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Books you could NOT put down

Faydra

sinning sybarite
Faydra
Joined
Jan 12, 2007
Messages
7,439
I looking at a 16 hour trip on an airplane in about 8 days and I can't sleep on airplanes. :(

I need something that grabs me from page 1 and keeps me reading.

I tend to gravitate to crime/psychological thrillers, but I'm open to anything as long as it grabs you and doesn't let go.

Any recommendations for me?
 
Have you read The Devil in the White City?

Interesting historical fiction. At least I think that's what the style is called. It uses true historical events, and everything in quotation marks is an actual quote. It basically interleaves two stories: the World's Fair in Chicago in 1893, and the local serial killer who roamed the area and lured victims into his murder castle (there's your crime/psychological thriller angle.

I knew next to nothing about either, and the World's Fair in Chicago was an incredible event, described perfectly. There were several prominent firsts during the event, but I won't ruin it with a spoiler.

The only (slightly) annoying thing about the book is that it often changes from one of the storyline to another at the beginning of a new chapter. So, you'll be really getting into one of the stories, and it will with to the other. Sort of like a cliffhanger on a TV series. But, I guess, this is what makes it a page turner.
 
Faydra said:
I looking at a 16 hour trip on an airplane in about 8 days and I can't sleep on airplanes. :(

I need something that grabs me from page 1 and keeps me reading.

I tend to gravitate to crime/psychological thrillers, but I'm open to anything as long as it grabs you and doesn't let go.

Any recommendations for me?
Click to expand...

Sophie's Choice was the last book that did me like that, but you prolly know the ending already.
 
We are Legion We are Bob

It's about a guy who has his brain frozen, comes back after he's been loaded into a computer matrix and is then turned into a space probe, hi jinks ensue.
 
sir drinks-a-lot said:
Have you read The Devil in the White City?

Interesting historical fiction. At least I think that's what the style is called. It uses true historical events, and everything in quotation marks is an actual quote. It basically interleaves two stories: the World's Fair in Chicago in 1893, and the local serial killer who roamed the area and lured victims into his murder castle (there's your crime/psychological thriller angle.

I knew next to nothing about either, and the World's Fair in Chicago was an incredible event, described perfectly. There were several prominent firsts during the event, but I won't ruin it with a spoiler.

The only (slightly) annoying thing about the book is that it often changes from one of the storyline to another at the beginning of a new chapter. So, you'll be really getting into one of the stories, and it will with to the other. Sort of like a cliffhanger on a TV series. But, I guess, this is what makes it a page turner.
Click to expand...


thanks - I'll give it a look! :)
 
Books

Devil in the White City is excellent. For fiction, try the more recent entries in Sanford's "Prey" series. Except "Silken Prey" which is awful. Also his Virgil Flower books are equally good. And you can't go wrong with a book of short stories by Stephen King.
 
Slaughterhouse 5? Cats Cradle? Neither cheery, though.

If you like science fiction, maybe some cyberpunk, such as Burning Chrome, or if you like classical SF I found the Foundation Trilogy very hard to put down.

I also found the historic mysteries by Steven Saylor (take place in Imperial Rome) have a strong plot and are hard to put down.

Of course these all reflect what worked for me,
 
Faydra said:
I looking at a 16 hour trip on an airplane in about 8 days and I can't sleep on airplanes. :(

I need something that grabs me from page 1 and keeps me reading.

I tend to gravitate to crime/psychological thrillers, but I'm open to anything as long as it grabs you and doesn't let go.

Any recommendations for me?
Click to expand...

1. Sixteen Trees of the Somme - Lars Mytting (Norwegian thriller as man unveils family war secrets)

2. The Adventurer - Mika Waltari (Historical fiction re C16 medieval Europe and the religious/political upheavals)

3. Swing Time - Zadie Smith - (Shortlisted Booker Prize 2017 - bought it at the airport will be reading it next - she never fails to impress by how brilliant she is as a writer)

4. Mirror Shoulder Signal - Dorthe Nors - (Shortlisted Booker International Prize 2017 - Danish woman reflects on her life via driving lessons - looks like an easy read - will be reading it soon)

5. 3 Minutes - Ewert Grens 6 - Rosslund & Hellstrom - (Blockbuster crime thriller about Swedish detectives in Columbia sniffing out drug cartels against US political intrigue)

6. Leopard at the Door - Jennifer McVeigh - (about an 18-year old English woman who returns to post-colonial Kenya to find everything has changed - dad has new wife - there are Mau-Mau uprisings - there is the special relationship with a black servant she grew up with - set in 1940's)

2 is laugh out loud funny and 3 is probably hilarious from my experience of Zadie Smith in the sense of acute social observation.
 
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I read a book about anti-gravity recently, I couldn't put that down.
 
Mallory's Oracle by Carol O'Connell (followed by The Man Who Cast Two Shadows, and Killing Critics)

I remember reading this the first time and being utterly gripped by the protagonist, a sociopath; fostered and tamed by a New York cop and his wife, and unleashed on the criminal world.

The first few books in the series are (IMO) fantastic...as with any series it tails off a little as you get deeper in.

Should also mention 'The Beekeeper's Apprentice' - first in another series. An alternative history where a (nominally) retired Sherlock Holmes teams up with a young woman. The first book is really a series of short episodes linked together. Later books are more in-depth and long form. The sequence set in the east are pretty stunning.
 
I really enjoy Ken Follett's spy thrillers. His first big hit was the WWII era Eye of the Needle. Another WWII book of his that I enjoyed was Jackdaws. Follett's modern thrillers like Whiteout are also great. His style makes for very easy reading and the pages fly by. They are my international travel companions.
 
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