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What book have you read that was "unputdownable?" The book you blazed through?

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jae3578

jae3578

Posted
Posted

This was on MMD's list:  The Likeness.   Or really anything by Tana French.  If all goes well tonight, I'll finish one of her books tonight - not the last published, but the last one I've had unread.  And then I'll be waiting anxiously for a new release. 

 

So glad to see other Tana French fans in this thread: I rarely buy fiction, just utilize the library, but I have all of her books.  In hardcover, no less!  Her style and the way she combines words are simply beautiful and stay with you a long time.  They aren't quick reads but you can't put them down regardless.  Lovely.

 

I never read dystopian fiction.  Its almost a rule, but I made an exception for Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel.  It was actually wonderful, and I read it yesterday, picking it up during breaks and reading it while cooking trying to finish it.  I thought it struck the perfect balance between realism and hope and beauty even under unimaginable circumstances.  I also loved the structure of it, and the writing was absolutely spot on.   I don't think I will be breaking my rule on a regular basis but I am so glad I didn't miss this one.  

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trulycrabby

trulycrabby

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I really enjoy Mark Crislip's posts on science based medicine. How did I miss that he had books?

I believe the two books are compilations of his blog entries.

 

They are sold on amazon.

 

Another page-turner is The Medical Detectives: The Classic Collection of Award-Winning Medical Investigative Reporting (Truman Talley) Paperback – March 30, 1991

by Berton Roueche

 

This one is a little old and we have heard many of the stories on the internet, but it is a classic and one of the first books I read about infectious disease that was not a textbook.

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Alexigail

Alexigail

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Posted

The Girl Who Chased the Moon by Sarah Addison Allen - especially the audiobook by Rebecca Lowman. It's just a quirky little story but I really love it.

 

What Alice Forgot or Little Big Lies by Leanne Morriarty. Actually any of her stuff. The Last Anniversary is really good too.

 

 

I tried to Love Outlander and Game of Thrones but they're just too "sweeping and epic" for me. Give me something light with a little bit of bite and I'll devour it.

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MedicMom

MedicMom

Posted
Posted

The last Harry Potter book.

I reread the first 6 in preparation.

Then I went to a great release party in Santa Cruz.

We drove home, and I read until I absolutely could not stay awake, probably 3:30AM ish.

Then the next morning I got up and read until I finished the book.

I may have called in sick to work the morning after I bought the last Harry Potter book....

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Carol in Cal.

Carol in Cal.

Posted
Posted

The Hunger Games series.  My sister gave them to me, and I read them in a weekend.  DH texted my sister on Saturday night, "Homewrecker."  Apparently, he wanted me to make food, and talk to the kids, and stuff! 

 

It wasn't that they were so well-written.  It was that I needed to find out what was going to happen.

Oh, me too.

 

I resisted them for years because I hated the premise on the back cover of the first one--kids being forced to kill each other.  

 

But when the first movie was about to come out, I finally read the first one, and got so utterly hooked that I hunted down the other two, BOUGHT THEM FOR FULL PRICE IN HARD COVER, (something I never do), and read them the same weekend.  Just. don't. stop. me.

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marbel

marbel

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So glad to see other Tana French fans in this thread: I rarely buy fiction, just utilize the library, but I have all of her books.  In hardcover, no less!  Her style and the way she combines words are simply beautiful and stay with you a long time.  They aren't quick reads but you can't put them down regardless.  Lovely.

 

I never read dystopian fiction.  Its almost a rule, but I made an exception for Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel.  It was actually wonderful, and I read it yesterday, picking it up during breaks and reading it while cooking trying to finish it.  I thought it struck the perfect balance between realism and hope and beauty even under unimaginable circumstances.  I also loved the structure of it, and the writing was absolutely spot on.   I don't think I will be breaking my rule on a regular basis but I am so glad I didn't miss this one.  

 

I've never been a big fan of thrillers, so am not even sure why I picked her first book up.  But once I started, I couldn't stop.  They are all so good.  I turned my husband on to them and he read the first two while we were on a short vacation.  Couldn't tear himself away.

 

Station Eleven is one of my favorite books.  I can't put it in the "unputdownable" category though.  That was one I had to put down and think about from time to time.  

 

Thinking about it, I realize I rate Station Eleven higher than the Tana French novels.  Not much higher.  But while I might re-read French's novels, I already have already re-read, and listened to (the narrator is great), Station Eleven, and know I will again.  

