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I need a good book!

amc80

amc80

Ideal_Rock
Joined
Jun 18, 2010
Messages
5,765
I'm going on a cruise in a couple of weeks and need a good book. I am not a reader and tend to like chick lit. I loved the Shopaholic series, Bridget Jones' Diary, anything by Maeve Binchy, Pride and Prejudice, etc. So when I say I need a "good" book, I don't mean that it needs to have won any literary awards or anything. I have considered 50 Shades of Gray but heard it is pretty awful (um, but can it be worse than the stuff I like?). I'd love any suggestions.

I don't like sci-fi, fantasy, or anything with vampires or zombies.
 
If you like Maeve Binchy, have you read any books by Gil McNeil? The Beach Street Knitting Society is excellent, and if you like it there are 2 more in that storyline, and she wrote several others as well. Really one of my favorite authors.

Another suggestion is The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society by Mary Ann Schaffer and Annie Barrows - very good read!

And if you haven't read 84 Charing Cross Road by Helen Hanff, you might enjoy that as well.

Have a wonderful time on your cruise!
 
marymm|1383078611|3546958 said:
If you like Maeve Binchy, have you read any books by Gil McNeil? The Beach Street Knitting Society is excellent, and if you like it there are 2 more in that storyline, and she wrote several others as well.

Another suggestion is The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society by Mary Ann Schaffer and Annie Barrows - very good read!

And if you haven't read 84 Charing Cross Road by Helen Hanff, you might enjoy that as well.

Have a wonderful time on your cruise!
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Ooh, Mmm, I'm gonna have to start a book list for me too, because these may be right up my alley as well.
 
I tend to find authors I like and then read as much as I can by them.

I just finished a book called The Flight of Gemma Hardy by Margot Livesey. It's really good. I've never read Jane Eyre but I've heard it's very similar.

The Queen of Babble books (series) by Meg Cabot are good, too. They're chick lit.

The Little Lady Agency series by Hester Browne are fun to read. Chick lit, too.

Did you know that Sophie Kinsella (author of the Shopaholic books) and Madeleine Wickham are one and the same?

I've never read Jane Green or Marian Keyes but I know they're popular with those who read chick lit.

Jodi Picoult, Anita Shreve, and Elizabeth Berg are great writers, so I'd recommend checking out their books. Some of Picoult's books are hit or miss, but I still like her. I'd skip The Lone Wolf and The Tenth Circle. I wouldn't call these authors chick lit writers, but they're worth reading.

Do you like mysteries or suspense? Lisa Scottoline is a favorite of mine, and Sue Grafton is good too. I know I liked Scott Turow's books but I haven't read anything from him in a long time.
 
Jennifer Cruise (older stuff, not newer):

Welcome to Temptation and Bet Me are both great. Anyone But You and Manhunting were very good as well.
 
If you like a little mystery with your chick lit, Janet Evanovich series about Stephanie Plum are a fun read. It starts with One for the Money.
 
Wow, what great suggestions! I just realized that I can download books for free to my ipad through my library, so I'm sticking with titles that are available.

marymm said:
If you like Maeve Binchy, have you read any books by Gil McNeil? The Beach Street Knitting Society is excellent, and if you like it there are 2 more in that storyline, and she wrote several others as well. Really one of my favorite authors.

Another suggestion is The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society by Mary Ann Schaffer and Annie Barrows - very good read!

And if you haven't read 84 Charing Cross Road by Helen Hanff, you might enjoy that as well.

Have a wonderful time on your cruise!
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Thanks! The Potato Society book is one I heard about a long time ago...and I just downloaded it :) I will check out Gil McNeil as well. I love Maeve Binchy, so if she's anything like that I'm game.

Zoe said:
Did you know that Sophie Kinsella (author of the Shopaholic books) and Madeleine Wickham are one and the same?

I've never read Jane Green or Marian Keyes but I know they're popular with those who read chick lit.

Jodi Picoult, Anita Shreve, and Elizabeth Berg are great writers, so I'd recommend checking out their books. Some of Picoult's books are hit or miss, but I still like her. I'd skip The Lone Wolf and The Tenth Circle. I wouldn't call these authors chick lit writers, but they're worth reading.

Do you like mysteries or suspense? Lisa Scottoline is a favorite of mine, and Sue Grafton is good too. I know I liked Scott Turow's books but I haven't read anything from him in a long time.
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Checking those out as well! I think I've pretty much covered everything from Sophie Kinsella/Madeleine Wickham.

