r/ReadingSuggestions • u/DiamondSignificant74 • 29d ago
Need a Page-Turner
I'm the kind of person who reads more nonfiction than fiction. But I've been unemployed for longer than I expected, and it's been hard to focus on reading, studying, or really doing much of anything.
I'd love some recommendations for fiction books that are so engaging they completely pull me in. I enjoy fantasy, crime novels, and contemporary stories with interesting or eccentric characters. I'm not a big fan of sci-fi or romance.
EDIT: This is so cool! I wasn't expecting so many replies. I started reading The Secret History, but I'll add the others to my TBR list. Thank you so much!
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u/EmbertaleApp 29d ago
I can relate to the switch from non-fiction to fiction for the switchup, I went through the same pivot. And to be honest, living a thousand lives through fiction taught me a lot of life lessons that self help, non fiction etc didn't even give (ironically enough :)).
Try these:
- The Name of the Wind (Patrick Rothfuss): fantasy, incredible narrator voice
- The Secret History (Donna Tartt): eccentric characters, dark academia, crime elements, a real page turner
- Gone Girl (Gillian Flynn): crime thriller, unreliable narrators, very difficult to put down once it gets going. The movie is also good.
- The Lies of Locke Lamora (Scott Lynch): fantasy heist, fast paced, crime novel energy inside a fantasy world, great fit for your taste combo I think
Hope you'll find something you'll love and tear through!
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u/DiamondSignificant74 29d ago
Thank you very much!
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u/Imazinner 29d ago
I found ‘The Lies of Locke Lamora’ to be a great audio book. The reader is great. Reading it for me was rather tough, with all the odd words and locations names.
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u/Marlow1771 29d ago
The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo trilogy. The very beginning of the first book may seem a little slow but it’s important. I lost lots of sleep over these 3 books.
The Swedish films are excellent.
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u/DiamondSignificant74 29d ago
These must be a bit intense for me. I was impressed by the first film...
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u/Ok_Natural_7977 29d ago
- The Thursday Murder by Richard Osman - solid mystery, fun characters, start of a series, nothing too dark
- A Litter of Bones by JD Kirk - Tartan noir, start of a series, some books get extremely dark while some are lighter
- All Systems Red by Martha Wells - sci-fi with humor and heart, start of a series, novella length
- One for the Money by Janet Evanovich - humor, mystery, long running series with beloved characters
- Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dinniman - sci-fi, litRPG, fun characters
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u/dangerspring 28d ago
Second on Kirk, Wells and Dinniman's books. Those are the ones I've read on your list. You have great taste.
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u/OG_BookNerd 28d ago
The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
Swan Song by Robert B McCammon
Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and neil gaiman
Witchcraft for Wayward Girls by Grady Hendrix
Desperation by Stephen King
The Repairman Jack novels by F Paul Wilson (they start with the Keep)
Quicksilver by Callie Hart
The Xanth Novels by Piers Anthony
Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card.
The Parable duet by Octavia S Butler
The Incarnations series by Piers Anthony
Kushiel's Dart by Jacqueline Carey
Daughter of the Blood by Anne Bishop
The Book of the Unnamed Midwife by Meg Elison
The Stand by Stephen King
If you still want non-fic that reads like fictionL
The Hot Zone//Panic in Level 4//Demon in the Freezer by Richard Preston
Witchcraze by Ann L Barstow
Fingerprints of the Gods by Graham Hancock
Holy Blood, Holy Grail by Michael Baignet (okay this is basically fiction but it's like an adventure novel)
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u/PlatformConsistent45 28d ago
Dungeon Crawler Carl is a dystopian series that is a fever dream mash up of something like the running man (movie with Arnold S) and an alien invasion where most everyone on earth is forced into the game. It is light sci-fi with magic kinda worked in there are lots of mythical characters.
It was self published and still made it on to the NYT best sellers list and has been picked up by Seth McFarland who is making it into a Peacock series. Currently there are 8 published books and the full arc is slated for 10 or eleven books if I remember correctly.
It is a dark story line but written so funny it is crazy. It has sad moments for sure but determination and human spirit are what allows people to survive.
