I guess I wont even try to list everything I got from bookmooch and the charity shop, check the librarything list if you are curious

I recently reread some fantasy, I needed light and easy reads. It kind of reinforced my opinion that fantasy, although hugely popular, is not one of my favorite genres. Now there are some exceptional fantasy novels, but on average there is less creativity and challenging thought than in other genres I read.

And I guess when I read fiction I want at least 3 of the following
* believable characters
* originality
* beautiful language
* challenging ideas
* surprises
* humor
* something which makes me feel that the author loves his subject and people (read fannie flagg below for one example!)
* a story or a mechanism that I want to follow

Anyway in recent weeks/months only a few books have stood out:

Pat Barker “Regeneration” - I surprisingly enjoyed this one - it is well written with extremely real characters, and I fell in the book totally. I am now looking for other books by her. Get it from amazon.co.uk
Fannie Flagg “I cant wait to get to heaven” - this is just a happy warm book full of quirky and incredibly well observed people. Guaranteed to make you love the world and people for a while again. Get it from amazon.co.uk

apart from that there were quite a few ok ones but nothing i can think to recommend to loads of people…