10 Great Reads During Lockdown
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Emerge a ‘new’ you after lockdown having garnered extra knowledge, an insight in to your own emotions, or acquired a new dream - here’s what you should be reading.
Beck’s mum Jack has joined us to pull this must-read list together. A self confessed bookworm, Jack is a member of numerous reading clubs and always has a number of books in the go! There is a mixture of fiction, non-fiction, feminist, contemporary and the classics to get your teeth in to. Let us know how you get on in the comments below!
We’ve partnered up with Waterstones, so click any of the titles and images to go straight through to buy the book and read more reviews.
“Reading gives us someplace to go when we have to stay where we are”
No.1 Normal People
A Sunday Times number one bestseller and Waterstones book of the year 2018, this is a contemporary, coming-of-age romance. Following the intersecting story of Marianne and Connell as they navigate the changing landscape of their relationship into adulthood. Both a study of how one person can irrevocably shape another, and a profound examination of love, power and influence, it is the novel of our time.
It is currently being dramatised in a collaboration between the BBC and HULU. Click the image above or here to see the trailer, which looks exciting- something else to look forward to during lock-down!
No.2 The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse
Waterstones Book of the Year 2019, The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse is a book to bring people together. Charlie Mackesy’s inspirational paintings and delicate calligraphic text are a celebration of kindness, compassion and understanding, conveying an essential message for our time.
The boy, the mole, the fox and the horse are four friends who share a deep, unshakable bond. Through a series of brief but profound conversations, Mackesy teases universal truths and rich wisdom from the mouths of his characters, celebrating warmth and empathy in all its myriad forms.
No.3 The Island
Beck’s favourite book- a true lesson in escapism. Victoria Hislop is a master of
A Mediterranean love story transformed by its unique setting, The Island possesses both romantic sweep and a very intimate sense of place and community. The novel’s true star is the titular isle of Spinalonga - home for half the 20th century to a leper colony - and the skillful way Hislop contrasts its closed community with the more cosmopolitan Greek mainland.
From the thirties to the present day, it is a tale of four generations rent by war, illicit love, violence and leprosy.
Get Woke with some feminist reads
No.4 Come As You Are
An essential exploration of women's sexuality that will radically transform your own sex life into one filled with confidence and joy.
Come as You Are reveals the true story behind female sexuality, uncovering the little-known science of what makes us tick and, more importantly, how and why. Sex educator Dr Emily Nagoski debunks the common sexual myths that are making women (and some men!) feel inadequate between the sheets.
Underlying almost all of the questions we still have about sex is the common worry: 'Am I normal?' This book answers with a resounding Yes! We are all different, but we are all normal - and once we learn this, we can create for ourselves better sex and more profound pleasure than we ever thought possible.
A truly fascinating read - one that takes you on a journey through science, biology, social studies and psychology to show how female sexuality is complex but not inaccessible.
‘Eye Opening’
A startling perspective on the unseen bias at work in our everyday lives. Marshalling a wealth of data with precision and insight, as the Times affirms:
“Invisible Women is a game-changer; an uncompromising blitz of facts, sad, mad, bad and funny, making an unanswerable case and doing so brilliantly.”
No.5 Invisible Women
Invisible Women shows us how, in a world largely built for and by men, we are systematically ignoring half the population. It exposes the gender data gap - a gap in our knowledge that is at the root of perpetual, systemic discrimination against women, and that has created a pervasive but invisible bias with a profound effect on women's lives.
From government policy and medical research, to technology, workplaces, urban planning and the media, Invisible Women reveals the biased data that excludes women. In making the case for change, this powerful and provocative book will make you see the world anew.
An uplifting novel about the importance of friendship, the value of community, and how ordinary people can protect the things they love. This book is also a favourite with Jack’s sister, Shell.
No.6 The Lido
Elegantly written and wonderfully evocative of the vibrant hubbub of South London, Libby Page’s debut is a touching, uplifting novel about community, friendship and the passage of time. Two very different women come together to save their local lido from closure, discovering, in the process, more about themselves than they could ever have imagined.
Included in the Guardian’s round-up of the best new faces of fiction in 2018, The Lido is an unashamedly feel-good read. Inspired by the south London where the author spent her student years and a passion for outdoor swimming, it’s a powerful book about loneliness, belonging and the importance of community in an increasingly disconnected world.
No.7 My Cousin Rachel
And to a classic, than none other than Daphne du Maurier. The story charts the story of young Philip, heir-in-waiting to his cousin Ambrose’s sprawling Cornish estate. Ambrose, however, is fated to perish, and in his place stands his widow, the darkly enigmatic Rachel. Philip – the dedicated bachelor – suddenly finds his heart lost to this beautiful newcomer. But is Rachel all that she seems?
Passion and paranoia conspire to create a deliciously twisting tale of secrets and lies, with Philip pitched headlong between lust and reason. Towering above it all is Daphne Du Maurier’s creation of Rachel, one of fiction’s great enigmas, the author always one step ahead of our suspicions and sympathies.
No.8 Our Souls At Night
The great Kent Haruf’s final novel is a tender, beautifully judged tale of human connections made in the twilight of life. Centred on the growing bond between an elderly couple, Our Souls at Night has a brilliantly sustained elegiac tone underscored by a delicate sense of compassion and generosity.
This is a love story - a story about growing old with grace.
Now a Netflix film starring Robert Redford and Jane Fonda - that’s some more evening entertainment taken care of!
One of the Greatest Living Irish Writers
"Midwinter Break is, pretty much, a perfect piece of work. It is paced flawlessly, is lapidary of structure, and is delivered with a purpose and clarity and control that can shut out the noise of the world, of your own heartbeat, even: one of those precious books that, when at last you look up from its pages, you need a moment of re-adjustment, of decompression, so immersive is it.... It is breathtaking writing." Spectator
No.9 Midwinter Break
With Midwinter Break, a moving portrait of retired couple Gerry and Stella Gilmore's marriage in crisis. Through accurate, compassionate observation and effortlessly elegant writing, MacLaverty reveals the long-unspoken insecurities that exist between Gerry and Stella over their four-day holiday in Amsterdam, crafting a profound examination.
Top of Her Game
‘Proving she’s at the top of her game, Moss has written a new kind of state-of-the-nation novel, one that addresses big themes – mortality, parental love, 21st-century gender politics, even the NHS – all explored through the prism of one ordinary family… Without doubt, she’s one of the best British novelists writing today, and The Tidal Zone, which reads like the electric shock of a defibrillator, or the jolt of an EpiPen of adrenaline, confirms this.’
The Independent
No.10 The Tidal Zone
In this exceptionally courageous and unflinching novel of contemporary life Sarah Moss goes where most of us wouldn't dare to look, and the result is riveting - unbearably sad, but also miraculously funny and ultimately hopeful. The Tidal Zone explores parental love, overwhelming fear, illness and recovery. It is about clever teenagers and the challenges of marriage.
It is about the NHS, academia, sex and gender in the twenty-first century, the work-life juggle, and the politics of packing lunches and loading dishwashers. It confirms Sarah Moss as a unique voice in modern fiction and a writer of luminous intelligence.
Ttitle Image by Aung Soe Min via Unsplash
All images and elements of descriptions courtesy of Waterstones.