TRANSITION YEAR EXTENDED ESSAY LIBRARY SUGGESTIONS September 2014 RELATIONSHIPS Crow Lake (family, Canada) Atonement (family, England, WW2) The Gathering (family, Ireland) Housekeeping (orphans, aunt) Nothing holds back the night (mother/daughter) Why be happy when you can be normal (non-fic, mother/daughter) Oranges are not the only fruit (mother/daughter) The Glass Castle (non-fic, daughter/parents) A boy called It (non-fic, mother/son) Amongst Women (father/daughters, Ireland) The Spider Truces (father-son, bereavement) The Spinning Heart (father and son) Tinkers (father and son) The Twin (father and son) Gilead (father/son) A Fraction of the Whole (father/son Australia) Out Stealing Horses (father and son, Norway) The Radetzky March (Austro-Hung. empire, 3 generations) Revolutionary Road (marriage USA) The Marriage plot (US college and after) The Story of a Marriage (marriage USA) Private Life (marriage, USA) The Sportswriter (bereavement, marriage breakdown) Mrs Hemingway (Hemingway, marriage) The Paris Wife (Hemingway, marriage) The Old Man and the Sea The Pearl Poet’s Wives (marriage, Blake, Mandelstam, Irish) The Great Gatsby Lolita On Chesil Beach (marriage) Stoner (marriage) Love in the time of Cholera (marriage, S America) Beware of Pity (Ill-advised marriage, Austro-Hung. ) Embers (rivalry, love, Austro-Hung.) Breath (friends, rivalry, Australia) The Girl with the Pearl Earring (artist and model) The Girl from the Chartreuse (France) City of Bohane (rivalry) The Heart is a lonely hunter (solitary people USA) Rebecca The Chateau (non-fic, Americans in post WW1 France) An Act of Love (non-fic, Irish MS sufferer, right to die) The Perks of being a wallflower (JF, USA teen) No and Me (JF, French, friendship with runaway) LOVE/ROMANCE One Day
David Nicholls
Mary Lawson Ian McEwan Anne Enright Marilynne Robinson Delphine de Vigane Jeanette Winterson Jeanette Winterson Jeanette Walls Dave Pelzer John McGahern Tom Connolly Donal Ryan Paul Harding Gerbrand Bakker Marilynne Robinson Steve Toltz Per Petterson Joseph Roth Richard Yates Jeffrey Eugenides Andrew Greer Jane Smiley Richard Ford Naomi Wood Paula McLain Ernest Hemingway John Steinbeck David Park F. Scott Fitzgerald Vladimir Nabokov Ian McEwan John Williams Gabriel Garcia Marquez Stephan Zweig Sandor Marai Tim Winton Tracy Chevalier Pierre Peju Kevin Barry Carson McCullers Daphne du Maurier William Maxwell Marie Fleming Stephen Chbosky Delphine de Vigane
The Infatuations Anna Karenina Madame Bovary Love and Summer Dr Zhivago Burning Bright series(JF) Survive (JF) The Serious Kiss (JF) The Fault in our Stars
Javier Marias Tolstoy Gustave Flaubert William Trevor Boris Pasternak Sophie McKenzie Kate le Vann John Green Nicholas Sparks Celia Ahern Jilly Cooper
LGBT Brokeback Mountain Fingersmith The Song of Achilles Timoleon Vieta come home The Stranger’s Child The Line of Beauty Come what may (non-fic, GAA) The Mayor of Castro Street (Harvey Milk, non-fic) When Love comes to Town (Ireland) Hood Oranges are not the only Fruit Hello, I lied Deliver us from Evie Now and then Death in Venice The Lacuna Kiss (JF) ENGLISH SOCIAL CLASSES Passage to India Room with a view Remains of the Day Longbourn Angel Pride and Prejudice Georgette Heyer (Regency) The Stranger’s Child Mapp and Lucia series Jeeves Rebecca Brideshead revisited Lady Chatterly’s Lover IRELAND – BIG HOUSE The Last September Langrishe go down Troubles The Family on Paradise Pier Woodbrook The Crocodile by the door (non-fic)
