Love that you included Mothering Sunday here. I have vivid memories of sitting on a bench at a train station letting trains go by because I was not willing to stop reading it. I would add Still Life by Sarah Winman, which I read in one gorgeous afternoon because I wanted to stay in her world forever.
Of those listed, I have only read Graham Swift’s Mothering Sunday. As you say, erotic, and quietly compelling. The UK edition has, appropriately, a cover of one of Modigliani’s nudes. My favourite Graham Swift novel is Waterland set in the Cambridgeshire Fens. Atmospheric like Mothering Sunday. The book I found a page turner was The Name of the Rose, by Umberto Eco.
Reading Binger says: Sweet Tooth. Ian McCewan ...I think that's when my wife left me. She came back, thankfully and left me again while reading Rebecca. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay??? Couldn't find her after she left AGAIN!!!All of AmorTowles' books? I think she moved back to Pennsylvania, her birthplace... Read tons of Cormac McCarthy novels from Prison due to lapsed alimony payments. When Nietzsche Wept I wept when she filed for a divorce. Such is life.
My favorite page-turner is The Count of Monte Cristo, a book that gripped me for the vast majority of its pages. There were some slow sections where you can feel Dumas padding out the word count for that month's installment, but the momentum from earlier in the book carried me straight through. One of my favorite reading experiences ever - that book is truly a miracle.
Recently, two books by Nona Fernandez have been published in the UK. She is a Chilean author, and her work deals with the memory of those detained and missing by Pinochet's dictatoship. She maintains the memory alive. One of the books published is The Twilight Zone, one of her best. Highly recommend it to you who are reading translations from Spanish. Nona is one of the best ones!
In the 80s, couldn’t put down Theodore Dreiser’s “American Tragedy,” and Thomas Wolfe’s mind-blowing “Look Homeward Angel.” The former speaks to my mystification at men’s sexual aggression, once satisfied, turning to rage and disgust when a pregnancy results. A study showed how these runaway dads want the white picket fence life one day, just not with “her.” Then why….?
Great list, and some new books for me to check out! Totally agree with Circe, one of my all-time favourites. I'd say East of Eden is in the page turner category too for me, the pages of which I'm furiously turning at the moment in fact
Yes, I found The Convenience Store Woman and The Confessions of Frannie Langton compelling. Also enjoyed Circe and Klara and the Sun. From the rest I've written down four that you made sound quite interesting. Thank you for your great suggestions.🥰
Happy you listed several I have read and loved. Klara and the Sun-I can still remember her sitting on the bench in the park at the end. Rebecca-I have read this several times-The opening has the most enticing sentence-I dreamed I was back in Manderly. Circe was one of my top reads. It brings me back to Latin class with the stories of Ulysses. I wrote down some of your suggestions for future reads. Thank you.
Hi Eric, as always thanks for your excellent recommendations. I totally agree with you about 3 on your list that I've read: Circe, Frannie Langton and Klara and the Sun. Amongst many others that were page turners for me are Unbroken, The Son, The Wool Trilogy, Never Let Me Go, Wild, Burial Rites and An American Wife. I could go on..... 🤗
Glad Rebecca made the list. I read it super fast (in Portuguese but felt it was translated well, Portuguese is such a great language for literature) I loved it. Other books I could not put down was The Girl Before, and The cook of Castamar (not sure if that one is translated in English yet, read it inPortuguese) . The persuit, Circe and Convenience Store Woman sound good to me.
Two that come immediately to mind are A KISS BEFORE DYING by Ira Levin and DAMAGE by Josephine Hart. I recall reading these breathlessly, especially Levin's book. Thank you for these recommendations; I'd love to check out Klara, Confessions, and Circe --which I keep hearing great things about.
I agree with Klara and the Sun. Once I finished it, I told a lot of people to read it. The Children's Bible by Lydia Millet was a book I couldn't put down once the story got going.
Rebecca is a wonderful book as is Klara. Never Let Me Go for me was a page turner that I couldn't put down. FingerSmith was another. The Song of Achilles by Madeleine Miller was also for me a greater page turner than Circe, but I loved it too. Maybe you could make a video about books that were so good, you didn't want them to finish and leave that world? Possession by A S Byatt, That They May Face The Rising Sun by John McGahern, and Still Life by Sarah Winman are a few I didn't want to finish
Earthlings, also by Sayaka Murata, was a recent page turner for me! The first and second of the Neapolitan Novels are also books that had me completely engrossed.
Love this vid. Thanks for the recommendations! Excited to read some of the ones I’ve never heard of. Absolutely loved Hurricane Season, as well as her new one - so disturbing but I just love her writing style, so hypnotic and morbidly beautiful.
