Friday, 3 June 2011

50 books every child should read

Swallows and Amazons by Arthur Ransome
The Eagle of the Ninth by Rosemary Sutcliff
The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl
The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson-Burnett
The Talking Parcel by Gerald Durrell
War Horse by Michael Morpurgo
The Beasts of Clawstone Castle by Eva Ibbotson
Danny the Champion of the World by Roald Dahl
Charlotte's Web by E.B. White
Artemis Fowl series by Eoin Colfer
The City of Ember by Jeanne DuPrau
Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilde
Coraline by Neil Gaiman
The Machine Gunners by Robert Westall
Because of Winn-Dixie Kate DiCamillo
Emil and the Detectives Erich Kästner
Inkheart by Cornelia Funke
A Wrinkle in Time By Madeliene L'Engle
The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
Tom's MIdnight Garden by Philippa Pearce
The Book Thief  by Markus Zusak
The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents by Terry Pratchett
Magic series by Edward Eager
Anne of Green Gables by by Lucy Maud Montgomery
The Borrowers by Mary Norton
Boy by Roald Dahl
Holes by Louis Sachar
The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman
The Pheonix and the Carpet by E. Nesbit
The Latern Bearers by Rosemary Sutcliff
The Silver Sword by Ian Serraillier
Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson
The Sheep-Pig by Dick King-Smith
Bridge to Terabithia by  Katherine Paterson
The dark is Rising Sequence by Susan Cooper
The Mozart Question by Michael Morpurgo
The Pendragon Adventure Series by D. J. MacHale
Pery Jackson and The Olympians by Rick Riordan
Silverwing by Kenneth Oppel
The Spiderwick Chronicles by Tony DiTerlizzi & Holly Black
Stig of the Dump by Clive King
The Weirdstone of Brisingamen by Alan Garner
The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis
His Dark Materials trilogy by Philip Pullman
The Harry Potter books by J.K. Rowling
Leven Thumps series by Obert Skye
A Series of Unfortunate Events series by Lemony Snicket

List compiled by Richard Davies in response to British Education Secretary Michael Grove stating that 11-year-olds should read 50 books a year.

Friday, 27 May 2011

Friday Finds - May 27th

I wasn't going to do a Friday Finds post this week but then I clicked on Friday Finds and started looking at what others were posting about and what do you know?

Yes that's right I almost instantly found two books I'd like to read:



Thank you Ninth Factor for the inspiration.

Wednesday, 25 May 2011

W...W...W...Wednesday - 25th May

WWW Wednesdays is hosted by MizB at Should Be Reading. To play along, just answer the following three (3) questions…

• What are you currently reading?
• What did you recently finish reading?
• What do you think you’ll read next?

I'm still reading Maureen Lipman's Something to Fall Back On it's not a book that I'm actually sitting down to read, I just pick it up from time to time and read a bit and very cheering it is too.

ISBN 0-9545886-06

I'm also reading Haunted Ely a little book put together by two friends,Margaret Haynes & Vivienne Doughty, who were Blue Badge Tourist Guides for the cathedral city of Ely in Cambridgeshire, Great Britain.

"Any place with an inhabited past is bound to have ghosts and the Isle of Ely is no exception. This is a selection of stories about a few of the city's former residents whose return to their previous haunts haas not gone unnoticed by many present day residents. The informaton for this book was collected from people who live in Ely, and from accounts of those who have passed through at some time in their lives."

So I find myself reading about  St. Etheldreda, the founder of the City of Ely. Her ghostly hand has been seen gliding up a staircase at King's School, Ely, by 'three mesmerised boys who watched ... as they shivered beneath their duvets on a warm summer night in 1995'. The ghost dog, which is sometimes seen crossing the A10 between Ely and Cambridge,  Benedictine monks and even Oliver Cromwells' ghost.

Again it's a book I'm just dipping into.

I have finished reading The Redeemed by M R Hall, it was okay but maybe a little predictable. I also finished reading The Plague Maiden by Kate Ellis and I might just look out for another of her Wesley Peterson mysteries for my next read. Do you do that, discover a new to you author and then read everything they have ever written?

Tuesday, 24 May 2011

The Dukes Own or The Adventures of Peter Daly by Col. J. Percy Groves 1887- Teaser Tuesday

 Grab your book

 Open to a random page

Share two teaser sentences from somewhere on that page:

"But then should the rebels and their allies prove victorious, - even for a time,- she would be left penniless, and without a friend in the land."

 This weeks Teaser Tuesday is from an antique book by Col. J. Percy Groves, The Dukes Own or The Adventures of Peter Daly.

It's beautifully bound in olive green cloth with heavily decorated front and spine with a frontpiece illustration.Published by Griffith Farran Browne & Co. Limited, 35 Bow Street, Covent Garden, London.

 This copy is undated but the book was orginally published in 1887, the author J. Percy Groves was the first Librarian of the Priaulx Library, Guernsey. He had started his career in the army with the 67th South Hampshire Regiment of Foot, and ended it in 1873 in the 27th Inniskillings, before selling his commission and retiring to Guernsey. He wrote many regimental histories as well as adventure stories.


It was orginally given as a Sunday School prize and thus has a book plate.
Teaser Tuesdays, a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading.

Monday, 23 May 2011

The Plague Maiden A Wesley Peterson murder mystery by Kate Ellis - Library Loot

 (ISBN 0749906685)

Loving the library at the moment as it is giving me the opportunity to try loads of different authors without the risk of disapointment. After all if I don't particularly like the book I can just take it back and it hasn't cost me a penny. No guilt, brilliant.

Anyway this one I did like:

"When a letter arrives at Tradmouth police station claiming that the man convicted of murdering the Vicar of Belsham during the course of a robbery in 1991 is innocent, it causes quite a stir. DI Wesley Peterson, however, already has his hands full when threats are made to local supermarket chain, Huntings, and the last thing he needs is an alleged miscarriage of justice to investigate. But, with political pressure from above, it seems that he has no choice.
Meanwhile archaeologist Neil Watson is surprised to uncover a medieval plague pit at a site near Belsham church earmarked for Huntings' new superstore. And when Neil is attacked, it seems that someone is willing to use violence to ensure that the plague pit keeps its secrets.
As Wesley's investigations continue, he begins to suspect that the vicar's murder, the disappearance of a former Sunday school teacher and the threats to the supermarket my be linked in some way. Then comes the disturbing discovery that the ancient plague pit is home to a more recent resident..."

I liked the characters they are very human with real everyday concerns and I enjoyed the mix of archaeology and murder. I'll certainly be looking out for more of Kate Ellis. Actually I wonder how long it will be before Wesley Peterson hits our television screens?

Library Loot is a weekly event co-hosted by Claire from The Captive Reader and Marg from The Adventures of an Intrepid Reader that encourages bloggers to share the books they’ve checked out from the library.

Wednesday, 18 May 2011

W...W...W...Wednesday - 18th May

 I've finished Rory Clements' Revenger and whilst I found it a little harder to get into than the first John Shakespeare, Matyr, I still found it an enjoyable read. His next is published tomorrow but I'll probably wait until it's out in paperback.

1592. England and Spain are at war, yet there is peril at home, too. The death of her trusted spymaster Sir Francis Walsingham has left Queen Elizabeth vulnerable. Conspiracies multiply.
The quiet life of John Shakespeare is shattered by a summons from Robert Cecil, the cold but deadly young statesman who dominated the last years of the Queen's long reign, insisting Shakespeare re-enter government service. His mission: to find vital papers, now in the possession of the Earl of Essex.

Essex is the brightest star in the firmament, a man of ambition. He woos the Queen, thirty-three years his senior, as if she were a girl his age. She is flattered by him - despite her loathing for his mother, the beautiful, dangerous Lettice Knollys who presides over her own glittering court - a dazzling array of the mad, bad, dangerous and disaffected.

