A recommendation for a novel....

[????]

....I used to read loads, but kids and the internet have really got me out of somethig I used to love. I still do read a reasonable amount of non-fiction, largely history but also the more interesting end of business type things (Freakenomics, Wikinomics, the Long Tail etc) but I haven't read a decent novel in ages...anyone got anything they can recommend to get me back on this? I'm looking for something contemporary and I like a bit of a challenge...ie not too lite. Any ideas before an approaching holiday?

Thanks in advance

Quids

[Heanix]

Half of a Yellow Sun is a fantastic story about Nigeria in the period when a civil war sparked the emergence of a burgeoning nation - Biafra. I read it on holiday in France in the summer. Beautifully written, genuinely compaelling and also interesting on a historical level.

[Peckhamgatecrasher]

Have a look on the What's ED Reading? thread - that gives quite a few recommendations.

[Huguenot]

Some of Paul Theroux's stuff is very enjoyable to me as a late thirties bloke, and there may be one that's appropriate to your destination? More up-to-date I enjoyed David Mitchell's Cloud Atlas for the second time recently.

[Asset]

I like going to the bookshop, browsing the titles and choosing something random.

[????]

PGC - I know but there's loads on there for all tastes, I'm looking for some aggreagation (the same goes for a bookshop too Asset...plus there's no decent one near my work) all suggestions welcome, and a couple to work on already. thanks.

[????]

aware of a split infinitive in my original post before the grammar police step in on my literary aspirations:-$

[SeanMacGabhann]

Cormac macarthy. The road. Bleak but powerful. And short

[citizenED]

Read "Charlie Hot Potatoes" by Phil Robinson. Don't know if it's any good but I loved it. For some reason I think you would too.

[Shu.Kurimu.Sensei]

Pattern Recognition by William Gibson, you won't regret it!

[david_carnell]

Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver. Epic.

[Peckhamgatecrasher]

I'll second the P.Bible though it drags a little towards the end.

[bon3yard]

A Confederacy Of Dunces. Very funny indeed and bitingly satirical. I think the author was awarded a posthumous Pullitzer Prize. Years of failing to get his work published contributed to the blue funk that led to his Suicide. His Mother finally got his writing recognised. John Kennedy Toole I think his name was. Great Book.

[ontheedge]

Yes indeed a confederacy of dunces excellent or try The minotaur takes a cigarette break for a bit of surrealism reading through your postings think both would suit

[Marmora Man]

The latest John Le Carre is a return to form in my opinion.

[Shu.Kurimu.Sensei]

Oh, how about a graphic novel, they OK too? Try Nausicca.

[DaveR]

I have certain favourite authors who I return to again and again, but if I'm going to try something new I'll often pick up something that has won/been shortlisted for a fiction prize - no guarantee you'll like it, but obviously quite a lot of people did, so worth a go.

Have a look here; list of Booker prise winners and nominees.

[Keef]

Wrote this on the other book thread

Have just started the second adventure of Captain Alatriste "Purity of Blood" by Arturo Perez-Reverte having read the first one sometime last year. They're really nicely written books set in early 17th century Spain, and offer quite a bit of interesting history around the fictional story. Apparently the author (a war reporter) was disgusted by the lack of 17th century history in his daughter's school text books, he decided to write about the era.

Having finished it, I definitely recommend both the Captain Alatriste books, they are really informative about the time in Spain, as well as being nice stories.

[MelbourneGr]

The Honeywood File: An Adventure in Building.

Written in the 20's so a lot of that old school humor.

[mockney piers]

Just read Robert Harris' Ghost, it's not about Tony and Cherie, honest...it's an entirely fictional ex Prime Minister.

*Shudders at memory of Cherie's sex scene*

Other than that a very entertaining novelette.

[PeckhamRose]

The End of Mr Y

by Scarlett Thomas.

Just finished REreading it - a novel with science and thought experiment and I may have to read it for a 3rd time.

[Jah Lush]

citizenED Wrote:

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

> Read "Charlie Hot Potatoes" by Phil Robinson.

> Don't know if it's any good but I loved it. For

> some reason I think you would too.

I read it a couple of years back. It's actually called Charlie Big Potatoes. It's a book about an addict, his addiction and his recovery and the losing and winning back of his loved one. Very enjoyable if you like that sort of thing.

[beef]

Michel Houellebecq is a fantastic read. Start with either Platform or Atomised and move on to the possibility of an island, soon to be a film.

[EDOldie]

I'd just go to this thread 'What's happened to the CPT' and read the Ted Max posts. Riveting stuff, what will happen next?