Holiday read?

[Bellenden Belle]

Another vote for American Wife; Freedom; and Caitlin Moran's How to be a Woman.

I also loved Emma Henderson's Grace Williams Says it Loud - really original and beautifully written.

If you want something light and easy to digest in chunks then short stories by David Sedaris or Magical Thinking by Augusten Burroughs are great choices. I also loved Augusten Burrough's "Dry", though it did make me weep on a train once.

[Belle]

Oooh yes, David Sedaris is hilarious.

[hazelnunhead]

I read Shantaram and loved it - agree with lots of the suggestions on here.

I am trying to think about the book that takes place in Greece on a leper colony! CAn anyone remember the title, i have gone blank, I Loved it!

[lillyanginger]

'The Slap' was terrible, really irritating! I did like 'One Day', 'Freedom' and 'Kite Runner, A thousand spending suns'. I quite like Italo crime - try Donna Leon for easy, pleasant reading. How about an old classic, something you haven't read in a while...'the handmaids tale' or Harper Lee's 'to kill a mockingbird'?

[mockney piers]

Blood Meridian was a laugh a minute.

[tulip]

hazelnunhead Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

>

> I am trying to think about the book that takes

> place in Greece on a leper colony! CAn anyone

> remember the title, i have gone blank, I Loved it!

The Island by Victoria Hislop

[Ruffler]

Hazelnunhead - I think you might be thinking of The Magus by John Fowles - another great holiday read!

[Otta]

Any of Marina Lewycka's books.

[Ruffler]

Ruffler Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> Hazelnunhead - I think you might be thinking of

> The Magus by John Fowles - another great holiday

> read!

Second thoughts - no leper colonies in The Magus - it's a long time since I read it, but it's still a good holiday read.

[rani]

you need a kindle fantastic device to avoid the whole carrying all those books

[hazelnunhead]

Ruffler - I was thinking of the Island - but you are right the Magus was fantastic as well ...

[Alec John Moore]

I'd recommend Cloud Atlas, too, very imaginative and a real page turner. I'd also recommend English Passengers by Matthew Kneale. It plays with language in a very amusing and informed way, takes pops at pompous characters and has a very satisfying ending.

[supergolden88]

Whatever you do DON'T read Incredibly loud and extremely close. Although a brilliant book it is incredibly sad. I was depressed for ages.

The Amazing adventures of Kavalier & Clay was a book I thoroughly enjoyed on holiday - it was out ages ago chances are you've read it.

[rebwec01]

The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett. I read this when I went to France for a week a couple of years ago, I absolutely fell in love with it. Absolutely fantastic, couldn't put it down. I have his next book ready and waiting for France again in September!

[Ole]

Thanks for all your suggestions, I have gone for the secret society, sister, my last duchess, and never let me go. Now I don't know which one to start with!! (not that I'm expecting to read all of them but I'm definitely going to have a go!)

[new mother]

Have really enjoyedthis thread.many thanks everyone. But boy oh boy am I behind in my reading!

My recommendations would be anything by Ishiguro or MacEwan, for what the ideas of someone totally behind contemporary literature are worth!