What are some good novels?

sprayonlove

Tue, Jan 19 2016, 2:32 am

WastingTime wrote:

Thanks everyone for the loads of responses...now I have to sift through them and google them all to see what sounds appealing. Too bad I don't have a library near by to borrow books from. Oh the joys of my public library growing up in New Jersey (where my mother used to take out trash novels for the cleaning lady all the time !)

I live in a small town in israel and the local library here has an english section. The selection isn't huge, but it's something. Perhaps your local library also has an english section worth checking out.

etky

Tue, Jan 19 2016, 4:24 am

If you enjoy historical fiction, I recently read The Dovekeepers and enjoyed it very much.
It was made into a miniseries but don't waste your time watching it.
I watched part of it on youtube out of curiosity to see how the characters were portrayed, and it was probably one of the worst "based on a book" productions I have ever seen.
If you like Maeve Binchy's books you might also like Joanna Trollope who writes in a similar genre. She's one of my favorite authors.

Iymnok

Tue, Jan 19 2016, 5:07 am

My favorite read is Louis L'amour. Clean westerns both in language and content, well written. Strong characters and character development.
The only ones I don't like are the wrestling short stories.
I don't read them much these days since I wouldn't get anything else done if I did.

Raisin

Tue, Jan 19 2016, 5:49 am

anon for this wrote:

Raisin, I also liked Stephen King's The Stand. I have the expanded/ updated edition. I'm just curious, why don't you consider it horror?

.

Yes, there are definitely supernatural elements in The Stand, but somehow I don't think of it as a horror book like some of his other books. My point is you may have read one or two of Kings works and dismissed him as a certain type of writer, but he really has all sorts of novels.

Amarante

Tue, Jan 19 2016, 11:07 am

sprayonlove wrote:

Which one do you recommend out of her books?

I enjoyed them all - some a bit more than others. I especially liked the ones that were published in the last decade or so which had the same cast of characters. They weren't really sequels or prequels but main characters in one books would pop up in another book as they were all set in the same neighborhood in Ireland. I think Scarlet Feathers was the first but I could be wrong as I read them as soon as they came out :-). If you go to amazon, you can figure it out by checking publishing dates.

I had forgotten about Major Pettigrew's Last Stand by Helen Simonson. A very warm touching well written story.

n the small village of Edgecombe St. Mary in the English countryside lives Major Ernest Pettigrew (retired), the unlikely hero of Helen Simonson’s wondrous debut. Wry, courtly, opinionated, and completely endearing, the Major leads a quiet life valuing the proper things that Englishmen have lived by for generations: honor, duty, decorum, and a properly brewed cup of tea. But then his brother’s death sparks an unexpected friendship with Mrs. Jasmina Ali, the Pakistani shopkeeper from the village. Drawn together by their shared love of literature and the loss of their spouses, the Major and Mrs. Ali soon find their friendship blossoming into something more. But village society insists on embracing him as the quintessential local and regarding her as the permanent foreigner. Can their relationship survive the risks one takes when pursuing happiness in the face of culture and tradition?

Amarante

Tue, Jan 19 2016, 11:41 am

Raisin wrote:

I agree regarding The Stand. In a strange way, it reminded me of Tolkein's books. Very different but the heart of the story was the quest and the coming together if brave companions on a mission of heroism.

There is a more recent book called The Passage by Cronin which would probably appeal to those who like The Stand. Post apocalyptic society by a writer whose former books were quite literary.