Reader Recommendations

[Lisa]

I'm enjoying this one at the moment.
Rhesus X: Blood Is Thicker Than Water


Surprising the real life stories I've heard about people with Rhesus blood.

[Robert]

I've got Rees's blood - does that count?

[Rosie]

Dora wrote: "Hi everyone,


I've read most of the classics. Could anyone recommend me a more recent novel set in England(No horror, murder mystery or thriller, please!)"

Hi i would recommend Funny Girl by Nick Hornby which is set in the 1960's England and centres around Barbara who wants to become a comedy sensation.

[Sharonb]

Just a few books I have read this year that I have given 5 stars to:
1. How green was my valley by Richard Llewelyn
2. Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders
3. Here be dragons by Sharon Kay Penman
4. The gentleman of Moscow by Amor Towles
5. The Burning chambers by Kate Mosse
6. The tattooist of Auschwitz by Heather Morris

And some of my 4 star reads:
1. The immortal life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
2. Behold the dreamers by Imbolo Mbue
3. The butcher's hook by Janet Ellis
4. Rebecca by Daphne Dumaurier
5. The tenant of Wildfell hall by Anne Bronte

Am currently reading prisoners of geography by Tim Marshall. it is a non fiction book on geopolitics and is fascinating. it will probably get 4 stars.

[Abigail]

Thanks, Sharon! I like your list and will be interested to read some of them. I've only read two of them, but they give me some sense of what you like and a presumption that I might like the others as well.

[The Professor]

Great list Sharon. I'm currently 80 pages into "Tigana" by Guy Gavriel Kay and lapping it up.

[Sharonb]

professor - I haven't read fantasy novels for a long time but just looked up Tigana. it looks really good so have put it on my wish list on Amazon

[The Professor]

I’m no great authority on the fantasy genre Sharon but GGK is in a different league altogether. If you try him out I hope he clicks for you the way he has for me.

[Sharonb]

just finished The Gadfly by Ethel Voynich. OMG it was amazing. it is set in the 1840's in Italy (at that time, under Austrian rule). it is about innocence, betrayal, revolution and religion. the writing is beautiful and I cried lots.

[Kat]

My favourite books I’ve read this year so far: Eleanor Oliphant is completely Fine. The Silent Companions. He Said, She Said and The Mother of all Things.

[Siobhan]

I absolutely loved Eleanor Oliphant is completely fine. It's not something I was likely to read without a recommendation but I'm so glad that I did. I couldn't put it down!

[The Professor]

Just finished and thoroughly enjoyed my first Hornblower.

[Kristina]

Anglophile looking for book recommendations:) I have read almost all Alexander McCall Smith's books and love them (don't like Mma Ramotswe though), some of Barbara Pym, Julian Fellowes, I really like the Grantchester series, I've tried the Maisie Dobbs series, but didn't really like that. (Of course love Austen!) I like books set in the time between the two wars, but it could just as well be set today or more historic novels. Any suggestions?

[Abigail]

Angela Thirkell!! The first one is High Rising.

In a more serious vein, anything by Elizabeth Goudge.

Lighter and more romantic is D. E. Stevenson.

BTW, if this is the sort of reading you like, there’s a group called Retro Reads that is focused on many of these authors.

[Anna]

Welcome Kristina, I like the same books as you do, but I get so little time to read, I haven't really got any recommendations! But it's nice to have someone around who likes, for instance, Alexander McCall Smith. His one about the sausage dog has me giggling even now, years after I read it. The Finer Points of Sausage Dogs

C.J. Sansom is a good writer Dissolution earlier than Grantchester though!

[Beth]

If you enjoy humorous books of the 1930’s, I would suggest the Wooster & Jeeves series by P.G. Wodehouse. The Golden Age writers like Agatha Christie, Dorothy Sayers or Margery Allingham are interesting. For modern gothic/suspense, I enjoyed Rebecca by Daphne DuMaurier that’s set around 1938.

[Swaley]

Hi guys can anyone recommend any decent travel type novels, Ive recently read Simon Reeves latest and currently reading The Salt Path which I’m really enjoying, was gonna try some of Bill Bryson’s has anyone read those?? Thanks

[Abigail]

I've read several Brysons and they are light and funny. In a very different vein but still funny is The Towers of Trebizond, written in the 1950s. For more serious books about travel and place, have you tried Peter Matthiessen? They are nonfiction but are as much about inner journeys as outer journeys.

[Lauren]

Hi, I am feeling in a bit of a reading slump and would love some ideas
My favourite books of last year were

The Thursday Murder Club and The Man who died twice

Strings of Murder

This Poison Heart

Six of Crows and Crooked Kingdom

The Truly Devious series

I like a cosy mystery, Agatha Christie etc
Also fantasy and young adult but maybe some stand alones.

Any ideas would be very welcome

Lauren
Xxx

[Alicja]

One of the books that I have definitely found life changing was A Long Walk to Freedom: 1918-1962: Early Years, 1918-1962 v. 1 and despite it's length I will definitely be recommending it for people to read. I think everyone should take the time to learn about the struggles the country of Africa has faced and appreciate the challenges that the country and it's people have overcome.

[Victoria]

Hi there!

Soon is National read a book day (6 September) - and in case you only have time for a short book, here is a list of my favourite quick reads: 00:21 Kim Ji-young, Born 1982
- The Last Children of Tokyo
- The Guest Cat
- The Housekeeper and the Professor
- Intimacies
- Kitchen
- Whereabouts
- Untold Night and Day

You can also find a short video about all these books here: https://youtu.be/G-_mycHSJ5g

[Mary]

My fiction favourites; and all 'jolly British' are:

The Roads Chosen: Ben Carlyle
A Chosen Path: Ben Carlyle
The Riddle of the Sands: Erskine Childers
Cossack: Ronald McQueen

My non-fiction favourites; again all 'jolly British' are:

- A House For Spies: SIS Operations into Occupied France from a Sussex Farmhouse: Edward Wake-Walker
- Operation Mincemeat: Ben MacIntyre
- Foreign Devils on the Silk Road: The Search for the Lost Treasures of Central Asia: Peter Hopkirk
- The Great Game: The Struggle for Empire in Central Asia: Peter Hopkirk
- The Road to Station X: Sarah Baring

[A]

https://www.amazon.com/Salvation-madn...

[Danny]

Six women have their own way of loving Jack. They tell of Jack's life and his one true love, Sarah.

https://amzn.to/45IYUAH