E. Annie Proulx Sarah Waters Madeline Miller Dan Rhodes Alan Hollinghurst Alan Hollinghurst Donal Og Cusack Randy Shilts Tom Lennon Emma Donoghue Jeannette Winterson M.E. Kerr M.E. Kerr William Corlett Thomas Mann Barbara Kingsolver Jacqueline Wilson EM Forster EM Forster Kazuo Ishiguro Jo Baker Elizabeth Taylor Jane Austen Alan Hollinghurst EF Benson PG Wodehouse Daphne du Maurier Evelyn Waugh D.H Lawrence Elizabeth Bowen Aidan Higgins J.G. Farrell Dermot Bolger David Thompson Selena Guinness
Rathcormack (non-fic)
Homan Potterton
INTELLECTUAL DISABILITY /PHYSICAL DISABILITY/MENTAL ILLNESS Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime (autism) Mark Haddon House Rules (autism) Jodie Picoult One flew over the Cuckoo’s nest Ken Kesey 600 hours of Edward (Asperger’s, OCD) Craig Lancaster The Memory Keepers Daughter (Down’s syndrome) Kim Edwards Of Mice and Men John Steinbeck Shock of the Fall (schizophrenia) Nathan Filer The Marriage Plot (schizophrenia) Jeffrey Eugenides Junior Fiction When Mr Dog bites (Tourette’s) Brian Conaghan My dad is 10 years old (brain injury) Mark O’Sullivan Al Capone does my shirts (autism) Gennifer Choldenko Mockingbird (Asperger’s, bereavement) Cathryn Erskine Freaks like us(schizophrenia) Susan Vaught Freak the mighty Rodman Philbrick The London Eye Mystery (autism) Siobhan Dowd A note of madness (depression) Tabitha Suzuma Wonder (facial abnormality) R.J. Palacio IMPRISONMENT Room 3095 days (non-fic) I choose to live (non-fic) Midnight Express (Turkish jail) Shantaram Papillon (Devil’s island) Bridge over the River Kwai (Japanese POWs) The Dark Road to the far North (Japanese POWs) Empire of the Sun (child POW, Japanese) Count of Monte Cristo Prisoner of Zenda Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich (Russian gulag) House of Meetings (gulag) The Collector (kidnap, obsession) Darkness at Noon (Russian purges) This Blinding Absence of Light (Morocco, political) An Evil Cradling (non-fic, hostage Lebanon) The 33 (non-fic, Chilean mine disaster) The Diving bell and the butterfly (non-fic, total paralysis) Anne Frank’s Diary I’m not scared (JF, Italy, kidnap) Annexed (JF, Anne Frank fiction) Al Capone does my shirts (JF) Stolen (JF) Bunker 10 (JF) Holes (JF) SCHOOL Skippy Dies Bad Day in Blackrock Spud
Emma Donoghue Natasha Kampusch Sabine Dardenne Billy Hayes Gregory David Roberts Henri Charriere Pierre Boulle Richard Flanagan J.G. Ballard Alexandre Dumas Anthony Hope Solzhenitsin Martin Amis John Fowles Arthur Koestler Tahar Ben Jelloun Brian Keegan Jonathan Franklin Jean-Dominique Bauby Anne Frank Nicolo Ammaniti Sharon Dogar Gennifer Choldenko Lucy Christopher Kevin Brooks Louis Sachar
Paul Murray Kevin Power Jacob van der Ruit
The Night Music To serve them all my days Looking for Alaska The Dragonfly Pool Winter Song Old school ties
Christopher Campbell-Howes R.L. Delderfield John Green Eva Ibbotson Jean-Pierre Mourlevat William Trevor
Pupil/Teacher Relationships Notes on a Scandal Prime of Miss Jean Brodie The Pupil
Zoe Heller Muriel Spark Monk Gibbon
TEENAGE LIFE/COMING OF AGE Broken Paper Aeroplanes What I saw and how I lied The Go-between Demian Junk (drugs) Out of the Easy (New Orleans) The Country Girls Nobody’s Girl Guitar Girl (rock band, female) Naked (rock band, male)
Daniel Clay Dawn O’Porter Julie Blundell L.P. Hartley Herman Hesse Melvin Burgess Ruta Sepetys Edna O’Brien Sarra Manning Sarra Manning Kevin Brooks
Teen pregnancy (JF) Megan 1,2,3 Roxy’s Baby Boy’s don’t cry (male viewpoint) Hanging on to Max (male viewpoint)
Mary Hooper Catherine MacPhail Malorie Blackman Margaret Bechard
ANOREXIA Skinny Skin Echo Glass Second Star to the right Thin (non-fic)
Ibi Kaslik A. M. Vrettos Heather Morrall Deborah Hautzig Grace Bowman
