Oh, there are some old acquaintances  .

I read all the HP books in English and read the complete German translation to my son. When I was younger I read and loved "The Mists of Avalon" and "The Lord of the Rings". Atkinson's book I read only recently (as you can see from my book thread) and liked it very much. I can't remember Bradbury because I read it a very long time ago. 

If you like romance/historical then Phillipa Gregory's books are wonderful. They are thoroughly researched and very well-written. The Other Boleyn Girl is a good starting point. They are not sloppy romances. They are very historically accurate.

Ray Bradbury's (RIP Ray) short stories are unsettlingly brilliant. I haven't read them for years but they have stayed with me.

Davina wrote:

If you like romance/historical then Phillipa Gregory's books are wonderful. They are thoroughly researched and very well-written. The Other Boleyn Girl is a good starting point. They are not sloppy romances. They are very historically accurate.

Ray Bradbury's (RIP Ray) short stories are unsettlingly brilliant. I haven't read them for years but they have stayed with me.

I do like historical romance but tend to read mostly those set in England during the very late 18th century through the Victorian period...the Napoleonic and Victorian years are my favorite historical periods.

I also read some contemporary romantic suspense, ala Christine Feehan's "Ghostwalker" series or Kat Martin's "Raines of Wind Canyon" series; Shannon McKenna is another favorite. As long as they are mostly historically accurate and the characters aren't hopping into bed every other page, I enjoy them.

For some reason I have always had a fascination for Henry VIII and his 6 wives, particularly Anne Boleyn, ever since I saw the movie "Anne of the Thousand Days" back in 1969. I haven't gone out of my way over the years to read or watch additional material about them, but occasionally over the years I would see or read something that piqued my interest. I recently saw the movie version of "The Other Boleyn Girl" and liked it, so I may read the book later when my interest is "piqued" again.

I loved Ray Bradbury's Martian Chronicles, but I remember as I was reading, from the very first page, having the feeling that something wasn't quite right, and then of course finding out later why everything wasn't quite right. There was a mini series on TV some years back based on The Martian Chronicles that actually was pretty good, even though sometimes it scared the you-know-what out of me. 

SusiGo wrote:

One of the most disturbing and fascinating books I've read is Lionel Shriver's "We need to talk about Kevin". Nothing historical or sci-fi but a great read.

Thanks for the rec, Susi, but based on what I know of this story I will probably not read it. I find it very difficult to read books of this nature and tend to avoid them whenever possible. V.C. Andrews writes similar stories about children in peril and I find them very disturbing...I read her first book (Flowers in the Attic) and haven't read any of her boos after that.

Do you have any other less disturbing books to recommend? 

If you enjoy old sci-fi, you might like Orson Scott Card's "Ender's Game" series. Apart from being great sci-fi, it also has amazing characters and some interesting ethical and philisophical things in it.