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Sorry I know there are book recommendation threads already but all I am looking for is a fiction book that surprises and engages (I'm getting tired of getting ten pages into a book and thinking I've already read something like this, keeping going and finding 'the unique take' isn't that unique, and then finishing the book disappointed. It's not that I rely on algorithm recommendations, although they don't help, I think publishers publish to feed them even down to the cover art.
Can anyone recommend a book they finished wanting more?
It’s a very broad spectrum - what genre/s are you interested in?
Of Human Bondage
Somerset Maugham
If you like horror fiction id recommend John Connolly , best to read them in order, " Every dead thing " is the first in the series.
fiction book that surprises and engages
Anything by John Niven. Dark and twisted and really, really funny
Start at the start...
Thanks for the suggestions. I've never tried Somerset Maugham so will definitely give that a try. I've been stuck in a few genre ruts. I guess anything in modern literary fiction would be what I'm looking for. Something that takes a bit of effort but isn't too far up itself if that makes any sense
Best books I've read this year are both first novels by the respective authors,
Last one at the party - Bethany Clift
Lessons in chemistry - Bonnie Garmus
I bought Eric Ambler - Cause For Alarm on a whim waiting for a train a while back.
A pre ww2 espionage story set in fascist Italy.
I got into this 4 book series on holiday, and I was hooked until I'd read all 4. A kind of horror/sci-fi/spiritual mix.
I read them on a Kindle
Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel
Her latest, Sea Of Tranquility, is good too
Perdido St Station, by China Mieville
This was a present and caught me utterly by surprise.
Death of a river guide - Richard Flanagan
The Master and Margarita, by Mikhail Bulgakov. Not terribly contemporary, but fantastic.
Ithaca by Claire North
A modern interpretation of Greek myth, from the women’s perspective. She’s written a bunch of books under that name, and a load more as Catherine Webb and Kate Griffin. Outstanding writer, wrote her first book during her school summer holiday at 14, had it published the following year. Kept writing while at RADA training as a lighting technician and designer, then while working as one, and she’s now a lighting technician for touring bands. And still writing. Here’s her books as Claire North…
The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August (2014)
Touch (2015)
The Gameshouse (2015)
The Sudden Appearance of Hope (2016)
The End of the Day (2017)
84K (2018)
The Pursuit of William Abbey (2019)
Notes from the Burning Age (2021)
Ithaca (2022)
The First Fifteen Lives... is fabulous, great recommendation. I hadn't realised, or hadn't thought, that she had other books after Touch; must go and take a look
Thanks, I've read a couple of the books mentioned and really enjoyed them. There's a good couple of months worth of books I haven't read so thanks
I've read 'The first fifteen lives of...' and ' The sixteen trees of the Somme' so far. Thanks both brilliant recommendations (I couldn't help making comparisons between The First Fifteen Lives and The Bone Clocks by David Mitchell but being as this was written first and I loved both that wasn't a bad thing. I'm a bit Greek mythed out at the moment after reading quite a few 'retellings' recently but I'll definitely try her other books
The Sixteen Trees... Was the best book I've read for quite a while. If anyone can recommend anything half as good as this I'd be greatful.
Thanks
My most recent reads. Reading the trespassers companion off the back of the book of trespass and who owns England. It's more of a dip in and out book with contributions from lots of people than the other two. Interesting to see a chapter by Dom Ferris of trash free trails who many mtbers will be aware of. Not quite finished it. It's gently radicalising if that's a thing!
I devoured the John Nichol book in a couple of sittings. It's almost a perfect cocktail to meet my interests. Engineering and innovation, aviation, 20th century history and conflict, personal accounts of air combat, escape and evasion, wartime imprisonment and human interest stories of post conflict reconciliation between combatants. Written of course by an author who is very well qualified in the subject matter. Recommended.
(Sci-fi) Adrian Tchaikovsky Children of time, drop kicks very writing trope to the kerb & it works as a stand alone book. As book2 isn't nearly as good, and book 3 expect me to remember all of the character names from book2, from 3 years before.. will get to eventually