Much of a muchness

Two friends have asked me this week to recommend books for them to read on holiday. So I have compiled a list of my favourite reads from the last year or so. Here goes, in no particular order

The Zahir – Paulo Coelho
*The Time Travellers Wife – Audrey Niffenegger
On Beauty – Zadie Smith
The Night Watch – Sarah Waters
*Suite Francaise – Irene Nemirovsky
*Black Swan Green – David Mitchell
Saturday – Ian McEwan
Spies – Michael Frayn
*A Fine Balance – Rohinton Mistry
*Dead Air – Iain Banks
The Last King of Scotland – Giles Foden
The Line of Beauty – Alan Hollingshurst
Birds Without Wings – Louis de Bernieres
The Shadow of the Wind – Carlos Ruiz Zafon
*If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things – Jon McGregor
Mother’s Milk – Edward St. Aubyn
Plot Against America – Philip Roth
A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian – Marina Lewycka
*The Kite Runner – Khaled Hosseini
Stuart-A Life Backwards – Alexander Masters
*Once in a House on Fire – Andrea Ashworth
Middlesex – Jeffrey Eugenides
The Corrections –Jonathan Frantzen
Half of a Yellow Sun – Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

* Special favourites

Just about to start reading ‘Digging to America’ by Anne Tyler, another favourite of mine, almost any of her books could be added to this list – I’ll keep you posted.