Shetland Detective Jimmy Perez. I have got a couple of other books by her to read, so they will keep me quiet for a while!

Tiggerkaz

I have an eclectic taste in reading.

I love Stephen King novels - Currently reading his latest novel "Fairytale", which I am really enjoying.

I have a passion for classic literature too, and I have quite a collection of these books. Dickens being one of my favourites in this Genre.

I also like reading non fiction too-especially sociology based books. Books about crime, philosophers or history.

I like fantasy and Sci-fi novels too.

As an amateur poet myself, I also have a great love of poetry too.

Trish9556

Hi @Tiggerkaz

I also love Stephen king, recently got back I to him with the fairytale and I think that was brilliant.

Went through a period of binge reading his and started on other authors before reading fairytale.

Have you read any Joy Ellis it Alex Smith? Both good crime authors on kindle...also Simon kernick D S Butler to name a few

Love n hugs

Trish xx

MarkInSussex

Currently reading 1984 by George Orwell, but also just bought the HG Wells collection from TK Maxx, have always loved reading, but it has to be a proper book, not a Kindle or the like as just don't like them, feel a proper book is so much more tactile, i tend to put a soundtrack of bird song in a woodland on the computer, grab a cuppa and lose myself in a books pages, im also one of those strange people who really enjoy reading reference books and have all sorts, but mainly natural history, arboriculture and the like.

Rontog

Something to make me laugh (best medicine in the world) with a murder thrown in, so it's Richard Osman for me at the moment.

Wolfie2468S

I have always loved reading and it took years for me to be persuaded to have a kindle. Now I have one I wouldn't be without it. All those books I can take on holiday and it fits into my handbag. :)

I like Crime thrillers but I do read other books that aren't related to crime. I like humour in books too.

Historical novels are also what I enjoy reading. I've never tried the Richard Osman books though and as some of you have mentioned him I will check him out.