Recommend a Book

I got halfway through a Jo Nesbo and threw it in the recycling bin.

The Wallander series by Henning Mankell is brilliant.
 
truthseeker said:
If you read and liked The Book Thief you should like The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. I loved it.
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Loved The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, couldn't really get into The Book Thief. I recommend 84 Charing Cross Road.
 
You could try "The Pillars of the Earth" by Ken Follett and also the sequel, "World without End".
 
I agree with recommendations for Before I Go To Sleep if you're looking for a thriller. Also I recently read Don't Tell by Karen Rose as I was looking for a new series of thrillers and I had heard she was very good. Excellent page-turner of a book. Will definitely read more of hers.
 
I don't like Jo Nesbo's book either.

Read half of Fifty Shads of Grey and politely gave it to our local second hand shop. What complete and utter rubbish.

Any Lynda La Plante fans out there?
 
Hi all,

Heading away for holidays soon. Anyone any decent book recommendations - not really bothered on the subject once it's a good read. Preferably something non-fiction, but nothing too heavy. I have Andre Agassi's auto-bio already packed and the final Larsson book, but looking for another 2 or 3....

Thanks!
Firefly.
 
Well, I've just bought the 3 below, but any other recommendations fire them on:

The Boys in The Boat
Unbroken
The Book Thief

They all revolve around events in WWII coincidentally
 
Firefly , you might enjoy the Bernie Gunther series penned by Philip Kerr.

Set before , during & post World War 2 .

The Berlin Noir trilogy is undoubtedly the place to start - along with The Raymond Chandler books the best crime fiction I have read .
 
Thanks Deise, they look pretty good! I'll come home with a burnt forhead and a white face from all the reading I'm planning! What kids?!!
 
Picked up The Moth at lunchtime today and looking forward to it - interesting concept..
 
The original of the Scandinavian Crime fiction series by Sjowall and Wahloo should not be missed -
ten books on the Martin Beck series.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sjöwall_and_Wahlöö
Not sure if it has been shown in Irl/UK but the TV series based on the books was also a hugh success.

Non-crime: if you haven't read Iris Murdoch - she has written about 25 books spanning almost five decades which are fantastic for their vocabulary and descriptions alone.
It is amazing how few words we actually use - reading someone like Murdoch is a revelation.
 
Came across "The Whitest Flower" by Brendan Graham a couple of years ago. It is a well researched book and I have used it for my journeys to Co Mayo and Co Galway to visit places of now well known historical interest. The Whitest Flower is about our Great Famine and the struggle against landlordism, his agents and the will to survive. The writer went out of his way to justify each sentence. Two other books complete the trilogy but the latter two "don't hold a candle to "The Whitest Flower."

Brendan Graham wrote some Eurovision winning songs also.
 
Just finished All The Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr and I can't recommend highly enough. Superb book that I couldn't put down, one of those where you wish there were another couple of hundred pages. Winner of several prizes, including Pulitzer Prize for Fiction 2015

Here's the blurb from the author's website

Marie Laure lives with her father in Paris within walking distance of the Museum of Natural History where he works as the master of the locks. When she is six, she goes blind, and her father builds her a model of their neighborhood, every house, every manhole, so she can memorize it with her fingers and navigate the real streets with her feet and cane. When the Germans occupy Paris in June of 1940, father and daughter flee to Saint-Malo on the Brittany coast, where Marie-Laure’s agoraphobic great uncle lives in a tall, narrow house by the sea wall.

In another world in Germany, an orphan boy, Werner, grows up with his younger sister, Jutta, both enchanted by a crude radio Werner finds. He becomes a master at building and fixing radios, a talent that wins him a place at an elite and brutal military academy and, ultimately, makes him a highly specialized tracker of the Resistance. Werner travels through the heart of Hitler Youth to the far-flung outskirts of Russia, and finally into Saint-Malo, where his path converges with Marie-Laure’s.
 
For anyone interested I picked up Shakespeare by Bill Bryson at the weekend. It's very interesting.
 

Looks good - just picked it up, thanks!
 
Here are my thoughts on the books I read if anyone's interested

Unbroken
One of the best books I have ever read. An incredible true story of perseverance. For anyone with a remote interest in WWII (an in particular the Japonese side of things) it's highly recommeded.

The Boys in The Boat
Again a true story related to WWII - more specifically the Berlin Olympics in 1936. A good read and some great insights into rowing. Not a patch on Unbroken but good all the same

Open - Andre Agassi
A very good book and recommended even if you're not into either tennis or sport.

The Moth
Half way through this and it's only OK. Some of the stories are good, some a bit iffy and it's obvious to me that those with the stories are authors, lecturers or others promoting their wares

All The Light We Cannot See
A very good fiction book. WWII again the backdrop. Lovely story and reminded me of Life is Beautiful

Lee Child - The Affair
Page-turning Jack Reacher novel - pretty good and one you'll finish in a day.

Firefly.
 
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I am surprised no one has recommended Terry Prachett. So here goes.

I suggest the Discworld novels of Terry Prachett. Even if you think fantasy comedy is not your thing, you will soon realise there is a lot more to Terry than amusing silliness, at which he is the best since Wodehouse.
 
Started Bill Bryson "At Home" and it's really, really good. He has a wonderful way of making the mundane fascinating. Anyone with a passing interest in history would love it.
 
I loved Terry Prachett!
I also enjoyed Douglas Adams "Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency" and the follow up "Long Dark Teatime of the Soul" as well as the book Prachett and Neil Gaiman did together called "Good Omens" where the son of Satan got mixed up at birth and grew up as a normal kid.
 
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