YOUNG OUTCASTS Catcher in the rye Less Than Zero Vernon God Little Rule of the Bone Lost Memory of Skin Lean on Pete This Boy’s Life (non-fic) Loneliness of the long distance runner Nicholas Dane (JF) Borstal Boy (non-fic) The Outsider Lord of the Flies A Clockwork Orange Demian Northline (USA) Out of the Easy (New Orleans)
JD Salinger Brett Easton Ellis DBC Pierre Russell Banks Russell Banks Willy Vlautin Tobias Wolff Alan Sillitoe Melvin Burgess Brendan Behan Albert Camus William Golding Anthony Burgess Herman Hesse Willy Vlautin Ruta Sepetys
Kes The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole The Grass Arena (homelessness, non-fic)
Barry Hines Sue Townsend John Healy
DIARIES AND LETTERS The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole The Carbon Diaries (JF, environmental collapse) Dear Diary (JF) The Princess Diaries (JF, series) The Motorcycle Diaries (non-fic, Che Guevara)
Sue Townsend Saci Lloyd Claire Hennessy Meg Cabot Ernesto Che Guevara
MUSIC Guitar Girl (JF, rock band) Naked (JF, rock band) Rock Wars (JF, Rock band) A note of madness/A voice in the distance The Commitments The Thrill of it all Body and Soul (classical pianist) Grace Notes (woman composer) The Pianist
Sarra Manning Kevin Brooks Robert Muchamore Tabitha Suzuma Roddy Doyle Joseph O’Connor Frank Conroy Bernard MacLaverty
HORROR/GOTHIC/VAMPIRES House of leaves Mark Z. Danielewski Woman in Black Susan Hill Vampire Anne Rice Dracula Bram Stoker Victor Frankenstein x 2 (JF) Ken Oppel Frankenstein Mary Shelley Jamaica Inn Daphne du Maurier Book of Human Skin Michelle Lovric Titus Groan Mervyn Peake Twilight series Stephenie Meyer The Sweet Far Thing series (vampires) Libba Bray Steppenwolf Herman Hesse Tender Morsels Margo Lanagan World War Z (zombies) Max Brooks House of Night series (JF) P.C. and Kristin Cast Zom-B series (JF) Darren Shan All Darren Shan books (JF, vampires, zombies, monsters) DRUGS Bright shiny morning My friend Leonard Candy Junk No Country for Old Men Down the Rabbit Hole (young son of Mexican drug lord) Go ask Alice (non-f) Midnight Express (non-f, Turkish jail) Mum, can you lend me twenty quid (non-f, heroin deaths) The Lost Child (non-fic, middle class England) Wasted (non-fic, working class England) Fear and loathing in Las Vegas (non-f, US journalist)
James Frey James Frey Kevin Brooks Melvin Burgess Cormac McCarthy Juan Pablo Villalobos Alice Billy Hayes Elizabeth Burton-Phillips Julie Myerson Mark Johnson Hunter S. Thompson
Boy kills man (JF) Class A (JF)
Matt Whyman Robert Muchamore
DEATH/BEREAVEMENT Senior Fiction Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close (9/11) Falling Man (9/11) The Emperor’s Children (9/11) The Spare room (dying) The Sea The Vagrants (China, political execution) The Twin (dead twin brother) Before I die (cancer) The Art of Racing in the Rain (loss of wife) The Lovely Bones (rape, murder) Skinny (anorexia) Still Here with Me (non-fic, loss of parent)
Jon. Safran Foer Don de Lillo Claire Messud Helen Garner John Banville Lilun Li Gerbrand Bakker Jenny Downham Garth Stein Anne Sebold Ibi Kaslik Suzanne Sjoqvist
Junior Fiction Broken Soup The Fault in our Stars Ways to live forever Ostrich Boys Everybody Jam The Thing with Finn No and Me Wenny has Wings Thirteen Reasons why (suicide) Looking for Alaska (suicide) Mockingbird
Jenny Valentine John Green Sally Nicholls Keith Gray Ali Lewis Tom Kelly Delphine de Vigan Janet Lee Carey Jay Asher John Green Cathryn Erskine
WOMEN AND VIOLENCE Paula Spencer Inexcusable The Lovely Bones The Handmaid’s Tale (future dystopia) Possessing the secret of joy (fgm) You against Me Disgrace Felicia’s Journey Blood of Flowers (Iran) A Thousand Splendid Suns Persepolis (Iran, graphic novel) Room American Psycho