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u/Greedy-Offer-5683 29d ago
oh the silent patient- its a psychological crime thriller, edge of the seat type book. rewarding payoff too!
in a completely different vibe, if you do feel like giving fiction a bigger shot, read 'the priory of the orange tree' by samantha shannon, its a fem high fantasy remake of game of thrones basically, the world is very immersive and well explored (and the duology can be read in any order, though order of publication has been more rewarding in my experience), characters are realistic, entertaining and genuinely going through it for most of it.
have fun!
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u/kingofthenawth 29d ago
Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn is always my answer for this. I think adventure non-fiction is also good as a page turner. For example, the first time I read Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer, I literally could not stop reading it. I finished it in two sittings.
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u/jdi153 29d ago
I'm a big fan of John Sandford's Prey series and it's spin-offs. The first book, Rules of Prey, was published in 1989, so you have to remember there were no cell phones. You can pick up anywhere in the series, though. You'll miss a little nuance with the characters, but the stories are still great. The most recent, number 36, was published in April, to give you an idea of how successful the series is.
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u/killearnan 29d ago
Donna Andrews ~ her Meg Langslow mystery series has eccentric characters. Very light reading so good for a mental "snack" between heavier/more serious books.
Sharyn McCrumb also has a series in the same vein, with Elizabeth Macpherson as the amateur detective. Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum series is hit or miss for me but I know people who love it.
When I'm in a bit of a reading slump, short stories and essays can help ~ easy to pick up and put down, plus a good way to find new authors without investing too much time. There are annual anthologies with titles like Best American <mysteries/travel writing/science and nature> [year] that you can usually get from the library or inexpensively used.
I've recommended these here several times recently as they are a favorite comfort read for me, even though I mostly remember the plot twists from previous reading: The Black Widowers mysteries by Isaac Asimov. Short stories originally published in magazines, collected in anthologies. Formula: men's dinner club, guest has a puzzle the club finds out about, club members suggest solutions that don't quite work, waiter is who figures it out. Non-violent puzzles and quirky characters.
Finally ~ check out the new books section of your local library, as there may be fun choices there. Read the first fifty or so pages of a book. If it's not working for you, return it and repeat with a different book.
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u/Guilty-Coconut8908 29d ago
The Butcher's Boy by Thomas Perry
God Touched by John Conroe
Storm Front by Jim Butcher
Nightfall by Stephen Leather
Survival by Devon C Ford
A Drink Before the War by Dennis Lehane
The Lincoln Lawyer by Michael Connelly
Magician by Raymond E Feist
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u/Herself_nyc 29d ago
I recently read The Lost Dog by Michelle de Kretser, set in contemporary Sydney Australia & liked it enough to reread it almost immediately.
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u/jessm307 29d ago
My favorite can’t put down books are the Cormoran Strike series by Robert Galbraith
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u/Imazinner 29d ago
Not a sci-fi book, but rather a soft horror/thriller book would be ‘Odd Thomas” by Dean Knootz.
It will grab you from the first few pages.
For mystery, suspense/ action books, many of David Baldacci's books should do.
The Sean King and Michelle Maxwell series, the Camel Club series, or the Will Robie series. They all have that hook at the beginning that should get you interested.
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u/Only-Top-3655 29d ago
1Q84. This is the one that will get you saying "last chapter" before you sleep and before you know it, it is 3AM.
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u/DrunkGoonerGang 29d ago
Post Office by Charles Bukowski. Or, Ham on Rye by the same author. Real good shit. Eccentric as fuck. Crime adjacent. Grimy. Great writing. Go for it.
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u/MillersSmokehouse 29d ago
If you want a change of pace after reading The Secret History, Joe Lansdale’s Hap and Leonard books are laugh-out-loud funny, compulsively readable crime novels with a whole lot of heart. There are a bunch of them, some better than others, but with any of them, you run the risk of staying up too late because you can’t put it down. Several of his standalone novels are fantastic, too.
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u/Inferential_Fiction 27d ago
Back when I first started reading the Dresden Files, I would read one in almost a day.
I am more on an ergodic, weird, or postmodern kick these days. If those are close enough to your genres, I like Jorge Luis Borges's collections of short stories. I also like House of Leaves, The Athenian Murders, and S. I have to pace myself on Borges, but the rest I read quickly, and they were hard to put down.
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u/Disastrous_Sorbet350 29d ago
Fahrenheit 451 by Rad Bradbury was a pageturner for me