I Survived NaNo and Won!

I have been off in NaNoWriMo land for the last month. If you are not familiar with NaNo, it is a writing challenge. You write 50,000 words in one month. At the end you have a novel - one that needs major editing - but still a novel. Do you always say "One of these days I will write that novel," but then you never get to that one day? Well, NaNo says, "Enough, that one day has arrived" and it starts every year on November 1.

This was my first year and I won! Yes, that is the winner's badge on the side there. It was a challenge, but the support from the other NaNo writers in the area, on the NaNo forums, on Twitter, and every other place, was fantastic. If I felt like procrastinating, they would give me a gental nudge to get moving.

What does this have to do with books and book reviews? Well, it is my excuse for not posting. I have not had time to read anything in the past month. I've been writing. I do, however, have one review that I neglected to write before NaNo madness assended, which I will be posting this week, and I have several other great books lined up to read.

So, be patient, they will be here.

Zadayi Red by Caleb Fox Review

Zadayi Red is Caleb Fox’s debut book. The book was inspired by Fox’s Cherokee heritage. Though the book and the Galayi people are fictional, you may recognize familiar stories and customs.

The book is about a people called Galayi, which is divided into five tribes. It is like a state divided into counties. Each has their own rulers and customs, but they also have collective customs and rulers. The tale focuses on one boy, Dahzi that is raise by a medicine woman. He is the prophesied savior of the people. This is a large responsibility with which to grow up. Also, Dahzi’s own grandfather wants him killed at birth and declares war on the tribe that protects him. The tale is about Dahzi learning about love, rebelling against his destiny, and coming full circle to embrace the prophesy.

The book had a lot of strengths in the creation of a believable tribe and culture, but it also has some weaknesses. It attempts to tackle two very large themes: coming of age and the circle of life. It is too much for one book. I think the story would have more depth if it focused on just one of these themes. There are also some very awkward exclamations; things that do not sound right. For example, “damn” and “Hell” was used, but the Galayi people believe in the Darkening Land not Heaven and Hell. These types of statement were enough to temporarily break the moment of disbelief. Fortunately, Fox does have an excellent story and has an incredible talent for telling it. Putting these weaknesses aside, the book is worth reading and I think that future books by Fox will only get better.

Christ the Lord: The Road to Cana - Review

Christ the Lord: The Road to Cana by Anne Rice is the second book in her Christ the Lord series. You do not need to read the first book to follow this one. The two books can stand alone. They both center on a central character, Yeshua bar Joseph, known to most modern people as Jesus. The first book focused on Yeshua’s childhood. The Road to Cana skips ahead to when Yeshua is in his thirties.

In The Road to Cana, Yeshua is shown as a flesh and blood man. He has the same wants, desires, pains, and troubles as any other man, but he knows that he is more. He knows that he is the son of God, but he does not yet know what that means or what it entails. Yeshua catches occasional glimpse of insight, but nothing that says to him, “This is what you must do.”

The village in which Yeshua lives with his entire family is in turmoil. The villagers are quick to condemn innocents of wrong doing, the Roman Empire is causing problems, there is a drought, and bandits are stealing food and women. It is in the height of all this that John the Baptist finally comes out of the wilderness and Yeshua’s eyes and spirit are opened to his true purpose. He knows what he must do and how he must do it. He becomes the Messiah.

Regardless if you are a Christian or not, you will enjoy this book. Anne Rice is one of the best modern storytellers. She brings the time period to life. You can feel the sand coating your skin, you can see the impressiveness of the Jordan River, and you can hear the determination as the men march out of the village. Rice is a master at bringing you into the story.

In The Road to Cana, Rice perfectly depicts Yeshua, the man, becoming Christ the Lord. This is not a religious book. It depicts a man overcoming trials and obstacles to find his true purpose in life. It is just a plain, well told story.

I give Christ the Lord: The Road to Cana by Anne Rice a 9 out 10.

Personal Effects: Dark Art - Review

Personal Effects: Dark Art by J.C. Hutchins and Jordan Weisman is a plain fun read. It grabs you and will not let go until you finish the book. It is a mind-bending, multimedia event.

Let me explain. First, it is mind-bending in the fact that you are not quite sure what is going on until the end. There is a supernatural, thriller aspect to the central murder-mystery. To figure out what is happening you have to determine what happened in the past. This is where the multimedia comes in.

The book is fashioned as a case file, complete with the patient's person effects. On the inside cover there is a folder with items from an accused murderer. The items include a state ID, photos, birth certificates, and drawings. There are also other clues throughout the narrative of the book. Look up websites mentioned, Google names of people, dial phone numbers, and enter access codes. Every piece of evidence pulls you further into the story. There is even a podcast as a prequel to the story. Start your journey at J.C. Hutchins's website.

I give the book a nine for originality and a seven for the story. One negative is the packaging of the book. It would be easier to handle and carry around if the book could be removed from the overall packaging. Also, the personal effects items fall out of the file, so a flap to close the folder would be nice.

In short, get the book.

J.C. Hutchins is another big name in the podcasting community along with Scott Sigler (see my Contagious book review), so if you have not listened to any of his stories, download 7th Son. It is free on iTunes and another great story.

The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrun Review

I was very excited when J.R.R. Tolkien's book The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrun came out. I was a little leery because Christopher Tolkien filled in the blank places and added commentary. In the past I have not been overly fond of his commentaries, but this was different. The information that Christopher Tolkien added was very helpful in reading this different poetic style.

The tales are written in an ancient Norse poetic style called Elder Edda. The style is very direct unlike other ancient poetic styles that contain a lot of flowery descriptions. What makes this style difficult is that is assumes prior knowledge of the legends. The book contains brief introductions to the tales to help, but I found myself going back to reread the introductions and then rereading the tales. I also had difficulty keeping the characters straight. Their names were very similar. For example, there is a Sigmund, Signy, Siggeir, and Sinfjotli.

This is a slow, but very good read. I love folklore and mythology and The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrun introduced me to new tales. Christopher Tolkien did a fine job at inserting just the right amount of explanation before letting the tales speak for themselves. He also compiled old lectures from J.R.R. Tolkien on Old Norse poetry. For ancient language buffs, you'll love these lectures and tales.

Writing Prompt Sites

Sometimes you just need a little nudge to get the writing juices flowing. That is the idea behind writing prompts. It gets you writing and sometimes the results of the writing exercise leave you with an idea for a story.

Here are some sites with enough writing prompts to last you for a few years.

Hands - This is only a single writing prompt, but it yields some wonderful and unexpected results. Also, look around the site and you will find a lot of other prompts.

Writer's Digest - This site has several writing prompts that are to be completed in 500 words or fewer. There is a wide variety of topics and witing methods.

Creative Writing Prompts - There are 329 different writing prompts on this site. Just roll your mouse over a number and it shows you the writing prompt.

Daily Writing Prompts - There are prompts for each day in July. Most of the prompts are based on something about that day, like the day E.B. White was born and National Joke Day. On the main page you can select a different month.

Have fun with these, and feel free to post you results.

I Am Legend Book Review

As I previously mentioned, I Am Legend by Richard Matheson is a book of short stories. The title story "I Am Legend" is the basis for the movie with Will Smith. There are eleven stories in this book.

Overall, I give the book a 7 out 10. Some stories were creepy, some imaginative, and some very dated. I prefer Stephen King or Dean Koontz for horror short stories. Comparatively, these were tame. Then again, Matheson was writing in the 50's.

Here is a rundown of each short story:

"I Am Legend" is very different from the movie. It does not take place in NYC, it was not a cure for cancer that mutated that created the zombies, and there were not zombies. Instead, the main character is a man that teaches himself how to study the mutated disease that caused all of humanity to become vampires. The entire disease story was weak, but that was not the main terror in the book. The real terror was watching a person go through the loneliness. Matheson did a superb job detailing the anger, depression, and acceptance a person would go through.

"Buried Talents" reminded me of Heroes. It described what a person might do if he could move things with his mind. After shows like X-Men and Heroes, this story seems a bit unimaginative.

"The Near Departed" was cliche. I knew the ending before it happened.

"Prey" was a good horror tale, though it has been told in movies such as Puppet Master. I think that there was a Creep Show or other short movie based on this tale. It is about a murderous doll. I already have a fear of dolls thanks to tales like this. What makes this story different from others is that the woman the doll is chasing finds a strength and perseverance that she did not have in her everyday life. The story also has a great pace. Up to the very last paragraph, you cannot tell if the woman or the doll will win .

"Witch War" is another that could be a story from X-Men or Heroes. Unlike the previous story, this one is very imaginative and very disturbing.

"Dance of the Dead" reminds me of Clockwork Orange. It is a futuristic tale complete with slang language that is defined. It is the old "mama told you not to go out with those kinds of people and do those kinds of things" tale. This tale has the highest gross out factor, but overall I did not care for the tale.

"Dress of White Silk" did not have a great plot, but the way the story was told through the voice of a little girl was very well done, especially for a man writing it.

"Mad House" was the best short story. I love the idea of inanimate objects absorbing the feelings of people and then turning it against them. Matheson also did a wonderful job describing what it is like to have anger-management issues. If you don't understand how difficult is can be to control your anger, read this.

"The Funeral" was amusing. Nothing more, nothing less.

"From Shadowed Places" could be a precursor to The Serpent and the Rainbow. Interesting premise, excellent pacing, and intriguing imagery.

"Person to Person" was a little silly, but interesting. I did not guess what was happening, but I felt the ending was a letdown.

Writing Prompt - Planting a Garden

I am still reading I Am Legend (which is available at 60% off at Amazon). Did you know that it is a short story? I had no clue until the story ended halfway through the book. The other shorts have slowed me down and I did almost no reading on my vacation. I am hoping to have the review up this week. I am looking forward to the next book,The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrun by Tolkien.

In the meantime, here is a writing prompt for those who enjoy them:

In one hundred words exactly, write about a garden you have planted. This can be a garden you planted as a child with your grandfather or a garden you planted this spring with your granddaughter. Did you come across any strange bugs, or injure your back? Maybe you discovered rocks have migrated once again into your yard. It could also be about maintaining the garden. The details are wide open.

The shortness of the story does not make it easier. It makes it more difficult because you must convey everything and create interest in very few words. You must choose your words with care.

When you have finished, post your story in the Comments section to share with others. If it is adequately strange, consider submitting it as a Drabble with the podcast Dabblecast. They read "strange stories by strange listeners" and have a segment devoted to stories that are 100 words.

Faefever Review

I just finished the third book in Karen Marie Moning's Fever series, Faefever. I previously said that her second book was a transitional book, but this one was the same. The entire book was to get us to one point and then ends in a cliffhanger. I still thoroughly enjoyed the book. It was a great light read and I like seeing the changes that come over Mac, but I think the story could have been condensed into to a trilogy instead of whatever number of books it is going to be.

As you figured, Mac is back, along with the rest of the cast, Barrons, Dani, Rowena, Christian, Inspector Jayne, O'Bannion, Fiona, miscellaneous Unseelie, and the Sinsar Dubh. If it is the dead-by-sex Fae that you are interested in, I am afraid you will have to wait quite sometime in the book to get any serious action. V'lane is way "muted" trying to stay in Mac's good graces.

It turns out that Halloween is the perfect time for the Unseelie to attempt to break through the barriers, so the good guys (the ones against the Unseelie, anyway) need to join forces and perform rituals and spells to keep the walls between the worlds standing. Of course, nothing and no one is as they seem. Your head will spin trying straighten out who is really on the side of good and who is one the side of bad. I've come to the conclusion that everyone is in this for themselves and screw everyone else.

