Books I have enjoyed in 2016-17
One way to improve your writing skills is to read quality, well written books. Here are a few books that I read and enjoyed in 2016. They come with my recommendation (I ditched about half as many again). Let me know what you think of them.
The books marked * are relatively new (the Burnet book was on the Booker Prize shortlist in 2016); the others are older … but they are all worth reading.
- I know why the caged bird sings – Maya Angelou
- Essays in Love – Alain de Botton
- His Bloody Project – Graeme Macrae Burnet *
- Disgrace – JM Coetze
- The Beginning of Spring – Penelope Fitzgerald
- The End of the Affair – Graham Greene
- A Single Man – Christopher Isherwood
- Remains of the Day – Kazuo Ishiguro
- This Boy – Alan Johnson *
- Common People – Alison Light *
- Amongst Women – John McGahern
- Housekeeping – Marilynne Richardson
- Conrad and Eleanor – Jane Rogers *
- The Boy with the Topknot – Sathnam Sanghera *
- Samuel Pepys – Clare Tomalin
- Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont – Elizabeth Taylor
- Breathing Lessons – Anne Tyler
- Joy in the Morning – P G Wodehouse
Enjoy!