I’m an outdoors-loving person but I'm writing this in the last gasps of winter and I'm done with being cold. The best answer to a long winter has always been curling up somewhere warm with a book that makes me forget about the rest of the world. My books – it was pointed out to me recently – are usually set in the middle of summer because I think deep down I will always love a long summer holiday. (As I write this, I also realise there’s a lot of Famous Five in my DNA too.) Books you read as a kid do stick with you your whole life and can really form your personality.
One journalist travels the world in the aftermath and interviews the heroes, villains, and ordinary people who survived. It was made into a film with Brad Pitt, which is quite different, but I love anything with a fast zombie. The whole book makes you glad to live in a non-apocalypse.
(If the apocalypse has broken out between me writing this and you reading it, I’m not surprised, but I am sorry. Seriously, find a copy of WWZ as it’s full of good tips for your current predicament.)
It began with rumours from China about another pandemic. Then the cases started to multiply and what had looked like the stirrings of a criminal underclass, even the beginning of a revolution, soon revealed itself to be much, much worse.
Faced with a future of mindless man-eating horror, humanity was forced to accept the logic of world government and face events that tested our sanity and our sense of reality. Based on extensive interviews with survivors and key players in the ten-year fight against the horde, World War Z brings the finest traditions of journalism to bear on what is…
Robin Jarvis scared the living snot out of me as a kid and when I reread his books as an adult…. Same thing happens.
The Deptford Mice trilogy is a wonderfully scary series, with characters you love and root for and completely forget that they’re smaller than a baby potato. He is a brilliant storyteller and I recommend all his books to you if you’re over nine years old.
(Says the person who gifted them to an eight-year-old and caused nightmares.)
This book is a gift to anyone with writer’s block.
It’s a book full of first chapters and leaves you constantly thinking, “what happens next?!” which is the perfect prompt to make you write stories of your own. Plus, who wants to be a lonely traveler on a winter’s night?
"You are about to begin reading Italo Calvino's new novel...Relax. Concentrate. Dispel every other thought. Let the world around you fade." —from If On A Winter's Night a Traveler
Italo Calvino's stunning classic imagines a novel capable of endless possibilities in an intricately crafted, spellbinding story about writing and reading.
If on a Winter's Night a Traveler is a feat of striking ingenuity and intelligence, exploring how our reading choices can shape and transform our lives. Originally published in 1979, Italo Calvino's singular novel crafted a postmodern narrative like never seen before—offering not one novel but ten, each with a…
Now look, Stephen hardly needs the bump in sales but I do love this book.
I read it in one sitting one night as a kid and was engrossed. I read it for too young for the adult themes, but I feel like that is an official stage of most peoples’ adolescence and should be in textbooks.
This is my friend Claire and her books are so beautifully written, while their plots grip me like a vice!
This one is about spying on your neighbours, and whether you can always believe what you see… and I will say no more as you don’t need spoilers from me.
Opie Jones is a superhero, but please don’t get over-excited. She can talk to animals and, again I cannot stress this enough, you have no idea how boring a worm is until he moans at you about work. So yes, it is an adventure book full of action, peril, and unwilling sidekicks with Main Character Energy, but I warn you sometimes ladybirds are moody and I won’t sugarcoat the truth.
Aimed at 8-12-year-old readers but my aim is broad and older readers have been known to have a good time.
In this book set against the backdrop of a changing America, Sarah must find the courage to confront the ghosts of her past and come to terms with her future. Sarah, a young woman from the rural town of Tolerance, Arkansas, has endured an impoverished and painful childhood.
But now, as the innocence of the 1950s transforms into the turbulent 1960s, Sarah must find the strength to overcome her traumas, forgive those who have wronged her, and discover her true self. With its moving and often disturbing narrative, A Sparrow Falls is an evocative account of a young woman's journey…
A moving, sometimes disturbing, beautifully written book...Amazon Customer Review Set in Arkansas as the innocence of the 1950s morphs into the turbulent ‘60s, A Sparrow Falls is an evocative account of a young woman emerging from an impoverished and traumatic childhood as she finds the inner strength to overcome her past. Te ghosts of the past and come to terms with her future is in the strength to forgive those who have wronged her? Content Advisory: This book is intended for mature audiences and contains child sexual abuse and disturbing imagery.
