...there's nothing better than staying in and curling up with a good book. Every year C4's Richard & Judy run a book club , producing a list of good books perfect for passing the time on these stormy winter days.
There's no doubt that R&J know how to sell books, with their choices always topping the book charts from the moment they get mentioned on the show. Initially some were fairly snobbish about two daytime TV presenters suggesting what the nation should read; but over the years the club has been running they've found some real gems, and brought reading in general to a far wider audience then any bookshop, library or newspaper review column ever had done. My one suggestion would be for more non-fiction titles - this year there's just one, depsite the prominence of non-fiction on the bestseller lists: Richard Dawkin's The God Delusion was the number one bestseller in Borders for several weeks, along with Why Do Penguins Feet Freeze, The Dangerous Book for Boys and several bigraphies. But anyway, what's on the list in 2007?
The Interpretation of Murder
Jed Rubenfeld
When a wealthy young debutante is discovered bound, whipped and strangled in a luxurious apartment overlooking the city, and another society beauty narrowly escapes the same fate, the mayor of New York calls upon the visiting Sigmund Freud to use his revolutionary new ideas to help the surviving victim recover her memory of the attack, and solve the crime.
The Girls
Lori Lansens
Rose and Ruby Darlen are closer than most twin sisters. Indeed, they have spent their twenty-nine years on earth joined at the head. Given that they share a web of essential veins, there is no possibility that they can be separated in their lifetime. On the eve of their thirtieth birthday, Rose sets out to write her autobiography. But because their lives have been so closely shared, Ruby insists on contributing the occasional chapter.
Restless
William Boyd
In 1939, Eva is a beautiful 28 year-old living in Paris. As war breaks out, she is recruited for the British Secret Service by Lucas Romer, a mysterious, patrician Englishman. Under his tutelage, she learns to become the perfect spy, to mask her emotions and trust no one: even those she loves most. Since then, Eva has carefully rebuilt her life - but once a spy, always a spy. And now, she must complete one last assignment. This time, though, Eva can't do it alone: she needs her daughter's help. Restless has already the winner of the Costa Novel of the Year.
Love in the Present Tense
Catherine Ryan Hyde
For five years Pearl has managed to keep the past from catching up to her and her bright, frail five-year-old son. Life has given her every reason to mistrust people, but circumstances force her to trust her neighbour Mitch with watching Leonard while she goes off to work. Then one day Pearl drops her son off and never returns.
They are an unlikely pair: Mitch is a young, unattached business owner, and Leonard is a precocious, five-year-old boy. But together they must find a way to move forward in the wake of Pearl's unexplained disappearance.
Semi-Detached
Griff Rhys Jones
This year's non-fiction choice, in Semi-Detached Griff Rhys Jones recreates his suburban childhood and adolescence in precise and evocative detail; every young trauma, embarrassment and joyous rebellion, hazily-remembered summer afternoons released into the wild of the woods and forming feral gangs.
This Book Will Save Your Life
A.M. Homes
A vivid novel about compassion and transformation, This Book Will Save Your Life reveals what can happen if you are willing to open up to the world around you. Since her debut in 1989, A. M. Homes has been among the boldest and most original voices of her generation, acclaimed for the psychological accuracy and unnerving emotional intensity of her storytelling.
Half a Yellow Sun
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
This highly anticipated new novel from Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is set in Nigeria during the 1960s, at the time of a vicious civil war in which a million people died and thousands were massacred in cold blood. The three main characters in the novel get swept up in the violence during these turbulent years.
The Testament of Gideon Mack
James Robertson
Set in contemporary Scotland, the novel uses the literary device of a discovered manuscript, the testament of Gideon Mack, which has fallen into the hands of a journalist. A son of the manse, Mack has grown up in an austere and chilly house, dominated by a joyless father. Unable to believe in God, he is far more attracted by the forbidden cartoons on television. To this story, Robertson adds a wealth of insight about the mood of post-war Scotland on the brink of the social revolution of the Sixties, and dramatizes the country's struggle to stay true to its history while swimming within the powerful current of Americanization.
So there we go. A really interesting list, with some established names and some you might not have come across before. Discovery - exactly what a good Book Club should be about.
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