When John Shakespeare infiltrates this dissolute world he discovers not only that the Queen herself is in danger - but that he and his family is also a target. With only his loyal footsoldier Boltfoot Cooper at his side, Shakespeare must face implacable forces who believe themselves above the law: men and women who kill without compunction. And in a world of shifting allegiances, just how far he can trust Robert Cecil, his devious new master?

 I'm currently reading The Redeemed by M. R. Hall:

The body of a dead man is discovered in an overgrown cemetery in Bristol, the sign of the cross gouged into his flesh. At first it seems to coroner Jenny Cooper that all the evidence points to a horrific, if routine, suicide.
Then an enigmatic young priest, Father Lucas Starr, arrives on Jenny’s doorstep, entreating her to hold an inquest into the death of Eva Donaldson, a high profile political campaigner whose past life continued to haunt her. A young man, Paul Craven, has recently been sentenced for Eva’s brutal murder. But despite Craven’s conviction and the evidence against him, Father Lucas is convinced of the man’s innocence.
Jenny’s lone quest for justice will take her to the dark heart of an establishment who wish to silence her, and on an inner journey to confront ghosts that have haunted her for a lifetime. For Jenny Cooper answers to no one but the dead . . .

It's dragging me through the pages, I do want to find out what happens but have found myself skipping some of the narrative in an effort to get on with it.

 I'm also delving into Maureen Lipman's Something to Fall Back On:

Maureen Lipman is one of the UK's favorite actresses and also the author of several humorous books: "How Was It For You?" (1985), "Thank You For Having Me" (1990); "You Can Read Me Like a Book" (1996) and "Lip Reading" (1999). "Something To Fall Back On" (1987), a collection of random stories about her chaotic lifestyle is one of my favorites.

Ms. Lipman reminds me of a British version of Erma Bombeck. Like Bombeck, Maureen writes about what she knows best - her life and the pursuit of happiness. She revels in the perils of deflowering her garden; her jewels; the Tory Party; her career in the theater, and a friend's King Charles Cavalier puppy - "Now what do nine inches of silky, tumescent fun mean to you??" It is really difficult to get through a page without laughing out loud.
 
Maureen was married to playwright Jack Rosenthal for over thirty years, until his death in 2004. They have two children - Amy, who is the writer-in-residence at Manchester's Royal Exchange Theater, and Adam, a Cambridge graduate. In 1999 Maureen was awarded a CBE, (Commander of the Order of the British Empire), by the Queen for meritorious achievement. She was the second person in her family to receive this honor. Husband Jack was presented with his award in 1993.

It is very funny and ideal for picking up and reading a quick chapter whilst having a cup of tea.

If I'm being honest I'm not sure what to read next, there are always plenty of books waiting on The Vintage Bookshelf.... The question is which one to read?
WWW Wednesdays is hosted by MizB at Should Be Reading.

Tuesday, 17 May 2011

The Girls of Old Grange School by May Wynne - Teaser Tuesday

 Teaser Tuesdays, a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading.

"We can't expect to drop on to a gold-mine at a first digging," said Yvette, "and I shold not wonder if we found a long passage right in the depths. No chance for us to explore, though, for a week or so, there are too many irons in the fire."

Extract from vintage children's book written by May Wynne and given as a Sunday School Prize to one D Asher for attendance of West Street Baptist Sunday School.

May Wynne (the pseudonym for Mabel Winifred Knowles) was born on 1 January 1885. She was involved with the mission church of St Luke’s, in  Victoria Docks and many of her books were written to raise money for this cause. She wrote 211 books between 1899 and 1954. Many of her stories have an emphasis on moral improvement.  She wrote  school stories where her schoolgirl heroines find secret passages and jewels and combat villians, pony stories where the ponies tell their own tales, science fiction under the pseudonym of Lester Lurgan. She also wrote under the name of Bryan Smith.

Sunday, 15 May 2011

Library Loot - Agatha Raisin and The Vicious Vet by M.C.Beaton

ISBN 9781845290818

Love the cover. Though I have to say the Agatha Raisen in my head doesn't look at all like that.

I have long enjoyed the writings of M.C.Beaton and after exploring the works of other authors it was wonderful to revisit an old friend.

Don't know how, but somehow or other, I managed to miss this the second of Agatha's adventures. Here she falls for the new vet, who manages to accidentially kill himself. Or does he? The demise of the vicious vet provides the perfect opportunity for Agatha to pursue Mr Lacey, one almost feels sorry for him.

If you too like Agatha Raisen you can read her biography online here

Friday, 13 May 2011

Friday Finds

This week I discovered this book via various W...W...W...Wednesday posts, several bloggers have mentioned it and I'm now pretty keen to read it myself. Unfortunately The Girl in the Steel Corset is yet to be published in the UK, so it looks like I'm in for a bit of a wait.

Friday Finds is hosted by Should be Reading

Wednesday, 11 May 2011

The Oakhill Guide Company front cover - for Shannon of Confuzzled

Felicity Keith's The Oakhill Guide Company is the book that I'm planning on reading next, as mentioned in my W...W...W...Wednesday post below. In the comments Shannon said that she wished she could see the cover so here it is. Brilliant isn't it?

W...W...W... Wednesday - 11th May

To play along, just answer the following three (3) questions…
• What are you currently reading?
• What did you recently finish reading?
• What do you think you’ll read next?
WWW Wednesdays is hosted by MizB at Should Be Reading.



I'm currently reading Rory Clements' Revenger as per my last www Wednesday

I finished reading Retreat from Murder by Marian Babson, well actually I sat and read it in one sitting, it was my last weeks Library Loot.

Next I think I'll be delving into one from the vintage bookshelf - The Oakhill Guide Company - it's a vintage childrens book written by Felicity Keith, my copy was published in 1957.

"Amid great excitement, and even some misgiving, Pamela went to Oakhill School. Oakhill is a happy place where one has many kinds of games, pleasant excursions and a care-free life. But above all, Oakhill has a guide company. Pamela becomes one of the Cornflowers.
Then comes trouble. The patrol Shield goes missing, and its disapearance almost coincides with the time of a burglary at Oakhill, when sundry valued trophies are stolen. These hapenings naturally arouse the dective instincts of Pamela and her chum, Margaret, and a mysterious cupboard takes on a new importance. When Pam and Margaret have gone only half-way through their investigations they realize how important the cupboard really is."

A mysterious cupboard, sounds wonderfully exciting doesn't it?

Tuesday, 10 May 2011

Teaser Tuesday - Agatha Christie's A Murder is Announced

"Who's been telling you that? Just because I once made Bunny an apple pie bed - and sent Mitzi a postcard saying the Gestapo were on her track -"
extract from A Murder is Announced by Agatha Christie for  Teaser Tuesdays, a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading.

Sunday, 8 May 2011

Library Loot - Retreat from Murder by Marian Babson

 ISBN 978-1841199016
Loved this one from the library. I hadn't read Marian Babson before but I will be looking out for more of her books.
Our sleuths are a group of mystery writers who live in the village of Brimful Coffers. Their peaceful life is turned upside down by visiting novelists who both use the same historical character in their books, a spate of tragic hit and run incidents, a bitchy chic- lit author and the enforced diet of Roscoe the cat.
A thouroughly entertaining Sunday afternoon read.
 


Library Loot is a weekly event co-hosted by Claire from The Captive Reader and Marg from The Adventures of an Intrepid Reader that encourages bloggers to share the books they’ve checked out from the library.

