I really REALLY need help finding a new book to read

[Anonymous]

Forgive me, litterateurs of DCUM, for I have sinned.

It's been awhile since I read a book I was really into. I am normally pretty picky about what I read, but I've been feeling desperate for something to do after work. Last weekend, I took some old books to a Little Free Library in the neighborhood, and as I was about to close the door something caught my eye. A paperback copy of Angels and Demons by Dan Brown. I read The DaVinci Code years ago and rolled by eyes while speed reading as quickly as I could to find out what happened at the end. So, I knew what I was getting into. I have no excuse. Yes, I took the Dan Brown novel and am now actually reading it.

Help!

I like classic literature, mysteries, the better-written echelon of chick-lit. Nabokov, Hardy, Vonnegut, Christie, the first couple Shopaholic books, some Jennifer Weiner.

I do not like biographies or any fiction that's meant to be heart-warming. I did not like Where the Crawdads Sing and I thought Little Fires Everywhere was just OK.

Any suggestions?? Thanks!!!

[Anonymous]

Check out the inspector allyn mysteries (by Ngaio marsh) and Melrose Plant mysteries (by Martha grimes.)

[Anonymous]

The Alice Network by Kate Quinn

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo

[Anonymous]

The Huntress by Kate Quinn (better than The Alice Network IMO though that is still good)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The Huntress by Kate Quinn (better than The Alice Network IMO though that is still good)

I'm the PP who posted that, I haven't read The Huntress but I'm going to check it out now!

[Anonymous]

Gentleman in Moscow

The Crossing Places (Ruth Galloway mystery series) - or her latest, The Stranger Diaries

Have you ever read Simone St James? Try Sun Down Motel.

Home after Dark

[Anonymous]

OP here - thank you SO much! I am going to check these all out!!

[Anonymous]

Nothing to see here, Kevin Wilson
Magpie murders, Anthony Horowitz

[Anonymous]

Dip into classics? Dickens, Tolstoy? Thomas Hardy?

[Anonymous]

NP Please identify any of these in the “better written echelon chick-lit” category. Thanks!

[Anonymous]

You like Jennifer Weiner but not Where the Crawdads Sing?! Weiner is the absolute bottom drivel of chick-lit and she writes women like they are petty, self absorbed monsters.

What about The Nightengale?

[Anonymous]

I know there was controversy around it, but I tore through American Dirt. It was incredibly captivating and I could not put it down.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Dip into classics? Dickens, Tolstoy? Thomas Hardy?

OP here, I've sort of done that but I've read a lot of the classics so trying to branch out! I loooooove Thomas Hardy, I got the idea for my daughter's name from one of his books.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:NP Please identify any of these in the “better written echelon chick-lit” category. Thanks!

OP here. In my mind the better written chick-lit is stuff like Bridget Jones' Diary, in comparison to the type of chick-lit that is more of a romance novel like Danielle Steel or something. Maybe Liane Moriarty as well?

[Anonymous]

Ironweed by William Kennedy