Roddy Doyle Chris Lynch Alice Sebold Margaret Atwood Alice Taylor Jenny Downham J. M. Coetzee William Trevor Anita Amirrezvani Khaled Hosseini Marjane Satrapi Emma Donoghue Brett Easton Ellis
Non Fiction Woman in Berlin (non-fic, WW2 aftermath) I am Malala (non-fic, Taliban) Desert Flower (non-fic, fgm)
Anonymous 920 MAL Waris Dirie
Lucky (non-fic, rape) Exploited (prostitution, child abuse, UK) I choose to Live (child abduction, Belgium) 3096 days (child abduction, Austria) Sofia’s story (sexual abuse, Ireland) Sold into Marriage Sold Punished (child abuse, UK) Princess (Saudi Arabia) Aman (Somalia) Non-Fic human trafficking/sex trade in 364.1 RACISM/PREJUDICE Officer and a spy (Dreyfus affair/Jewish) The Testament (Jewish/Russian) Memoirs of an anti-Semite The Known World (US slavery) Dry Grass of August (USA) Roll of thunder, hear my cry To Kill a Mockingbird Noughts and Crosses The Invisible Man (USA) The Help Crooked letter The Invention of Wings (Slavery USA) I know why the caged bird sings 12 Years a Slave (non-fic, slavery account USA) Zeitoun (non-fic, USA, post-Hurricane Katrina) A Passage to India Mornings in Jenin (Palestine) Brick Lane (Bangladeshi/ UK) Small Island (West Indies/UK) Bone by bone by bone (JF) Jupiter Williams (JF) Coram Boy (JF) Asylum (JF, refugees) Octavian Nothing (JF, slavery UK) Out of Shadows (JF, Zimbabwe) GANGS City of Bohane (future Limerick) Lord of the Flies A Clockwork Orange Romeo and Juliet Steaming In (soccer non-Fic) Among the Thugs “ Running with the firm “ Hells Angels (non-fic) Gangs of New York (non-f) Gangs (non-fic) Junior Fiction The Outsiders (JF) The last of the Warrior Kings (JF) Heroic (JF) Pigeon English (JF)
Alice Sebold Emma Jackson Sabine Dardenne Natasha Kampusch Susan McKay Sean Boyne Zana Muhsen Vanessa Steel Jean P. Sasson Aman
Robert Harris Eli Wiesel Gregor von Rezzori Edward P. Jones Anna Jean Mayhew Mildred Taylor Harper Lee Malorie Blackman Ralph Ellison Kathryn Stockett Tom Franklin Sue Monk Kidd Maya Angelou Solomon Northup David Eggers E.M. Forster Monica Ali Andrea Levy Tony Johnston S.I. Martin Jamila Gavin Rachel Anderson M.T. Anderson Jason Wallace Kevin Barry William Golding Anthony Burgess W. Shakespeare Colin Ward Bill Buford James Bannon Hunter S. Thompson Herbert Asbury Ross Kemp S.E. Hinton Sarah Mussi Phil Earle Stephen Kelman
The Knife that killed me (JF, knife crime) Rumblefish (JF,motor cycle gang) Boy Kills Man (JF, S. America, drugs) Brigands MC (JF, Hell’s Angels)
Anthony McGowan S. E. Hinton Matt Whyman Robert Muchamore
EXTREMISM Wolf Dreams The Attack (suicide bombing) Reluctant Fundamentalist Terrorist Nineteen Minutes (high school massacre) We need to talk about Kevin (high school mass.) Lies of Silence (IRA proxy bomb) Libra (JFK assassination) Feather boy (JF, bomb victim) Noughts and Crosses (JF)
Yasmina Khadra Yasmina Khadra Mohsin Hamid John Updike Jodi Picoult Lionel Schriver Brian Moore Don de Lillo Nicky Singer Malorie Blackman
JOURNEYS The Road No Country for Old Men All the pretty horses Lean on Pete As I walked out (non-fic) The Tenderness of Wolves Forrest Gump Outlander On the road The Hundred year-old man who climbed out of the… Journey to centre of the earth 20,000 leagues under the sea How I live now (JF) Winter Damage (JF) If you find me (JF) Why we took the car (JF) Alone on the wide, wide sea (JF) An Abundance of Katherines (JF) Watership Down (JF) SPORT Senior Fiction Boxer Handsome Loneliness of the Long distance runner This Sporting Life (rugby league) Under the Frog (basketball, communism) The Art of Fielding (baseball) Breath (surfing) Netherland (cricket, New York) Horse racing thrillers Slam (skateboarding) Triggs (Roy Keane’s dog, soccer) The Damned United (Leeds Utd, soccer)