You can see the transformation in Mac. In Faefever she takes action herself. She chooses her own allies, devises her own plans, and attempts to execute them. She is new to this, so it is not her fault when her plans do not turn out how she wants them too.

I give this book 6 out 10 because it created enough interest that I want to buy the fourth book just to find out what happens next! On its own the book isn't overly exciting or original.

Book Review Updates

Death's Daughter by Amber Benson is a science fiction tale about a girl who is, surprise surprise, the daughter of Death. Death has gone missing and Calliope Reaper-Jones is called to take over for daddy. She must leave the normal life she has found for herself.

There was not much about this book that I liked. An accurate comparison would be poorly written fan-fiction. It was full of clichés, slang, pop-culture references, and flat characters. Definitely not my kind of book. I give it a 3 out of 10 just because I was able to finish it quickly.

Survivor: A Novel by Chuck Palahniuk was very different and unexpectedly enjoyable. It was a book of lists, but the use of the lists helped to put you inside the head of the narrator, which is a very bizarre place. Tender Branson was born and raised in a religious cult community. Being a lesser son, he had to leave the community and work in the city once he came of age. When his entire family and community commit suicide, Branson is left as the last of the cult. He finds unlooked for fame and is hailed as a messiah. You are never quite sure if Tender is sane, brainwashed, or a con man.

The book is well written and keeps your attention, except for the ending. The ending was too unbelievable and seemed forced. It was almost as if it was the ending to a different story. Up until the end I would have given the book 8, but the ending dropped it to 6 out of 10.

The Lost City of Z by David Grann was as entertaining as I had hoped. It is about the early 1900's Amazon explorer, Percy Fawcet. He was convinced that there was a lost city in the Amazon that provided proof of an advanced society. Fawcet spent years in the Amazon. He knew the dangers, the people, and the hardships. He knew how to survive in the jungle. Fawcet stepped into the Amazon with his son and his son's best-friend. It was the most followed exploration of the Amazon, but then they disappeared. Fawcet's tale has inspired uncountable others to enter the Amazon jungle in search of riches, an advanced society, and even Fawcet himself.

Grann created an entertaining and informative book. He created an even mix of the facts, fiction, and fantasy of the legendary tale. He provided just enough information about English society at the time to ensure understanding of the thoughts and beliefs of the time, especially in regards to science and religion. I highly recommend this book and have found a new respect for the Amazon (but developed a new phobia of bugs). 9 out of 10.

Review - John Ransom's Diary (audiobook)

If you have not read (or listened to) John Ransom's Diary Andersonville I recommend that you do. It is an awe-inspiring story of the survival of a POW during the Civil War in Andersonville.

The main topics of discussion throughout the book are the amount of food (or the lack thereof), the cold, escape attempts, and rumors of a prisoner trade. These topics are repeated over and over, but it does not get boring.

The audio version was well produced and the narrator was captivating. I could not stop listening. I just had to know if he was going to survive another day, was he going to try to escape even though the guards are shooting people for nothing, was the government finally going to offer a prisoner exchange?

It was not only the lack of food and warmth or the treatment by the guards that the POWs had to worry about. Ransom tells many tales of prisoners stabbing and beating to death others just for a blanket or extra bread crumbs.

Two parts of the tale sum up the experience and philosophy of John Ransom:

• "New men comin' in and bodies goin' out. There is no end but dying."
• The key to survival is staying positive. A poor outlook will counter any medicine.

Overall this book is a 9 out of 10 for inspiration and for John Ransom being the man he was.

03/22/09 - Literary News - Lots of Award Nomination Announcements

New York Times Bestseller List

HARDCOVER FICTION

1. HANDLE WITH CARE, by Jodi Picoult
2. ASSOCIATE, by John Grisham
3. PROMISES IN DEATH, by J. D. Robb
4. RUN FOR YOUR LIFE, by James Patterson and Michael Ledwidge
5. ONE DAY AT A TIME, by Danielle Steel

HARDCOVER NONFICTION

1. OUTLIERS, by Malcolm Gladwell
2. THE YANKEE YEARS, by Joe Torre and Tom Verducci
3. OUT OF CAPTIVITY, by Marc Gonsalves, Keith Stansell, Tom Howes and Gary Brozek
4. THE LOST CITY OF Z, by David Grann
5. DEWEY, by Vicki Myron with Bret Witter


Literary News

2009 Hugo Award Nominations

The nominees for the 2009 Hugo Awards are in. A complete list of nominees is located on the Hugo Awards site.

Up for Best Novel are:

• Anathem by Neal Stephenson (Morrow; Atlantic UK)
• The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman (HarperCollins; Bloomsbury UK)
• Little Brother by Cory Doctorow (Tor Teen; HarperVoyager UK)
• Saturn’s Children by Charles Stross (Ace; Orbit UK)
• Zoe’s Tale by John Scalzi (Tor)

2009 Arthur C. Clarke Award finalists announced

The annual award is presented for the best science fiction novel of the year, and selected from a list of novels whose U.K. first edition was published in the previous calendar year. The award was established with a grant from Arthur C. Clarke, best known for his novel 2001: A Space Odyssey.

The finalists are:

• Song of Time, Ian R. MacLeod (PS Publishing)
• The Quiet War, Paul McAuley (Gollancz)
• House of Suns, Alastair Reynolds (Gollancz)
• Anathem, Neal Stephenson (Atlantic)
• The Margarets, Sheri S. Tepper (Gollancz)
• Martin Martin's on the Other Side, Mark Wernham (Jonathan Cape)

The winner will be announced on April 29.

Finalists for the 2009 John W. Campbell Award

The John W. Campbell Award is for best new writer. The finalists are:

• Aliette de Bodard*
• David Anthony Durham*
• Felix Gilman
• Tony Pi*
• Gord Sellar*

* indicates second year of eligibility.

Former President George W. Bush to write book
Wed Mar 18, 8:27 pm ET

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Former U.S. President George W. Bush will write a book about some of the decisions he made during his eight years in office, which will be published by the Crown Publishing Group in 2010.

Washington lawyer Robert Barnett told Reuters the book was tentatively called "Decision Points." He declined to disclose the financial terms of the deal.

Irish poet Seamus Heaney wins literature prize
Wed Mar 18, 4:15 pm ET
LONDON (Reuters) – Nobel Prize-winning Irish poet Seamus Heaney won the David Cohen Prize for Literatur e on Wednesday for what the chair of judges called "the self-renewing force of his writing."

The biennial prize, funded by the John S. Cohen Foundation, honors a living writer from the British Isles for a lifetime's achievement in literature.

Doctorow among international book prize nominees
Wed Mar 18, 3:19 pm ET
NEW YORK – "Ragtime" novelist E.L. Doctorow and Nobel laureate V.S. Naipaul were among the 14 finalists announced Wednesday for the Man Booker International Prize, given every two years for lifetime achievement by a fiction writer who writes in English or whose work is widely available in English translation.

Screenwriter Millard Kaufman dies at 92
Tue Mar 17, 4:15 am ET

LOS ANGELES – Screenwriter Millard Kaufman, who co-created the cartoon character Mr. Magoo, was nominated for Academy Awards for his screenplays for "Take the High Ground!" and "Bad Day at Black Rock" and won a cult following as a first-time novelist at the age of 90, has died, a spokeswoman said. He was 92.

Kaufman died Saturday of heart failure, said Laura Howard, spokeswoman for McSweeney's Publishing, which published his novel "Bowl of Cherries" in 2007.

Kaufman's writing credits also include "Never So Few," "The Warlord," "The Klansman" and "Convicts 4," as well an episode of the TV series "Police Story" and the TV movie "Enola Gay."

Writing Prompt - Dialogue Prompt

911 Writer's Block from WEbook is a fun tool to use as a writing prompt. Click the different buttons for different prompts, such as:

• Characters
• Settings
• Endings
• Kill a character

For this week's writing prompt, I am using option number 4, dialogue, on 911 Writer's Block.

Write a story that uses the following piece of dialogue. It may be an important part of the plot, or it may be a passing comment.

"Trust me. You'll be picking 'em up off the floor before this is over"

Share what you come up with.

Scott Sigler's Contagious Book Review

Contagious is the sequel to Scott Sigler's book Infected: A Novel. You will want to read the first book before reading Contagious. Scott Sigler does not waste anytime rehashing what already happened; he just gets right into the action. "Scary" Perry Dawsey is back, but this time he is working with the good guys. Well, maybe not exactly working with them, but they at least have the same goal.

If you have a weak stomach or are easily offended by language then this book is not for you. It is fast-paced and action packed. I know that is cliche, but it perfectly describes Sigler's book. Sigler is not afraid to kill off good guys and let the bad guys seize control. You cannot predict what will have next.

There is a lot of medical and military action in the book, which requires careful explanation so the reader understands what is happening. Siglar is a master at providing the reader with enough explanation to make the story plausible, but not so much detail that the momentum is lost.

Contagious was just a fun and exciting read.

The one problem with the book was the errors missed during editing. There were enough errors that it started to annoy me. Some of the formatting errors may have been the Kindle edition. I'd be interested in hearing from those who read the paper copy if there were the same formatting errors.

Overall I give the book 8 out 10.

03/14/09 Last Week in Literary News

New York Times Bestseller List

The following books are listed in the carousel above for your convenience.

HARDCOVER FICTION

1. HANDLE WITH CARE, by Jodi Picoult
2. THE ASSOCIATE, by John Grisham
3. PROMISES IN DEATH, by J. D. Robb
4. RUN FOR YOUR LIFE, by James Patterson and Michael Ledwidge
5. ONE DAY AT A TIME, by Danielle Steel

HARDCOVER NONFICTION

1. OUTLIERS, by Malcolm Gladwell
2. THE YANKEE YEARS, by Joe Torre and Tom Verducci
3. OUT OF CAPTIVITY, by Marc Gonsalves, Keith Stansell, Tom Howes and Gary Brozek
4. THE LOST CITY OF Z, by David Grann
5. DEWEY, by Vicki Myron with Bret Witter

Literary News

Previously Unpublished Mark Twain Story Hits Newsstands
By Ginny Wiehardt, About.com Guide to Fiction Writing, Wednesday March 11, 2009

Mark Twain fans will be interested to hear that a never-before-seen Twain story, “The Undertaker’s Tale," long buried within an enormous body of unpublished stories, letters, and essays, appeared this week in the pages of mystery magazine The Strand.

Part of a forthcoming collection of previously unpublished stories and essays, Who Is Mark Twain? (HarperStudio), the story features Twain's characteristic razor sharp wit in a tongue-in-cheek tale about the funeral industry. Read More

Release date scheduled for Ted Kennedy's memoir
By HILLEL ITALIE, AP National Writer Hillel Italie, Ap National Writer – Wed Mar 11, 6:56 pm ET

 NEW YORK – The editor of Sen. Edward M. Kennedy's memoir says the book will come out this fall.

Jonathan Karp of the Twelve imprint at the Hachette Book Group USA, announced the release Wednesday during the annual meeting of the Association of American Publishers. Twelve spokesman Cary Goldstein said the book, titled "True Compass," would be listed in the publisher's fall catalog, out next month.

Harvard president wins $50,000 book prize
AP, Tue Mar 10, 2:57 pm ET

NEW YORK – Historian and Harvard University president Drew Gilpin Faust has won a $50,000 prize from the New York Historical Society for "This Republic of Suffering: Death and the American Civil War."