Definitive list of 1000 novels everyone should read according to The Guardian newspaper in 2009

Lucky Jim by Kingsley Amis
Money by Martin Amis
The Information by Martin Amis
The Bottle Factory Outing by Beryl Bainbridge
According to Queeney by Beryl Bainbridge
Flaubert's Parrot by Julian Barnes
A History of the World in 10 1/2 Chapters by Julian Barnes
Augustus Carp, Esq. by Himself: Being the Autobiography of a Really Good Man by Henry Howarth Bashford
Molloy by Samuel Beckett
Zuleika Dobson by Max Beerbohm
The Adventures of Augie March by Saul Bellow
The Uncommon Reader by Alan Bennett
Queen Lucia by EF Benson
The Ascent of Rum Doodle by WE Bowman
A Good Man in Africa by William Boyd
The History Man by Malcolm Bradbury
No Bed for Bacon by Caryl Brahms and SJ Simon
Illywhacker by Peter Carey
A Season in Sinji by JL Carr
The Harpole Report by JL Carr
The Hearing Trumpet by Leonora Carrington
Mister Johnson by Joyce Cary
The Horse's Mouth by Joyce Cary
Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes
The Case of the Gilded Fly by Edmund Crispin
Just William by Richmal Crompton
The Provincial Lady by EM Delafield
Slouching Towards Kalamazoo by Peter De Vries
The Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens
Martin Chuzzlewit by Charles Dickens
Jacques the Fatalist and his Master by Denis Diderot
A Fairy Tale of New York by JP Donleavy
The Commitments by Roddy Doyle
Ennui by Maria Edgeworth
Cheese by Willem Elsschot
Bridget Jones's Diary by Helen Fielding
Joseph Andrews by Henry Fielding
Tom Jones by Henry Fielding
Caprice by Ronald Firbank
Bouvard et Pécuchet by Gustave Flaubert
Towards the End of the Morning by Michael Frayn
The Polygots by William Gerhardie
Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons
Dead Souls by Nikolai Gogol
Oblomov by Ivan Goncharov
The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame
Brewster's Millions by Richard Greaves (George Barr McCutcheon)
Squire Haggard's Journal by Michael Green
Our Man in Havana by Graham Greene
Travels with My Aunt by Graham Greene
Diary of a Nobody by George Grossmith
The Little World of Don Camillo by Giovanni Guareschi
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon
Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
Mr Blandings Builds His Dream House by Eric Hodgkins
High Fidelity by Nick Hornby
I Served the King of England by Bohumil Hrabal
The Lecturer's Tale by James Hynes
Mr Norris Changes Trains by Christopher Isherwood
The Mighty Walzer Howard by Jacobson
Pictures from an Institution by Randall Jarrell
Three Men in a Boat by Jerome K Jerome
Finnegans Wake by James Joyce
The Castle by Franz Kafka
Lake Wobegon Days by Garrison Keillor
Death and the Penguin by Andrey Kurkov
The Debt to Pleasure by John Lanchester
L'Histoire de Gil Blas de Santillane (Gil Blas) Alain-René Lesage
Changing Places by David Lodge
Nice Work by David Lodge
The Towers of Trebizond by Rose Macaulay
England, Their England by AG Macdonell
Whisky Galore by Compton Mackenzie
Memoirs of a Gnostic Dwarf by David Madsen
Cakes and Ale - Or, the Skeleton in the Cupboard by W Somerset Maugham
Tales of the City by Armistead Maupin
Bright Lights, Big City by Jay McInerney
Puckoon by Spike Milligan
The Restraint of Beasts by Magnus Mills
Charade by John Mortimer
Titmuss Regained by John Mortimer
Under the Net by Iris Murdoch
Pnin by Vladimir Nabokov
Pale Fire by Vladimir Nabokov
Fireflies by Shiva Naipaul
The Sacred Book of the Werewolf by Victor Pelevin
La Disparition by Georges Perec
Les Revenentes by Georges Perec
La Vie Mode d'Emploi by Georges Perec
My Search for Warren Harding by Robert Plunkett
A Dance to the Music of Time by Anthony Powell
A Time to be Born by Dawn Powell
Excellent Women by Barbara Pym
Less Than Angels by Barbara Pym
Zazie in the Metro by Raymond Queneau
Solomon Gursky Was Here by Mordecai Richler
Alms for Oblivion by Simon Raven
Portnoy's Complaint by Philip Roth
The Westminster Alice by Saki
The Unbearable Bassington by Saki
Hurrah for St Trinian's by Ronald Searle
Great Apes by Will Self
Porterhouse Blue by Tom Sharpe
Blott on the Landscape by Tom Sharpe
Office Politics by Wilfrid Sheed
Belles Lettres Papers: A Novel by Charles Simmons
Moo by Jane Smiley
Topper Takes a Trip by Thorne Smith
The Adventures of Ferdinand Count Fathom by Tobias Smollett
The Adventures of Roderick Random by Tobias Smollett
The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle by Tobias Smollett
The Expedition of Humphry Clinker by Tobias Smollett
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark
The Girls of Slender Means by Muriel Spark
The Driver's Seat by Muriel Spark
Loitering with Intent by Muriel Spark
A Far Cry from Kensington by Muriel Spark
The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman by Laurence Sterne
White Man Falling by Mike Stocks
Handley Cross by RS Surtees
A Tale of a Tub by Jonathan Swift
Penrod by Booth Tarkington
The Luck of Barry Lyndon by William Makepeace Thackeray
Before Lunch by Angela Thirkell
Tropic of Ruislip by Leslie Thomas
A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole
Barchester Towers by Anthony Trollope
Venus on the Half-Shell by Kilgore Trout
The Mysterious Stranger by Mark Twain
The Witches of Eastwick by John Updike
Breakfast of Champions by Kurt Vonnegut
Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace
Decline and Fall by Evelyn Waugh
Vile Bodies by Evelyn Waugh
Black Mischief by Evelyn Waugh
Scoop by Evelyn Waugh
The Loved One by Evelyn Waugh
A Handful of Dust by Evelyn Waugh
The Life and Loves of a She-Devil by Fay Weldon
Tono Bungay by HG Wells
Molesworth by Geoffrey Willans and Ronald Searle
The Wimbledon Poisoner by Nigel Williams
Anglo-Saxon Attitudes by Angus Wilson
Something Fresh by PG Wodehouse
Piccadilly Jim by PG Wodehouse
Thank You Jeeves by PG Wodehouse
Heavy Weather by PG Wodehouse
The Code of the Woosters by PG Wodehouse
Joy in the Morning by PG Wodehouse
The Man with the Golden Arm by Nelson Algren
Fantomas by Marcel Allain and Pierre Souvestre
The Mask of Dimitrios by Eric Ambler
Epitaph for a Spy by Eric Ambler
Journey into Fear by Eric Ambler
The New York Trilogy by Paul Auster
Trent's Last Case by EC Bentley
The Poisoned Chocolates Case by Anthony Berkeley
The Beast Must Die by Nicholas Blake
Lady Audley's Secret by Mary E Braddon
The Neon Rain by James Lee Burke
The Tin Roof Blowdown by James Lee Burke
The Thirty-Nine Steps by John Buchan
Greenmantle by John Buchan
The Asphalt Jungle by WR Burnett
The Postman Always Rings Twice by James M Cain
Double Indemnity by James M Cain
True History of the Ned Kelly Gang by Peter Carey
The Hollow Man by John Dickson Carr
The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler
The Long Goodbye by Raymond Chandler
No Orchids for Miss Blandish by James Hadley Chase
The Riddle of the Sands by Erskine Childers
And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie
The Mysterious Affair at Styles by Agatha Christie
The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie
The Murder at the Vicarage by Agatha Christie
The Secret Adversary by Agatha Christie
The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins
The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins
A Study in Scarlet by Arthur Conan Doyle
The Hound of the Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle
The Sign of Four by Arthur Conan Doyle
The Manchurian Candidate by Richard Condon
The Secret Agent by Joseph Conrad
Under Western Eyes by Joseph Conrad
Postmortem by Patricia Cornwell
The Andromeda Strain by Michael Crichton
Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton
Poetic Justice by Amanda Cross
The Ipcress File by Len Deighton
Last Seen Wearing by Colin Dexter
The Remorseful Day by Colin Dexter
Ratking by Michael Dibdin
Dead Lagoon by Michael Dibdin
Dirty Tricks by Michael Dibdin
A Rich Full Death by Michael Dibdin
Vendetta by Michael Dibdin
Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky
An American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser
My Cousin Rachel by Daphne du Maurier
The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
The Pledge by Friedrich Durrenmatt
The Crime of Father Amado by José Maria de Eça de Queiroz
The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco
American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis
LA Confidential by James Ellroy
The Big Nowhere by James Ellroy
A Quiet Belief in Angels by RJ Ellory
Sanctuary by William Faulkner
Casino Royale by Ian Fleming
Goldfinger by Ian Fleming
You Only Live Twice by Ian Fleming
The Day of the Jackal by Frederick Forsyth
Brighton Rock by Graham Greene
A Gun for Sale by Graham Greene
The Ministry of Fear by Graham Greene
The Third Man by Graham Greene
A Time to Kill by John Grisham
The King of Torts by John Grisham
Hangover Square by Patrick Hamilton
The Glass Key by Dashiell Hammett
The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett
Red Harvest by Dashiell Hammett
The Thin Man by Dashiell Hammett
Fatherland by Robert Harris
Black Sunday by Thomas Harris
Red Dragon by Thomas Harris
Tourist Season by Carl Hiaasen
The Friends of Eddie Coyle by George V Higgins
Strangers on a Train by Patricia Highsmith
The Talented Mr Ripley by Patricia Highsmith
Bones and Silence by Reginald Hill
A Rage in Harlem by Chester Himes
Miss Smilla's Feeling for Snow by Peter Hoeg
Rogue Male by Geoffrey Household
Malice Aforethought by Francis Iles
Silence of the Grave by Arnadur Indridason
Death at the President's Lodging by Michael Innes
Cover Her Face by PD James
A Taste for Death by PD James
Friday the Rabbi Slept Late by Harry Kemelman
Misery by Stephen King
Dolores Claiborne by Stephen King