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Liza Q

Liza Q

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Posted

John Adams and Truman by David McCullough.

The last 2-3 Harry Potter Books.

The Name of the Wind, like several here have mentioned.

Doomsday Book and Black Out/All Clear by Connie Willis.

Persuasion by Jane Austen.

The Lantern Bearers by Rosemary Sutcliff.

The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley,

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith

 

I am sure there are more but these are a few I can specifically remember where I was and how I just couldn't stop reading.

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stephanier.1765

stephanier.1765

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The Girl Who Chased the Moon by Sarah Addison Allen - especially the audiobook by Rebecca Lowman. It's just a quirky little story but I really love it.

 

What Alice Forgot or Little Big Lies by Leanne Morriarty. Actually any of her stuff. The Last Anniversary is really good too.

 

 

I tried to Love Outlander and Game of Thrones but they're just too "sweeping and epic" for me. Give me something light with a little bit of bite and I'll devour it.

 

I recently read The Husband's Secret by Leanne Morriarty and really enjoyed it.

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6packofun

6packofun

Posted
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 I did the same with Gail Carriger's Parasol Protectorate series and pretty much anything by Kate Morton.

 

I inhaled that series.

 

There are a few books at the OP's link that I really liked a lot.  Recent books I couldn't put down were The Night Circus, Sleeping Giants, and Jane Steele.  I loved The Rook.  The first Inspector Gamache novel I plowed through.  I had a hard time putting down the first 4 books of the Poldark series.  The Martian, Station Eleven, and Wool (first in the Silo trilogy) were all ones I pretty much read in less than 48 hours.

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Laura in CA

Laura in CA

Posted
Posted (edited)

Mine are nonfiction and autobiographies:

 

Angela's Ashes, by Frank McCourt (Ireland)

Peace Child, by Don Richardson (he spoke at our church, and went on and on, and you could have heard a pin drop – amazing stories of his life among headhunting cannibals)

We Die Alone, by David Howarth (WWII)

 

Recently I read Frederick Douglass's autobiography and could not put it down. The first three books are on my Goodreads list "Books I Stayed Up until 4 am Reading," but I couldn't add FD's book, since it required too much mental effort to read late at night, haha (it was written in 1845).

 

Edited by Laura in CA
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tammyw

tammyw

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So glad to see other Tana French fans in this thread: I rarely buy fiction, just utilize the library, but I have all of her books.  In hardcover, no less!  Her style and the way she combines words are simply beautiful and stay with you a long time.  They aren't quick reads but you can't put them down regardless.  Lovely.

 

I never read dystopian fiction.  Its almost a rule, but I made an exception for Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel.  It was actually wonderful, and I read it yesterday, picking it up during breaks and reading it while cooking trying to finish it.  I thought it struck the perfect balance between realism and hope and beauty even under unimaginable circumstances.  I also loved the structure of it, and the writing was absolutely spot on.   I don't think I will be breaking my rule on a regular basis but I am so glad I didn't miss this one.  

 

I loooved Station Eleven. I enjoy good dystopian fiction and wish for more like it, but I've yet to find anything really. Have you? And yes, I mentioned Tana French above, and I just adore her writing style. It sticks with you for sure!

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6packofun

6packofun

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I loooved Station Eleven. I enjoy good dystopian fiction and wish for more like it, but I've yet to find anything really. Have you? And yes, I mentioned Tana French above, and I just adore her writing style. It sticks with you for sure!

 

Have you read Justin Cronin's The Passage?  (I'll admit I didn't read the last in the trilogy, but I really loved the first, The Passage.)

 

You might also enjoy The Last Policeman trilogy by Ben Winters.

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zoobie

zoobie

Posted
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Okay, I'll be the odd one. My favourites:

 

Neurology Pearls, by Andrew J. Waclawik MD and Thomas P. Sutula MD.

 

Puswhisperer: A Year in the Life of an Infectious Disease Doctor, by Mark Crislip

 

And the riveting sequel:

 

Puswhisperer II: Another Year of Pus,

by Mark Crislip

 

The Great Influenza: The Story of the Deadliest Pandemic in History, by John M. Barry

 

 

The one I hated: The Game of Thrones series. Yeah, yeah, I know, It's a wonderful series, perhaps one of the best ever in its genre. I just couldn't hang in there long enough to care about the characters. :o

The Influenza book was fascinating. I read Isaac's Storm (Galveston 1900 hurricane) by Erik Larson right after that.