Faust, 61, received the fourth annual American History Book Prize, the society announced Tuesday. She has written several other books about the Civil War and the South, including "Mothers of Invention" and "A Sacred Circle."

Previous winners include Doris Kearns Goodwin and David Nasaw.

Novelist Clive Cussler hit with hefty legal bill
By Eriq Gardner Eriq Gardner – Tue Mar 10, 11:27 pm ET

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) – Here's a shot across the bow of anyone who licenses the rights to a film and considers suing when things don't go as planned:

A Los Angeles Superior Court has ordered best-selling novelist Clive Cussler to pay $14 million in legal fees to Crusader Entertainment after litigating an unsuccessful lawsuit.

The case earned extraordinary attention a few years ago thanks to the mammoth box office flop of "Sahara," a 2005 film version of Cussler's novel that starred Matthew McConaughey and Penelope Cruz and is estimated to have lost about $80 million.

Newspaper publisher McClatchy cutting 1,600 jobs
By MICHAEL LIEDTKE, AP Business Writer Michael Liedtke, Ap Business Writer – Mon Mar 9, 5:16 pm ET

SAN FRANCISCO – McClatchy Co. is shearing another 1,600 jobs in a cost-cutting spree that has clipped nearly one-third of the newspaper publisher's work force in less than a year.

 

Technorati Tags: NY times bestseller list,best selling books,literary news

Writing Prompt - Natural Disaster

Every place has a type of natural disaster that is common for the area. For your area, it may be wild fires, volcanoes, earthquakes, or hurricanes. Here in Ohio, it is tornados, and tornado season is arriving.

 
by rachel_r's photostream

This week's writing prompt was inspired by a friend who spent Saturday listening to the tornado alarm sound all day when there was not a threat of a tornado.

Think about a type of natural disaster common in  your area and the early warning systems that are in place.

You are having a family get together - maybe a dinner or a birthday celebration - when the alarm sounds. What are the different reactions of your family members. How do the children react? Are they scared or do they calming start doing what they are supposed to do? How do the older people react? Are they jaded from too many false alarms or have they seen enough to know to take them serious? Is anyone likely to step outside to look? How do you react? I know in my family, there is someone for each of these reactions.

Include if there is or is not a real threat, what happens? Do people's demeanor change? Is the person in charge suddenly a quivering mess? Does the whole family pull together?

Technorati Tags: writing prompt,writing

03/07/09 Last Week in Literary News

New York Times Bestseller List

HARDCOVER FICTION

1. Promises in Death, J.D. Robb
2. The Associate, John Grisham
3. Every Which Way But Dead (The Hollows, Book 3), Kim Harrison
4. One Day at a Time, Danielle Steel
5. Run for Your Life, James Patterson

HARDCOVER NONFICTION

1. The Yankee Years, Joe Torre and Tom Verducci
2. Outliers: The Story of Success, Malcolm Gladwell
3. Dewey: The Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World, Vicki Myron with Bret Witter
4. The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon, David Grann
5. Out of Captivity: Surviving 1,967 Days in the Colombian Jungle, Marc Gonsalves, Keith Stansell, Tom Howes and Gary Brozek

Literary News

The Macarena Challenge
from Amber Benson's Official Blog Mar 6

Amber Benson from Buffy the Vampire Slayer has issued a challenge. If she gets 85 reviews of her book, Death's Daughter, she will post a video on You Tube of her doing the Macarena. Now, this is news!

Tobias Wolff wins Story Prize for short fiction
By Chris Michaud – Wed Mar 4, 11:42 pm ET

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Author Tobias Wolff won the annual Story Prize for short fiction on Wednesday for "Our Story Begins," a compendium of some two dozen short stories including 10 never-before published in book form.

PRESS RELEASE: Random House, Inc. Unveils Suvudu’s FREE First Book Promotion!
from Fantasy Book Critic Mar 03

NEW YORK, NY— Random House, Inc. today unveiled the first five titles in its new Suvudu Free First Book Library. Designed to introduce new readers to popular and acclaimed science fiction and fantasy series, the Suvudu Free First Book Library allows readers to access free digital copies of the first book in each series. The program launches with access to the following novels:

• “His Majesty’s Dragon” by Naomi Novik
• “Assassin’s Apprentice” by Robin Hobb
• “Settling Accounts: Return Engagement” by Harry Turtledove
• “Red Mars” by Kim Stanley Robinson
• “Blood Engines” by T.A. Pratt
  

A GAME OF THRONES to start filming in Ireland in October 2009
Reported on Pat's Fantasy Hotlist Mar 03

Stephen King's agent pleased at e-book debut
Associated Press Writer Jerry Harkavy, Tue Mar 3, 9:51 pm ET

PORTLAND, Maine – It's not the sensation of his first effort, but Stephen King's latest e-adventure is another best-seller.

King's agent, Ralph Vicinanza, said Tuesday that downloads of King's novella "UR," available only as an e-book and released to coincide with the launch of Amazon's upgraded Kindle reader, have reached "five figures" after barely three weeks on the market.

Publicist: Ousted Illinois governor to write book
AP Mon Mar 2, 4:47 pm ET

CHICAGO – A publicist for Rod Blagojevich (blah-GOY'-uh-vich) says the former Illinois governor plans to write a book "exposing the dark side of politics."

Glenn Selig says Blagojevich signed a six-figure deal Monday.

Random House buys `Moosewood Cookbook' publisher
AP Mon Mar 2, 12:23 am ET

NEW YORK – Random House Inc., which recently underwent a major consolidation, is expanding again.

The publisher announced Monday that it acquired Ten Speed Press, which specializes in cookbooks, business and spiritual works, including such favorites as "The Moosewood Cookbook" and "What Color is Your Parachute?" the million-selling job-hunting guide series.

"This is a real opportunity for us to further grow our business ..." Random House CEO Markus Dohle said in a statement

Unfinished novel by Wallace coming next year
AP Mon Mar 2, 7:00 am ET

NEW YORK – A long, unfinished novel by David Foster Wallace is scheduled for a posthumous release next year.

 

Technorati Tags: literary news,new york times best seller list,ny times bestseller list,book news

Writing Prompt - Pictures from the Web

This is not a new idea, but I have streamlined it to maximize my writing time. Using pictures from the web is my favorite writing prompt exercise, and I use it daily. It helps get me in the right frame of mind and provides great story ideas.

I originally saw the suggestion at About.com's Fiction Writing site.

1. Visit a web site that features photographs. I use Webshots because it has a new feature picture everyday on its Home page. The feature photograph various in style and subject matter, so I have great variety. It also keeps me from wasting time searching sites or magazines for pictures and becoming distracted from the task at hand.
2. Study the picture for no more than one minute. Do not think about what you should write. Instead, study the picture; look at the subject matter; notice the details. What do you feel when you look at it?
3. Set your timer for ten to fifteen minutes. I downloaded a free timer called Cool Timer. It stays on my desktop. It is easy to access and it remains hidden behind my word processing program. I found that I look at a traditional clock and egg-timer too often. It stopped the flow of my writing and distracted me.
4. Start free-writing about the picture. (See Ginny Wiehardt's instructions for freewriting.) Do not pause to think of a story, just write. Let the story happen and if it doesn't happen, do not get discouraged. One day I wrote for nine minutes about how yummy a picture of cinnamon buns looked (I was writing before breakfast). It was not until the last minute that I started writing about the person who got up early to make the cinnamon buns for people to buy. That last minute turned into one of my better story ideas.
5. After the timer goes off, look over what you did. Save the writing even it it does not give you a story idea immediately. I
6. return to my freewriting each month to see if they spark any new ideas. I also include the link to the feature photo that I used, incase I want to look back at it for further inspiration.

Good luck, and remember to enjoy it. If this does not work for you, try something else. Everyone finds their muse in their own way!

Technorati Tags: writing,writing promp,writing exercise,freewriting,free-writing

02/28/09 Last Week in Literary News

New York Times Best Seller List

All of the following books are available from Amazon,and I have listed them in the above carousel for your convenience.

HARDCOVER FICTION

1. THE ASSOCIATE, by John Grisham
2. RUN FOR YOUR LIFE, by James Patterson and Michael Ledwidge
3. HEART AND SOUL, by Maeve Binchy
4. THE HOST, by Stephenie Meyer
5. FOOL, by Christopher Moore

HARDCOVER NONFICTION

1. THE YANKEE YEARS, by Joe Torre and Tom Verducci
2. OUTLIERS, by Malcolm Gladwell
3. OBAMA, with an introduction by Bill Keller and biographical text by Jill Abramson
4. DEWEY, by Vicki Myron with Bret Witter
5. THE GAMBLE, by Thomas E. Ricks

Literary News

Post 9-11 novel wins PEN/Faulkner prize
Thu Feb 26, 12:09 am ET

NEW YORK – Joseph O'Neill's "Netherland" has received the PEN?Faulkner Award for fiction. The story is a post-Sept. 11 novel.

Philip José Farmer — In Memoriam by Fábio Fernandes
Thursday, February 26, 2009, reported on Fantasy Book Critic blog

Philip José Farmer passed away in his sleep at 91 years old. His first published science fiction story, “The Lovers”, won him the Hugo Award for “most promising new writer” in 1953, and is widely recognized as the story that broke the taboo on sex in SF, featuring sexual relations between a human and an alien.

Mystery ends: Agatha Christie's country home opens
By JILL LAWLESS, Associated Press Writer Jill Lawless, Associated Press Writer – Tue Feb 24, 2:16 pm ET

LONDON – Agatha Christie's vacation house is open to the public. Visitors can see the bedroom where Christie slept, the dining room where she entertained, and the drawing room where she thrilled friends with readings from her latest whodunit.

Condoleezza Rice signs book deal with Crown
Mon Feb 23, 3:17 pm ET

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Condoleezza Rice has agreed to a book deal with Crown Publishers starting with a memoir of her eight years under former U.S. President George W. Bush, first as national security adviser and then as secretary of state.

The first book is tentatively scheduled to appear in the autumn of 2011, Crown said in a statement on Sunday.

It would be followed a year later by a second book about her upbringing in Birmingham, Alabama, where she was born in 1954. Rice grew up amid segregation and during the civil rights movement in the United States.

Random House Children's Books will also publish a young-adult edition of the family memoir at the same time.

Christopher Nolan, Irish novelist, dies at 43
AP - Sat Feb 21, 5:04 PM ET

LONDON - Christopher Nolan, an Irish poet and novelist died at age 43.

Technorati Tags: literary news,book news,new york times best seller list

Animal Snap: Device and Style

Modern British fiction is known for its experimental style of writing to portray scenes of everyday life. Two examples of modern British fiction are “At the Bay” by Katherine Mansfield and A Handful of Dust by Evelyn Waugh. “At the Bay” is about a family summering at Crescent Bay, and Handful of Dust is about a couple struggling through infidelity and divorce. The writing styles of the authors are different and on the surface the two tales appear to have nothing in common. The common link between the two stories is the game animal snap. Both authors use the game of animal snap as an element of escape for the characters and a device of comedy for the readers. The difference is that Mansfield’s scene exemplifies, while Waugh’s scene resists, the modern British fiction writers’ drive to experiment with fiction’s style.

The card game animal snap requires the participants to turn over cards and then make animal sounds if two of the same card appears. In “At the Bay” the Burnell children and their cousins gather to play the game. Mansfield shows this is an escape for the children first by the location: “The washhouse was the perfect place for such a meeting because they could make as much noise as they liked, and nobody ever interrupted” (269). The washhouse allows the children to escape from the adults’ supervision and rules. The game also offers the children a method of escape from reality into an imaginary world, because the game requires the players to make animals sounds. Kezia “felt she was a bee” (Mansfield 269) and Pip “charged over the table and seemed to eat the cards up” as a bull (Mansfield 271).

