Now we have a read our first book together, perhaps it is time to read solo. Here are some suggestions. Choose from this list or pick any other book you are keen on reading for this second term.
THE UNLIKELY PILGRIMAGE OF HAROLD FRY, by Rachel Joyce. 368 pages [FICTION]
When Harold Fry nips out one morning to post a letter, leaving his wife hoovering upstairs, he has no idea that he is about to walk from one end of the country to the other. He has no hiking boots or map, let alone a compass, waterproof or mobile phone. All he knows is that he must keep walking. To save someone else’s life.
OTHER OPTIONS.-
JULIET NAKED, by Nick Hornby [HUMOUR]
Annie’s put fifteen years into safe, slightly obsessive Duncan, and now she’s like her money back, please. It’s time to move on. But she lives in Gooleness, the north’s answer to a question nobody asked. Is she really going to find real, proper, fell-it-deep-down-in-your-boots love on a damp and windy seafront? Or perhaps she should follow her heart and pursue Tucker, the reclusive American rock star, who keeps emailing her his smart advice.
But between Annie and her second chance lie a few obstacles. There’s Malcolm, the world’s most judgemental therapist, and Barnesy, the north’s most extrovert dancer. There’s what men and women will do and won’t do for love. And, of course, there’s Tucker. . .
SWEET TOOTH, by Ian McEwan. 320 pages [SPIES/ROMANCE]
Cambridge student Serena Frome’s beauty and intelligence make her the ideal recruit for MI5. The year is 1972. The Cold War is far from over. England’s legendary intelligence agency is determined to manipulate the cultural conversation by funding writers whose politics align with those of the government. The operation is code named “Sweet Tooth.”
Serena, a compulsive reader of novels, is the perfect candidate to infiltrate the literary circle of a promising young writer named Tom Haley. At first, she loves his stories. Then she begins to love the man. How long can she conceal her undercover life? To answer that question, Serena must abandon the first rule of espionage: trust no one.
THE UNCOMMON READER, by Allan Bennet. 128 pages. [HUMOUR]
The Uncommon Reader is none other than HM the Queen who becomes obsessed with books after a chance encounter with a mobile library. The story follows the consequences of this obsession for the Queen, her household and advisers, and her constitutional position.The consequence is, of course, surprising, mildly shocking and very funny.
THE GUERNSEY LITERARY AND POTATO PEEL PIE SOCIETY, by Mary Anne Shaffer and Annie Barrows. 256 pages [HISTORICAL FICTION]
The novel is set in 1946 and is in the form of letters, mainly to and from the central character, Juliet Ashton, a successful writer who becomes, wholly coincidentally, involved with a group of people on Guernsey who lived through the wartime German Occupation. The book has something to say about all kinds of things. Among them are friendship, suffering, forgiveness, goodness and wickedness, the resilience of humanity in desperate circumstances, how reading may influence us and the history of the Channel Islanders during the war.
EAT, PRAY, LOVE, by Elizabeth Gilbert. 384 pages. [CHICK-LIT]
A married woman realizes how unhappy her marriage really is, and that her life needs to go in a different direction. After a painful divorce, she takes off on a round-the-world journey to “find herself”.
YOUTUBE BOOK REVIEW
ME BEFORE YOU, by Jojo Moyes. 528 pages. [DRAMA/ROMANCE]
Me Before You is a beautiful book. It is hugely funny and incredibly sad. It is the kind of book which stays with you, which makes you feel like you can do anything and be anyone – and you should. You should live your life to the fullest. Just read the book, you’ll understand.
YOUTUBE BOOK REVIEW
ONE DAY, by David Nicholls. 448 pages. [CHICK-LIT]
15th July 1988. Emma and Dexter meet for the first time on the night of their graduation. Tomorrow they must go their separate ways. So where will they be on this one day next year? And the year after that? And every year that follows?
Twenty years, two people, ONE DAY.
THE THIRTEENTH TALE, by Diane Setterfield. 480 pages. [MYSTERY]
The Thirteenth Tale is a gothic suspense novel published in 2006.Vida Winter, a famous novelist in England, has never been forthcoming when it comes to her past. Her entire life is a secret, and for fifty years reporters and biographers have attempted to discover the truth. With her health quickly fading, Ms. Winter enlists a bookish amateur biographer named Margaret Lea to bear witness to the tragic story of the Angelfield family, their eccentric beginnings as well as their demise. Margaret, who has family secrets of her own, must unravel the mysteries of the past in order to reconcile not only Miss Winter with her ghosts, but also Margaret with her own.
THE LITTLE STRANGER, by Sarah Waters. 512 pages. [GHOST STORY]
The Little Stranger is a 2009 gothic novel written by Sarah Waters. It is a ghost story set in a dilapidated mansion in Warwickshire, England in the 1940s., Waters’ fifth novel features a male narrator, a country doctor who makes friends with a family with faded fortunes left simply with a very old estate that is crumbling around them. The stress of reconciling the state of their finances with the familial responsibility of keeping the estate coincides with perplexing events that drives one to be committed to a mental institution, and kills two more.
THE BOOK THIEF, by Markus Zusak. 560 pages. [HISTORICAL FICTION]
The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak was the best-selling debut literary novel of the year 2007, selling over 400,000 copies.
Nine-year-old Liesel lives with her foster family on Himmel Street during the dark days of the Third Reich. Her Communist parents have been transported to a concentration camp, and during the funeral for her brother, she manages to steal a macabre book: it is, in fact, a gravediggers’ instruction manual. This is the first of many books which will pass through her hands as the carnage of the Second World War begins to hungrily claim lives. Both Liesel and her fellow inhabitants of Himmel Street will find themselves changed by both words on the printed page and the horrendous events happening around them.
DEATH COMES TO PEMBERLEY, by P. D. James. 352 pages. [MYSTERY]
The year is 1803, and Darcy and Elizabeth have been married for six years. There are now two handsome and healthy sons in the nursery, Elizabeth’s beloved sister Jane and her husband Bingley live nearby and the orderly world of Pemberley seems unassailable. But all this is threatened when, on the eve of the annual autumn ball, as the guests are preparing to retire for the night a chaise appears, rocking down the path from Pemberley’s wild woodland. As it pulls up, Lydia Wickham – Elizabeth’s younger, unreliable sister – stumbles out screaming that her husband has been murdered.
Inspired by a lifelong passion for the work of Jane Austen, P. D. James masterfully recreates the world of Pride and Prejudice, and combines it with the excitement and suspense of a brilliantly-crafted crime story. Death Comes to Pemberley is a distinguished work of fiction, from one of the best-loved, most- read writers of our time.
THE BEST EXOTIC MARIGOLD HOTEL, by Deborah Moggach. 304 pages. [HUMOUR]
Enticed by advertisements for a newly restored palatial hotel and filled with visions of a life of leisure, good weather and mango juice in their gin, a group of very different people leave England to begin a new life in India. On arrival they are dismayed to find the palace is a shell of its former self, the staff more than a little eccentric, and the days of the Raj long gone. But, as they soon discover, life and love can begin again, even in the most unexpected circumstances.
Pick your choice and enjoy your reading! Remember good sites to buy original books are www.thebookdepository.com with good prices and free delivery to your door, or www.amazon.co.uk where you can also find second-hand books although you’ll have to add up VAT and posting charges. You also have the Spanish version www.amazon.es
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