[Closed] Recommend me some fiction books

Stranger in a Strange Land 🙂

Charity shops is the answer. I almost only buy 2nd hand, or borrow.
If you liked 1984 maybe try Brave New World. If you liked Grapes of Wrath (I do) look for East of Eden.

The non Culture works of Ian Banks, Christopher Brookmyer, The Rivers of London series by David Aaronivitch. John Niven

There's probs something in that lot.

Piece Of Cake by Derek Robinson if you want to keep it WW2, Enigma by Robert Harris if you want WW2/military/spy and maybe Slow Horses by Mick Herron if you want contemporary disillusioned spy.

But really, if you can put any prejudices about the genre aside the best choice is always Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry. No spies but plenty of action.

Mick Herron - Slough House series & more for top class spy fiction. Also now a rather excellent TV series, Slow Horses, with Gary Oldman on Apple TV.

if you can put any prejudices about the genre aside the best choice is always Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry

Having read all his crime novels years ago, I recently put aside my prejudices about the genre (Westerns? pah, how childish!) and started on Elmore Leonard's western books. Man, they are great, so absorbing.
Guessing Lonesome Dove is of that ilk?

So, where the hell do I start (happy to scour charity shops)?

Go into a proper book shop, 2nd hand or not, start picking books off the shelf, read the blurb until you find some you like the sound of and buy them.

Taking recommendations from people on the internet isn't any more likely to find you a good book to read than using the suggestions on Amazon, or browsing the BOGOF tables in Waterstones.

Taking recommendations from people on the internet isn’t any more likely to find you a good book to read...

I discovered Cormac McCarthy because of a suggestion off here. Some of the best books I've ever read.

yes charity shops are often good half term plan for Classix but also read reviews and seek out authors I’ve not tried before . Loads of suggestion in my mind but will rattle off a few

Short stories collections I find to be very satisfying and just right before a nap. Graham Greene or Ray Bradbury

Graham Greene complete short stories

Ray Bradbury the October country

I like a good comedy novel als. I fell out of the habit/joy of novel-reading for quite a number of years, but one day my wife recommend me a book she’d just read titled

The Short Gentleman by John Cantor
I gave it go and was instantly swept up and guffawed a lot. Very good.

Also David Nicholls ‘‘Us’’ and ‘One Day’

Also enjoyed Nick Hornby how to be good, Sola by Ian McEwan anything by Alan Ghana to kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee the grapes of wrath by John Steinbeck. I also love reading John Grisham, Michael Crichton or Dan Brown on holiday and feel no shame!

Le Carre is the daddy of spy stuff; most of his books up to about 10 years ago are excellent, things like Tinker Tailor, the Spy who came in the from the cold etc.
And as above, I've just finished Dead Lions (the second in Mick Herron's Slow Horses set) and it's also very good if a little more action-y.

Iain M Banks (sci fi) is very engaging and entertaining.

Personally I'm a big fan of Robert Jackson Bennett, although his genre jumps around a bit. American Elsewhere was a humdinger, I thought.
Also great: Ben Winters, Underground Airlines

I discovered Cormac McCarthy because of a suggestion off here. Some of the best books I’ve ever read.

I agree about McCarthy - I've read most of his stuff. The Crossing, especially, is an utterly brilliant book, massively emotional and moving. But his books are a great example of NOT taking suggestions - I need counselling when I've finished reading his stuff. I've had one on my 'to read' pile since last summer but I haven't felt ready to read it since I bought it.

It's very definitely NOT the sort of book I'd take on a pool holiday!

If you like Steinbeck have you read his comic stuff?

Cannery Row and Tortilla Flat are excellent.

But really, if you can put any prejudices about the genre aside the best choice is always Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry.

Fantastic book, rest of the series are good too, Comanche Moon being particularly good.

If you liked Grapes of Wrath (I do) look for East of Eden.

Yup, what he said too, plus other Steinbeck's. And "Once There was a War" is excellent, but that's not fiction (it's his journalist pieces from WW2)

It’s very definitely NOT the sort of book I’d take on a pool holiday!

Aye, there is that! 😀

I recently put aside my prejudices about the genre (Westerns? pah, how childish!) and started on Elmore Leonard’s western books. Man, they are great, so absorbing.