Cormac McCarthy Cormac McCarthy Cormac McCarthy Willy Vlautin Laurie Lee Stef Penney Winston Groom Gail Adamson Jack Kerouac Jonas Jonasson Jules Verne Jules Verne Meg Rosoff Wolfgang Herrndorf Michael Morpurgo John Green Richard Adams
Anna Whitwham Alan Sillitoe David Storey Tibor Fischer Chad Hardbach Tim Winton Joseph O’Neill Dick Francis Nick Hornby Paul Howard David Peace
The Art of Racing in the rain (motor sport)
Garth Stein
Non-fiction Sport 796 – biographies: rugby, soccer, tennis, cricket, athletics etc Some interesting ones include: 127 Hours (rock climbing, self-amputation) Touching the Void (mountain climbing classic) Engage (rugby, paralysis) The Secret Footballer (Premier League insider) Fever Pitch (soccer fan) My name is Zlatan (soccer biog) Among the Thugs (soccer hooliganism) Steaming In (soccer hooliganism) Running with the Firm (soccer hooliganism) Bagman (golf caddy) The Fight (boxing) King of the World (boxing, Mohammad Ali) Kenny Egan (Irish boxing Olympian and after) Seven deadly sins (cycling, Lance Armstrong) Sailing (solo/long distance racing) Sailing disasters in 623.8 (Fastnet etc) Jockey biographies Junior Fiction Keeper (series, JF, soccer) Paralysed (JF, rugby) Rugby Spirit (JF, bullying, rugby)
Aron Ralston Joe Simpson Paul Kimmage Anonymous Nick Hornby Zlatan Ibrahimovich Bill Buford Colin Ward James Bannon Colin Byrne Norman Mailer David Remnick Kenny Egan David Walsh Ellen McArthur, Damian Foxall Ruby Walsh, Paul Carberry Mal Peet Sherry Ashworth Ger Siggins
WAR Second World War Germany The Song before it is Sung (Hitler assassination) HHHH (Heydrich assassination)) Alone in Berlin (small protest against Nazis) The Undertaking (Eastern front) The Eagle has landed (action adventure) An Elephant in the Garden (JF, refugees)
Justin Cartwright Laurence Binet Hans Fallada Audrey Magee Alistair MacLean Michael Morpurgo
Post War Germany The Reader (post-war guilt) Homecoming The Tin Drum The Glass Room Settlement (East Germany) In my brother’s shadow (non-fic) Peeling the Onion (non-fic) A Woman in Berlin (survival in Russian Berlin, non-f)
Bernhard Schlink Bernhard Schlink Gunter Grass Simon Mawer Christoph Hein Uwe Timm Gunter Grass Anonymous
Russia The Siege (Stalingrad) The Undertaking (German soldiers, Eastern Front) Ivan’s War (non-fic, Russian soldiers’ experience)
Helen Dunmore Audrey Magee Catherine Merridale
USA Catch 22 (air war, Italy) Slaughterhouse Five (fire-bombing, US POW) Band of Brothers (non-fic)
Joseph Heller Kurt Vonnegut Stephen E. Ambrose
Britain Atonement Day (air gunner) Empire of the sun (child POW of Japanese) Dominion (the Germans won!) The English Patient (nursing, bomb disposal) The Last Enemy (Battle of Britain pilot, non-fic) Reach for the Sky (legless RAF pilot, POW, non-fic) Turbulence (D-day weather forecasting) Enigma (code-breaking) Bridge over the river Kwai (Japanese POWs) The Narrow Road to the Deep North (Japanese POWs) Charlotte Gray The English Patient A Train in Winter (non-F, Auschwitz) Rose under fire (JF, women pilots, Gestapo) Code name Verity (JF, secret agents, Gestapo) Dunkirk, Battle of Britain (JF) The Machine Gunners (JF, anti-aircraft battery) Tamar (JF, agents/resistance)
Ian McEwan A. L. Kennedy JG Ballard CJ Sansom Michael Ondatje Richard Hillary Paul Brickhill Giles Foden Robert Harris Pierre Boulle Richard Flanagan Sebastian Faulks Michael Ondatje Caroline Moorhead Elizabeth Wein Elizabeth Wein Jack Holland Robert Westall Mal Peet
Finland The Burnt-out town of miracles (Russo-Finnish war)
Roy Jacobson
Italy Captain Corelli’s mandolin
