Some good books I'd like to recommend

If you like character-driven detective books and if you're a fan of Ian Rankin's Rebus books, you might enjoy Michael Connelly's Harry Bosch stories. The two detectives have much in common and I believe that the two authors are friends.

I've got all of them anno !
And I like Peter James and Peter May as well.

loopy 5 mins ago I read your post and recommendation. Looked in kindle store and found it at 99p! It's now patiently waiting for me to get started -thanks to you, to GN and the wonders of the kindle!

Brilliant! I hope you enjoy it as much as I have mcem

I have just downloaded it too loopylou. Thanks for the recommendation and thanks for the link mcem. Great also that it was only 99p

I too loved "Us" by Peter Nicholls. But recently:

"The Signature in all Things" by Elizabeth Gilbert - yes, she wrote "Eat, Pray, Love" but don't let that put you off! This is an intellectually challenging, wide ranging story and I wouldn't have thought I'd enjoy it, but DD recommended it and I trust her. It was excellent.

The second in Jane Smiley's new "Last Hundred Years" trilogy - "Early Warning". The first is "Some Luck". She is my favourite modern American author - do read "A Thousand Acres".

Just in the middle of "The Disclaimer" by Renee Knight - a bit stilted to begin with until she finds her narrative voice, then very readable.

J K Rowling writing as Robert Galbraith in 'The Cuckoo's Calling' and 'The Silkworm' are also very good reads.
Both feature a down on his luck private detective, and the author really makes you feel as if you're walking alongside him, a real skill. They're also humorous and difficult to put down!

I love a good murder mystery ...but on a completely different subject....on Ashtree's recommendation I've asked for "A Dog's Purpose" for a birthday pressie....I have three dogs and this really appeals !

Isn't this a wonderfully sane thread! I have already taken up one recommendation (thanks Loopy ) and will be looking for some of the others.

Claire Balding's books 'My Family and other animals' and 'Walking Home' are very interesting and insightful reads.

And for more 'classic' reads Gerald Durrell's books about his years of being a naturalist are brilliant. I read and re-read them over the years and they still make me laugh, 40+ years on

I have recently finished The Legacy of Elizabeth Pringle by Kirsty Wark. A lovely story about a young Mother who falls in love with a house on Arran.

An author I discovered by way of Kindle Daily Deals is an American writer, Dana Stabenow who writes mysteries set in Alaska. I got 'hooked' on the characters and the evocation of Alaskan scenery and culture. Her main character is Kate Shugak and the first in the series is 'A Cold Day for Murder.' Better known on the other side of the Atlantic, I think, but a growing number of fans over here.

Hello fellow bookworms,

I recently compiled a Summer reading guide that I hope some of you might find useful. I am lucky enough to be sent lots of books to review and these all stood out.

I am always on the look out for books outside of my favourite genres (nature writing, travel, food writing, American lit, memoir and bio) as I do tend to get in a rut personally although I would also adore some recoms for books set in the USA, especially Hawai'i, the Deep South and New Mexico. We're going on a two month trip to the States next May, starting in N Carolina and travelling through the Deep South, ending in Louisiana and then another trip in October to New Mexico so I like the idea of a themed state by state reading odyssey...

I also love landscape writing (at a loss to know how to describe it better) such as Rob Cowen, Robert MacFarlane, Tom Cox, Mark Cocker, HE Bates non fiction, Kathleen Jamie and Linda Cracknell. If any of you are fellow landscape-ologists I'd love to 'chat'.

www.buryspy.com/life-and-style/books/item/596-summer-reading

Recently joined Gransnet and happy to have found the book club. I've just finished Still Alice by Lisa Genova, about a fifty year old lady who is a Professor of psychology who is diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer's. The book tells the story from Alice's perspective of the progression of the disease and the reactions of her family. I would definitely recommend.

I love Ann Tyler and my DVD of the Accidental Tourist is almost worn out. My all time favourite of hers is Digging to America and follows two different Chinese babies adopted into two American families.
New on my list of favourites is Alexander McallSmith BUT only his Isabel Dalhousie novels.
I have just read Victoria Hislop The Sunrise and won't read another. it was recommended but it bored me. The characters are only drawn by what they look like and how they dress, that doesn't interest me so much I want to know how they think!

I`ve only read one of Victoria Hislop`s books, The Thread, an enjoyed it immensely. The Sunrise has been recommended to me as well, so I`ll probably give it a go, on the basis that one man`s meat is another man`s poison, we don`t all like the same things.
For some heartwarming reading, I can recommend books by Katie Flynn, mostly set around WW2 or the earlier parts of the last century. Also, in a similar genre, books by Annie Murray.

Khaled Hosseini -A Thousand Splendid Suns for a real insight into life in Afghanistan. Well written and moving. Be prepared to cry.
The Kite Runner is his first novel-good as well but ATSS is brilliant.

Yes I agree. And better than And the Mountains Echoed.

Has any one read The man who mistook his wife for a hat by Oliver Sacks it has been recommended by our book club ? I have looked at on my kindle it appears to be about mental health issues

I agree about A Thousand Splendid Suns, it was fantastic. The Kite Runner was good, but not as good. I was slightly disappointed in And the Mountains Echoed.
I`m now reading Into Danger, by Kate Adie. I thought it was going to be about her experiences reporting news from all over the world, but it`s actually about people who do dangerous things for a living. OK though.

I'm just reading The Dandelion Years by Erica James and it's really lovely.

For those who love countryside/nature writing, can I recommend H is for Hawk bybHelen Macdonald. Beautiful, lyrical writng.

Erica James. I am not normally a fiction reader but her books keep me thinking, her plots wend their way to a conclusion, or not. The only one i did not like was the one about a writers group.

Here is a list

ericajames.co.uk/collection/

I've come to this late, and am about the sixth person to recommend Anne Tyler - I haven't read her latest yet, A Spool of Blue Thread, but I' ve loved the others (and identified with so many of her characters). Anything by Kate Atkinson too, though I didn't "get" Emotionally Weird, and David Nicholls. Peter James, Peter Robinson and Mark Billingham for crime, and the early Patricia Cornwell and P D James (not the later ones).

Anything by Alice Munro. Her output isn't huge-mostly short stories but they are brilliantly written. A Canadian author she eclipses Margaret Atwood in style although MA writes much longer things. Try "The Progress of Love".