@desperatebicycle Sounds to me like you'd absolutely love Lonesome Dove. I've not read Elmore Leonard's westerns, I must give them a try.

Just recomending what I have enjoyed recently

Complicity by Iain Banks
The White Spider by Heinrich Harrer although not fiction.
On the Road by Jack Kerouac

*Edit (STE ‘down for maintenance’ mid-edit)

‘Solar’ by Ian McEwan is funny, thoughtful and entertaining, and anything by Alan Garner is great (mostly British folk tales expertly spun for older children’s fantasy market) but ‘Thursbitch’ leaves a mark.

Oh, and non-fiction, but you can't get very much more of an adventure

Ernest Shackleton - South

Gob-smackingly, well, gob-smacking.

OP I meant to say Steinbeck’s ‘Of Mice & Men’ seeing as you've reread GoW. ‘Travels With Charley’ also a great read (but non-fictional) and ‘In Dubious Battle’

Laurie Lee’s ‘Cider House Rules’ also cones to mind.

Somerset Maugham’s ‘The Razors Edge’

Did I say ‘To Kill A Mockingbird’? Very much this.

Kurt Vonnegut Jr ‘Breakfast Of Champions’

Alice Walker - The Color Purple’

Nick Hornby - ‘High Fidelity’

I still refuse to believe that all cyclists are mostly (and coincidentally) all interested in WW2, Sci-Fi and spies 😉

I recommend the bible, a bit old fashioned ,but pure fiction.

I still refuse to believe that all cyclists are mostly (and coincidentally) all interested in WW2, Sci-Fi and spies 😉

Judging by the books that get sold in supermarkets, and that I've sold at car boot sales, anything with a picture of weapon on the front cover flies off the shelf.

I don’t really read fiction (other than recently re-reading Grapes of Wrath

No point, you've already read the best book ever written. 😊

I still refuse to believe that all cyclists are mostly (and coincidentally) all interested in WW2, Sci-Fi and spies

The Venn diagram that contain middle aged men, cycling and an unhealthy interest in WW2 just looks like a circle TBH

Anything by Flann O'Brien or for short blasts his 'Best of Myles Nagopaleen'.

No point, you’ve already read the best book ever written.

I prefer East of Eden, tbh.

I recommend the bible, a bit old fashioned ,but pure fiction.

Very much, as I speak as an atheist, not the case (the fiction bit, not the old-fashioned bit)

No point, you’ve already read the best book ever written.

I do tend to agree with this sentiment (and I have long-said this to be the case) but I haven't read any other of his works so I really should.

Enigma by Robert Harris if you want WW2/military/spy

Good shout - I have read Fatherland and quite enjoyed that so it should fit the bill.

S'funny how people's tastes can be both similar and dissimilar. Some of the books @p7eaven lists above I also love (Steinbeck of course, Laurie Lee - I bet you've enjoyed Patrick Leigh Fermor's travelogues too?), but some I detest. Anything by Nick Hornby I find unbearable, and Graham Greene deathly dull.

My guilty pleasure is high fantasy and sci-fi written by the yard, so I'm under no illusion my taste is impeccable either!

the bible

I have tried the bible but it was ridiculously hard work. All that 'Enoch begat Methusalah who begat Solomon' stuff. Practically impenetrable.

I don't really get on with fantasy - I read a few Clive Barker fantasy books (Weaveworld, The Great and Secret Show, Imajica) and they were okay (I even re-read Weaveworld as I thought it deserved another chance) but I don't think I am quite right for that genre.

Piece Of Cake by Derek Robinson if you want to keep it WW2

That's a great book. 🙂

I do tend to agree with this sentiment

You should probably ignore my advice as I not sure it would sneak into my top 50 .

For spy novels, Spybrary seems to be a good resource. Shipman's list is pretty all encompassing and his analysis of the best books of my favourites (Greene, Ambler, Le Carre, Hall and best of all, Deighton) is spot on. Lots of people recommend Herron too, but I haven't read him yet. Just order a few from the local library a couple of week before you go.