Louis de Bernieres
Women Charlotte Gray The English Patient A Train in Winter (non-F, Auschwitz) Rose under fire (JF, women pilots, Gestapo) Code name Verity (JF, secret agents, Gestapo)
Sebastian Faulks Michael Ondatje Caroline Moorhead Elizabeth Wein Elizabeth Wein
Holocaust The Book Thief Schindler’s Ark The White Hotel (holocaust/Freud) Anne Frank’s Diary (non-fic) Maus I & II (graphics) Man’s search for meaning (non-fic) If this is a man (non-F) Boy in Striped PJs (JF) Annexed (JF, Anne Frank) Once, Now, Then, After (JF)
Marcus Zusak Thomas Kenneally D.M. Thomas Anne Frank Art Spiegelman Victor Frankl Primo Levi John Boyne Sharon Dogar Maurice Gleitzman
Espionage/Behind the lines/Secret Agents The Polish Officer Charlotte Gray
Alan Furst Sebastian Faulks
Tamar (JF) Rose under Fire (JF) Code name Verity (JF) Children Goodnight Mr Tom Children Under Fire (non-fic) The Silver Sword (displaced persons) Once, Now, Then, After (holocaust) When Hitler stole pink rabbit (escape from Germany) Hitler’s Canary (Denmark) Between Shades of grey (Lithuania) Carrie’s War The Dragonfly Pool
Mal Peet Elizabeth Wein Elizabeth Wein Michelle Magorian Ian Serrailler Maurice Gleitzman Judith Kerr Sandi Toksvig Ruta Sepetys Nina Bawden Eva Ibbotson
WWAR1 England Her Privates We Birdsong How many miles to Babylon Regeneration Trilogy O what a lovely War (play) Goodbye to all that (Non-F) War Horse (JF) Private Peaceful (JF) ElevenEleven (JF)
Frederic Manning Sebastian Faulks Jennifer Johnston Par Barker Robert Graves Michael Morpurgo Michael Morpurgo Paul Dowswell
Ireland A long, long way How many miles to Babylon A Soldier’s Song
Sebastian Barry Jennifer Johnston Alan Monaghan
Germany Storm of Steel (non-f) All Quiet on the Western Front
Ernst Junger Erich Maria Remarque
France A very long engagement
Sebastien Japrisot
Italy A farewell to arms
Ernest Hemingway
Mental effects Regeneration trilogy Toby’s Room Lives of Stella Bain (nursing, amnesia) In Zodiac Light
Pat Barker Pat Barker Anita Shreve Robert Edric
Vietnam Tree of Smoke Speed of Light (after effects, USA) The Sorrow of War (Vietnamese experience) Dispatches (non-fic) In Pharoah’s Army (non-fic)
Dennis Kennedy Javier Cercas Bao Ninh Michael Herr Tobias Wolff
The Quiet American (pre-Vietnam) Four hours in My Lai (non-fic)
Graham Greene
SPANISH CIVIL WAR Soldiers of Salamis For whom the bell tolls Guernica Madrid Cider with Rosie (non-fic) As I walked out (non-fic)
Javier Cercas Ernest Hemingway David Boling C.J.Sansom Laurie Lee Laurie Lee
IRAQ (GULF) WAR(S) Yellow Birds (US Marines, combat) The Free (post-war wounded) Here, bullet (poetry)
Kevin Powers Willy Vlautin Brian Turner
Non-fiction in 356.1 Generation Kill (US army) War (US army) Eight lives down (bomb disposal, British) Rules of Engagement (British Army)
Evan Wright Sebastian Junger Chris Hunter Tim Collins
NAPOLEONIC WARS Sharpe series (high adventure) Hornblower series (Royal Navy)
Bernard Cornwell C.S. Forester
OTHER WARS The Cellist of Sarajevo Hana’s suitcase Zlata’s diary CHILD SOLDIERS Chalkline (JF) Little Soldier (JF) Dead Boy’s Club (JF) CRIME Authors Lee Child Martina Cole (England) Henning Mankell (Scandinavia) Rory Clements (Elizabethan) C. J. Sansom (Elizabethan) James Patterson Kathy Reichs Agatha Christie Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (Sherlock Holmes) Tana French (Ireland) Jo Nesbo (Scandinavia) Stieg Larsson – Millennium trilogy Harlan Coben Benjamin Black (aka John Banville) John Grisham (legal) Robert Galbraith (aka J.K. Rowling)
Jane Mitchell Bernard Ashley Geoffrey Malone
