Guys, can any one recommend a really good contemporary novel? I'm looking for a bit of an easy read but nothing trashy. The only fiction I ever read is 18th/19th c and/or classics and I want to take my mind off my work for a bit. Thanks! M,x

I have a minor fixation on Louis de Bernieres latin american series. Not trashy but immensely colourful and will definitely take you away (especially if you have a thing for the magical realism genre like me). There are three in the set but they're each wonderful in their own right:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Louis-Bernieres-Box-Set-books/dp/0749386347
If you want something a bit more solid his Birds Without Wings novel is wonderful too (and all far better than the captain correli stuff).

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From the top of my head, I quite enjoyed Zadie Smith's "On beauty". It also includes some entertaining bits on academia (humanities), although if you're looking for distraction from academia this might be a turn-off..

Do you like crime novels? I've just read The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson - it's high quality crime, not trashy at all, and has great characters that really drew me in - the title character's great, a kind of gothy delinquent security specialist / computer hacker who won't let anyone put one over on her. One of those books you can completely immerse yourself in.

I have to second the previous poster, Stieg Larsson's trilogy is really entertaining (I only read the first volume) and I normally don't read crime novels at all!

Ian McEwan's 'Enduring Love' - fantastic. It gets better and better as you go along.

To get away from academic reading I've really enjoyed (in no particular order):

Salman Rushdie 'Midnight's Children'
Douglas Coupland 'Girlfriend in a Coma'
Yann Martel 'Life of Pi'
George Orwell 'The Road to Wigan Pier'
Ray Bradbury 'Fahrenheit 451'
Arundhati Roy 'The God of Small Things'
Oscar Wilde 'The Importance of Being Ernest'
Iain Banks 'The Wasp Factory'
Margaret Atwood 'Oryx and Crake'
Martin Amis 'London Fields'

O.k., so some of these probably stretch "contemporary", and others are "classics"! Hope you find something to take your mind off work...

Doll

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Lately I've been reading Sarah Water's novels - some are historical, others aren't, but they're all well written and interesting. My fave author of all time is TC Boyle - great, imaginative writing, cutting about American society. Favourites are 'Drop City', 'Tortilla Curtain' and 'The Inner Circle' (which was about Kinsey). Great stuff.