Laurie Lee’s ‘Cider House Rules’ also cones to mind

I imagine you mean "Cider with Rosie"

Anything by Flann O’Brien

Third Policeman? Eww, no thank you!

100 years of solitude

Atomic theory proving that the third policeman was half-man half-bike could have some relevance here.

The Greg Hurwitz Nowhere Man/Orphan X series is good fun:

"The Nowhere Man is a legendary figure spoken about only in whispers. It’s said that when he’s reached by the truly desperate and deserving, the Nowhere Man can and will do anything to protect and save them.

But he’s not merely a legend.

Evan Smoak is a man with skills, resources, and a personal mission to help those with nowhere else to turn. He’s also a man with a dangerous past. Taken from a group home at twelve, Evan was raised and trained as part of the Orphan Program, an off-the-books operation designed to create deniable intelligence assets—i.e. assassins. Evan was Orphan X. He broke with the Program, using everything he learned to disappear and reinvent himself as the Nowhere Man".

Not particularly high brow/pretentious but well written and exciting. Deffo several steps above McNab etc..

Also Michael Koryta - "Those who wish me dead" and other books (book much better than and totally different from the movie).

Spy novels?

Mark Gatiss (he of BBC’s sherlock), wrote an enjoyable trilogy: the Vesuvius club, the devil in amber, and black butterfly.

For sheer comedic farce: pretty much anything by Tom Sharpe. ‘The Throwback’ is particularly good.

I’d avoid ‘The Great Pursuit’, though. It sucks.

For something different:

Harry Harrison’s ‘Stainless Steel Rat’ series.

Carlos Castaneda’s ‘A Seperate Reality’.

Laurie Lee’s ‘Cider House Rules’ also cones to mind.

Did you mean Cider with Rosie?

Probably "As I walked out one mid Summers Morning" might fit better.

Or go Hemingway - "For whom the Bell Tolls" or "Farewell to Arms"?

That Laurie Lee trilogy would be a good choice.
My three recommendations would be
'Bonfire of the Vanities' by Tom Wolfe.
'The Jungle' by Upton Sinclair.
'Feast of the Goat'by Mario Vargas Llosa.
All three an education in my opinion.

Robert Ludlum born trilogy is mint

John le carre again excellent

Or buy a kindle and get unlimited and just go random

However I am going on a family holiday this summer (whoop) and I am not entirely sure I want to be reading ‘The Rise and Fall of the Nazis’ by the pool on a relaxing two week break in the Med.

I was on holiday last week, reading King Leopold's Ghost. Sat next to Mrs B who was reading "How to kill your family". Staff around the pool/beach would start a conversation, she'd explain her book and they'd say to me "I hope you're reading something a bit happier". Well....

I also took The Fine Art of Invisible Detection by Robert Goddard. It's certainly lighter than King Leopold's Ghost and is entertaining/interesting enough as a holiday read, I just got it as I saw it on one of the tables in Waterstones and it looked interesting.

Lonesome Dove and James Ellorys American Tabloid are my go to recommended books. Both awesome.

Since you have a bit of a ww2 interest you could try Ken Follets century triology, fiction covering the 20th century.

Again for ww2 I'd recommend Rory Clements books, very Robert Harris and not as ridiculous as Dan Brown. Ideal poolside reading.

The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress by Heinlein. Yes it's scifi but of the really grounded sort.

The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett- it's kind of a mess but also kind of incredible. And you basically get 2 books for the price of one because the followup is exactly the same book with the names changed.

And you basically get 2 books for the price of one because the followup is exactly the same book with the names changed.

Isn't that more like one book for the price of 2?

SS-GB by Len Deighton is alright, fiction and World War Two so covers both!

@mefty

I imagine you mean “Cider with Rosie?”

Ahemsolutely!

