My love, can you drop some book recs? I’m in desperate need for new books even though I have 537464 unread ones in my bookshelf 🙃
Ooooooh!! I’m sorry to be slow on this but I have Been Pondering what to include here and I am definitely going to hit publish and realise I forgot something important so keep an eye out for edits 😂
So without knowing your taste, I’m going to try and give a range of stuff I like and hopefully something with vibe with you…
♡ The Night Circus - Erin Morgenstern
This magical story is one of my ALL TIME fav books. I want to live in it. I want to visit the circus and be part of their following. And if they ever make a movie of it I will be ON EDGE waiting for them to make a mess of it 🙈 Her new book, The Starless Sea is also great.
♡ The Book Thief - Markus Zuzak
You probably already know this one (there’s a film) but it’s beautiful and heartbreaking and I adore it. Markus’s other work is really worth reading too.
♡ Persuasion - Jane Austen
Again, not new but a lesser hyped Austen book. One of my absolute favs and regular comfort read.
♡ The Silence of the Girls - Pat Barker
I fell in love with Pat’s books when I was at school - she wrote an amazing book about WW1 poets, Wilfred Owen and Siegfried Sassoon called Regeneration that I also highly recommend. But this one is the first in a series about the women of Troy. It tells the story of the fall of Troy from the perspective of the women, whose voices are often overlooked if they feature at all. It’s INSANELY good and the follow up, The Women of Troy, is just as compelling.
♡ The Thursday Murder Club - Richard Osman
You’ll probably have heard of this cos it was one of the fastest selling books ever a couple of years ago but BELIEVE THE HYPE! It’s utterly hilarious and charming and captivating. And the follow up books are just as wonderful.
♡ Incendiary - Chris Cleave
This is a pretty horrific tale so be warned, but it’s so engrossing. I read the whole thing in a day and even though it’s years now since I did that I can still remember it and have vivid images in my head from it.
♡ Afterwards - Rosamund Lupton
Another with difficult subject matter that has never left me, years after reading. I adore her books.
♡ Just One Damned Thing After Another - Jodi Taylor
I am OBSESSED with these books (this is the first in a long series called The St Mary’s Chronicles). Time travelling historians experiencing and documenting historical events in contemporary time with a whole heap of mayhem. Rip-roaring rides but with some darker themes to ground them in something more grown up and if you like history they’re such a fabulous glimpse at the past. She’s a master of her craft. Also check out (but only after you’ve got a decent chunk through this series) The Time Police books.
♡ The Word Is Murder - Anthony Horowitz
I love Anthony’s books for grown ups (also check out Magpie Murders) but this is such a clever twist on detective fiction. He’s written himself into the stories and it’s a wonderful meld of murder mystery and insight into the life of a writer. This is the first of a series that is still ongoing.
♡ Invisible Women - Caroline Criado Perez
This is the only non-fiction book on my list cos I prefer fiction as my reading for pleasure. This is all about how the data we gather and use in designing everything from city planning to healthcare to workplaces neglects to take into account the different needs of women compared to men. It will fill you with rage but it’s an important read.
♡ Oryx and Crake - Margaret Atwood
Ok so I love Margaret Atwood’s books and could have listed so many here. But this was the first I read after studying Handmaid at school, when I was finally old enough to get it a bit better. Sometimes referred to as The Madd Addam trilogy, this is the first of three books set in the not too distant future where (surprise surprise, is Mags) everything has gone wrong. Slightly sci-fi, very relatable and a bit scary. Also check out The Blind Assassin and Alias Grace for slightly less dystopian future vibes.
♡ The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafón
A story within a story set in 1940s Barcelona and involving a secret, hidden library. It’s beautiful and dark and full of twists. First (tho not chronologically - a prequel was published years later so I recommend reading in publication order) in a small series.
♡ His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
I can’t write this list without it but you’ll have undoubtedly come across/read it already. Fun fact, a very sweet boy from Dublin called Cillian gave me my copy of The Northern Lights (no, not that one, sadly!). I re-read these books almost every year, I adore them.
♡ Dissolution - CJ Samson
Amazing series (this is the first) about a lawyer in Tudor London becoming embroiled in the dangerous and murky world of court politics. Crime mysteries with a historical twist written by someone who a true scholar of his attention to detail. First book isn’t the best of them but if you stick with it, it really all kicks up a gear in book 2. For a different historical era, also check out Winter In Madrid (1930s Spain) or Dominion (AU where the fascists take over England during WW2).
♡ A Thousand Splendid Suns - Khaled Hosseini
Everyone has heard of The Kite Runner (which is excellent) but I actually prefer this one. If the kite runner is a boy’s experience of Afghanistan, this is the female perspective. Brutal and beautiful and enraging and hopeful.
And that’s probably enough! 🙈 Hope you can find something new to tickle your fancy, xxx
