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Books/book club

Good reads please.

(108 Posts)
Anya Tue 16-Aug-16 08:07:44

I'm out of action for the next 6+ weeks due to two broken arms. I can't drive, swim, walk the dogs, cook, shop, garden, etc. and I'd go stir crazy if I didn't have my kindle.

I can hold it for about 10 minutes before my arms ache but it's getting more each day.

So looking for suggestions for good reads. I'll read almost anything,except chick flick and spy novels. Preferably I'd like to,discover an author I've not tried before, but please .....all suggestions very welcome sunshine

Alima Thu 08-Sept-16 13:12:14

anno, have just looked up the Matthew Frank books and they look very good, will have to read those. Thanks for the tip, I have been looking for a new author!

annodomini Thu 08-Sept-16 14:02:37

Do make sure that you read 'If I should die' first because then you will understand Joe's back story.

annodomini Thu 08-Sept-16 14:02:37

Do make sure that you read 'If I should die' first because then you will understand Joe's back story.

annodomini Thu 08-Sept-16 14:05:18

Sorry about the duplication. If it's worth saying it's worth saying twice!

Eloethan Thu 08-Sept-16 19:51:47

Sorry to hear you are out of action Anya. To break one arm is bad enough but two! Wishing you a speedy recovery.

If you want a book that intrigues and makes you laugh, I would recommend The Observations by Jane Harris.

If you like books that make you laugh one minute and hold back a tear the next, I would recommend Saint Maybe, Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant, The Accidental Tourist and Breathing Lessons by Anne Tyler.

If you like a book that is mysterious and rather scary, I would recommend The Little Stranger by Sarah Walters, though the end is rather gloomy.

One of my favourite books of all time is The Secret History by Donna Tartt. As a reviewer in the Guardian said:

"It starts with a murder, is obsessed with ancient Greece and creates the delicious illusion of being admitted to the most dangerous of confidences". The characters - and in particular the narrator - stayed with me long after I'd finished the book.

hummingbird Thu 08-Sept-16 20:38:34

Poor you! Have you read Olive Kitteridge, by Elizabeth Stroud? It's really good, in fact, I've loved all her books. They're intelligent, thoughtful and compelling, highly recommended!

Elegran Thu 08-Sept-16 20:53:10

I generally choose my reads from the Kindle Daily Deal 99p list. I am currently reading "The Ballroom" which is the Bookclub September book, but I bought mine from Amazon. All the comments about it on the thread are true.

Before that I read "The Eagle Tree" The hero is a boy with Aspergers who writes in the first person. I don't know anyone with Aspergers or autism (to my knowledge) but it seems to ring true - the single-mindedness, the puzzlement about other people's emotions, the way he takes literally everything said to him, the keeping to rules, the detailed knowledge of trees (I confess to skipping a lot of that) I liked the ending, which was not just a trite saving of the threatened Eagle Tree, and that by then he had acquired a couple of friends who accepted him as he was.

Rosieroe Thu 08-Sept-16 21:03:48

I picked Up The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd one day in the local library and really loved it. It had been quite a while since I enjoyed a book as much, it was such a beautiful,story.

Jalima Thu 08-Sept-16 21:10:49

I am reading a CJ Samson book too (Dissolution) and apparently other posters enjoy his books too (murder mysteries set in the time of Henry VIII and Thomas Cromwell).

I like books by Stephen Saylor about Gordianus the Finder

suzied Liane Moriarty books are very good, I have read them all and can't wait for the next one.
www.amazon.co.uk/Liane-Moriarty/e/B00459IA54

I think if you download free books or very cheap books on to your Kindle, it doesn't matter if you can't get into them as you can delete them!

Hope you mend very quickly Anya
Impressed! flowers

Jalima Thu 08-Sept-16 21:12:35

I didn't like Girl on a Train but other people may enjoy it.

I have a leather cover for my Kindle which has a stand at the back of it, like a picture frame.

Jalima Thu 08-Sept-16 21:13:18

ps impresed at your typing I mean

NanaandGrampy Thu 08-Sept-16 21:41:34

How about Lie with me by Sabine Durrant.