In Handful of Dust animal snap is also used as a method of escape, but it is escape from thinking about the troubles of an adult. Tony is at his house in the country, and he

is waiting for a friend to notify his wife, Brenda, who is in London, about the death of their son. Tony worries that Brenda “may see [a notice of the death] on a placard, or just pick up a paper casually and there it will be” (Waugh 152). Mrs. Rattery, a friend staying with Tony, attempts to distract him with several games, but the only game Tony knows how to play is animal snap. The game offers some escape for Tony because “they were still playing when Albert came in to draw the curtains” (Waugh 154) at five and Tony remarked that it was “only quarter past” (Waugh 151) four when they started playing. Additional evidence is that during the game Tony does not mention his worries as he incessantly had done prior to playing.

The comic elements for “At the Bay” include the amusing animal sounds the players make during the game and Mansfield’s descriptions of the children during the game. Lottie was “a donkey that kept forgetting it was a donkey” (Mansfield 269), so she switches to a dog. After the other children “made signs to Lottie and pointed” so she gets cards, she yells “Hee-Haw! Ke-zia” (Mansfield 271). The Burnells and cousins “tried with all their might to see” (Mansfield 271) the cards as they were dealt for an advantage over the other players. At the end of the game the children realize that it is dark outside and become frightened. They see “pressed against the window was a pale face, black eyes, a black beard” (Mansfield 272), but the face is only the Burnells’ uncle. Mansfield’s descriptions of the issues with the game and the children’s fear create a very amusing scene.

Waugh also creates an amusing scene in Handful of Dust during the animal snap game, but his comedy contains a tragic element. The scene is amusing because animal snap is a children’s game which two adults are playing and making sounds of “bow-wow” and “coop-coop-coop” (Waugh 153). Lottie in “At the Bay” is not the only character to make a mistake during animal snap. Mrs. Rattery reprimands Tony saying, “Don’t be dumb … that isn’t a pair” (Waugh 154). Tony and Mrs. Rattery stop playing animal snap when a servant enters and sees them “clucking like a ‘en” (Waugh 154). Though this is funny, it is also tragic because the servant continues to say “and the little fellow lying dead upstairs” (Waugh 154). The reader is reminded of the reason for the game. It is funny having adults acting like animals, but there is darkness to the comedy because of the death and the worries of Tony are in the background.

Mansfield experiments with writing style in the animal snap scene by using an internal method of writing to introduce the scene: “Round the table there sat a bull, a rooster, a donkey … a sheep and a bee” (Mansfield 269). This internal use of style places the reader in the children’s minds as they imagine they are these animals. Another experiment with style that pulls the reader into the story is switching from third person to second person when describing the darkness in the washhouse: “While they were playing, the day had faded … You were frightened to look in the corners of the washhouse” (Mansfield 271).

Waugh resists experimenting with writing style and uses an external method of writing through dialogue in the animal snap scene. Further evidence of Waugh’s external method is Tony expressing his internal tension through his constant external awareness of the clock. Tony states, “Is that only quarter past?” (Waugh 151) and “Five o’clock. Now that the shutters are up we shan’t hear the chimes” (Waugh 154).

Though Mansfield and Waugh both use the card game animal snap as an element of escape and comedy, Mansfield portrays childhood innocence and demonstrates modern fiction writing style by and experimenting with an internal method, and Waugh reveals adult tragedy through an external method of writing which defies the modern fiction writer’s style.

Works Cited

Mansfield, Katherine. “At the Bay.” Katherine Mansfield’s Selected Stories. Ed. Vincent O’Sullivan. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2005. 269-272.

Waugh, Evelyn. A Handful of Dust. New York: Back Bay Books, 1999. 151-154.

Technorati Tags: Modern British Writing,Literary Paper,At the Bay,Katherine Mansfield,Handful of Dust,Evelyn Waugh,modern british fiction,experimental style

Writing Prompt for 02/25/09

 
Photo taken by Ikke la deg dupere (Norwegian)
Norway

I thought I would add a bit every week for the writers out there. It may be a cliche, but the adage that "writer's write" is true. To continue to developing your craft you should write as much as possible. Using writing prompts helps make this an interesting exercise and helps generate story idea.

Your Prompt
Select someone famous, a celebrity, writer, political figure, musician, etc. Image that person doing your job (even if you are a full time writer) for one day. Some things to consider:

• How does the person interact with your co-works, boss, and customers?
• How does he complete your daily task?
• In what areas does she excel, and where is it a disaster?
• Does he participate in a car pool or in the office football pool?

For example, image Paris Hilton as a short-order cook. Or Gene Simmons as a customer service representative. What would this person's day be like?

Let me know what you come up with.

Technorati Tags: writing promp,writing practice,writing exercise

Review of Traffic: Why We Drive the Way We Do (and What It Says About Us) by Tom Vanderbilt

Traffic: Why We Drive the Way We Do (and What It Says About Us) is about . . . well . . . traffic. This book has information and facts about what traffic is, what causes it, how different factors contribute to it, and what has been tried to reduce it. Unfortunately, the book reads like a mass grouping of magazine articles. It is choppy and repetitive. I found myself skimming large portions of statistics and facts (though you may find this useful if you plan to be on Jeopardy). I also had difficulty reading the book for extended periods of time. It was a good read in small doses.

The book was not all bad. I enjoyed reading Vanderbilt's human interest stories and anecdotes. For example, there is a portion about how LA gets all the limousines to the Oscars on time. There really are a bunch of men watching and controlling the traffic signals. It is also interesting that there is a direct correlation on the type of government a country has and how its people drive.

This could have been an excellent book if it had a good edit. It could say the same thing in half the pages and rearranging some parts would make it flow better. The book has not changed how I drive nor how I react to traffic. I now understand the reason for a mile back-up on the highway for one stalled car, but I am not more patient about it.

Overall rating - 6 out of 10

Technorati Tags: traffic,vanderbilt,book review

02/22/09 Last Week in Literary News

The New York Times Best Seller List

All of the following books are available from Amazon,and I have listed them in the above carousel for your convenience.

HARDCOVER FICTION

1. THE ASSOCIATE, by John Grisham
2. RUN FOR YOUR LIFE, by James Patterson and Michael Ledwidge
3. THE HOST, by Stephenie Meyer
4. FOOL, by Christopher Moore
5. BONE CROSSED, by Patricia Briggs

HARDCOVER NONFICTION

1. THE YANKEE YEARS, by Joe Torre and Tom Verducci
2. OUTLIERS, by Malcolm Gladwell
3. DEWEY, by Vicki Myron with Bret Witter
4. A SLOBBERING LOVE AFFAIR, by Bernard Goldberg
5. MULTIPLE BLESSINGS, by Jon Gosselin, Kate Gosselin and Beth Carson

Literary News Stories

2009 Hugo Nominations Open

2009 nominations for the Hugo Awards is now open. View the Hugo Award page for detail and guideline on nominations. The deadline for nomination is the end of February.

Author Terry Pratchett receives knighthood
AP - Wed Feb 18, 10:14 AM ET

LONDON - Fantasy author Terry Pratchett has been knighted by Queen Elizabeth II for services to literature.

Pratchett is known for his "Discworld" series of novels, and has sold more than 55 million books worldwide.

Sudanese novelist Tayeb Salih dies in London
Reuters - Wed Feb 18, 10:41 AM ET

KHARTOUM (Reuters) – Sudanese novelist Tayeb Salih, who won fame with his 1966 novel Season of Migration to the North, died in London Wednesday at the age of about 80, a friend and associate said.

British students don't know classics: poet laureate
Reuters - Tue Feb 17, 1:22 PM ET

LONDON (Reuters) - Teaching major works of English literature is becoming more difficult because students lack enough knowledge of the Bible or classical mythology to appreciate them, Britain's poet laureate said on Tuesday.

Obscure Tolkien book to come out this spring
AP - Tue Feb 17, 4:29 pm ET

NEW YORK – An early, long-unpublished work by J.R.R. Tolkien is coming out.

"The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrun," a thorough reworking in verse of old Norse epics that predates Tolkien's writing of "The Hobbit" and "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy, will be published in May by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

Visit Yahoo's Book and Publishing news site for more literary news stories throughout the week.

Technorati Tags: literary news,best selling books,new York Times Book Review,news,hugo nominations,book news,terry pratchett,tayeb salih,Legend of Sigurd and Gudrun

This Week in the News

From New York Times Best Seller List:

Hardcover Fiction 

1. The Associate, by John Grisham
2. Run for Your Life, by James Patterson and Michael Ledwidge
3. Bone Crossed (Mercy Thompson, Book 4), by Patricia Briggs
4. The Host: A Novel, by Stephenie Meyer
5. True Colors, by Kristin Hannah

Hardcover Non-Fiction

1. The Yankee Years, by Joe Torre and Tom Verducci
2. Outliers: The Story of Success, by Malcolm Gladwell
3. Dewey: The Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World, by Vicki Myron with Bret Witter
4. A Slobbering Love Affair: The True (And Pathetic) Story of the Torrid Romance Between Barack Obama and the Mainstream Media, by Bernard Goldberg
5. Multiple Blessings: Surviving to Thriving with Twins and Sextuplets, by Jon Gosselin, Kate Gosselin and Beth Carson

Literary News Stories

Publisher Alfred Knopf Jr. dies at age 90
AP - Mon Feb 16, 2:48 PM ET
NEW YORK - Alfred A. Knopf Jr., son of publishing legends and an influential publisher in his own right, died Saturday. He was 90.

British author says she is banned from Dubai event
AP - Mon Feb 16, 1:56 PM ET
LONDON - A British author said Monday she has been banned from a Dubai literary festival because her forthcoming novel contains references to homosexuality.

Geraldine Bedell, a journalist for the Observer newspaper and the author of several previous novels, said organizers had been discussing launching her book, "The Gulf Between Us," which is set in the Gulf, at the festival.

But she claims festival director Isobel Abulhoul later wrote to her publishers, saying: "I don't want our festival remembered for the launch of a controversial book."

"The Gulf Between Us" is scheduled to be published by Penguin in April.

Speed it up! A-Rod book out sooner than planned
AP - Fri Feb 13, 12:34 PM ET
NEW YORK - An unauthorized and highly anticipated book about Alex Rodriguez is coming out a month sooner than planned.

Publication of Selena Roberts' "A-Rod: The Many Lives of Alex Rodriguez" has been moved up from May 19 to April 14 as scrutiny builds on the New York Yankees slugger after he acknowledged using banned substances from 2001-2003 while playing for the Texas Rangers.

"Da Vinci Code" author sees secret revealed
Reuters - Fri Feb 13, 3:02 AM ET
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - "The Da Vinci Code" author Dan Brown has made a living unraveling secrets, but on Thursday one of his own secrets was revealed by a close collaborator, who said the writer's next book is finished.

But late in the day, a spokeswoman for Brown's publisher Doubleday, would say only that Brown "is making great progress," stopping short of a full confirmation or denial.

"We do not yet have a title or publication date to share," added spokeswoman Suzanne Herz. Doubleday is a unit of Bertelsmann AG.

Hemingway letters shed new light
AFP - Wed Feb 11, 3:04 PM ET
HAVANA (AFP) - Thousands of letters by American author Ernest Hemingway containing intimate details of his life are shedding new light on the writer, Cuban researchers said in a media report Wednesday.

