Ideas of what to read are as essential to me as the sun--there are lots of places to go for them. You can try Bookalicious for fun, chicklit or girl-focused books, Bookslut for modern concept fiction. I find that the lists on Goodreads.
Now typically I don't find a lot of modern books I like. Mostly they're just passable, appealing to some niche group--there are different types of mystery, crime, investigative, emotional, life changes, young life, fantasy, supernatural or romantic niches. Usually, I don't really prefer any of them.
What I like is something hard to define--I'd say something that is a whole, that has wholeness about it, the way Nolan described movies he likes. I want the author's world to feel real, to have characters I care about and to have things happen. They need to already be in motion, it must be in medias res.
So no navel gazing, no emotional morass, no miasma of magic and finding yourself. On the flip side, I don't want empty characters trying to solve mysteries, either. It's not cute to me. But I did like The Egyptologist by Arthur Philips a bit [though not his other work], I liked Rainbow Six but not Clancy's usual; The Poe Shadow but not the whole of Matthew Pearl. In Possession, the opening with the Ash discovery is great, but after that it goes off the rails.
I liked Wonder Boys a little, but really my issue is that even when you've got characters and a lack of quirks the direction isn't there. Too many books have characters that are these waspish, aimless waifs [of either gender]. Think of Gatsby, he had enough willpower for a dozen people. I'm not saying I need a dystopia, or crazy world ending shenanigans, though.
I didn't really like The Ya-Ya Sisterhood or Bridget Jones' Diary--and in India's chicklit or ladki-lit, I was okay with The Hindi Bindi Club.
What I'm looking for is characters who have big plans, who are wildly pursuing something, anything!
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