Gypsy said:
Jennifer Cruise (older stuff, not newer):

Welcome to Temptation and Bet Me are both great. Anyone But You and Manhunting were very good as well.
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Thank you! Reading about them now...

baby monster said:
If you like a little mystery with your chick lit, Janet Evanovich series about Stephanie Plum are a fun read. It starts with One for the Money.
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That sounds good, thank you!


SB621 said:
Did you like "Eat, Pray, Love" by Elizabeth Gilbert? If so her new book just came out " The Signature of All things." I haven't read it yet but plan on it. I loved EPL the book (hated the movie) so next time I take a trip I plan on having it on my too read list.

http://www.amazon.com/Signature-All-Things-Novel-ebook/dp/B00BPDR3F6/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1383086934&sr=8-1&keywords=elizabeth+gilbert
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Never read or saw it...but it's another good suggestion.
 
I loved The Gold Coast by Nelson DeMille. The sequel is called The Gate House. Not exactly chic lit but I found it very entertaining. I love his stuff.

I'm also a great John Grisham fan - there are lots of books that he has written if you like legal thrillers.

Jodi Picoult does do some interesting and intense writing.

Have a great trip!
 
Historical chick: (also very very long). "The Autobiography of King Henry the Eighth with notes by his Court Jester Will" Loved it!
 
Have you read Jennifer Weiner? I love every last one of her books. Her first is Good in Bed, but they all stand alone, except Certain Girls which is a sequel to Good in Bed.

I've also recently picked up Kate Jacobs, starting with The Friday Night Knitting Club, which has a few follow-ups, or Comfort Food which stands alone.
 
If you like cats, Gwen Cooper's Homer's Odyssey and Love Saves the Day are cute reads. Homer's Odyssey is the true story of a blind cat that Gwen adopted and LSTD is a story about love from a cat's point of view - I'm reading it now. I actually met Gwen a few weeks ago and she was very sweet.

I like chick-lit, too and enjoyed 50 Shades for what it was. I don't read a lot of books that have won literary accolades, mostly because I read on my iPad Kindle app and don't like to pay a lot for books so I download a lot of free/cheap ones. Ha ha! I only generally read while riding the bike at the gym or hanging out in the evenings/weekends.

Oh, forgot to add, I recently had to read White Water Blue Water by Robert Samuels for a leadership "assignment" at work and it was excellent. It's the true story of a journalist who develops Guillian-Barr and is hospitalized in the 80's. Working in healthcare, this was a huge eye-opener for a lot of our staff on what patients feel, see, hear and perceive. It was a page turner that I could NOT put down.
 
vc10um|1383091024|3547073 said:
Have you read Jennifer Weiner? I love every last one of her books. Her first is Good in Bed, but they all stand alone, except Certain Girls which is a sequel to Good in Bed.
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Good in Bed was great. I like Jennifer Weiner. I liked Little Earthquakes and Good in Bed.
 
I'm going on a bit of an Irish Authors rant but think you would love these.
Marian Keyes: any of her books are a good read, very funny and always a great love story. I really enjoyed, Lucy Sullivan is getting married, Rachel's holiday and Sushi for beginners.
Cecilia Aherne: Again love her books, they all seem to have a bit of a fairy tale aura about them. Loved Where rainbows end and ps I love you.
Tana French: Mystery/ Crime writer. Again if you're into these types of books think you would love these.I think she is a fantastic writer.
 
Have you read any of the Meg Cabot books? Princess Diaries is always a crowd pleaser, but my favorite is the Mediator series (Shadowland is the first). There are six Mediator books and approximately a billion Princess Diaries books. Each one takes, idk, a couple hours to read? Not long at all. They are the epitome of fluff. I've never enjoyed her other books quite so much as I enjoy those.

I do also suggest that your life will be greatly enriched by science fiction and fantasy books. There are chick-lit ones in those too! The Ilona Andrews series about Kate Daniel is very chick-litty.
 
I devour anything by Jodi Picoult. I really liked Gone Girl because it was so different from any story I had read before and it was a fast read.
 
There's No Place Like Here by Cecelia Ahern is a very good chick lit book also.
 
If you haven't read it (or if you haven't read it recently) how about taking "Rebecca" along?

On the true chick lit side, I like Debbie Macomber, particularly her "Blossom Street" series. I'd also second Lisa Scottoline for mysteries. Another mystery writer with a chick-lit bent is Sarah Graves.
 
The Moonstone (lots of great discussions in the Library section on this book!)