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madteaparty

madteaparty

Posted
Posted (edited)

Elegance of the Hedgehog and nothing else by that author.

All that has been written by George Saunders

The two Hilary Mantels that won the Man Booker but nothing else there (!)

Early Elena Ferrante (and not the stuff she's most popular for in the US).

Rebecca

The White Tiger

A Fine Balance (Mistry)

I rarely find books I *really* like, it's sad.

Edited by madteaparty
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Kareni

Kareni

Posted
Posted

Learning to Swear in America is another light ya novel that is really good. It's about a teenage Russian genius that works with NASA to save the planet from an asteroid.

 

 

The Martian was a gripping and compelling read for me.

 

I enjoyed both of these books, too.

 

Regards,

Kareni

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foxbridgeacademy

foxbridgeacademy

Posted
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Oh it's the best when a book you are super into turns out to be part of a series!

 

Off the top of my head, Good Omens by Gaiman and Pratchett. It just got funnier and funnier.

See, I was going to say anything by Pratchett.  I also loved Good Omens.  I really like The Long Earth series by Pratchett and Baxter.  You can actually tell which bits are Terry's.

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Seeking Squirrels

Seeking Squirrels

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Posted

Daughter of the Forest by Juliet Marillier

The Martian - I listened to this one on audible, but I kept finding mindless things to do around the house so I could keep listening.

Outlander - Not all the books in the series have been unputdownable for me, but the first was.

Rain Wilds Chronicles books by Robin Hobb - I tried and tried to read Dragon Keeper on my nook and could just never get going. I finally discovered I don't like e-readers and gave up. I recently checked it out from the library and sped through all four. I was a little disappointed when I realized that some of her other series' come before this one, but I still enjoyed it and will go back to read those even though I've had spoilers. 

Harry Potter - I listened to the first four when a co-worker lent me the audiobooks and was quite hooked. Books 5, 6, & 7 I got at midnight release and finished by the next day sometime. 

 

I'm sure there are others; I tend to get quite lost in stories easily. These are the ones that come to mind, though. 

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Spy Car

Spy Car

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Posted

I'm generally a fair devoted reader when a book captures my imagination, but three works stand out for me as novels that I devoured stem-to-stern with only grudgingly necessary wolf-naps intervening in the process. All were from young adulthood and none were short, easy, or the type of work I suspect most would care to read in a marathon, but they are mine:

 

100 Years of Solitude (Gabriel Garcia Marquez)

The Tin Drum (Gunter Grass)

Crime and Punishment (Fydor Dostoevsky)

 

Near contenders:

 

Cancer Ward (Alexander Solzhenitsyn)

The Master and Margurita (Mikhail Bulgakov)

 

And who can put down Moby Dick? The greatest novel ever written.

 

Bill

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Lady Marmalade

Lady Marmalade

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Daughter of the Forest by Juliet Marillier

The Martian - I listened to this one on audible, but I kept finding mindless things to do around the house so I could keep listening.

Outlander - Not all the books in the series have been unputdownable for me, but the first was.

Rain Wilds Chronicles books by Robin Hobb - I tried and tried to read Dragon Keeper on my nook and could just never get going. I finally discovered I don't like e-readers and gave up. I recently checked it out from the library and sped through all four. I was a little disappointed when I realized that some of her other series' come before this one, but I still enjoyed it and will go back to read those even though I've had spoilers. 

Harry Potter - I listened to the first four when a co-worker lent me the audiobooks and was quite hooked. Books 5, 6, & 7 I got at midnight release and finished by the next day sometime. 

 

I'm sure there are others; I tend to get quite lost in stories easily. These are the ones that come to mind, though. 

 

Start with the Farseer Trilogy.  :) So good, and pretty dang close to unputdownable.

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Emmalm

Emmalm

Posted
Posted

So fun to see what everyone is reading!

I have to add...

 

Alexandre McCall Smith's "Portuguese Irregular Verbs" series.

 

I don't particularly like McCall Smith's other series, though I don't dislike them, but this series was a hoot. Maybe it is because I have a good dose of German in me. It was fun to read and laugh at my genetic tendencies and idiosyncrasies!

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