Wonderful plot twist I never saw coming :-)

NanaandGrampy Thu 08-Sept-16 21:45:04

www.amazon.co.uk/s/?ie=UTF8&keywords=ibeani&tag=googhydr-21&index=aps&hvadid=106166688495&hvpos=1t2&hvnetw=g&hvrand=11347368623293135114&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=e&hvdev=t&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=1006500&hvtargid=kwd-28113698127&ref=pd_sl_3uuqgw7mzq_e

This is the solution for holding your kindle, even works in bed :-)

Jalima Thu 08-Sept-16 21:47:05

I have just downloaded it N&G, hope it is as good as you say smile

NanaandGrampy Thu 08-Sept-16 21:56:17

It was one of the ones I got from Gransnet as a prize.

I found it a little slow for the first few pages but got drawn in and was surprised at the twist. I hope you enjoy it and would love to know if you saw the ending coming ??

Enjoy smile

Jalima Thu 08-Sept-16 22:00:33

Must charge up my Kindle first; a kind friend keeps passing on real books so I haven't used the kindle for ages.

All those downloads will magically appear when i turn it on smile

Maggiemaybe Thu 08-Sept-16 22:13:24

It's difficult, isn't it, because we all like such different things? I'm reading what I think is a cracking thriller at the moment - Watching Edie by Camilla Way, a real page turner. It's very dark and unsettling though, so you'd have to have a liking for that sort of thing. But I think I might be enjoying it all the more because I've really struggled to finish the two books before that, one a best-seller for my library reading group, the other a Mumsnet book club choice. Yet both groups seemed to enjoy them on the whole.

I'd agree 100% with Eleothan's endorsement of Ann Tyler - I've loved all her books. And I also love Kate Atkinson. Her Behind the Scenes at the Museum is still one of my favourites.

Maggiemaybe Thu 08-Sept-16 22:14:25

Oops, I shouldn't really have mentioned turning pages, should I? Sorry, Anya!

Anya Fri 09-Sept-16 07:43:41

Well just finished the first Rebus book and I doubt I'll be reading any more in that series. As someone said, everyone is different.

So I'm going to look at other suggestions. Some of yours Elegran sound like they might hit the mark.

Woke up with a bad pain in my right elbow this morning (right radial head fracture) but now it's worn off I've suddenly found more lateral movement in that arm, though it does click sometime when I try to straighten it which it never did before. Anyone know if that's normal?

J52 Fri 09-Sept-16 07:54:33

Mine clicked for a while, when I had a similar fracture. Everything eventually went back to normal. Full recovery does take some months.

It was very important to get good physio. My local NHS had a fracture Gym, where everyone with arm fractures went to exercise, all ages. It was quite fun, we all met as a group for a few weeks and it was a bit like primary school PE!

Best wishes for a speedy recovery.

Elegran Fri 09-Sept-16 07:59:08

I don't know about arms clicking, but since I dislocated my shoulder it clicks sometimes at certain movements. Apparently it is a bit of tissue caught between the bones. It isn't painful, and it does it a lot less often now than at first, but it is disconcerting. Yours wasn't dislocation, so it'll be different, but perhaps there has been enough healing to permit more movement and that reveals something that wasn't evident before. Ask your GP or the hospital.

Elegran Fri 09-Sept-16 08:47:32

anya You might also like these (have looked at the contents of my kindle, Will post more later)

"The House of Happy Mothers" (surrogate pregnancy in India, 3dimensional characters)
"Best Wishes, Sister B" Fran Smith (letters from a nun in UK to one in South America. (more 3d characters, gently humorous story of resourcefulness)
"A Song for Issy Bradley" Carys Bray (impact of a child's death on a devout Mormon family. 3d characters, sometimes painful reading)
"600 hours of Edward" Craig Lancaster (diary of another autistic young man. This one eventually finds love)
"What Milo Saw" (small boy sees things adults miss)
"The Summer Book", Tove Jansson (grandmother and granddaughter on remote Swedish Island. Quirky.)
"Eve's diary" Mark Twain (Yes, that Eve)

Anya Fri 09-Sept-16 09:26:18

Thank you, that's very reassuring smile

And thanks for all these books....hope I live long enough to read them all wink

hummingbird Fri 09-Sept-16 09:55:57

I'm trying to read Issy Bradley, Elegran, but the subject matter terrifies me, so not sure if I'll be able to finish it!

Elegran Fri 09-Sept-16 10:06:53

I finished it, hummingbird and in a way was glad I did, but as you say, the subject matter is not a bundle of laughs. There were a few lighter bits in it, though, and as a portrait of what the congregation expected of the young pastor and his convert wife and the collision between their private grief and the teachings of their faith, and how each of them dealt with that grief, it was excellent.