make a list of the 43 books I most love, and post it here, so that those who say they want to "read more books" can have 1 readers thoughtful ideas on where to start

20. White Oleander by Janet Fitch
Beautiful, dreamlike prose, and a story about the relationships women have – especially those between daughters and mothers – not just biological mothers either, but all of those who play the role of adult role model in our lives, and who often end up as the Dark Mother, and the way we can hurt and blind each other, and eventually heal each other, through these relationships. Occasionally trite or overdone, but mostly very, very good and very beautiful.

21. The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde
A sly, satirical take on the world of pop fiction and literature, set in an alternate Wales. This book (indeed this series) not only made me glad I was well-read, but it made me want to be more so (So I could get more of the jokes).

22. Assassin’s Apprentice by Robin Hobb
I am trying not to write about TOO much fantasy and sci-fi. It is primarily what I read for pleasure, but it has a poor reputation, mostly well-deserved because of its often obvious biases to the teenaged male audience, two dimensional ‘characters’ and predictable, awful ‘plots’.
Robin Hobb is a little different; a woman who writes mainly male protagonists, and writes them so well that most of her audience assumes she is male. Her plots, whilst sticking to fantastic formula, furnish enough twists and turns to keep you surprised, and she certainly does not pull any punches. Her protagonists seem to learn their lessons the hard way, they make mistakes, and yet they are ultimately likable and sympathetic. Plus, you know, she writes good female characters too – no wilting violets who swoon constantly, here.

17. Wild Swans by Jung Chang
This book is a brick!
But I strongly urge you not to be put off by the size, and jump on in – Jung writes about her life, and the lives of her mother and grandmother, in China. It covers the period pre-Mao, and then during the massive communist uprising with a writing style that doesn’t get in the way of the stories, but helps you to understand them.

18. Capricornia by Xavier Herbert
I read this so very long ago, as part of an Australian History unit at University. Somehow Herbert’s story about the privations of the new settlers in Australia, and the things done to the native peoples, has slipped through the cracks culturally. Whilst this book is never violent in the way Fight Club is (I seem to recall), there are passages that made me bawl, for the treatment of the koori children… all the writing is based on facts. I think this should be required reading for Australian highschool students.

19. The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton
I’m a sucker for delicately written stories about undercurrents – and Edith Wharton writes undercurrents aplenty. This is my favourite of her stuff that I have read – a truly gothic novel, in the best sense – no vampires, or supernatural occurences, minimal castles – just a slowly impending doom that we can see coming, like a trainwreck. Beautiful, and terribly, terribly sad story about high society in America at the turn of last century, and the awful things it did to people, especially women.

13. Anais Nin by Deidre Bair
Anais Nin is a “greater lesser novelist” of America, as described by Bair; whilst she isn’t one of THE big names, she is an important entry in the American cannon.
She’s also a totally fascinating personality, who was lucky enough to hang out with a bunch of famous people before and after the second World War; Djuna Barnes, Antonin Artaud and the Dalis to name a few. Despite this, I find Anais’ personality (and her ability to truly convince herself the sky is pink with purple polka dots, if she suddenly decides it’s better than plain blue) to be more interesting still.

14. The Journals of Anais Nin
If you’re going to read about her life from someone else’s perspective, I’d suggest you also read about Anais’ life from HER (heavily edited, once published) perspective. The five official volumes of her adult journals are interesting not just for the life behind them, but for the fact Anais was a female artist at a time when females being artists in their own right was only beginning to become a mainstream idea, an erotica writer when women talking and writing frankly about sex was unheard of. the journals definitely aren’t a racy romance novel, but they are filled with thoughts on women’s sexuality, her role in society, towards her husband, family, and self amongst other topics.

15. American Gods by Neil Gaiman
Dark fantasy that will appeal to mental collectors of the strange and interesting, this book charts the story (without giving too much away – SPOILER WARNING AHEAD) of what happens to the Gods of the many people of America in a modern world. Neil Gaiman has a deft touch and a strong sense of the symbolic. This is a great book for anyone interested in mythology – not only for the game of “Guess That God”.

16. Moonheart by Charles deLint
I have a real love of stories about the magical in everyday life. All of Charles deLint’s stories are about elves living in dumpsters and Native American totems stopping by coffee shops for a chat, but Moonheart will always hold a special place in my heart, as the first of his novels that I read.

11. Witches Abroad by Terry Pratchett
Probably one of my favourite Discworld novels, and early in the series, when Pterry’s hit his stride, but has not yet begun to flesh his characters out from being three-dimensional caricatures. Discworld isa strange world atht is flat like a disc… but is strangely familiar. All Pterry’s Discworld stories are humorous, serious examinations of people and how we all work. This story deals with narrative force, faerietales, and the all-important Witches Rule: Don’t Do What You Will, Do What I Say.

12. Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden
Before the highly over-rated movie there was a highly over-rated book! For all that, the book is a lovely Orientalist look at the lives of Geisha and Meiko (apprentice Geisha) and was apparently meticulously researched (not being an area I’ve researched for myself, I can’t say for sure). Not a fantastic read, but certainly good; entertaining, well-paced and engaging.

8. We Need To Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver
This book was the first to make me cry in a long time. Told from the perspective of the mother of a child who commits one of the school mass-murders in America. Whilst it’s definitely not a serious investigation of the causes of these events (it comes down unarguably on the “he was inhuman from the get-go” side of things) it does spread out the mixtureof fear, revulsion, hurt and compassion you’d expect the motehr of such a boy to have.

9. The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley
I’m yet to find a man who enjoyed this book, but most women interested in the Arthurian legends loved it. This is the Morte D’Arthur, retold from the perspective of the four central female characters: Igraine, Arthur’s mother; Viviane, the Lady of the Lake and High Priestess of Avalon; Morgaine, Arthur’s misunderstood half-sister, and Gwenhwyfar, his wilting bride who grows into stronger womanhood through the love of not her husband, but her champion.
Rewrites the Arthurian legends as a great battle between Christianity and the existing ‘Old Religion’, which is old hat now, but it was one of the first, and is still one of the best imo.

10. The Other Boleyn Girl by Philippa Gregory
Anne Boleyn, Henry XIII’s second wife, had a sister, Mary – who was also involved with the monarch. Both girls were pawns in the games of houses that went on in court. Well-researched, written in such a way as to draw you in, and very satisfying.

6. The Secret History by Donna Tartt
This is not the sort of book I would normally read – in fact I don’t think it’s the sort of thing ANYONE would normally read. It defies genres and expectations. It is unputdown-able; gripping, well written and terrifying. I devoured it over two nights.

7. Silver Metal Lover by Tanith Lee
Gorgeous post-apocalyptic scifi story about teenaged romance and realising your own power and strengths (and the sacrifices you’ll make for love), as well as interrogating just what exactly constitutes “a soul”. Despite Tanith’s obvious thin-is-beautiful bias, a lovely book that always takes me back to being an adolescent, in the throes of first love.

I’m going to do five per entry form now. But – another two for my first five:

4. The Handmaiden’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
A post-acopcalyptic story about life in the fictional Theocracy of Gilead, a kind of crazy rightwing American State, where women who are not married and staying married are forced into life as breeders for “properly” married couples, amongst other injustices. The protagonist is Offred, who was renamed since she is now “Of Fred”, whose lover was seperated from her, and whose child from an earlier partnership was removed by the State and given to strangers to raise shortly after the coup that changed her society from one like our own to what it is now. Atwood writes alot in her works about the structures of hierarchy and partiarchy, and about systems of control, particularly those around women. Although she is often heavy-handed, this is one of her best novels on these themes, IMO.

5.Vanity Fair by Thackeray
A period novel without a hero! I love pert, clever Becky Sharp and her nasty machinations, and can’t help but feel sorry for her, such is Thackeray’s skill. This novel is VERY thick, but don’t let it put you off – the prose itself isn’t particularly dense, and the characters are mainly rogues, villains or blackguards, the exceptions being sops and idiots for the more clever characters to use and abuse. Thackeray has a great talent for exposing, caricaturing and ridiculing average people’s foibles, and this is delightful, wicked fun.

That I recommend to all my customers (in no particular order):

1. The Virgin Suicides, by Jeffrey Eugenides
Beautifully written, lyrical and mysterious, this is not a book that so much glorifies suicide, as invites the reader to be as mystified by the whys and wherefores as the group of boys of whom the narrator is a member.

2. High Fidelity by Nick Hornby
Wonderfully English-boy and grotty and full of truisms about life, love and relationships. The protagonist is caught on the verge of a mid-life crises that blends seamlessly with his quarter-life version of the same, and is full of ridiculous, wonderful lists of songs.

3. Fight Club by Chuck Pahlaniuk
The movie was quite true to the idea of this book, although the final chapters are glorious, and were left out of the film. The book also allows you to get more of the nihilistic philosophy, that the in-your-face aggressiveness of the film’s visuals kind of covered up for me.
This book is THE BOOK of my generation – the brink between X and Y; “We have no great war – ours is a war of the soul. We have no Great Depression – our Great Depression is our lives.”
You want to understand the disenfranchised youth? Read This.