Can I recommend....

roses, you might like The Luminaries. I just found it very confusing as it moves back and forward in time.

Have just paid for The Luminaries for my Kindle, so a bit of a downer to discover it's a dull book, I will start reading it soon and see what I think. Hated, The Goldfinch, thought it overlong and boring in places.

I'm quite excited. After reading about Elly Griffith's books here I bought The Crossing Places today. I'm a Norfolk girl too.

Eleothan and Kiora glad I am not the only one! I too found the characters coarse and unpleasant, and found all the raciallly offensive language jarring. The characters were all awful, no empathy with any of them and it didnt so much end as just peter out. I normally keep books ( thus the book problem at home) but this is one straight to the charity shop. I wouldnt give it to friends or family to read.

I have just seen on Elly Griffiths' Facebook site that her new book (totally new series) called Zig Zag is to be published in November. Can't wait to read it.

Eloegran I felt the same about the slap I read it a good while ago. It was a birthday present but I read until the bitter end. You missed nothing the ending was disappointing too.

Having just finished it, may I heartily recommend Police, the latest Harry Hole thriller from Jo Nesbo? It lived up to it`s predecessors brilliantly, I can now hardly wait for the next one, but can`t remember the title!

WBundecided Someone recommended The Slap to me but I absolutely hated it. I loathed the characters and thought them unprincipled and coarse. Gave up after a couple of chapters.

There's an new Ian McEwan novel out today. I went to Amazon to put it on my wish list and was surprised to find that I'd pre-ordered it back in July! When I finish the Ellie Griffiths mystery I'm reading at the moment I'll get stuck in and let you know what I think. My new Kindle will arrive by the end of the week. The original one died irreparably while I was away on holiday!

I am half way through The Girl Who Had All The Gifts, very strange book indeed. Uncomfortable yet obsessive reading, became hooked when I realised that the places named are nearby, very nearby, Baldock, Henlow, Shefford, Stevenage to name but a few. Set in the future 20 years after the desolation of the World. Hungries, sinister Doctors and half human child.

Can I NOT recommend The Slap. Dire story, vulgar language, racist and paints a very nasty side of so called professional people in Australia. Glad I bought it second hand, and didnt spend much on it.

Obviously there are words written in the book lol!!

But no words to describe how good it is..

I would recommend.. The Alchemist..it is an amazing read, there are no words, you just have to try it

Thank you icyalittle for the recommendation, will follow that up.

should have type I'm not I.

I agree with your comments regarding The Luminaries annodomni, I also read it earlier this year, too long and quite dull, I surprised it won the Booker Prize.

I loved The Goldfinch! Have just discovered Niall Williams and really enjoying his work. So many books, so little time!

During my recent holiday I read Donna Tartt's The Goldfinch and I loved every page of it. It's a wonderful story and I couldn't put it down. Conversely I also read the Booker-winning The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton, set in the time of the New Zealand gold rush. I recognised many of the settings, but otherwise found the story far too convoluted to be enjoyable. The ending was unconvincing.

I would recommend The Last Train To Scarborough and also Death On A Branch Line by Andrew Martin. The 'hero' [not that he is heroic] works as a railway detective from York Station and is set just before the first world war.The Scarborough book is the best though,and would be brilliant holiday reading [perhaps not in Scarborough though, if you are staying in a run down guest house!]

NanKate don't avoid Bring Up The Bodies if you are given it. I happened to read it before Wolf Hall and LOVED it, but still found Wolf Hall quite hard going when I got to it.
If you like John Le Carré's style, A Delicate Truth is superb.

BTW - there is a new Ann Cleeves book out (still in the Shetland series) this year
not yet in my library

can I second the Wallender books by henning Mankell - a bit grim as Swedish crime books often are but very well written. Also on a Swedish note - Camilla Lackberg - should be read in sequence (she has just had a new one out this year) as the characters appear and develop in all her books
finally (I have read all these really ) the Louise Penny (Inspector Gamache) books which are set in Quebec.
would also recommend Elly Griffiths

The Goldfinch, brilliant, in my humble opinion, although it has divided opinion and I would also recommend my current book, Longbourn, life below stairs in the Bennet (Pride and Prejudice) household.

May I recommend The President's Hat by Antoine Laurain. A charming easy read rather like short stories but linked. Ideal for Eurostar to Paris.

Stop, stop!! I haven't got time for all this wonderful stuff!!