The Book Thief -- I haven't read this one yet but "A" liked it and DH started it last night. He was skeptical but is already a good chunk into it and says "This is great"

I love Sue Grafton's books as fun and interesting without being too brain-intensive (I spend my days doing calculus, differential equations, and engineering homework -- great literature with all sorts of subtleties is NOT interesting after a long day of studying!)

Diane Mott Davidson catering mystery series is great

The Cat Who.... series is sort of love/hate for me. The writing is good. I've got no problems there. Some of the stories just irritate me for some not-really-identifiable reason. But I LOVE the cats and the human who serves them!

Summer Dreams -- includes three of Annette Broadrick's books (That's What Friends are For; Come Be My Love; A Love Remembered) is my romance novel of choice.
 
I have been reading a lot of chick lit lately, it's one of the few genres where none of the characters die. :rolleyes:

I used to read only non fiction, heavy duty stuff, but I'm getting lazy and just read to relax now. I prefer very light stuff, that requires zero thinking. :bigsmile:

Most of my choices were already mentioned by the other posters, but I do have a couple to add:

I especially prefer English chick lit, because it's a bit more "exotic" :) I like Mavis Cheek, but her books are hard to get here. I tend to buy them used on Amazon. I've read a couple from Jill Mansell, some of hers are good, some kind of disorganized, but likable characters.

Emily Giffin is very good, and engrossing, not quite as fluffy as Kinsella, but very easy, enjoyable.

Autobiography of a Fat Bride by Laurie Notaro was cute, haven't read anything else by her.

Dear Girls Above Me by Charles McDowell is hilarious, not really chick lit, but about 2 dumb chicks that live above him and the things he overhears. It's rambly, but funny, and supposed to all be true. They say dumb things and the author comments, like ""She's kinda pathetic, spending years studying just to work at a bar." Does the bar happen to be called "the Bar"? It's so funny! :lol:

Are you checking these out from your local library's ebook collection? I hope so, it's a huge savings, and ebooks are so easy these days.
 
TooPatient|1383145300|3547468 said:
The Cat Who.... series is sort of love/hate for me. The writing is good. I've got no problems there. Some of the stories just irritate me for some not-really-identifiable reason. But I LOVE the cats and the human who serves them!
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I have to admit that I've read every last book in that series! ;)
 
I've nothing really to add as I'm woefully behind on fiction. :oops: But thanks to you all, I now have a hugely long reading list and I'll be excited that the next time I go to the library, I won't stand there like a staring, drooling idiot, not knowing what to get! :bigsmile:
 
Did you ever read the Bridget Jones books? Helen Fielding has just released a third this month; I haven't read it yet, but it's got good reviews so far.
 
aviastar|1383151039|3547539 said:
Did you ever read the Bridget Jones books? Helen Fielding has just released a third this month; I haven't read it yet, but it's got good reviews so far.
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OMG you just made my day. I love the Bridget Jones books. I will actually pay $10 for the kindle version. Thank you!

And to everyone else, these are great suggestions. Hopefully more keep coming...I might end up printing this thread.
 
I love anything by Marian Keyes or Cecilia Ahern. Great chick-lot books. I also like Isabel Wolff and Jane Green.
 
VRBeauty|1383147680|3547497 said:
TooPatient|1383145300|3547468 said:
The Cat Who.... series is sort of love/hate for me. The writing is good. I've got no problems there. Some of the stories just irritate me for some not-really-identifiable reason. But I LOVE the cats and the human who serves them!
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I have to admit that I've read every last book in that series! ;)
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I may have 8 or 10 (or so...) in my home library.... :bigsmile:

I may also be watching Half Price Books for more to show up on clearance -- got the last batch of hardcovers on sale for $1 each!
 
The Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon is terrific. It has a wee bit of fantasy, but really is a love story.
It's an older series so should be available at the library.
 
kitsunegrl|1383226998|3548088 said:
The Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon is terrific. It has a wee bit of fantasy, but really is a love story.
It's an older series so should be available at the library.
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I'm re-reading the series now for the first time. I'm just as sucked in now as I was then. I'm up to The Fiery Cross.
If you're going to read them on a vacation though, get the Kindle edition. Outlander isn't that long (about 500 pages) but the others are 800-1000 pages long and HEAVY!
 
You could try Douglas Kennedy, very good reading for a cruise The Pursuit of Happiness was great, also The Moment, Leaving the World and more.
And if you liked Maeve Binchy do try Rosamund Pilcher,there are lots of lovely books by her. If you want a keep you on the edge of your cabin bed pager turner crime series would really recommend Stig Larsson series starting with Girl with The Dragon Tattoo.
 
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