"There are lots of intimacies in these letters," researcher Rosalba Diaz told the daily Juventud Rebelde, saying she had been impressed by how many letters had been found which "break with his image of being a wild man."

Technorati Tags: New York Times Book Review,top books,best selling books,book stories,literary stories,book news,literary news,publisher news,author news,book release

Review of Darkfever and Bloodfever by Karen Marie Moning

Darkfever and Bloodfever are the first and second books, respectively, in Karen Marie Moning's Fever series. The books are about a young woman's search for the man, or thing, which killed her sister. MacKayla "Mac" Lane travels to Ireland where her sister was murdered and discovers that the world is not what she thought it was. Fantasies and nightmares exist and it is not always possible to tell which is which. Mac also discovers that she is not who she once thought she was; not physically, emotionally, mentally, nor genetically.

MacKayla is a southern peach through and through. She is beautiful and blond. She likes shopping and anything pink. Her biggest concern before her sister's death is matching her nail polish to her outfit. Mac is not who you would picture as the savior of the world, but that is who Moning has created. This unlikely hero is the reason I am so drawn to this series. The stories are fast paced and action packed, but Mac is so unconventional that I never know what to expect from her. She uses "petunia" instead of "ass" because her mother taught her that ugly things don't come out of a beautiful mouth. How many monster-fighting, good guys do you know that say, "I am going to kick your petunia"? You might laugh at her language (and so do the bad guys) but she proves to be tougher that they believe.

Mac's reluctant partner, Jericho Barrons, is another reason that I am drawn to the books. He is an enigma. I have not figured out if he is good guy trying to save mankind or if he is just protecting his own interests. He is pompous, tough, and sexy. Speaking of sexy, did I mention the Death-by-Sex Fae? All I can say is "Yummy!"

Darkfever is definitely worth reading, but if you are crunched for time, you can listen to the free audio book. It is very well produced and unabridged.

I was not as impressed with Bloodfever, but the second book in a series is often a let down. They serve as a transition move the people and plot between books. A lot of my favorite series have bad second novels, so I am willing to suspend judgment and read the third book Faefever. Do not misunderstand. Bloodfever is not bad, it is just that nothing much happens. I will let you know how Faefever holds up.

Technorati Tags: Bloodfever,Darkfever,book review,Karen Marie Moning,Fever series

1000 Must Read Books

I love book lists. I have been steadily working my way through the Top 100 Books of the 20th Century Written in the English Language. I have read some really good books and some not so good books on the list. I think what I like about lists is that it is a major accomplishment to finish it. If I say that I am reading some of the best books ever written, it sounds subjective, and people are not much interested. If I say that I am reading the top 100 books of all time as judged by a literary panel, people are amazed and say it is an excellent goal.

Guardian.co.uk is the online version of the UK newspaper Guardian. They created an entire series dedicated to finding the top 1000 books everyone should read. Their editorial staff submitted titles to the list over a seven day period in seven categories (War and Travel, Science Fiction and Fantasy, State of the Nation, Family and Self, Comedy, Crime, and Love). Visit their 1000 Novels Everyone Must Read main page for more information on the selection criteria.

It looks like I have a lot of reading ahead of me. Nothing could make me happier.

Here is the quick list of the titles that made the top 1000. Visit the Guardian site and select a category to view a brief description about each of the books.

Comedy

1. Lucky Jim by Kingsley Amis
2. Money by Martin Amis
3. The Information by Martin Amis
4. The Bottle Factory Outing by Beryl Bainbridge
5. According to Queeney by Beryl Bainbridge
6. Flaubert's Parrot by Julian Barnes
7. A History of the World in 10 1/2 Chapters by Julian Barnes
8. Augustus Carp, Esq. by Himself: Being the Autobiography of a Really Good Man by Henry Howarth Bashford
9. Molloy by Samuel Beckett
10. Zuleika Dobson by Max Beerbohm
11. The Adventures of Augie March by Saul Bellow
12. The Uncommon Reader by Alan Bennett
13. Queen Lucia by EF Benson
14. The Ascent of Rum Doodle by WE Bowman
15. A Good Man in Africa by William Boyd
16. The History Man by Malcolm Bradbury
17. No Bed for Bacon by Caryl Brahms and SJ Simon
18. Illywhacker by Peter Carey
19. A Season in Sinji by JL Carr
20. The Harpole Report by JL Carr
21. The Hearing Trumpet by Leonora Carrington
22. Mister Johnson by Joyce Cary
23. The Horse's Mouth by Joyce Cary
24. Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes
25. The Case of the Gilded Fly by Edmund Crispin
26. Just William by Richmal Crompton
27. The Provincial Lady by EM Delafield
28. Slouching Towards Kalamazoo by Peter De Vries
29. The Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens
30. Martin Chuzzlewit by Charles Dickens
31. Jacques the Fatalist and his Master by Denis Diderot
32. A Fairy Tale of New York by JP Donleavy
33. The Commitments by Roddy Doyle
34. Ennui by Maria Edgeworth
35. Cheese by Willem Elsschot
36. Bridget Jones's Diary by Helen Fielding
37. Joseph Andrews by Henry Fielding
38. Tom Jones by Henry Fielding
39. Caprice by Ronald Firbank
40. Bouvard et Pécuchet by Gustave Flaubert
41. Towards the End of the Morning by Michael Frayn
42. The Polygots by William Gerhardie
43. Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons
44. Dead Souls by Nikolai Gogol
45. Oblomov by Ivan Goncharov
46. The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame
47. Brewster's Millions by Richard Greaves (George Barr McCutcheon)
48. Squire Haggard's Journal by Michael Green
49. Our Man in Havana by Graham Greene
50. Travels with My Aunt by Graham Greene
51. Diary of a Nobody by George Grossmith
52. The Little World of Don Camillo by Giovanni Guareschi
53. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon
54. Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
55. Mr Blandings Builds His Dream House by Eric Hodgkins
56. High Fidelity by Nick Hornby
57. I Served the King of England by Bohumil Hrabal
58. The Lecturer's Tale by James Hynes
59. Mr Norris Changes Trains by Christopher Isherwood
60. The Mighty Walzer Howard by Jacobson
61. Pictures from an Institution by Randall Jarrell
62. Three Men in a Boat by Jerome K Jerome
63. Finnegans Wake by James Joyce
64. The Castle by Franz Kafka
65. Lake Wobegon Days by Garrison Keillor
66. Death and the Penguin by Andrey Kurkov
67. The Debt to Pleasure by John Lanchester
68. L'Histoire de Gil Blas de Santillane (Gil Blas) Alain-René Lesage
69. Changing Places by David Lodge
70. Nice Work by David Lodge
71. The Towers of Trebizond by Rose Macaulay
72. England, Their England by AG Macdonell
73. Whisky Galore by Compton Mackenzie
74. Memoirs of a Gnostic Dwarf by David Madsen
75. Cakes and Ale - Or, the Skeleton in the Cupboard by W Somerset Maugham
76. Tales of the City by Armistead Maupin
77. Bright Lights, Big City by Jay McInerney
78. Puckoon by Spike Milligan
79. The Restraint of Beasts by Magnus Mills
80. Charade by John Mortimer
81. Titmuss Regained by John Mortimer
82. Under the Net by Iris Murdoch
83. Pnin by Vladimir Nabokov
84. Pale Fire by Vladimir Nabokov
85. Fireflies by Shiva Naipaul
86. The Sacred Book of the Werewolf by Victor Pelevin
87. La Disparition by Georges Perec
88. Les Revenentes by Georges Perec
89. La Vie Mode d'Emploi by Georges Perec
90. My Search for Warren Harding by Robert Plunkett
91. A Dance to the Music of Time by Anthony Powell
92. A Time to be Born by Dawn Powell
93. Excellent Women by Barbara Pym
94. Less Than Angels by Barbara Pym
95. Zazie in the Metro by Raymond Queneau
96. Solomon Gursky Was Here by Mordecai Richler
97. Alms for Oblivion by Simon Raven
98. Portnoy's Complaint by Philip Roth
99. The Westminster Alice by Saki
100. The Unbearable Bassington by Saki
101. Hurrah for St Trinian's by Ronald Searle
102. Great Apes by Will Self
103. Porterhouse Blue by Tom Sharpe
104. Blott on the Landscape by Tom Sharpe
105. Office Politics by Wilfrid Sheed
106. Belles Lettres Papers: A Novel by Charles Simmons
107. Moo by Jane Smiley
108. Topper Takes a Trip by Thorne Smith
109. The Adventures of Ferdinand Count Fathom by Tobias Smollett
110. The Adventures of Roderick Random by Tobias Smollett
111. The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle by Tobias Smollett
112. The Expedition of Humphry Clinker by Tobias Smollett
113. The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark
114. The Girls of Slender Means by Muriel Spark
115. The Driver's Seat by Muriel Spark
116. Loitering with Intent by Muriel Spark
117. A Far Cry from Kensington by Muriel Spark
118. The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman by Laurence Sterne
119. White Man Falling by Mike Stocks
120. Handley Cross by RS Surtees
121. A Tale of a Tub by Jonathan Swift
122. Penrod by Booth Tarkington
123. The Luck of Barry Lyndon by William Makepeace Thackeray
124. Before Lunch by Angela Thirkell
125. Tropic of Ruislip by Leslie Thomas
126. A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole
127. Barchester Towers by Anthony Trollope
128. Venus on the Half-Shell by Kilgore Trout
129. The Mysterious Stranger by Mark Twain
130. The Witches of Eastwick by John Updike
131. Breakfast of Champions by Kurt Vonnegut
132. Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace
133. Decline and Fall by Evelyn Waugh
134. Vile Bodies by Evelyn Waugh
135. Black Mischief by Evelyn Waugh
136. Scoop by Evelyn Waugh
137. The Loved One by Evelyn Waugh
138. A Handful of Dust by Evelyn Waugh
139. The Life and Loves of a She-Devil by Fay Weldon
140. Tono Bungay by HG Wells
141. Molesworth by Geoffrey Willans and Ronald Searle
142. The Wimbledon Poisoner by Nigel Williams
143. Anglo-Saxon Attitudes by Angus Wilson
144. Something Fresh by PG Wodehouse
145. Piccadilly Jim by PG Wodehouse
146. Thank You Jeeves by PG Wodehouse
147. Heavy Weather by PG Wodehouse
148. The Code of the Woosters by PG Wodehouse
149. Joy in the Morning by PG Wodehouse