Kim by Rudyard Kipling
The Constant Gardener by John le Carre
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy by John le Carre
The Spy Who Came in from the Cold by John le Carre
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
52 Pick-up by Elmore Leonard
Get Shorty by Elmore Leonard
Motherless Brooklyn by Jonathan Lethem
The Bourne Identity by Robert Ludlum
Cop Hater by Ed McBain
No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy
Enduring Love by Ian McEwan
Sidetracked by Henning Mankell
Devil in a Blue Dress by Walter Mosley
The Great Impersonation by E Phillips Oppenheim
The Strange Borders of Palace Crescent by E Phillips Oppenheim
My Name is Red by Orhan Pamuk
Toxic Shock by Sara Paretsky
Blacklist by Sara Paretsky
Nineteen Seventy Four by David Peace
Nineteen Seventy Seven by David Peace
The Big Blowdown by George Pelecanos
Hard Revolution by George Pelecanos
Lush Life by Richard Price
The Godfather by Mario Puzo
V by Thomas Pynchon
The Crying of Lot 49 by Thomas Pynchon
Black and Blue by Ian Rankin
The Hanging Gardens by Ian Rankin
Exit Music by Ian Rankin
Judgment in Stone by Ruth Rendell
Live Flesh by Ruth Rendell
Dissolution by CJ Sansom
Whose Body? by Dorothy L Sayers
Murder Must Advertise by Dorothy Le Sayers
The Madman of Bergerac by Georges Simenon
The Blue Room by Georges Simenon
The Laughing Policeman by Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo
Gorky Park by Martin Cruz Smith
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
The League of Frightened Men by Rex Stout
Perfume by Patrick Suskind
The Secret History by Donna Tartt
The Daughter of Time by Josephine Tey
The Getaway by Jim Thompson
Pudd'nhead Wilson by Mark Twain
A Dark-Adapted Eye by Barbara Vine
A Fatal inversion by Barbara Vine
King Solomon's Carpet by Barbara Vine
The Four Just Men by Edgar Wallace
Fingersmith by Sarah Waters
Native Son by Richard Wright
Therese Raquin by Emile Zola
The Face of Another by Kobo Abe
Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
Behind the Scenes at the Museum by Kate Atkinson
Cat's Eye by Margaret Atwood
Epileptic by David B
Room Temperature by Nicholson Baker
Eugenie Grandet by Honore de Balzac
Le Pere Goriot by Honore de Balzac
The Crow Road by Iain Banks
The L Shaped Room by Lynne Reid Banks
Fun Home by Alison Bechdel
Malone Dies by Samuel Beckett
A Legacy by Sybille Bedford
Herzog by Saul Bellow
Humboldt's Gift by Saul Bellow
The Old Wives' Tale by Arnold Bennett
G by John Berger
Extinction by Thomas Bernhard
Two Serious Ladies by Jane Bowles
Any Human Heart by William Boyd
The Death of Virgil by Hermann Broch
Evelina by Fanny Burney
The Way of All Flesh by Samuel Butler
The Sound of my Voice by Ron Butlin
The Outsider by Albert Camus
Wise Children by Angela Carter
The Professor's House by Willa Cather
The Wapshot Chronicle by John Cheever
The Awakening by Kate Chopin
Les Enfants Terrible by Jean Cocteau
The Vagabond by Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette
Manservant and Maidservant by Ivy Compton-Burnett
Being Dead by Jim Crace
Quarantine by Jim Crace
The Mandarins by Simone de Beauvoir
Roxana by Daniel Defoe
Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky
My New York Diary by Julie Doucet
The Millstone by Margaret Drabble
My Family and Other Animals by Gerald Durrell
Silence by Shusaku Endo
The Gathering by Anne Enright
Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides
As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner
The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner
The Sportswriter by Richard Ford
Howards End by EM Forster
Spies by Michael Frayn
Hideous Kinky by Esther Freud
The Man of Property by John Galsworthy
Mary Barton by Elizabeth Gaskell
The Immoralist by Andre Gide
The Vatican Cellars by Andre Gide
The Vicar of Wakefield by Oliver Goldsmith
The Power and the Glory by Graham Greene
Hunger by Knut Hamsun
The Shrimp and the Anemone by LP Hartley
The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway
Steppenwolf by Herman Hesse
Narziss and Goldmund by Hermann Hesse
The Three Paradoxes by Paul Hornschemeier
Tom Brown's Schooldays by Thomas Hughes
A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving
The Ambassadors by Henry James
Washington Square by Henry James
The Tortoise and the Hare by Elizabeth Jenkins
The Unfortunates by BS Johnson
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce
Ulysses by James Joyce
Good Behaviour by Molly Keane
Memet my Hawk by Yasar Kemal
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey
The Buddha of Suburbia by Hanif Kureishi
Sons and Lovers by DH Lawrence
Cider with Rosie by Laurie Lee
Invitation to the Waltz by Rosamond Lehmann
The Golden Notebook by Doris Lessing
How Green was My Valley by Richard Llewellyn
Martin Eden by Jack London
Under the Volcano by Malcolm Lowry
The Member of the Wedding by Carson McCullers
Palace Walk by Naguib Mahfouz
The Assistant by Bernard Malamud
Buddenbrooks by Thomas Mann
The Chateau by William Maxwell
The Rector's Daughter by FM Mayor
The Ordeal of Richard Feverek by George Meredith
Family Matters by Rohinton Mistry
Sour Sweet by Timothy Mo
The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne by Brian Moore
The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison
Who Do You Think You Are? by Alice Munro
The Black Prince by Iris Murdoch
The Man Without Qualities by Robert Musil
A House for Mr Biswas by VS Naipaul
At-Swim-Two-Birds by Flann O'Brien
Teach Us to Outgrow Our Madness by Kezaburo Oe
The Moviegoer by Walker Percy
The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
My Name Is Asher Lev by Chaim Potok
The Good Companions by JB Priestley
The Shipping News by E Annie Proulx
Remembrance of Things Past by Marcel Proust
A Married Man by Piers Paul Read
Pointed Roofs by Dorothy Richardson
The Fortunes of Richard Mahoney by Henry Handel Richardson
Call it Sleep by Henry Roth
Julie, ou la Nouvelle Heloise by Jean-Jacques Rousseau
The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy
The Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger
Alberta and Jacob by Cora Sandel
A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth
Unless by Carol Shields
We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver
The Three Sisters by May Sinclair
The Family Moskat or The Manor or The Estate by Isaac Bashevis Singer
A Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley
On Beauty by Zadie Smith
The Man Who Loved Children by Christina Stead
East of Eden by John Steinbeck
Ballet Shoes by Noel Streatfield
Confessions of Zeno by Italo Svevo
The Magnificent Ambersons by Booth Tarkington
Angel by Elizabeth Taylor
Lark Rise to Candleford by Flora Thompson
The Blackwater Lightship by Colm Toibin
The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, Aged 13 3/4 by Sue Townsend
Death in Summer by William Trevor
Fathers and Sons by Ivan Turgenev
Peace in War by Miguel de Unamuno
The Rabbit Omnibus by John Updike
The Color Purple by Alice Walker
Jimmy Corrigan, The Smarest Kid on Earth by Chris Ware
Morvern Callar by Alan Warner
The History of Mr Polly by HG Wells
The Fountain Overflows by Rebecca West
Frost in May by Antonia White
The Tree of Man by Patrick White
The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit by Jeanette Winterson
I'll Go to Bed at Noon by Gerard Woodward
To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf
Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolf
Swiss Family Robinson by Johann David Wyss
Le Grand Meaulnes by Henri Alain-Fournier
Dom Casmurro Joaquim by Maria Machado de Assis
Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen
Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
Mansfield Park by Jane Austen
Emma by Jane Austen
Persuasion by Jane Austen
Giovanni's Room by James Baldwin
Nightwood by Djuna Barnes
The Garden of the Finzi-Cortinis by Giorgio Bassani
Love for Lydia by HE Bates
More Die of Heartbreak by Saul Bellow
Lorna Doone by RD Blackmore
The Death of the Heart by Elizabeth Bowen
The Heat of the Day by Elizabeth Bowen
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
Vilette by Charlotte Bronte
Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
Look At Me by Anita Brookner
Rubyfruit Jungle by Rita Mae Brown
Possession by AS Byatt
Breakfast at Tiffany's by Truman Capote
Oscar and Lucinda by Peter Carey
A Month in the Country by JL Carr
My Antonia by Willa Cather
A Lost Lady by Willa Cather
Claudine a l'ecole by Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette
Cheri by Sidonie-Gabrielle Collette
Victory: An Island Tale by Joseph Conrad
The Princess of Cleves by Madame de Lafayette
The Parasites by Daphne du Maurier
Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
The Lover by Marguerite Duras
Adam Bede by George Eliot
Daniel Deronda by George Eliot
The Mill on the Floss by George Eliot
The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides
The Great Gatsby by F Scott Fitzgerald
Tender is the Night by F Scott Fitzgerald
The Blue Flower by Penelope Fitzgerald
Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert
The Good Soldier by Ford Madox Ford
A Room with a View by EM Forster
The French Lieutenant's Woman by John Fowles
The Snow Goose by Paul Gallico
Ruth by Elizabeth Gaskell
Strait is the Gate by Andre Gide
Sunset Song by Lewis Grassic Gibbon
The Sorrows of Young Werther by Johann Wolfgang Goethe
Living by Henry Green
The End of the Affair by Graham Greene
The Well of Loneliness by Radclyffe Hall
Far From the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy
Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy
Tess of the D'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy
