I'm going on holiday soon - any good book recommendations?

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As for my own personal tastes - well I don't generally go in for a lot of crime fiction but I'm working my way through Patricia Highsmith, I think she's by far the most interesting of the lot and a great prose stylist.

Other novels I've read and liked this year:
The Hunter - Julia Leigh
The Deadly Percheron - John Franklin Bardin
Asylum - Patrick McGrath
The Execution - Hugo Wilcken
Atomised - Michel Houellebecq

Fuck, that all sounds very dark, I'm sure I've read and enjoyed lighter stuff as well, but I can't think of anything off hand...

― Susan (Susan), Thursday, 7 August 2003 13:45 (twenty-two years ago)

If you want a big fat holiday book you could try The Little Friend by Donna Tartt.

― Archel (Archel), Thursday, 7 August 2003 13:52 (twenty-two years ago)

I enjoyed The Secret History, is The Little Friend as good?

― Susan (Susan), Thursday, 7 August 2003 13:54 (twenty-two years ago)

No. Could do with about a third off the length. But it's still good.

― Archel (Archel), Thursday, 7 August 2003 13:57 (twenty-two years ago)

Just finsihed Eugenides Middlesex and loved most every minute of it ... a nice, hefty tome to lug around. And now I'm finsihing The Last Kabbalist in Lisbon which is completely different but equally as enjoyable (a 15th-century mystery/thriller set in Lisbon).

― I'm Passing Open Windows (Ms Laura), Thursday, 7 August 2003 18:11 (twenty-two years ago)

Paris Trance Geoff Dyer.

Romantic, literary, clear prose. Amazing novel.

― Roderick the Visigoth. (Jake Proudlock), Thursday, 7 August 2003 18:21 (twenty-two years ago)

Paris Trance has sort of been on my radar for the past couple of years. Might be a good holiday read. Middlesex I've also heard of - although I'm a bit dubious for the silly reason that I didn't like Virgin Suicides the movie, although I haven't actually read the book.

― Susan (Susan), Friday, 8 August 2003 07:39 (twenty-two years ago)

Read "War With The Newts" by Karel Capek.

― Lord Byron Lived Here, Friday, 8 August 2003 16:26 (twenty-two years ago)

Susan, I don't think that I can recommend Middlesex any more highly. I've not read or watched The Virgin Suicides so I've no idea about the similarities between the two. However, the writing in the former is beautiful, the story is intriguing and funny and disturbing, and some interesting points are made. It's making my 'Top Five' End of the Year list.

― I'm Passing Open Windows (Ms Laura), Friday, 8 August 2003 23:03 (twenty-two years ago)

I'm currently reading If On a Winter's Night a Traveler by Italo Calvino, and I can heartily recommend it. I've heard people praise it to the roof before, but I always suspected it was some kind of over-academic, po-mo exercise in meta-fiction - ie., something that would bore me to tears. It's not. It's really quite funny and moving and even tender at times. Not dry at all. And I don't think I've ever read anything quite like it.

― o. nate (onate), Friday, 8 August 2003 23:11 (twenty-two years ago)

Cold Mountain - Charles Frazier - Sprawling holiday read about a confederate solider walking across Tenessee to be reunited with his girlfriend. Encounters witches, slaves, murderers, freaks, mutants and all kinds of all cool yucky stuff with a high-brow 'book of the year' sheen.

― Mike Stuchbery, Friday, 8 August 2003 23:51 (twenty-two years ago)

Anything by Borges
Platform by Michel Houellebecq

― Girolamo Savonarola, Saturday, 9 August 2003 03:00 (twenty-two years ago)

William Heffernan's Cityside. Blow you away crime/newspaper thriller.

― Ann Sterzinger (Ann Sterzinger), Saturday, 9 August 2003 03:08 (twenty-two years ago)

Seconding Cold Mountain.

If you're looking for something lighter, check-out the Tokyo Suckerpunch (Isaac Adamson?) and other two books in the series - funny and surreal and witty.

― I'm Passing Open Windows (Ms Laura), Saturday, 9 August 2003 04:19 (twenty-two years ago)

I'm second the Adamson books -- the third is better than the second, but the second is most like the first, but the first is the best.

That makes more sense than it sounds.

― Tep (ktepi), Saturday, 9 August 2003 04:20 (twenty-two years ago)

*laughing* Tep, I so could not have said that any better - the first is the best.

Another recommendation: The Eyre Affair by *thinking* Jasper Fforde ... and the sequel, Lost in a Good Book, too. Alternate-world that revolves around literature ... difficult to describe, but I loved them both.

― I'm Passing Open Windows (Ms Laura), Saturday, 9 August 2003 04:23 (twenty-two years ago)

literature and England. Both great light books.

― Andrew Farrell (afarrell), Sunday, 10 August 2003 15:56 (twenty-two years ago)

Excellent summary, Andrew *grin*

― I'm Passing Open Windows (Ms Laura), Sunday, 10 August 2003 22:43 (twenty-two years ago)

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