some of my favourite books...

so a colleague from work asked me for a list of some of my favourite books as she is about tohave 3 weeks leave, and following dining at my place earlier this week and admiring my book collection, she figured, of all people, i would have some good recommendations...so last night, after i'd broken out of my bathroom (long story, for another post as it was actually quite frightening) i did a bit of a journey through my 2 book cases and came up with the following list:

The Sea The Sea by Iris Murdoch (she told me she'd never heard of Iris - find that hard to believe somehow!)
Falling Leaves by Adeline Yen Mah
Kafka By the Shore by Haruki Murakami (actually anything by him)
Brooklyn Follies by Paul Auster (or again, anything by him!)
The Way I Found Her by Rose Tremain
The Bride Stripped Bare by anonymous
Unless by Carol Shields (just about anything actually by Carol, great writer)
Behind the Scenes at the Museum by Kate Atkinson
How the Light Gets In by M J Hyland
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden
The Falls or Middle Age by Joyce Carol Oates (most of her books are fabulous)
The Sea by John Banville (ordinarily don't like him but this is beautifully written and won the Man Booker Prize in 2005)
Jasper Jones by Craig Silvey (quintessentially Australian)
The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera (stunning)
Breath by Tim Winton (don't love all of his books, but this is beautiful)
Tully by Paulina Simons
The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid (loved this)
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee (if you haven't read it's a must, as is The Great Gatsby!)
Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt (excellent read);
Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon

Of course I forgot to add a number of other favourites:
The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini (truly one of the most moving books I've ever read)
What I Loved by Siri Hustvedt (her and Paul Auster are married - both amazing writers)
Just about anything by Margaret Atwood but in particular, favourites are: Alias Grace, Cats Eye, Robber Bride, Lady Oracle...

Of course one can't really go past Gabriel Garcia Marquez or Paulo Coehlo, and the odd read by Louis de Bernieres also good... Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert (don't really like her stuff but this really found me at a time when I needed it most)

Typically the booker prize winner (and various of the short and long listed books) often make a stunning read - winners I've really enjoyed include: The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga 2008 The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai 2006 The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes 2011 The Blind Assasin by Margaret Atwood (2000 - one of her best)

Alice Munro also good and Alice Hoffman good to escape - love her work, always leaves me wanting more: Blue Diary, River King, Here on Earth, Local Girls, Probable Future etc

Ok, well my stroll down memory library must come to an end....

Happy reading :-)