Ripley series (impersonation) Crooked letter, crooked letter (USA, racism) Miss Smylla’s Feeling for Snow (Nordic) Snow falling on Cedars (Japanese-American) In Cold Blood (murder reporting USA) Disgrace (S. Africa, rape) Get Shorty (USA, organised crime) The House Gun (S Africa) Pulp (noir satire) The Maltese Falcon Bad Day in Blackrock (Ireland) No Country for Old men (drug assassin USA)
Patricia Highsmith Tom Franklin Peter Hoeg David Guterson Truman Capote J.M. Coetzee Elmore Leonard Nadine Gordimer Charles Bukowski Dashiel Hammet Kevin Power Cormac McCarthy
RUSSIAN REVOLUTION AND AFTER Kitchen boy to the Tsar Darkness at noon (purges) People’s Act of Love (civil war) Testament Francaise The Spectre of Alexander Wolf (civil war, Paris exile) The House of special meaning (Gulags) Sashenka The Testament (Jewish experience) Blood Red Snow white (JF, revolution) The Secret Countess (JF) The House of Special purpose (JF) A Day in the life of Ivan Denisovitch (gulags) The Lacuna (Trotsky, S. America, USA) Red Princess (non-fic)
Robert Alexander Arthur Koestler James Meek Andre Makine Gaito Gazdanov Martin Amis Simon Sebag Montefiore Eli Wiesel Marcus Sedgwick Eva Ibbotson John Boyne Alexander Solzhenitsin Barbara Kingsolver Sofka Zinovieff
AMERICAN WEST All the pretty horses The Sisters Brothers (cowboy assassins) True Grit Butchers Crossing (buffalo hunting) Apache (JF) The Englishman’s Boy
Cormac McCarthy Patrick de Witt Charles Portis John Williams Tanya Landsman Guy Vanderhaeghe
KNIGHTS/MEDIEVAL WORLD Once and Future King (King Arthur) Azincourt (Agincourt) 1356 (100 yrs war, battle of Poitiers) Don Quixote Pagan (JF, Crusades) Crusade (JF) Gatty’s Tale (JF, Crusades) King Arthur Trilogy (JF) Bother Dusty Feet etc (JF) The White Company (JF)
T.H. White Bernard Cornwell Bernard Cornwell Cervantes Catherine Jinks Elizabeth Laird Kevin Crossley Holland Kevin Crossley Holland Rosemary Sutcliffe A. Conan Doyle
ANCIENT GREECE AND ROME Alexander series Emperor series (Rome) Centurion (Rome) I, Claudius
Valerio Massimo Manfredi Conn Iggulden Simon Scarrow Robert Graves
Pompeii, Lustrum, Imperium The Song of Achilles Eagle of the Ninth (JF, Roman Britain) Percy Jackson series (Greek gods in US high school) The Roman Mysteries series (JF) AFRICA Half of a yellow sun (Nigeria, Biafra) Americanah (Nigeria/USA) We need new names (Zimbabwe) Things Fall Apart (S. Africa) Cry, the beloved country Ghana must go (Nigeria/Ghana/USA) White experience The Poisonwood Bible (missionaries, Congo/Zaire) Heart of Darkness (colonial) Cutting for Stone (Ethiopia, medical) Hotel Juliet (Zambia) Not Untrue and Not Unkind (war reporters) The Grass is singing A good man in Africa Green Hills of Africa The Year the Gypsies Came (JF) Non-fiction Out of the black shadows (crime and redemption) Born Free (lions) Gorillas in the Mist White mischief (whites misbehaving) Out of Africa Child of Happy Valley I dreamed of Africa Scribbling the cat
Lindsey Davis Robert Harris Madeline Miller Rosemary Sutcliffe Rick Riordan Caroline Lawrence
Chimanda Adiche Chimanda Adiche NoViolet Bulawayo Chinua Achebe Alan Paton Taiye Selassie Barbara Kingsolver Joseph Conrad Abraham Verghese Belinda Seward Ed O’Loughlin Doris Lessing William Boyd Ernest Hemingway Linzi Glass Stephen Lungu Joy Adamson Jane Goodall James Fox Karen Blixen Juanita Carberry Kuki Gallman Alexandra Fuller
Authors: Ken Saro-Wiwa Ben Okri Alexander McCall Smith (humour, Botswana) Wilbur Smith (adventure) CHINA Five Star Billionaire (Hong Kong) The Vagrants (political execution) The Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers I am China (exile) One Man’s Bible Wolf dreams (exile in countryside, Mao) Raise the red lantern (relationships) Mao’s Last Dancer (non-Fic) Falling leaves (non-fic) Wild Swans (non-fic) Three Cups of Tea (non-fic, Tibet)