The confessions of Frannie Langton sounds interesting... thanks Eric 😊 Have convenience store woman on my tbr since a long time... will try and pick it up soon since you have recommended it so highly....
Great video. So glad to see Klara and the Sun here. I read it in three sittings and felt an overwhelming urge to immediately read it again. I'm interested in many of the books you mentioned. To me, Shogun is probably the quintessential "page turner" novel--I lost a lot of sleep and social interaction while reading that one. I've been told it's not great literature but it's great story telling at the very least.
OK, my reading list has just increased again! Eric, your videos just make me want to read even more than I do already. Thank you as ever for such awesome videos, so very much appreciated. 🙂
The joy of a Sunday morning cup of tea while watching an new video from Eric🤗🥰😍 Best recent page turners Young Mungo by Douglas Stuart ( not an easy read but unforgettable) Trespasses by Louise Kennedy The Rain Heron by Robbie Arnott Elena Knows Great Circle by Maggie Shipstead Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr Hidden Valley Road ( nonfiction but completely gripping) Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan ( lump in my throat reading) Unsettled Ground by Claire Fuller The Power of the Dog by Thomas Savage ☘️👋🍀📚📖📕☕️
For this list I would add one of my all-time top 10 books: The Unconsoled, by Ishiguro. Don't see much mention of it by Booktubers, but it's very compelling, and very different for Ishiguro. A bit Kafkaesque.
Thank you! I'm wondering what happened to my copy of Mothering Sunday, which I never got to read, but I love most of Graham Swift's work, particularly Waterland and his more recent Here We Are. What I'm loving right now is Monica Ali's Love Marriage, so thank you for alerting me to it.
I’m a huge fan of Cynan Jones. I especially loved The Dig and I found it gripping and it’s written in gorgeous, spare prose. The Cove reminds me of his short story that won the BBC Short Story Contest
This video was a real “page turner”. I couldn’t wait to hear what books you’d selected. Rebecca was the only one I’ve previously read but now I have all the others on my TBR.
I just finished Jean Rhys' "Wide Sargasso Sea" and while doing a little background research before delving into the story, Frannie Langton's name came up as well as Sara Collins' book, so I was thrilled to see it on your list! Last October I read Shirley Jackson's "The Haunting of Hill House" and between her great prose and storytelling, I did not want to put it down.
Great video as always. Love how you give a good sense of the book in this video. I have two of the books, Kara and the Sun and XX and I’m very excited to get inside those stories. Convenience Store Woman looks interesting. I noticed the blurb on the front of that and wondered, have you read “Strange weather in Tokyo”? I read that recently and really liked it.
After "Convenience Store Woman" Murata has published the disturbing and gruesome "Earthlings" and now the crazed story collection "Life Ceremony," both of which one will fly right through, like them or not👍
I have read convenience Store Woman, I agree it was exceptional. I have Klara and the Sun and Rebecca to read. I think I need to add a couple more to read. Always some good recommendations
Oh, definitely read Stillicide by Cynan Jones. I thought it was incredible. I still think about it. And I’m going off to order Cove right now! I’ve got The Long Dry here which I need to get to. (And I threw in The Dig along with my order of Cove.) Frannie! I loved that book! Just borrowed The Pursuit from the library. Circe was a bit of a surprise.
Ah great, I’ve had Stillicide on my shelf for ages and I don’t know why I’ve not read it yet. Thanks for the encouragement. Hope you enjoy The Pursuit and Circe.
Great list - whenever I try to read Rebecca all I can see is the film, which is brilliant but gets in the way of the reading experience. I find it really difficult to read any book if I’ve seen the film adaption first. Good to hear you rave about XX again which has been sitting on an unread pile since you first recommended it. I’m currently reading ‘How the one armed sister sweeps her house’, which I’m finding really gripping and a page turner despite the harrowing subject matter - so well written!
Yeah, it’s a hazard - esp with great film adaptations like Rebecca. I remember Donna Tartt once saying if you can afford not to have your books adapted you shouldn’t because then anyone who sees the film will just imagine the characters as those actors. XX is definitely worth it though it takes some time to read. And Cherie Jones’ novel is excellent- though very bleak.
Ooooh XX sounds great and I want to read it, but sticking to shorter works for rest of month before I attack the Booker longlist comes out. Are you going to do a pre list prediction?
City of Thieves, The Heart's Invisible Furies, A Thread of Grace, Rules of Civility, Stay With Me, Survivor and A Fine Balance are all absolute page turners! 🌟
I have read only 2 books from this list - Rebecca and Circe. I totally agree that these are great books! The best page turner book last year for me was Starless Sea by Erin Morgenshtern