The Woodlanders by Thomas Hardy
The Go-Between by LP Hartley
The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
The Transit of Venus by Shirley Hazzard
A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway
The Infamous Army by Georgette Heyer
Regency Buck by Georgette Heyer
The Swimming-Pool Library by Alan Hollinghurst
Green Mansions: A Romance of the Tropical Forest by WH Hudson
Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
Crome Yellow by Aldous Huxley
The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro
Portrait of a Lady by Henry James
The Wings of the Dove by Henry James
The Piano Teacher by Elfriede Jelinek
Beauty and Saddness by Yasunari Kawabata
The Far Pavillions by Mary Margaret Kaye
Zorba the Greek by Nikos Kazantzakis
Moon over Africa by Pamela Kent
The Book of Laughter and Forgetting by Milan Kundera
The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera
Les Liaisons Dangereuses by Pierre-Ambroise-Francois Choderlos de Laclos
Lady Chatterley's Lover by DH Lawrence
The Rainbow by DH Lawrence
Women in Love by DH Lawrence
The Echoing Grove by Rosamond Lehmann
The Weather in the Streets by Rosamond Lehmann
Gentlemen Prefer Blondes by Anita Loos
Zami by Audre Lorde
Foreign Affairs by Alison Lurie
Samarkand by Amin Maalouf
Death in Venice by Thomas Mann
The Silent Duchess by Dacia Maraini
A Heart So White by Javier Marias
Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Of Human Bondage by Somerset Maugham
So Long, See you Tomorrow by William Maxwell
The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers
Atonement by Ian McEwan
The Child in Time by Ian McEwan
The Egoist by George Meredith
Tropic of Cancer by Henry Miller
Patience and Sarah by Isabel Miller
Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
The Pursuit of Love by Nancy Mitford
Love in a Cold Climate by Nancy Mitford
Arturo's Island by Elsa Morante
Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami
Lolita, or the Confessions of a White Widowed Male by Vladimir Nabokov
The Painter of Signs by RK Narayan
Delta of Venus by Anais Nin
All Souls Day by Cees Nooteboom
The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje
Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak
Manon Lescaut by Abbe Prevost
Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys
Maurice Guest by Henry Handel Richardson
Pamela by Samuel Richardson
Clarissa by Samuel Richardson
Gilead by Marilynne Robinson
Bonjour Tristesse by Francoise Sagan
Ali and Nino by Kurban Said
Light Years by James Salter
A Sport and a Passtime by James Salter
The Reader by Benhardq Schlink
The Reluctant Orphan by Aara Seale
Love Story by Eric Segal
Enemies, a Love Story by Isaac Bashevis Singer
At Grand Central Station I Sat Down and Wept by Elizabeth Smart
I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith
The Map of Love by Ahdaf Soueif
Valley of the Dolls by Jacqueline Susann
Waterland by Graham Swift
Diary of a Mad Old Man by Junichiro Tanizaki
Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
Music and Silence by Rose Tremain
First Love by Ivan Turgenev
Breathing Lessons by Anne Tyler
The Accidental Tourist by Anne Tyler
The Night Watch by Sarah Waters
The Graduate by Charles Webb
The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton
The Passion by Jeanette Winterson
East Lynne by Ellen Wood
Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates
The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
Non-Stop by Brian W Aldiss
Foundation by Isaac Asimov
The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood
The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
In the Country of Last Things by Paul Auster
The Drowned World by JG Ballard
Crash by JG Ballard
Millennium People by JG Ballard
The Wasp Factory by Iain Banks
Consider Phlebas by Iain M Banks
Weaveworld by Clive Barker
Darkmans by Nicola Barker
The Time Ships by Stephen Baxter
Darwin's Radio by Greg Bear
Vathek by William Beckford
The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
Lost Souls by Poppy Z Brite
Wieland by Charles Brockden Brown
Rogue Moon by Algis Budrys
The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov
The Coming Race by EGEL Bulwer-Lytton
A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
The End of the World News by Anthony Burgess
A Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs
Naked Lunch by William Burroughs
Kindred by Octavia Butler
Erewhon by Samuel Butler
The Baron in the Trees by Italo Calvino
The Influence by Ramsey Campbell
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There by Lewis Carroll
Nights at the Circus by Angela Carter
The Passion of New Eve by Angela Carter
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon
The Man who was Thursday by GK Chesterton
Childhood's End by Arthur C Clarke
Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke
Hello Summer, Goodbye by Michael G Coney
Girlfriend in a Coma by Douglas Coupland
House of Leaves by Mark Danielewski
Pig Tales by Marie Darrieussecq
The Einstein Intersection by Samuel R Delaney
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K Dick
The Man in the High Castle by Philip K Dick
Camp Concentration by Thomas M Disch
Foucault's Pendulum by Umberto Eco
Under the Skin by Michel Faber
The Magus by John Fowles
American Gods by Neil Gaiman
Red Shift by Alan Garner
Neuromancer by William Gibson
Herland by Charlotte Perkins Gilman
Lord of the Flies by William Golding
The Forever War by Joe Haldeman
Light by M John Harrison
The House of the Seven Gables by Nathaniel Hawthorne
Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert A Heinlein
Dune by Frank L Herbert
The Glass Bead Game by Herman Hesse
Riddley Walker by Russell Hoban
The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner by James Hogg
Atomised by Michel Houellebecq
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
The Unconsoled by Kazuo Ishiguro
The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson
The Turn of the Screw by Henry James
The Children of Men by PD James
After London; or, Wild England by Richard Jefferies
Bold as Love by Gwyneth Jones
The Trial by Franz Kafka
Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes
The Shining by Stephen King
The Victorian Chaise-longue by Marghanita Laski
Uncle Silas by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu
The Earthsea Series by Ursula Le Guin
The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula Le Guin
Solaris by Stanislaw Lem
Memoirs of a Survivor by Doris Lessing
The Chronicles of Narnia by CS Lewis
The Monk by Matthew Lewis
A Voyage to Arcturus by David Lindsay
The Night Sessions by Ken Macleod
Beyond Black by Hilary Mantel
Only Forward by Michael Marshall Smith
I Am Legend by Richard Matheson
Melmoth the Wanderer by Charles Maturin
The Butcher Boy by Patrick McCabe
The Road by Cormac McCarthy
Ascent by Jed Mercurio
The Scar by China Mieville
Ingenious Pain by Andrew Miller
A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M Miller Jr
Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell
Mother London by Michael Moorcock
News from Nowhere by William Morris
Beloved by Toni Morrison
The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami
Ada or Ardor by Vladimir Nabokov
The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
Ringworld by Larry Niven
Vurt by Jeff Noon
The Third Policeman by Flann O'Brien
The Famished Road by Ben Okri
Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell
Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk
Nightmare Abbey by Thomas Love Peacock
Titus Groan by Mervyn Peake
The Space Merchants by Frederik Pohl and CM Kornbluth
A Glastonbury Romance by John Cowper Powys
The Discworld Series by Terry Pratchett
The Prestige by Christopher Priest
His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman
Gargantua and Pantagruel by Francois Rabelais
The Mysteries of Udolpho by Ann Radcliffe
Revelation Space by Alastair Reynolds
The Years of Rice and Salt by Kim Stanley Robinson
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone by JK Rowling
Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie
The Female Man by Joanna Russ
Air by Geoff Ryman
The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupery
Blindness by Jose Saramago
How the Dead Live by Will Self
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
Hyperion by Dan Simmons
Star Maker by Olaf Stapledon
Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson
The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson
Dracula by Bram Stoker
The Insult by Rupert Thomson
The Hobbit by JRR Tolkien
The Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court by Mark Twain
Sirens of Titan by Kurt Vonnegut
The Castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole
Institute Benjamenta by Robert Walser
Lolly Willowes by Sylvia Townsend Warner
Affinity by Sarah Waters
The Time Machine by HG Wells
The War of the Worlds by HG Wells
The Sword in the Stone by TH White
The Old Men at the Zoo by Angus Wilson
The Book of the New Sun by Gene Wolfe
Orlando by Virginia Woolf
Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham
The Midwich Cuckoos by John Wyndham
We by Yevgeny Zamyatin
Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
Anthills of the Savannah by Chinua Achebe
London Fields by Martin Amis
Untouchable by Mulk Raj Anand
Go Tell it on the Mountain by James Baldwin
La Comedie Humaine by Honore de Balzac
They Were Counted by Miklos Banffy
A Kind of Loving by Stan Barstow
Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe
Oroonoko, or The Royal Slave by Aphra Behn
Clayhanger by Arnold Bennett
The Last September by Elizabeth Bowen