#thanks

The Iain Banks stuff, is great

Mark Frost list of 7/ 6 messiahs

Dan Simmonds The Terror

The Expanse books

Tchaikovsky s Children of Time

Agree about Cormac McCarthy, great, great writer, but tend to need something a bit lightheaded after

James Elroy's LA books are good fun

I read Ben MacIntyre's Operation Mincemeat on a Greek beach and thought it was a perfectly acceptable place to read it 🙃 His books read like fiction, but aren't.

https://smile.amazon.co.uk/dp/1526653559/ref=cm_sw_r_apan_i_KETC6EZZXE3J9JQ35Z53

Any of the Rebus books by Ian Rankin.
David Peace - 1974/1977/1980/1983; all of them, in sequence; his Tokyo trilogy.
Anything by Stuart Maconie, Jo Nesbo, Henning Mankell.
Fatherland or Enigma by Robert Harris.
VS Naipaul - A house for Mr Biswas or A bend in the river.
Love Nina by Nina Stibbe.
Anything by Gervaise Phinn,Graham Greene or Paul Torday.
Amy Tan - the bonesetter's daughter.
Anything by F Scott Fitzgerald.
John Cooper Clarke's poems - ten years in an open necked shirt and the luckiest guy alive.
Gormenghast trilogy by Mervyn Peake.
Inspector Montalbano novels by Andrea Camilleri.
The north water by Ian McGuire.
The Man who broke Napoleon's codes by Mark Urban.
To finish - and these will take some finding - both by Leonard Barrass...up the tyne in a flummox and further up the tyne in a flummox; both referencing Seppie Elphinstook and Wallsend Amnesia FC. These should have particular appeal to the Geordie diaspora.

RM +1 for Operation Mincemeat.
Also SAS Rogue Heroes - fact which reads like boy's own fiction; utterly compelling.

If you like Steinbeck have you read his comic stuff?

Cannery Row and Tortilla Flat are excellent.

I think Steinbeck's serious stuff is overrated, but these two are decent. Also The Log from the Sea of Cortez, which is non-fiction, it's about the Doc from Cannery Row in real life.

Orwell also had a bunch of other novels and non-fiction besides his Big Two. Those are worth looking at, you can see the different themes of 1984 taking shape in the earlier works.

First novels are usually somewhat autobiographical. I hope like hell that Iain Banks' first novel is not. If I was in charge, it would be required reading.

Has Chuck Palahniuk been suggested yet? He's a frickin genius.

Bloody hell, some of the authors/books on this list, I though the OP wanted some light pool-side reading?

Also The Log from the Sea of Cortez, which is non-fiction, it’s about the Doc from Cannery Row in real life.

As a Steinbeck fan, that's genuinely one of the dullest books I've ever read. Well, attempted to read, twice, before giving up.

Orwell also had a bunch of other novels and non-fiction besides his Big Two. Those are worth looking at, you can see the different themes of 1984 taking shape in the earlier works.

Coming Up for Air is great.

Spares, Only Forward and One of Us by Michael Marshall Smith.
Vurt by Jeff Noon
Anything by Robert Rankin

Or buy a kindle and get unlimited and just go random

Never! My wife has a Paperwhite but I don't see the attraction (and I read for an hour on my commute every single day so I am sure a Kindle would be more convenient, but just prefer real books).

Another vote for Iain Banks both non-SF and SF. I took Stonemouth with me when I was away with work and inadvertently stayed up until 1.30am two nights running while reading it.

If you want proper brain out action/thriller/spy-esque rubbish take a few Clive Cussler books with you. Doesn't matter which ones as they all have the same basic plot but they are strangely enjoyable.

johnners
Free Member

Isn’t that more like one book for the price of 2?

If you buy World Without End then yep. But if you only buy Pillars of the Earth you've effectively read the sequel too, without having to buy it

Another vote for Iain Banks both non-SF and SF.

My first and only exposure so far to Iain Banks was the Wasp Factory. While I kind of enjoyed it (not sure that's the right word really) it just left me feeling a bit disturbed and sick. I didn't feel in any rush to read any more of his books.

I probably will give some of his other books a try, but there are quite a few books further up the list.

Mrs WF has been pestering me to read Lonesome Dove for a few years now, ever since she read it and was blown away. However, I have never felt the urge to read a western! May have to reconsider on the basis of this thread.

My first and only exposure so far to Iain Banks was the Wasp Factory. While I kind of enjoyed it (not sure that’s the right word really) it just left me feeling a bit disturbed and sick.