Crime

1. The Man with the Golden Arm by Nelson Algren
2. Fantomas by Marcel Allain and Pierre Souvestre
3. The Mask of Dimitrios by Eric Ambler
4. Epitaph for a Spy by Eric Ambler
5. Journey into Fear by Eric Ambler
6. The New York Trilogy by Paul Auster
7. Trent's Last Case by EC Bentley
8. The Poisoned Chocolates Case by Anthony Berkeley
9. The Beast Must Die by Nicholas Blake
10. Lady Audley's Secret by Mary E Braddon
11. The Neon Rain by James Lee Burke
12. The Tin Roof Blowdown by James Lee Burke
13. The Thirty-Nine Steps by John Buchan
14. Greenmantle by John Buchan
15. The Asphalt Jungle by WR Burnett
16. The Postman Always Rings Twice by James M Cain
17. Double Indemnity by James M Cain
18. True History of the Ned Kelly Gang by Peter Carey
19. The Hollow Man by John Dickson Carr
20. The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler
21. The Long Goodbye by Raymond Chandler
22. No Orchids for Miss Blandish by James Hadley Chase
23. The Riddle of the Sands by Erskine Childers
24. And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie
25. The Mysterious Affair at Styles by Agatha Christie
26. The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie
27. The Murder at the Vicarage by Agatha Christie
28. The Secret Adversary by Agatha Christie
29. The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins
30. The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins
31. A Study in Scarlet by Arthur Conan Doyle
32. The Hound of the Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle
33. The Sign of Four by Arthur Conan Doyle
34. The Manchurian Candidate by Richard Condon
35. The Secret Agent by Joseph Conrad
36. Under Western Eyes by Joseph Conrad
37. Postmortem by Patricia Cornwell
38. The Andromeda Strain by Michael Crichton
39. Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton
40. Poetic Justice by Amanda Cross
41. The Ipcress File by Len Deighton
42. Last Seen Wearing by Colin Dexter
43. The Remorseful Day by Colin Dexter
44. Ratking by Michael Dibdin
45. Dead Lagoon by Michael Dibdin
46. Dirty Tricks by Michael Dibdin
47. A Rich Full Death by Michael Dibdin
48. Vendetta by Michael Dibdin
49. Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky
50. An American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser
51. My Cousin Rachel by Daphne du Maurier
52. The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
53. The Pledge by Friedrich Durrenmatt
54. The Crime of Father Amado by José Maria de Eça de Queiroz
55. The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco
56. American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis
57. LA Confidential by James Ellroy
58. The Big Nowhere by James Ellroy
59. A Quiet Belief in Angels by RJ Ellory
60. Sanctuary by William Faulkner
61. Casino Royale by Ian Fleming
62. Goldfinger by Ian Fleming
63. You Only Live Twice by Ian Fleming
64. The Day of the Jackal by Frederick Forsyth
65. Brighton Rock by Graham Greene
66. A Gun for Sale by Graham Greene
67. The Ministry of Fear by Graham Greene
68. The Third Man by Graham Greene
69. A Time to Kill by John Grisham
70. The King of Torts by John Grisham
71. Hangover Square by Patrick Hamilton
72. The Glass Key by Dashiell Hammett
73. The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett
74. Red Harvest by Dashiell Hammett
75. The Thin Man by Dashiell Hammett
76. Fatherland by Robert Harris
77. Black Sunday by Thomas Harris
78. Red Dragon by Thomas Harris
79. Tourist Season by Carl Hiaasen
80. The Friends of Eddie Coyle by George V Higgins
81. Strangers on a Train by Patricia Highsmith
82. The Talented Mr Ripley by Patricia Highsmith
83. Bones and Silence by Reginald Hill
84. A Rage in Harlem by Chester Himes
85. Miss Smilla's Feeling for Snow by Peter Hoeg
86. Rogue Male by Geoffrey Household
87. Malice Aforethought by Francis Iles
88. Silence of the Grave by Arnadur Indridason
89. Death at the President's Lodging by Michael Innes
90. Cover Her Face by PD James
91. A Taste for Death by PD James
92. Friday the Rabbi Slept Late by Harry Kemelman
93. Misery by Stephen King
94. Dolores Claiborne by Stephen King
95. Kim by Rudyard Kipling
96. The Constant Gardener by John le Carre
97. Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy by John le Carre
98. The Spy Who Came in from the Cold by John le Carre
99. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
100. 52 Pick-up by Elmore Leonard
101. Get Shorty by Elmore Leonard
102. Motherless Brooklyn by Jonathan Lethem
103. The Bourne Identity by Robert Ludlum
104. Cop Hater by Ed McBain
105. No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy
106. Enduring Love by Ian McEwan
107. Sidetracked by Henning Mankell
108. Devil in a Blue Dress by Walter Mosley
109. The Great Impersonation by E Phillips Oppenheim
110. The Strange Borders of Palace Crescent by E Phillips Oppenheim
111. My Name is Red by Orhan Pamuk
112. Toxic Shock by Sara Paretsky
113. Blacklist by Sara Paretsky
114. Nineteen Seventy Four by David Peace
115. Nineteen Seventy Seven by David Peace
116. The Big Blowdown by George Pelecanos
117. Hard Revolution by George Pelecanos
118. Lush Life by Richard Price
119. The Godfather by Mario Puzo
120. V by Thomas Pynchon
121. The Crying of Lot 49 by Thomas Pynchon
122. Black and Blue by Ian Rankin
123. The Hanging Gardens by Ian Rankin
124. Exit Music by Ian Rankin
125. Judgment in Stone by Ruth Rendell
126. Live Flesh by Ruth Rendell
127. Dissolution by CJ Sansom
128. Whose Body? by Dorothy L Sayers
129. Murder Must Advertise by Dorothy Le Sayers
130. The Madman of Bergerac by Georges Simenon
131. The Blue Room by Georges Simenon
132. The Laughing Policeman by Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo
133. Gorky Park by Martin Cruz Smith
134. Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
135. The League of Frightened Men by Rex Stout
136. Perfume by Patrick Suskind
137. The Secret History by Donna Tartt
138. The Daughter of Time by Josephine Tey
139. The Getaway by Jim Thompson
140. Pudd'nhead Wilson by Mark Twain
141. A Dark-Adapted Eye by Barbara Vine
142. A Fatal inversion by Barbara Vine
143. King Solomon's Carpet by Barbara Vine
144. The Four Just Men by Edgar Wallace
145. Fingersmith by Sarah Waters
146. Native Son by Richard Wright
147. Therese Raquin by Emile Zola

Family and Self

1. The Face of Another by Kobo Abe
2. Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
3. Behind the Scenes at the Museum by Kate Atkinson
4. Cat's Eye by Margaret Atwood
5. Epileptic by David B
6. Room Temperature by Nicholson Baker
7. Eugenie Grandet by Honore de Balzac
8. Le Pere Goriot by Honore de Balzac
9. The Crow Road by Iain Banks
10. The L Shaped Room by Lynne Reid Banks
11. Fun Home by Alison Bechdel
12. Malone Dies by Samuel Beckett
13. A Legacy by Sybille Bedford
14. Herzog by Saul Bellow
15. Humboldt's Gift by Saul Bellow
16. The Old Wives' Tale by Arnold Bennett
17. G by John Berger
18. Extinction by Thomas Bernhard
19. Two Serious Ladies by Jane Bowles
20. Any Human Heart by William Boyd
21. The Death of Virgil by Hermann Broch
22. Evelina by Fanny Burney
23. The Way of All Flesh by Samuel Butler
24. The Sound of my Voice by Ron Butlin
25. The Outsider by Albert Camus
26. Wise Children by Angela Carter
27. The Professor's House by Willa Cather
28. The Wapshot Chronicle by John Cheever
29. The Awakening by Kate Chopin
30. Les Enfants Terrible by Jean Cocteau
31. The Vagabond by Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette
32. Manservant and Maidservant by Ivy Compton-Burnett
33. Being Dead by Jim Crace
34. Quarantine by Jim Crace
35. The Mandarins by Simone de Beauvoir
36. Roxana by Daniel Defoe
37. Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
38. The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky
39. My New York Diary by Julie Doucet
40. The Millstone by Margaret Drabble
41. My Family and Other Animals by Gerald Durrell
42. Silence by Shusaku Endo
43. The Gathering by Anne Enright
44. Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides
45. As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner
46. The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner
47. The Sportswriter by Richard Ford
48. Howards End by EM Forster
49. Spies by Michael Frayn
50. Hideous Kinky by Esther Freud
51. The Man of Property by John Galsworthy
52. Mary Barton by Elizabeth Gaskell
53. The Immoralist by Andre Gide
54. The Vatican Cellars by Andre Gide
55. The Vicar of Wakefield by Oliver Goldsmith
56. The Power and the Glory by Graham Greene
57. Hunger by Knut Hamsun
58. The Shrimp and the Anemone by LP Hartley
59. The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway
60. Steppenwolf by Herman Hesse
61. Narziss and Goldmund by Hermann Hesse
62. The Three Paradoxes by Paul Hornschemeier
63. Tom Brown's Schooldays by Thomas Hughes
64. A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving
65. The Ambassadors by Henry James
66. Washington Square by Henry James
67. The Tortoise and the Hare by Elizabeth Jenkins
68. The Unfortunates by BS Johnson
69. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce
70. Ulysses by James Joyce
71. Good Behaviour by Molly Keane
72. Memet my Hawk by Yasar Kemal
73. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey
74. The Buddha of Suburbia by Hanif Kureishi
75. Sons and Lovers by DH Lawrence
76. Cider with Rosie by Laurie Lee
77. Invitation to the Waltz by Rosamond Lehmann
78. The Golden Notebook by Doris Lessing
79. How Green was My Valley by Richard Llewellyn
80. Martin Eden by Jack London
81. Under the Volcano by Malcolm Lowry
82. The Member of the Wedding by Carson McCullers
83. Palace Walk by Naguib Mahfouz
84. The Assistant by Bernard Malamud
85. Buddenbrooks by Thomas Mann
86. The Chateau by William Maxwell
87. The Rector's Daughter by FM Mayor
88. The Ordeal of Richard Feverek by George Meredith
89. Family Matters by Rohinton Mistry
90. Sour Sweet by Timothy Mo
91. The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne by Brian Moore
92. The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
93. Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison
94. Who Do You Think You Are? by Alice Munro
95. The Black Prince by Iris Murdoch
96. The Man Without Qualities by Robert Musil
97. A House for Mr Biswas by VS Naipaul
98. At-Swim-Two-Birds by Flann O'Brien
99. Teach Us to Outgrow Our Madness by Kezaburo Oe
100. The Moviegoer by Walker Percy
101. The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
102. My Name Is Asher Lev by Chaim Potok
103. The Good Companions by JB Priestley
104. The Shipping News by E Annie Proulx
105. Remembrance of Things Past by Marcel Proust
106. A Married Man by Piers Paul Read
107. Pointed Roofs by Dorothy Richardson
108. The Fortunes of Richard Mahoney by Henry Handel Richardson
109. Call it Sleep by Henry Roth
110. Julie, ou la Nouvelle Heloise by Jean-Jacques Rousseau
111. The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy
112. The Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger
113. Alberta and Jacob by Cora Sandel
114. A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth
115. Unless by Carol Shields
116. We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver
117. The Three Sisters by May Sinclair
118. The Family Moskat or The Manor or The Estate by Isaac Bashevis Singer
119. A Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley
120. On Beauty by Zadie Smith
121. The Man Who Loved Children by Christina Stead
122. East of Eden by John Steinbeck
123. Ballet Shoes by Noel Streatfield
124. Confessions of Zeno by Italo Svevo
125. The Magnificent Ambersons by Booth Tarkington
126. Angel by Elizabeth Taylor
127. Lark Rise to Candleford by Flora Thompson
128. The Blackwater Lightship by Colm Toibin
129. The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, Aged 13 3/4 by Sue Townsend
130. Death in Summer by William Trevor
131. Fathers and Sons by Ivan Turgenev
132. Peace in War by Miguel de Unamuno
133. The Rabbit Omnibus by John Updike
134. The Color Purple by Alice Walker
135. Jimmy Corrigan, The Smarest Kid on Earth by Chris Ware
136. Morvern Callar by Alan Warner
137. The History of Mr Polly by HG Wells
138. The Fountain Overflows by Rebecca West
139. Frost in May by Antonia White
140. The Tree of Man by Patrick White
141. The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
142. Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit by Jeanette Winterson
143. I'll Go to Bed at Noon by Gerard Woodward
144. To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf
145. Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolf
146. Swiss Family Robinson by Johann David Wyss