Room at the Top by John Braine
A Dry White Season by Andre Brink
Shirley by Charlotte Bronte
Earthly Powers by Anthony Burgess
The Virgin in the Garden by AS Byatt
Tobacco Road by Erskine Caldwell
The Plague by Albert Camus
The Kingdom of this World by Alejo Carpentier
What a Carve Up! by Jonathan Coe
Disgrace by JM Coetzee
Waiting for the Barbarians by JM Coeztee
Microserfs by Douglas Coupland
Moll Flanders by Daniel Defoe
Underworld by Don DeLillo
White Noise by Don DeLillo
A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
Bleak House by Charles Dickens
Dombey and Son by Charles Dickens
Hard Times by Charles Dickens
Little Dorritt by Charles Dickens
Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens
Play It As It Lays by Joan Didion
Sybil or The Two Nations by Benjamin Disraeli
Berlin Alexanderplatz by Alfred Döblin
The Book of Daniel by EL Doctorow
Notes from the Underground by Fyodor Dostoevsky
The Idiot by Fyodor Dostoevsky
USA by John Dos Passos
Sister Carrie by Theodor Dreiser
Castle Rackrent by Maria Edgeworth
Middlemarch by George Eliot
Silas Marner by George Eliot
The Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison
Sentimental Education by Gustave Flaubert
Effi Briest by Theodore Fontane
Independence Day by Richard Ford
A Passage to India by EM Forster
The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen
The Recognitions by William Gaddis
Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell
North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell
The Counterfeiters by Andre Gide
The Odd Women by George Gissing
New Grub Street by George Gissing
July's People by Nadine Gordimer
Mother by Maxim Gorky
Lanark by Alastair Gray
Love on the Dole by Walter Greenwood
The Mayor of Casterbridge by Thomas Hardy
A Kestrel for a Knave by Barry Hines
The Line of Beauty by Alan Hollinghurst
South Riding by Winifred Holtby
Les Miserables by Victor Hugo
Goodbye to Berlin by Christopher Isherwood
Chronicle in Stone by Ismael Kadare
How Late it Was, How Late by James Kelman
The Leopard by Giuseppi di Lampedusa
A Girl in Winter by Philip Larkin
Passing by Nella Larsen
The Grass is Singing by Doris Lessing
Babbitt by Sinclair Lewis
Elmer Gantry by Sinclair Lewis
Main Street by Sinclair Lewis
Absolute Beginners by Colin MacInnes
The Group by Mary McCarthy
Amongst Women by John McGahern
The Posthumous Memoirs of Bras Cubas by Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis
Of Love & Hunger by Julian Maclaren-Ross
Remembering Babylon by David Malouf
The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann
The Betrothed by Alessandro Manzoni
Bel-Ami by Guy de Maupassant
A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry
The Time of Indifference by Alberto Moravia
A Bend in the River by VS Naipaul
McTeague by Frank Norris
Personality by Andrew O'Hagan
Animal Farm by George Orwell
The Ragazzi Pier by Paolo Pasolini
Cry, the Beloved Country by Alan Paton
The Moon and the Bonfire by Cesare Pavese
GB84 by David Peace
Headlong Hall by Thomas Love Peacock
Afternoon Men by Anthony Powell
Vineland by Thomas Pynchon
The Radetzky March by Joseph Roth
American Pastoral by Philip Roth
The Human Stain by Philip Roth
Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie
Shame by Salman Rushdie
To Each his Own by Leonardo Sciascia
Staying On by Paul Scott
Last Exit to Brooklyn by Hubert Selby Jr
The Lonely Londoners by Samuel Selvon
God's Bit of Wood by Ousmane Sembene
The Case of Comrade Tulayev by Victor Serge
Richshaw Boy by Lao She
Saturday Night and Sunday Morning by Alan Sillitoe
The Jungle by Upton Sinclair
Novel on Yellow Paper by Stevie Smith
White Teeth by Zadie Smith
One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovtich by Alexandr Solzhenitsyn
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
The Red and the Black by Stendhal
This Sporting Life by David Storey
The Red Room by August Stringberg
The Home and the World by Rabindranath Tagore
Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray
The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists by Robert Tressell
The Last Chronicle of Barset by Anthony Trollope
The Way We Live Now by Anthony Trollope
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
Couples by John Updike
Z by Vassilis Vassilikos
Billy Liar by Keith Waterhouse
Trainspotting by Irvine Welsh
The Day of the Locust by Nathanael West
The Return of the Soldier by Rebecca West
The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton
The Bonfire of the Vanities by Tom Wolfe
Germinal by Emile Zola
La Bete Humaine by Emile Zola
Silver Stallion by Junghyo Ahn
Death of a Hero by Richard Aldington
Master Georgie by Beryl Bainbridge
Darkness Falls from the Air by Nigel Balchin
Empire of the Sun by JG Ballard
Regeneration by Pat Barker
A Long Long Way by Sebastian Barry
Fair Stood the Wind for France by HE Bates
Carrie's War by Nina Bawden
The Savage Detectives by Roberto Bolano
The Sheltering Sky by Paul Bowles
An Ice-Cream War by William Boyd
When the Wind Blows by Raymond Briggs
Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino
Auto-da-Fe by Elias Canetti
One of Ours by Willa Cather
Journey to the End of the Night by Louis-Ferdinand Celine
Monkey by Wu Ch'eng-en
Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
Lord Jim by Joseph Conrad
Nostromo by Joseph Conrad
Sharpe's Eagle by Bernard Cornwell
The History of Pompey the Little by Francis Coventry
The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane
Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe
Bomber by Len Deighton
Deliverance by James Dickey
Three Soldiers by John Dos Passos
South Wind by Norman Douglas
The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas
Justine by Lawrence Durrell
The Bamboo Bed by William Eastlake
The Siege of Krishnapur by JG Farrell
Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks
Parade's End by Ford Madox Ford
The African Queen by CS Forester
The Ship by CS Forester
Flashman by George MacDonald Fraser
Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier
The Beach by Alex Garland
To The Ends of the Earth trilogy by William Golding
Asterix the Gaul by Rene Goscinny
The Tin Drum by Gunter Grass
Count Belisarius by Robert Graves
Life and Fate by Vassily Grossman
De Niro's Game by Rawi Hage
King Solomon's Mines by H Rider Haggard
She: A History of Adventure by H Rider Haggard
The Slaves of Solitude by Patrick Hamilton
Covenant with Death by John Harris
Enigma by Robert Harris
The Good Soldier Svejk by Jaroslav Hasek
For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway
The Prisoner of Zenda by Anthony Hope
The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
A High Wind in Jamaica by Richard Hughes
Rasselas by Samuel Johnson
From Here to Eternity by James Jones
Andersonville by MacKinlay Kantor
Confederates by Thomas Keneally
Schindler's Ark by Thomas Keneally
Day by AL Kennedy
On the Road by Jack Kerouac
Darkness at Noon by Arthur Koestler
The Painted Bird by Jerzy Kosinski
If Not Now, When? by Primo Levi
The Call of the Wild by Jack London
The Guns of Navarone by Alistair MacLean
All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy
Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy
The Mark of Zorro by Johnston McCulley
Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurty
The Naked and the Dead by Norman Mailer
La Condition Humaine by Andre Malraux
Fortunes of War by Olivia Manning
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
The Children of the New Forest by Frederick Marryat
Moby-Dick or, The Whale by Herman Melville
Tales of the South Pacific by James Michener
The Cruel Sea by Nicholas Monsarrat
History by Elsa Morante
Suite Francaise by Irene Nemirovsky
The Sorrow of War by Bao Ninh
Master and Commander by Patrick O'Brian
The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien
The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Emmuska Orczy
Burmese Days by George Orwell
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert Pirsig
The Valley of Bones by Anthony Powell
The Soldier's Art by Anthony Powell
The Military Philosophers by Anthony Powell
Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon
The Surprising Adventures of Baron Munchausen by Rudolp Erich Raspe
All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque
The Crab with the Golden Claws by Georges Remi Herge
Tintin in Tibet by Georges Remi Herge
The Castafiore Emerald by Georges Remi Herge
The Devil to Pay in the Backlands by Joao Guimaraes Rosa
Sacaramouche by Rafael Sabatini
Captain Blood by Rafael Sabatini
Everything is Illuminated by Jonathon Safran Foer
The Hunters by James Salter
Ivanhoe by Sir Walter Scott
The Rings of Saturn by WG Sebald
Austerlitz by WG Sebald
Black Beauty by Anna Sewell
The Young Lions by Irwin Shaw
A Town Like Alice by Nevil Shute
Maus by Art Spiegelman
The Charterhouse of Parma by Stendhal
Cryptonomicon by Neil Stephenson
A Sentimental Journey by Lawrence Sterne
Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson
Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson
A Flag for Sunrise by Robert Stone
Sophie's Choice by William Styron
Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift
War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
Around the World in Eighty Days by Jules Verne
A Journey to the Centre of the Earth by Jules Verne
Williwaw by Gore Vidal
Candide by Voltaire
Slaughter-House Five by Kurt Vonnegut
Put Out More Flags by Evelyn Waugh
Men at Arms by Evelyn Waugh
The Island of Dr Moreau by HG Wells
The Machine-Gunners by Robert Westall
Voss by Patrick White
The Virginian by Owen Wister
The Caine Mutiny by Herman Wouk
The Debacle by Emile Zola