Tash Aw Lilun Li Xiaolu Guo Xiaolu Guo Gao Xingjian Jhong Ri Su Tong Li Cunxin Adeline Yen Mah Jung Chang Greg Mortenson
JAPAN Norwegian Wood/1Q84/Wind-up Bird etc. A Tale for the time being (contemporary) Across the Nightingale Floor (Samurai) Samurai William One Thousand Autumns of Jacob Zoet (historical) The Bullfight (post WW2) Shogun (blockbuster, Samurai) Tokyo Year Zero (post WW2 police thriller) Young Samurai series (JF) AFGHANISTAN The Kite Runner A thousand splendid suns And the Mountains echoed The Wasted Vigil Book seller of Kabul (non-f) Flashman and the Great Game (Historical) Junior Officers Reading Club (non-fic, British army) INDIA The White Tiger Passage to India Animal’s’s People Narcopolis Q&A Heat and Dust Authors Rohinton Mistry Vikram Seth Arundhati Roy PAKISTAN Midnight’s Children A Case of Exploding mangoes (assass. of Zia Ul Haq)
Haruki Murakami Ruth Ozeki Lian Hearn Giles Milton David Mitchell Yasushi Inoue James Clavell David Peace Chris Broadford Khaled Hosseini Nadeem Aslam Asne Seierstad George MacDonald Fraser Patrick Hennessy Aravind Adiga E.M. Forster Indra Sinha Jeet Thavil Vikas Swarup Ruth Prawa Jhabvala
Salman Rushdie Mohammed Hanif
IRELAND Authors Kevin Barry Colm Toibin Donal Ryan Joseph O’Connor Anne Enright William Broderick Dermot Bolger Elizabeth Bowen (The Last September) Sebastian Barry (Along, long way etc) Aidan Higgins (Langrishe go down) JG Farrell (Troubles) John McGahern (Amongst Women, That they may face the rising sun) Colum McCann (Transatlantic) Bernard MacLaverty (Cal, Lamb) Maeve Binchy Edna O’Brien (The Country Girls)
James Plunkett (Strumpet City) ANIMALS The Story of Edgar Sawtelle (dogs) The Art of Racing in the Rain (dog) Julius Winsome (dog) The Last free dog Gorillas in the mist (non-fic) Marley and me(non-fic) The Call of the Wild (wolf) Watership Down (rabbits) HUMAN/ANIMAL RELATIONSHIPS Lean on Pete (horse) The Horse Whisperer (horse/human healing) The Story of Edgar Sawtelle (dog) Julius Winsome (dog) Triggs (dog, soccer) Timoleon Vieta Come Home (dog) Me Cheeta (Hollywood chimp) Life of Pi (tiger) Jaws (shark) The Old Man and the Sea All creatures great and small (JF,vet series) The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (JF, Narnia) Non-Fiction Born Free (lions) Ring of Bright Water (otters, Scotland) Into the Wild (fatal journey) Gorillas in the mist Marley and Me (dog) My Family and Other Animals
David Wroblewski Garth Stein Gerard Donovan Jane Goodall Jack London Richard Adams Willy Vlautin Nicholas Evans David Wroblewski Gerard Donovan Paul Howard Dan Rhodes James Lever Yann Martell Peter Benchley Ernest Hemingway James Herriot C.S. Lewis Joy Adamson Gavin Maxwell John Krakauer Jane Goodall John Grogan Gerald Durrell
EMIGRATION/IMMIGRATION/NEW CULTURES Brooklyn (Ireland/USA) Colm Toibin Pigeon English (Ghana/UK) Stephen Kelman We need new names (Zimbabwe) NoViolet Bulawayo Chinese-English dictionary for lovers (China) Xiolu Guo Lowland (India/United States) Jhumpur Lahiri Brick Lane (Bangladesh/ UK) Monica Ali Small Island (West Indies/UK) Andrea Levy Star of the Sea (Ireland/USA, historic) Joseph O’Connor Americanah (Nigeria/USA) Chimanda Ngoze Adiche The secret history of tractors in Ukrainian Marina Lewycka FUTURE WORLDS How I live now Carbon Diaries (environment) The Knife of Never Letting Go series The Hunger Games series Mortal Instruments series Divergent series Gone series
Meg Rosoff Saci Lloyd Patrick Ness Suzanne Collins Cassandra Clare Veronica Roth Michael Grant
Uglies/Pretties/Specials/Extras
Scott Westerfeld