Love

1. Le Grand Meaulnes by Henri Alain-Fournier
2. Dom Casmurro Joaquim by Maria Machado de Assis
3. Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen
4. Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
5. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
6. Mansfield Park by Jane Austen
7. Emma by Jane Austen
8. Persuasion by Jane Austen
9. Giovanni's Room by James Baldwin
10. Nightwood by Djuna Barnes
11. The Garden of the Finzi-Cortinis by Giorgio Bassani
12. Love for Lydia by HE Bates
13. More Die of Heartbreak by Saul Bellow
14. Lorna Doone by RD Blackmore
15. The Death of the Heart by Elizabeth Bowen
16. The Heat of the Day by Elizabeth Bowen
17. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
18. Vilette by Charlotte Bronte
19. Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
20. Look At Me by Anita Brookner
21. Rubyfruit Jungle by Rita Mae Brown
22. Possession by AS Byatt
23. Breakfast at Tiffany's by Truman Capote
24. Oscar and Lucinda by Peter Carey
25. A Month in the Country by JL Carr
26. My Antonia by Willa Cather
27. A Lost Lady by Willa Cather
28. Claudine a l'ecole by Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette
29. Cheri by Sidonie-Gabrielle Collette
30. Victory: An Island Tale by Joseph Conrad
31. The Princess of Cleves by Madame de Lafayette
32. The Parasites by Daphne du Maurier
33. Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
34. The Lover by Marguerite Duras
35. Adam Bede by George Eliot
36. Daniel Deronda by George Eliot
37. The Mill on the Floss by George Eliot
38. The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides
39. The Great Gatsby by F Scott Fitzgerald
40. Tender is the Night by F Scott Fitzgerald
41. The Blue Flower by Penelope Fitzgerald
42. Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert
43. The Good Soldier by Ford Madox Ford
44. A Room with a View by EM Forster
45. The French Lieutenant's Woman by John Fowles
46. The Snow Goose by Paul Gallico
47. Ruth by Elizabeth Gaskell
48. Strait is the Gate by Andre Gide
49. Sunset Song by Lewis Grassic Gibbon
50. The Sorrows of Young Werther by Johann Wolfgang Goethe
51. Living by Henry Green
52. The End of the Affair by Graham Greene
53. The Well of Loneliness by Radclyffe Hall
54. Far From the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy
55. Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy
56. Tess of the D'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy
57. The Woodlanders by Thomas Hardy
58. The Go-Between by LP Hartley
59. The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
60. The Transit of Venus by Shirley Hazzard
61. A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway
62. The Infamous Army by Georgette Heyer
63. Regency Buck by Georgette Heyer
64. The Swimming-Pool Library by Alan Hollinghurst
65. Green Mansions: A Romance of the Tropical Forest by WH Hudson
66. Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
67. Crome Yellow by Aldous Huxley
68. The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro
69. Portrait of a Lady by Henry James
70. The Wings of the Dove by Henry James
71. The Piano Teacher by Elfriede Jelinek
72. Beauty and Saddness by Yasunari Kawabata
73. The Far Pavillions by Mary Margaret Kaye
74. Zorba the Greek by Nikos Kazantzakis
75. Moon over Africa by Pamela Kent
76. The Book of Laughter and Forgetting by Milan Kundera
77. The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera
78. Les Liaisons Dangereuses by Pierre-Ambroise-Francois Choderlos de Laclos
79. Lady Chatterley's Lover by DH Lawrence
80. The Rainbow by DH Lawrence
81. Women in Love by DH Lawrence
82. The Echoing Grove by Rosamond Lehmann
83. The Weather in the Streets by Rosamond Lehmann
84. Gentlemen Prefer Blondes by Anita Loos
85. Zami by Audre Lorde
86. Foreign Affairs by Alison Lurie
87. Samarkand by Amin Maalouf
88. Death in Venice by Thomas Mann
89. The Silent Duchess by Dacia Maraini
90. A Heart So White by Javier Marias
91. Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
92. Of Human Bondage by Somerset Maugham
93. So Long, See you Tomorrow by William Maxwell
94. The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers
95. Atonement by Ian McEwan
96. The Child in Time by Ian McEwan
97. The Egoist by George Meredith
98. Tropic of Cancer by Henry Miller
99. Patience and Sarah by Isabel Miller
100. Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
101. The Pursuit of Love by Nancy Mitford
102. Love in a Cold Climate by Nancy Mitford
103. Arturo's Island by Elsa Morante
104. Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami
105. Lolita, or the Confessions of a White Widowed Male by Vladimir Nabokov
106. The Painter of Signs by RK Narayan
107. Delta of Venus by Anais Nin
108. All Souls Day by Cees Nooteboom
109. The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje
110. Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak
111. Manon Lescaut by Abbe Prevost
112. Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys
113. Maurice Guest by Henry Handel Richardson
114. Pamela by Samuel Richardson
115. Clarissa by Samuel Richardson
116. Gilead by Marilynne Robinson
117. Bonjour Tristesse by Francoise Sagan
118. Ali and Nino by Kurban Said
119. Light Years by James Salter
120. A Sport and a Passtime by James Salter
121. The Reader by Benhardq Schlink
122. The Reluctant Orphan by Aara Seale
123. Love Story by Eric Segal
124. Enemies, a Love Story by Isaac Bashevis Singer
125. At Grand Central Station I Sat Down and Wept by Elizabeth Smart
126. I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith
127. The Map of Love by Ahdaf Soueif
128. Valley of the Dolls by Jacqueline Susann
129. Waterland by Graham Swift
130. Diary of a Mad Old Man by Junichiro Tanizaki
131. Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
132. Music and Silence by Rose Tremain
133. First Love by Ivan Turgenev
134. Breathing Lessons by Anne Tyler
135. The Accidental Tourist by Anne Tyler
136. The Night Watch by Sarah Waters
137. The Graduate by Charles Webb
138. The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton
139. The Passion by Jeanette Winterson
140. East Lynne by Ellen Wood
141. Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates

Science Fiction and Fantasy

1. The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
2. Non-Stop by Brian W Aldiss
3. Foundation by Isaac Asimov
4. The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood
5. The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
6. In the Country of Last Things by Paul Auster
7. The Drowned World by JG Ballard
8. Crash by JG Ballard
9. Millennium People by JG Ballard
10. The Wasp Factory by Iain Banks
11. Consider Phlebas by Iain M Banks
12. Weaveworld by Clive Barker
13. Darkmans by Nicola Barker
14. The Time Ships by Stephen Baxter
15. Darwin's Radio by Greg Bear
16. Vathek by William Beckford
17. The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester
18. Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
19. Lost Souls by Poppy Z Brite
20. Wieland by Charles Brockden Brown
21. Rogue Moon by Algis Budrys
22. The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov
23. The Coming Race by EGEL Bulwer-Lytton
24. A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
25. The End of the World News by Anthony Burgess
26. A Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs
27. Naked Lunch by William Burroughs
28. Kindred by Octavia Butler
29. Erewhon by Samuel Butler
30. The Baron in the Trees by Italo Calvino
31. The Influence by Ramsey Campbell
32. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
33. Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There by Lewis Carroll
34. Nights at the Circus by Angela Carter
35. The Passion of New Eve by Angela Carter
36. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon
37. The Man who was Thursday by GK Chesterton
38. Childhood's End by Arthur C Clarke
39. Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke
40. Hello Summer, Goodbye by Michael G Coney
41. Girlfriend in a Coma by Douglas Coupland
42. House of Leaves by Mark Danielewski
43. Pig Tales by Marie Darrieussecq
44. The Einstein Intersection by Samuel R Delaney
45. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K Dick
46. The Man in the High Castle by Philip K Dick
47. Camp Concentration by Thomas M Disch
48. Foucault's Pendulum by Umberto Eco
49. Under the Skin by Michel Faber
50. The Magus by John Fowles
51. American Gods by Neil Gaiman
52. Red Shift by Alan Garner
53. Neuromancer by William Gibson
54. Herland by Charlotte Perkins Gilman
55. Lord of the Flies by William Golding
56. The Forever War by Joe Haldeman
57. Light by M John Harrison
58. The House of the Seven Gables by Nathaniel Hawthorne
59. Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert A Heinlein
60. Dune by Frank L Herbert
61. The Glass Bead Game by Herman Hesse
62. Riddley Walker by Russell Hoban
63. The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner by James Hogg
64. Atomised by Michel Houellebecq
65. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
66. The Unconsoled by Kazuo Ishiguro
67. The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson
68. The Turn of the Screw by Henry James
69. The Children of Men by PD James
70. After London; or, Wild England by Richard Jefferies
71. Bold as Love by Gwyneth Jones
72. The Trial by Franz Kafka
73. Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes
74. The Shining by Stephen King
75. The Victorian Chaise-longue by Marghanita Laski
76. Uncle Silas by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu
77. The Earthsea Series by Ursula Le Guin
78. The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula Le Guin
79. Solaris by Stanislaw Lem
80. Memoirs of a Survivor by Doris Lessing
81. The Chronicles of Narnia by CS Lewis
82. The Monk by Matthew Lewis
83. A Voyage to Arcturus by David Lindsay
84. The Night Sessions by Ken Macleod
85. Beyond Black by Hilary Mantel
86. Only Forward by Michael Marshall Smith
87. I Am Legend by Richard Matheson
88. Melmoth the Wanderer by Charles Maturin
89. The Butcher Boy by Patrick McCabe
90. The Road by Cormac McCarthy
91. Ascent by Jed Mercurio
92. The Scar by China Mieville
93. Ingenious Pain by Andrew Miller
94. A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M Miller Jr
95. Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell
96. Mother London by Michael Moorcock
97. News from Nowhere by William Morris
98. Beloved by Toni Morrison
99. The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami
100. Ada or Ardor by Vladimir Nabokov
101. The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
102. Ringworld by Larry Niven
103. Vurt by Jeff Noon
104. The Third Policeman by Flann O'Brien
105. The Famished Road by Ben Okri
106. Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell
107. Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk
108. Nightmare Abbey by Thomas Love Peacock
109. Titus Groan by Mervyn Peake
110. The Space Merchants by Frederik Pohl and CM Kornbluth
111. A Glastonbury Romance by John Cowper Powys
112. The Discworld Series by Terry Pratchett
113. The Prestige by Christopher Priest
114. His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman
115. Gargantua and Pantagruel by Francois Rabelais
116. The Mysteries of Udolpho by Ann Radcliffe
117. Revelation Space by Alastair Reynolds
118. The Years of Rice and Salt by Kim Stanley Robinson
119. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone by JK Rowling
120. Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie
121. The Female Man by Joanna Russ
122. Air by Geoff Ryman
123. The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupery
124. Blindness by Jose Saramago
125. How the Dead Live by Will Self
126. Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
127. Hyperion by Dan Simmons
128. Star Maker by Olaf Stapledon
129. Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson
130. The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson
131. Dracula by Bram Stoker
132. The Insult by Rupert Thomson
133. The Hobbit by JRR Tolkien
134. The Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien
135. A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court by Mark Twain
136. Sirens of Titan by Kurt Vonnegut
137. The Castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole
138. Institute Benjamenta by Robert Walser
139. Lolly Willowes by Sylvia Townsend Warner
140. Affinity by Sarah Waters
141. The Time Machine by HG Wells
142. The War of the Worlds by HG Wells
143. The Sword in the Stone by TH White
144. The Old Men at the Zoo by Angus Wilson
145. The Book of the New Sun by Gene Wolfe
146. Orlando by Virginia Woolf
147. Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham
148. The Midwich Cuckoos by John Wyndham
149. We by Yevgeny Zamyatin