List of 1000 novels selected by The Guardian's Review team and a panel of judges.
Source

Friday, 6 May 2011

Friday Finds - Georgette Heyer

 This week I found some wonderful Georgette Heyer vintage paperbacks published by Great Pan, they have fabulous covers.
 The Talisman Ring

Love - "I have often wanted to know what he did that was so wicked," she said. "It is a mystery and I think very romantic."

Robbery - "There is no mystery", said Shield, "nor is it in the least romantic. Ludovic was a wild young man who crowned a series of follies with murder."

Murder - "A full-blooded 18th Century romance, this exciting story of the tracking-down of a master criminal is told with all the verve of a modern dective story".

 The Foundling

"The young Duke of Sale breaks loose from his mollycoddling guardian and servants ... and plunges into a new and dangerous world when he meets the beautiful foundling, Belinda - decoy for a ruthless blackmailer."

Friday's Child

"I'll marry the first female I see!"

"Rejected by the incomparable Isabella, finished with love, but desperately anxious to obtain his inheritance, young Lord Sheringham determines on a marriage of convenience!

And the first woman he sees is the adorably unsophisticated Hero Wantage, who has loved hiim since childhood..."

I've actually read these Georgette Heyer stories so these are probably destined for my shop as a bundle, I love book bundles I think they make wonderful gifts for friends.

Friday Finds is a meme hosted by Should be Readinghttp://shouldbereading.wordpress.com/

Thursday, 5 May 2011

A Book For Every Week of the Year

"You can never have too many books. Mine are in great piles covering the floor,
so the fact that I haven't yet had a book-related accident is extraordinary.
Food and books give sustenance - I become less myself if I don't read - and
just as there is an overlap in my life between cooking and writing, there's another similarity
between reading and eating.The lure of a good novel is as much of a pleasure as a box of
delicious chocolates. But I don't always have enough time to read, so perhaps it's not so
much the books I wish for as the time to read them, and to reread my favourites, as well:
Persuasion by Jane Austen, any Nancy Mitford, Little Women by Louisa May
Alcott, and I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith."

Nigella Lawson's 11th Christmas wish as shared with Justine Picardie in the December 2010 issue of Red magazine.

