don't expect pretty pictures
Zadie Smith's books have been on my 'to read' list for as long as I can remember, and White Teeth has been sitting on my bookshelf, unread, for almost as long. I picked up On Beauty for pennies a few months ago and read it almost straight away, finding it a lot funnier than I … Continue reading On my bookshelf – On Beauty
I don’t read an awful lot of non-fiction books but this one is almost so far beyond the realm of belief that it may as well be a novel. Jon Ronson for me is the Louis Theroux of writing, making the most bizarre parts of our world visible and showing just how weird us humans … Continue reading On my bookshelf: The Men Who Stare at Goats – Jon Ronson
I love Margaret Atwood. I love her worldview, her imagination, her prose, her honesty and unabashed feminism. The Oryx and Crake trilogy is one of the most imaginative and unique things I think I’ve ever read and finding Alias Grace in the charity shop was a real treat. It’s a chunky piece of work and … Continue reading On my bookshelf: Alias Grace – Margaret Atwood
JG Ballard has been on my ‘authors to read’ list for such a long time and got nudged to the top when I saw that the film adaptation of High Rise comes out later this year, directed by the genius that is Ben Wheatley. As I very rarely buy new books, I am at the … Continue reading On my bookshelf: Cocaine Nights – JG Ballard
You might have already seen the film version of this, starring Reese Witherspoon as Cheryl, on redemptive 1,100 mile hike along the 'PCT' (Pacific Crest Trail, for those not in the know). If you have, the book may pad out some more of the background and reasoning behind the hike that personally, I thought was … Continue reading On my bookshelf: Wild – Cheryl Strayed
I've only read one other Ishiguro book, 'Never Let Me Go', though he always pops up on my to-read list. I picked this one up in a charity shop, one of those glorious places which has a "3 for £1" table! Seeing as it won the Booker Prize, I thought it was worth 33p. The … Continue reading On my bookshelf: The Remains of the Day – Kazuo Ishiguro
You know when you have those dreams, where you know that you've woken up but you can't stop thinking about whatever it was that you dreamt about? This book was like that for me. It tells the story of Pandora, whose brother, unemployed jazz musician Edison, comes to stay. In the preceding years since they … Continue reading On my bookshelf: Big Brother – Lionel Shriver
