Authors you want to shout about

My absolute favourite is The Daughter of Time by Josephine Tay. It was written a long time ago and she didn’t write many novels. I’ve read most of them but this is her best.

I agree with all the people who love JoJo Moyes. If you want 'comfort food' books, try Katie Fforde. Always a joy to read! I've just finished Richard Osman's book and really enjoyed it - sorry rowyn didn't but all my friends who've read it enjoyed it too! I've always loved Maeve Binchy too.

Colm Toibin is a wonderful writer who captures small town Ireland. I loved his "Brooklyn" (the film is a great adaptation of the book). "A Gentleman in Moscow" by Amor Towles is brilliantly original. I loved "The Dutch House" by the American author Ann Patchett (interesting characters and family dynamics) but was less keen on her "Bel Canto" and "Commonwealth".

So many authors I love have been mentioned here and I've added a few new ones to my wish list for when I have made a bit more impact on my 'waiting to be read' pile.
Don't think she has been mentioned so far, but I think fans of Ann Tyler would also like Ann Patchett - I've read and enjoyed both The Dutch House and The Committments this year.
I really enjoy Alexander McCall Smith for calming, easy to read books to intersperse with heavier times. Does anyone have recommendations for books in similar vein?

I've just discovered Mike Gayle and B A Paris. Some of my favourite authors are Douglas Kennedy, Jojo Moyes and Nicci French. Always good to hear others favourites.

Belinda Bauer - a really intelligent and clever novelist who writes about how we survive trauma....the underpinning of her crime novels.
Her books have a dark humour too.
Wonderful stuff.

Whoops - cross post with Lizzie44. I agree that The Dutch House was better.

Anything by Douglas Kennedy - fantastic writing - just wish I hadn’t read them all! Jodi Picoult - love all her books - always about subject matter that makes you really think about life as well as actually enjoying the story.

I agree with many of the suggestions on here - I love Clare Chambers, Sue Gee, Catherine Ryan Hyde, Anne Tyler etc. I really enjoyed the early Sophie Hannah books but I think her later ones aren’t as good. Some authors I like that haven’t been mentioned are Sue Miller, Anita Shreve, Rosie Thomas, Paulina Simons, Eva Ibbotson, Lindsey Davis. I’ve rediscovered William Horwood - years ago his Duncton Wood books were popular. If you like Tolkien-style fantasy, his Hyddenworld quartet are wonderful (the first is Hyddenworld:Spring) but my favourite is Skallagrig. So many brilliant authors!

NanaPlenty Have you read any Diane Chamberlain? Not dissimilar to Jodi Picoult in some ways - the topics are possibly less controversial but the character studies are similar.

K.L. Slater, Cath Staincliffe, Diane Chamberlain and for pure joy .. Maeve Binchy.

rowyn

This is the opposite of what you are asking for, but a good chance to have a rant! I'm currently reading Richard Osman's so called murder mystery and finding it annoyingly written in the style of storytelling for 5 year olds. There is no characterisation or flow. Every time I pick it up I have to go back a few pages to remind me what is happening.

It just confirms my antipathy to any novels written by so - called celebrities. Suspect half are ghost written and the other half are only published because they are well known and their fans will buy.

The Osman book cover is splattered with other celebrities' gushing recommendations, none of which are upheld by the actual story, as far as I can see, and presumably are written on a "you scratch my back and .......... ! basis. I doubt very much that the same book sent in by an unknown would get beyond the first reading.

I should add that I didn't buy it, - it was a gift. Am I the only curmudgeon or do others agree with me?

I’m very sure that the hugh numbers of people who have read this book would not agree with you and that just because you didn’t enjoy it doesn’t mean that it’s not a well written book. He actually wrote the book in secret so no help from anyone.

Have you written and published a best seller?.

I have read that he has signed a deal with Viking publishers for 2 more books in the series, not bad eh?. I haven’t read it yet but I know that it’s somewhere in the house.

Whatever you do, do not read Maggie O’Farrell’s book “The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox” which by the way I thoroughly enjoyed.

I love C J Sansom’s ‘Shardlake’ novels and the ‘Crowner John’ series by Bernard Knight.

Jennie
Agree with a lot of your choices, so glad to find someone who likes Sue Gee, I just wish she would write more.

Sue Miller is another favourite, and Anita Shreveport.

I like a lot of Jodi Picoult, some of her books are really good, but I have found some to be quite poor.

Similar with Susan Lewis, some her subjects are really interesting and topical, but I don’t like her writing style, very stereotyped.

Shreveport? Don’t know where that came from!!

I can recommend ‘dogged’ a first novel by West Midlands author Emma Purshouse. A brilliant read and deserves to be enjoyed by many. It was launched on Valentine’s Day and is well worth buying.

I love all of Anne Tyler’s books and Elizabeth Strout especially Olive Kitteridge and Olive Again.

Who couldn’t love Olive?

I have 2 I really like, J D Robb series, about Eve Dallas, I think I am on about book 40, plus Elly Griffiths series, book 13 just released . I would advise starting either set with book one as obviously the characters run right through the stories, although you can read them as stand alone if you wish.

Depends on your tastes. Lately I've been looking for escapism, and I've enjoyed several books by Lisa Jewell.

I absolutely love "The Lost Lights of St Kilda" by Elizabeth Gifford, and so do the friends I have recommended it to.

I’m going to look up all the recommends on here I haven’t tried yet. I too adore Anne Tyler and Kate Atkinson. I’m also a huge fan of audiobooks and never fail to have one on the go. Some books are better listened to I think like Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart. The narrator Angus King on this was superb but some reviews of the written version say although it’s well worth it the dialect was sometimes difficult to read.
I do think that sometimes you get one or two excellent books from an author and then a rubbish one and I wonder if publishers insisting on another book within a set period of time is to blame. I loved Graham Norton’s ‘ A Keeper’ and. ‘Holding’ but found his third book’Home Stretch’ was dire.
Some authors I love to recommend are Jo Nesbo, Emma Donoghue, Kylie Kaden Chris Whitaker and Hannah Kent to name but a few. Oh I could go on all day lol!!!

The one thing I have noticed after a year of downloading dozens of books - is the lack of description- if the ‘hero or heroine’ went missing - I’d have a hard job describing them to the police - although the plot line is not bad, trying to imagine the lead characters, without knowing age group, tall, short, fat, thin, hair colour, age, eye colour, type of dog etc or other characteristics for eg - you could smell the wild garlic, when reading a Jilly Cooper book - or visualise the villain in a Jackie Collins - re-reading an old Tilly Bagshaw - it was a delight

Cmcpne
Have just finished Jo Nesbo, Knife.
Lots of twists and turns and a very unexpected ending.

Another fan of Mike Gayle here and not just because he's a fellow Brummie! I've read lots of his books and was due to go to hear him talk locally before Covid struck.