Wednesday, 4 May 2011

W...W...W... Wednesday

WWW Wednesdays is hosted by MizB at Should Be Reading.  To play along just answer the following three questions:

  • What are you currently reading?
  • What did you recently finish reading?
  • What do you think you'll read next?
     
    Okay so I'm currently reading Beverly Nichols Down the Garden Path as mentioned in my previous post and very amusing it is too. My copy is vintage 1940.


    I recently finished reading After the Armistice Ball by Catriona McPherson, which I thoroughly enjoyed.

    Next I think I'll read Rory Clements' Revenger, I read his first John Shakespeare Martyr and am looking forward to the next adventure.

Teaser Tuesday- Down the Garden Path by Beverly Nichols

"The other feminine gardening sin from which I exempted Miss W. wasthe sin of excessive tidiness.Nobody could possibly accuse her of that! At all times of the year, her garden looks like aroom which the maid has forgotten to tidy up after a particularly wild cocktail party."

extract from Down the Garden Path by Beverly Nichols for  Teaser Tuesdays, a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading.

Saturday, 30 April 2011

Mabel Esther Allan


Mabel Esther Allan , 11 February 1915 – 14 May 1998,  was a prolific author of some 180 books and 300 short stories. Not only in her own name but also as Jean Estoril, Anne Pilgrim and Priscilla Hagon.
Mabel had decided at the age of eight to be an author, fortunately her parents took her seriously and gave her a large office desk and typewriter. She used to desk for the rest of her life. Mabel was a land girl during the war, she also taught in both a nursery in Liverpool and a prep school. Her first book was published in 1948.
Bibliography

As Mabel Esther Allan

The Adventurous Summer (1948)
Glen Castle Mystery (1948)
The Wyndhams Went to Wales (1948)
Cilla of Chiltern's Edge (1949)
Holiday at Arnriggs (1949)
Mullion (1949)
Trouble at Melville Manor (1949)
Chiltern Adventure (1950)
Everyday Island (1950)
Jimmy John's Journey (1950)
Over the Sea to School (1950)
School Under Snowdon (1950)
The Exciting River (1951)
Clues to Connemara (1952)
MacIains of Glen Gilleon (1952)
Return to Derrykereen (1952)
School in Danger, A (1952)
The School on Cloud Ridge (1952)
The School on North Barrule (1952)
Lucia Comes to School (1953)
Room for the Cuckoo (1953)
The Secret Valley (1953)
Strangers at Brogwerne (1953)
Three go to Switzerland (1953)
Adventure Royal (1954)
Here We Go Round (1954)
Margaret Finds a Future (1954)
Meric's Secret Cottage (1954)
New Schools for Old (1954)
The Summer at Town's End (1954)
Adventures in Switzerland (1955)
Changes for the Challoners (1955)
Glenvara (1955)
Judith Teaches (1955)
Mystery of Deddydane (1955)
Swiss School (1955)
Adventure in Mayo (1956)
The Amber House (1956)
Balconies and Blue Nets (1956)
Flora at Kilroinn (1956)
Lost Lorrenden (1956)
Strangers in Skye (1956)
Two in the Western Isles (1956)
The Vine Clad Hill (1956)
Ann's Alpine Adventure (1957)
At School in Skye (1957)
Black Forest Summer (1957)
Murder at the Flood (1957)
Sara Goes to Germany (1957)
Seven in Switzerland (1957)
Summer of Decision (1957)
Blue Dragon Days (1958)
The Conch Shell (1958)
The House by the Marsh (1958)
Rachel Tandy (1958)
Amanda Goes to Italy (1959)
Catrin in Wales (1959)
A Play to the Festival (1959)
Shadow over the Alps (1960)
A Summer in Brittany (1960)
Tansy of Tring Street (1960)
Bluegate Girl (1961)
Holiday of Endurance (1961)
Pendron Under the Water (1961)
Home to the Island (1962)
Signpost to Switzerland (1962)
The Ballet Family (1963)
Kate Comes to England (1963)
The Sign of the Unicorn (1963)
The Ballet Family Again (1964)
Fiona on the Fourteenth Floor (1964)
It Happened in Arles (1964)
Summer at Sea, A (1965)
In Pursuit of Clarinda (1966)
Skiing to Danger (1966)
The Way Over Windle (1966)
It Started in Madeira (1967)
Missing in Manhattan (1967)
Selina's New Family (1967)
The Wood Street Secret (1968)
Climbing to Danger (1969)
The Kraymer Mystery (1969)
Christmas at Spindle Bottom (1970)
Dangerous Inheritance (1970)
The Wood Street Group (1970)
The May Day Mystery (1971)
The Secret Dancer (1971)
The Wood Street Rivals (1971)
An Island in a Green Sea (1972)
Behind the Blue Gates (1972)
Time to Go Back (1972)
The Wood Street Helpers (1973)
A Chill in the Lane (1974)
Crows Nest (1974)
The Secret Players (1974)
Ship of Danger (1974)
Away from Wood Street (1975)
The Bells of Rome (1975)
Bridge of Friendship (1975)
The Flash Children (1975)
Romansgrove (1975)
The Rising Tide (1976)
Trouble in the Glen (1976)
My Family's Not Forever (1977)
The View Beyond My Father (1977)
Pine Street Pageant (1978)
New York for Nicola (1979)
Tomorrow is a Lovely Day (1979)
Wood Street and Mary Ellen (1979)
The Mills Down Below (1980)
Pine Street Goes Camping (1980)
Haunted Valley and Other poems (1981)
The Horns of Danger (1981)
Pine Street Problem (1981)
A Strange Enchantment (1981)
Strangers in Wood Street (1981)
Goodbye to Pine Street (1982)
Growing Up in Wood Street (1982)
The Night Wind (1982)
Alone at Pine Street (1983)
The Crumble Lane Adventure (1983)
A Dream of Hunger Moss (1983)
Friends at Pine Street (1984)
A Secret in Spindle Bottom (1984)
The Flash Children in Winter (1985)
The Pride of Pine Street (1985)
The Crumble Lane Captives (1986)
Mystery in Spindle Bottom (1986)
The Road to Huntingland (1986)
The Crumble Lane Mystery (1987)
Trouble in Crumble Lane (1987)
Up the Victorian Staircase (1987)
First Term at Ash Grove (1988)
We Danced in Bloomsbury Square (1989)
Chiltern School (1990)
Mystery of Serafina (1990)
Ragged Robin Began It (1993)
Way to Glen Braden (1993)
Cat off a Barrow (1994)

As Jean Estoril

Ballet for Drina (1957)
Drina's Dancing Year (1958)
Drina Dances in Exile (1959)
Drina Dances in Italy (1959)
Drina Dances Again (1960)
Drina Dances in New York (1961)
Drina Dances in Paris (1962)
Drina Dances in Madeira (1963)
Drina Dances in Switzerland (1963)
Drina Goes on Tour (1964)
Drina Ballerina (1991)

As Anne Pilgrim

Clare goes to Holland (1964)
First Time I Saw Paris (1964)
Strangers in New York (1964)
Summer in Provence (1964)

As Priscilla Hagon

Cruising to Danger (1966)
Dancing to Danger (1967)
Mystery at the Villa Bianca (1967)
Castle of Fear (1968)
Mystery of the Secret Square (1970)

Black Forest Summer by Mabel Esther Allan is available to purchase from the shop, The Vintage Bookshelf.

Tuesday, 26 April 2011

Jolly Good Reading List

The Diary Of A Provincial Lady - E M Delafield
Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
I Capture The Castle - Dodie Smith
Frenchman's Creek - Daphne du Maurier
ABC Murders - Agatha Christie
A Room With A View - E M Forster
A Box Of Delights - John Masefield
Mapp and Lucia - E F Benson

And for childhood memories

Milly Molly Mandy - Joyce Lankester Brisley
The Faraway Tree - Enid Blyton
Famous Five Mysteries - Enid Blyton
Ballet Shoes - Noel Streatfeild
Little Women - Louisa M Alcott

from Milly & Dottie