Great Reads
Novels
A Thousand Splendid Suns
By Khaled Hosseini
Novels
An unforgettable insight into a wounded country - Afghanistan. It is a heart wrenching story of life under the Taliban rule seen from the perspective of fifteen year old Mariam who is sent to Kabul to marry a troubled and bitter man thirty years her senior. It follows her story for two decades until Rasheed takes another wife and the relationship that develops between the two women. Only the hardest of hearts could fail to be moved by the book.
City of Falling Angels
By John Berendt
Novels
A breathtaking insight into the beauty, corruption and failings of the city of Venice after the destruction of the Fenice Theatre - it is a true story written as a ?page turner? novel. Berendt has a wonderful style which captivates the reader from the first page. It outlines the power struggle between the city and the rest of the world who looks on it as a fundraising battleground rather than a living breathing city.
Frankenstein
By Mary Shelley
Novels
This book brings to life scenes of nightmarish power and arrogance.ÿ Dr. Victor Frankenstein must pay the price for his desire to play God and ?create? another living being. Mary Shelley produced a gripping and spine-chilling classic in the Gothic genre.
Moth Smoke
By Mohsin Hamid
Novels
A steamy and often darkly amusing book about sex, drugs and class war in postcolonial Asia.
One Thousand White Women
By Jim Fergus
Novels
Based on an actual historical event but told through the fictional diaries of May Dodd. This is a fascinating story of her journey west as she takes part in the ?Brides for Indians? scheme. A scheme devised in secret to pacify the Cheyenne Nation by supplying a thousand willing women to become wives of warriors ? under Cheyenne law the children belong to the mother?s tribe and they would be taught the ways of the white man.
The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas
By John Boyne
Novels
Bruno is nine years old, and the Nazis’ horrific Final Solution to the ‘Jewish Problem’ means nothing to him. He's completely unaware of the barbarity of Germany under Hitler but then he meets a boy called Shmuel who lives a very different life from him.
The Help
By Kathryn Stockett
Novels
Enter a vanished and unjust world: Jackson, A Mississippi, 1962. Where black maids raise white children, but aren't trusted not to steal the silver...
The Island
By Victoria Hislop
Novels
A touching story of passion, love and sacrifice against the background of the small island of Spinalonga - Greece?s former leper colony.ÿ Alexis longs to find out about her past but her mother has never spoken of it.ÿ She goes to Crete to find out the secrets buried beneath the silence and the history of her grandmother and a family torn apart by tragedy, war and people?s fear of this biblical disease.
The Jeeves Omnibus No.1.
Sir P G Wodehouse
Novels
Luckily for us, Bertie Wooster manages to retain Jeeves’s services through all the vicissitudes of purple socks and policemen’s helmets. Gathered together for the first time, is an omnibus of Jeeves novels and stories.
The Lady in Blue
By Javier Sierra
Novels
A closely woven novel of intrigue surrounding one of history?s most enduring legends ? the enigma of The Lady in Blue. The well documented story of how a lady dressed in blue appeared to the Jumano Native American tribe in New Mexico to convert them to Christianity before the arrival of the Spanish missionaries.ÿ This is a haunting and evocative tale of the triumph of modern spirit over the 400 year old conspiracy.
The Lollipop Shoes
By Joanne Harris
Novels
If you enjoyed Chocolat then this is the book for you.ÿ It tells the story of Vianne and Anouke now they have come to live in Paris.ÿ Into their lives blows Zozie de l?Alba, a girl with a secret who will change their lives.ÿ Will they flee yet again?
The Other Side of the Bridge
By Mary Lawson
Novels
A story of family relationships ? Arthur and Jake are brothers who are very different. Arthur is quiet, shy and set to inherit the family farm ? Jake is feckless and a dangerous man to know.ÿ The arrival of Laura in their small town community splits the brothers and the uneasy relationship is driven to breaking point.