This rings a bell, I did try and re-read it recently some 30 years after I first read it. It was one of those books I used to go around recommending to all and sundry when I was in my 20s, along with ‘The Magus’ by John Fowles (thrilled at it in youth, yet now it creeped me out/brought a darkness) and ‘Dice Man’.

A second reading of ‘The Wasp Factory’ I didn’t get me very far/didn’t seem to hit the spot. To be honest it felt contrived - self-consciously trying to be dark and edgy.

I’d also spent a good portion of my life since teaching teenagers with special-needs/autism - so with acquired insight and experience the novel’s ritualistic (more psychopathic) protagonist no longer really convinced.

I’d recommend Haddon’s ‘ The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time’ any day.

OP reminded me that I also read ‘Weaveworld’ by Clive Barker as a 20yr old (remember it was sort of ‘meh’) but again tried Clive Barker in my 40s and I just couldn’t hack him.

Now advancing in years seems I want my fantasy to have more ‘humanity’, poetry, to be more imaginative yet less horrific, more thoughtful, maybe some parables/allegory, or just more variety in general. Any number of things.

OTOH I recently picked up a (fantasy) book that I hadn’t read since was 15 years old - ‘The October Country’ (collection of short stories by Ray Bradbury) and was (again) surprised and captivated. Bradbury really was a master of the short story IMO. Of his novels I’ve enjoyed ‘Fahrenheit 451’ but have yet to read ‘The Martian Chronicles’, could anyone recommend?

In summary following this ramble I think compatible books are a lot like relationships - it’s as much (if not more) about timing and where you are in life as it is about the content (but good writing is still good writing)

Which reminds me:

INTRODUCTION

There are good things which we want to share with the world and good things which we want to keep to ourselves. The secret of our favourite restaurant, to take a case, is guarded jealously from all but a few intimates; the secret, to take a contrary case, of our infallible remedy for seasickness is thrust upon every traveller we meet, even if he be no more than a casual acquaintance about to cross the Serpentine. So with our books. There are dearly loved books of which we babble to a neighbour at dinner, insisting that she shall share our delight in them; and there are books, equally dear to us, of which we say nothing, fearing lest the praise of others should cheapen the glory of our discovery. The books of "Saki" were, for me at least, in the second class.

Doesn’t fit the brief but based on your early reading you could try Nod by Julian Barnes.

I’ve just finished reading Don Wilnslow’s latest. Mainly crime stuff, Mexican cartels, Irish mafia etc. He has a style that makes him easy to read.

Of his novels I’ve enjoyed ‘Fahrenheit 451’ but have yet to read ‘The Martian Chronicles’, could anyone recommend

Have you read Something Wicked This Way Comes? It's probably in my top 5, an utterly remarkable novel.

Have you read Something Wicked This Way Comes?

I have! Not since a kid though, must revisit thnks.

The Book Thief
The Last Kingdom series
Little Green Man
.....to add a fairly random three

I need counselling when I’ve finished reading his stuff. I’ve had one on my ‘to read’ pile since last summer but I haven’t felt ready to read it since I bought it.

If it's Blood Meridian, your caution is wise......

I'd agree with the Wasp Factory points above, it's ok if for only to seee what the fuss is about. Crow road and Espedair street much better.

I also reread some Clive Barker last year and whilst I really enjoyed it at the time it never really worked for me this time round.

Welshfarmer, Lonesome Dove was a book I wa given by my English teacher wife's colleague and thought why would I ever read a cowboy book. I ended up reading loads and reread LD again last year and it's still fantastic.

+1 The Crow Road

Two trilogies came to mind since (holiday reading sort of stuff)

Stieg Larsson:
The Millennium Trilogy (The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo; The Girl Who Played With Fire; The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest)

Bernard Cornwell:
Warlord Chronicles (Enemy of God, Excalibur, The Winter King)

Currently re reading For Whom the Bell Tolls and really enjoying it, but by a distance the two authors I would recommend are
Owen Shears - I Saw a Man
and whilst it is a long form poem, Pink Mist. Both made me think, and I flew through both.
Max Porter. Lanny and Grief is the Thing with Feathers. Quite unlike anything I’ve read before, and again, couldn’t put them down. Have bought copies of both for friends & family.