State of the Nation

1. Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
2. Anthills of the Savannah by Chinua Achebe
3. London Fields by Martin Amis
4. Untouchable by Mulk Raj Anand
5. Go Tell it on the Mountain by James Baldwin
6. La Comedie Humaine by Honore de Balzac
7. They Were Counted by Miklos Banffy
8. A Kind of Loving by Stan Barstow
9. Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe
10. Oroonoko, or The Royal Slave by Aphra Behn
11. Clayhanger by Arnold Bennett
12. The Last September by Elizabeth Bowen
13. Room at the Top by John Braine
14. A Dry White Season by Andre Brink
15. Shirley by Charlotte Bronte
16. Earthly Powers by Anthony Burgess
17. The Virgin in the Garden by AS Byatt
18. Tobacco Road by Erskine Caldwell
19. The Plague by Albert Camus
20. The Kingdom of this World by Alejo Carpentier
21. What a Carve Up! by Jonathan Coe
22. Disgrace by JM Coetzee
23. Waiting for the Barbarians by JM Coeztee
24. Microserfs by Douglas Coupland
25. Moll Flanders by Daniel Defoe
26. Underworld by Don DeLillo
27. White Noise by Don DeLillo
28. A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
29. Bleak House by Charles Dickens
30. Dombey and Son by Charles Dickens
31. Hard Times by Charles Dickens
32. Little Dorritt by Charles Dickens
33. Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens
34. Play It As It Lays by Joan Didion
35. Sybil or The Two Nations by Benjamin Disraeli
36. Berlin Alexanderplatz by Alfred Döblin
37. The Book of Daniel by EL Doctorow
38. Notes from the Underground by Fyodor Dostoevsky
39. The Idiot by Fyodor Dostoevsky
40. USA by John Dos Passos
41. Sister Carrie by Theodor Dreiser
42. Castle Rackrent by Maria Edgeworth
43. Middlemarch by George Eliot
44. Silas Marner by George Eliot
45. The Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison
46. Sentimental Education by Gustave Flaubert
47. Effi Briest by Theodore Fontane
48. Independence Day by Richard Ford
49. A Passage to India by EM Forster
50. The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen
51. The Recognitions by William Gaddis
52. Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell
53. North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell
54. The Counterfeiters by Andre Gide
55. The Odd Women by George Gissing
56. New Grub Street by George Gissing
57. July's People by Nadine Gordimer
58. Mother by Maxim Gorky
59. Lanark by Alastair Gray
60. Love on the Dole by Walter Greenwood
61. The Mayor of Casterbridge by Thomas Hardy
62. A Kestrel for a Knave by Barry Hines
63. The Line of Beauty by Alan Hollinghurst
64. South Riding by Winifred Holtby
65. Les Miserables by Victor Hugo
66. Goodbye to Berlin by Christopher Isherwood
67. Chronicle in Stone by Ismael Kadare
68. How Late it Was, How Late by James Kelman
69. The Leopard by Giuseppi di Lampedusa
70. A Girl in Winter by Philip Larkin
71. Passing by Nella Larsen
72. The Grass is Singing by Doris Lessing
73. Babbitt by Sinclair Lewis
74. Elmer Gantry by Sinclair Lewis
75. Main Street by Sinclair Lewis
76. Absolute Beginners by Colin MacInnes
77. The Group by Mary McCarthy
78. Amongst Women by John McGahern
79. The Posthumous Memoirs of Bras Cubas by Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis
80. Of Love & Hunger by Julian Maclaren-Ross
81. Remembering Babylon by David Malouf
82. The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann
83. The Betrothed by Alessandro Manzoni
84. Bel-Ami by Guy de Maupassant
85. A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry
86. The Time of Indifference by Alberto Moravia
87. A Bend in the River by VS Naipaul
88. McTeague by Frank Norris
89. Personality by Andrew O'Hagan
90. Animal Farm by George Orwell
91. The Ragazzi Pier by Paolo Pasolini
92. Cry, the Beloved Country by Alan Paton
93. The Moon and the Bonfire by Cesare Pavese
94. GB84 by David Peace
95. Headlong Hall by Thomas Love Peacock
96. Afternoon Men by Anthony Powell
97. Vineland by Thomas Pynchon
98. The Radetzky March by Joseph Roth
99. American Pastoral by Philip Roth
100. The Human Stain by Philip Roth
101. Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie
102. Shame by Salman Rushdie
103. To Each his Own by Leonardo Sciascia
104. Staying On by Paul Scott
105. Last Exit to Brooklyn by Hubert Selby Jr
106. The Lonely Londoners by Samuel Selvon
107. God's Bit of Wood by Ousmane Sembene
108. The Case of Comrade Tulayev by Victor Serge
109. Richshaw Boy by Lao She
110. Saturday Night and Sunday Morning by Alan Sillitoe
111. The Jungle by Upton Sinclair
112. Novel on Yellow Paper by Stevie Smith
113. White Teeth by Zadie Smith
114. One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovtich by Alexandr Solzhenitsyn
115. The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
116. The Red and the Black by Stendhal
117. This Sporting Life by David Storey
118. The Red Room by August Stringberg
119. The Home and the World by Rabindranath Tagore
120. Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray
121. The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists by Robert Tressell
122. The Last Chronicle of Barset by Anthony Trollope
123. The Way We Live Now by Anthony Trollope
124. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
125. Couples by John Updike
126. Z by Vassilis Vassilikos
127. Billy Liar by Keith Waterhouse
128. Trainspotting by Irvine Welsh
129. The Day of the Locust by Nathanael West
130. The Return of the Soldier by Rebecca West
131. The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton
132. The Bonfire of the Vanities by Tom Wolfe
133. Germinal by Emile Zola
134. La Bete Humaine by Emile Zola

War and Travel

1. Silver Stallion by Junghyo Ahn
2. Death of a Hero by Richard Aldington
3. Master Georgie by Beryl Bainbridge
4. Darkness Falls from the Air by Nigel Balchin
5. Empire of the Sun by JG Ballard
6. Regeneration by Pat Barker
7. A Long Long Way by Sebastian Barry
8. Fair Stood the Wind for France by HE Bates
9. Carrie's War by Nina Bawden
10. The Savage Detectives by Roberto Bolano
11. The Sheltering Sky by Paul Bowles
12. An Ice-Cream War by William Boyd
13. When the Wind Blows by Raymond Briggs
14. Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino
15. Auto-da-Fe by Elias Canetti
16. One of Ours by Willa Cather
17. Journey to the End of the Night by Louis-Ferdinand Celine
18. Monkey by Wu Ch'eng-en
19. Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
20. Lord Jim by Joseph Conrad
21. Nostromo by Joseph Conrad
22. Sharpe's Eagle by Bernard Cornwell
23. The History of Pompey the Little by Francis Coventry
24. The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane
25. Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe
26. Bomber by Len Deighton
27. Deliverance by James Dickey
28. Three Soldiers by John Dos Passos
29. South Wind by Norman Douglas
30. The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas
31. Justine by Lawrence Durrell
32. The Bamboo Bed by William Eastlake
33. The Siege of Krishnapur by JG Farrell
34. Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks
35. Parade's End by Ford Madox Ford
36. The African Queen by CS Forester
37. The Ship by CS Forester
38. Flashman by George MacDonald Fraser
39. Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier
40. The Beach by Alex Garland
41. To The Ends of the Earth trilogy by William Golding
42. Asterix the Gaul by Rene Goscinny
43. The Tin Drum by Gunter Grass
44. Count Belisarius by Robert Graves
45. Life and Fate by Vassily Grossman
46. De Niro's Game by Rawi Hage
47. King Solomon's Mines by H Rider Haggard
48. She: A History of Adventure by H Rider Haggard
49. The Slaves of Solitude by Patrick Hamilton
50. Covenant with Death by John Harris
51. Enigma by Robert Harris
52. The Good Soldier Svejk by Jaroslav Hasek
53. For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway
54. The Prisoner of Zenda by Anthony Hope
55. The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
56. A High Wind in Jamaica by Richard Hughes
57. Rasselas by Samuel Johnson
58. From Here to Eternity by James Jones
59. Andersonville by MacKinlay Kantor
60. Confederates by Thomas Keneally
61. Schindler's Ark by Thomas Keneally
62. Day by AL Kennedy
63. On the Road by Jack Kerouac
64. Darkness at Noon by Arthur Koestler
65. The Painted Bird by Jerzy Kosinski
66. If Not Now, When? by Primo Levi
67. The Call of the Wild by Jack London
68. The Guns of Navarone by Alistair MacLean
69. All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy
70. Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy
71. The Mark of Zorro by Johnston McCulley
72. Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurty
73. The Naked and the Dead by Norman Mailer
74. La Condition Humaine by Andre Malraux
75. Fortunes of War by Olivia Manning
76. One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
77. The Children of the New Forest by Frederick Marryat
78. Moby-Dick or, The Whale by Herman Melville
79. Tales of the South Pacific by James Michener
80. The Cruel Sea by Nicholas Monsarrat
81. History by Elsa Morante
82. Suite Francaise by Irene Nemirovsky
83. The Sorrow of War by Bao Ninh
84. Master and Commander by Patrick O'Brian
85. The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien
86. The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Emmuska Orczy
87. Burmese Days by George Orwell
88. Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert Pirsig
89. The Valley of Bones by Anthony Powell
90. The Soldier's Art by Anthony Powell
91. The Military Philosophers by Anthony Powell
92. Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon
93. The Surprising Adventures of Baron Munchausen by Rudolp Erich Raspe
94. All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque
95. The Crab with the Golden Claws by Georges Remi Herge
96. Tintin in Tibet by Georges Remi Herge
97. The Castafiore Emerald by Georges Remi Herge
98. The Devil to Pay in the Backlands by Joao Guimaraes Rosa
99. Sacaramouche by Rafael Sabatini
100. Captain Blood by Rafael Sabatini
101. Everything is Illuminated by Jonathon Safran Foer
102. The Hunters by James Salter
103. Ivanhoe by Sir Walter Scott
104. The Rings of Saturn by WG Sebald
105. Austerlitz by WG Sebald
106. Black Beauty by Anna Sewell
107. The Young Lions by Irwin Shaw
108. A Town Like Alice by Nevil Shute
109. Maus by Art Spiegelman
110. The Charterhouse of Parma by Stendhal
111. Cryptonomicon by Neil Stephenson
112. A Sentimental Journey by Lawrence Sterne
113. Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson
114. Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson
115. A Flag for Sunrise by Robert Stone
116. Sophie's Choice by William Styron
117. Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift
118. War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
119. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
120. Around the World in Eighty Days by Jules Verne
121. A Journey to the Centre of the Earth by Jules Verne
122. Williwaw by Gore Vidal
123. Candide by Voltaire
124. Slaughter-House Five by Kurt Vonnegut
125. Put Out More Flags by Evelyn Waugh
126. Men at Arms by Evelyn Waugh
127. The Island of Dr Moreau by HG Wells
128. The Machine-Gunners by Robert Westall
129. Voss by Patrick White
130. The Virginian by Owen Wister
131. The Caine Mutiny by Herman Wouk
132. The Debacle by Emile Zola