My bedside table books

As the season of buying gifts is approaching, I thought I'd let you know what books are on my bedside table, waiting to be read. Books make the best Christmas presents, in my view, so perhaps some of these will inspire you...here are four books that I think could make a perfect gift for almost anyone.

1. 'Us' by David Nicholls, Hodder

The Blurb:

'I was looking forward to us growing old together. Me and you, growing old and dying together.'
'Douglas, who in their right mind would look forward to that?'

Douglas Petersen understands his wife's need to 'rediscover herself' now that their son is leaving home. He just thought they'd be discovering together. So when Connie announces that she will be leaving too, he resolves to make their last family holiday into the trip of a lifetime: one that will draw the three of them closer, and win the respect of his son. One that will make Connie fall in love with him all over again.

The hotels are booked, the tickets bought, the itinerary planned and printed.

What could possible go wrong?

Why did I pick this book?

I, like a few other million people, loved 'One Day', so it was a no-brainer for me to buy the book. Plus, having hosted an event for David Nicholls at England's Lane Books, I know the writer is a really nice person too, so even more reason to read this novel as quickly as possible.

Perfect gift for anyone who loved 'One Day'.

2. 'Three Lives' A Biogrpahy of Stefan Zweig by Oliver Matuschek, Pushkin Press

The Blurb:

"Oliver Matuschek's fine, comprehensive biography of Stefan Zweig fills in all the personal details that Zweig's habitual reserve led him to leave out of his own memoir. Three Lives is a fascinating book."Anthea Bell

Drawing on great wealth of newly available sources, Oliver Matuschek recounts the eventful life of a writer spoilt by success - a life lived in the shadow of two world wars, and which ended tragically in a suicide pact.

Why did I pick this book?

I have loved Stefan Zweig's beautiful, melancholic prose for some time, and his life seems as tragic as the characters of his many novellas and novels, such as my favourite, 'The Post Office Girl'. So, when a few years ago, I spotted this biography in a independent book shop, I had to get it. Sadly, the book has remained unread on my bedside table, but I will make a pledge to read it before this year is over.

This would make a great present for the serious reader - Zweig has cult status amongst the 
literati. 

3. 'Elizabeth is Missing' by Emma Healey, Penguin

The Blurb:

How can you solve a mystery when you can't remember the clues?
What if you could remember just one thing?

Why did I pick this book?

I've been reading about this novel in women's magazines all autumn, and the story of an old woman who is trying to solve a mystery of her friend's disappearance really appealed to me. Especially as the woman is in the early stages of dementia and her mind is constantly playing tricks on her, so that the mystery disappearance she's really trying to solve is one that happened some 70 years ago. It's sad, funny and tragic at the same time. I'm half way through, and loving this novel.

I'm thinking of getting this book for my mother-in-law. She loves books about 'old times', and I know she would also enjoy the thriller side of this novel.

4. 'Clever Girl' by Tessa Hadley, Vintage Books

The Blurb:

Stella was a clever girl, everyone thought so.  Living with her mother and a rather unsatisfactory stepfather in suburban respectability she reads voraciously, smokes until her voice is hoarse and dreams of a less ordinary life. When she meets Val, he seems to her to embody everything she longs for - glamour, ideas, excitement and the thrill of the unknown. But these things come at a price and one that Stella, despite all her cleverness, doesn't realise until it is too late...

Why did I pick this book?

Tessa Hadley is another of my favourite authors who I've also had the pleasure to host an author event for. This is her latest novel, now in paperback, and I cannot wait to get into it!

This is a bit of a girly book, although far from chick-lit, so good for a female friend's Christmas stocking.

Don't forget to pop back to check on reviews of these books in the weeks to come - I also post all of my reviews on Goodreads - click here to become my fan.

My list of summer reads, or books to take on holiday

It's that time of the year when we're all beginning to think about our summer holidays. (While the rain beats down the windows behind my desk...) I usually leave the book buying to the last minute, but this time, since I'm now a professional bookseller, I thought I'd get a head start.

The first novel on my list is set in LA. The Pink Hotel by Anna Stothard tells the story of a 17-year-old girl who travels from London to Venice Beach to attend her mother's funeral. Amongst her late mother's possessions she finds a suitcase full of love letters and photographs of the men her mother had known.  She decides to return each letter to its sender. It sounds like a brilliant read - just what's needed on a beach holiday!

Stop press: Anna Stothard is coming to talk about this book at England's Lane Books on 14 June. Details of the event can be found here.

I am a self-confessed Mad Men addict. So much so that my current phone ringtone is the theme tune from the cult HBO TV series. It doesn't make me answer my phone any quicker, and I sometimes find myself listening to the tune forgetting to answer all together - but I digress. When I saw that Rona Jaffe's The Very Best of Everything was written in the 1950's and tells a story of four women working in a Manhattan typing pool very similar to the one in the offices of Stirling Cooper, I had to get the book. The novel was regarded as scandalous when it came out in 1958, and is even mentioned in the show. So as the saying goes, if you liked Mad Men, you'll love....I cannot wait to read this book.

My next recommendation is a crime thriller. I do love a good Scandi crime book on holiday (not that I'm at all biased...) and The Hypnotist by Lars Kepler is famed for being just that. The story behind the writers of this book is almost as intriguing as the book itself: for a long time no-one in Sweden knew who Kepler was, until one persistent reporter found that behind the best-selling novel was in fact a married couple, Alexandra Coelho Ahndoril and Alexander Ahndoril. I will be reviewing this book on my other site.

Next on my list is a novel by Tim Pears. I saw Pears, to me previously unknown writer, read from his book, Landed, at Shoreditch Literary Salon last week. Landed is a story of a man's life, narrated by him in some point in the future. It's an interesting method to use; while the story unravels in the 1980's the future world of the narrator is unknown to us. The bit that Tim read to us at Shoreditch Salon was also very funny so I'm really looking forward to getting to know this writer's work.

A book I'd saved for my holiday but couldn't resist starting is Lucky Break by Esther Freud. This is a sad and funny book which follows a group of young actors through drama school and onto their first successes and failures. Esther started out as an actress herself, so the book has an authentic feel. I'm really enjoying it so far.

Maggie O'Farrell is an author I, for some strange reason, have never read. When I heard her read from her latest novel, The Hand That Held Mine, I became completely smitten by her writing. The novel starts with a young girl, who, yearning for a more exciting life, leaves her genteel parents in the country and moves to bohemian Soho in post-war London. It's a story of what it is to be an artist and a mother, and if the few passages which O'Farrell read at Shoreditch are anything to go by, this is a must read of the summer.

Gerard Woodward has long been a favourite writer of mine. His brilliant Booker listed novel, I'll Go to Bed at Noon, was funny and disturbing portrait of a family coping with alcohol abuse. So I am really looking forward to reading his latest book to come out in paperback, Nourishment. This is an imaginative wartime tale of a woman whose children are evacuated, her husband is a prisoner of war and she's forced to live with her irascible mother while - to help the war effort - working at a London gelatine factory. When she receives a letter from Donald asking for a dirty letter, by return post, she's aghast but out a marital duty and with the help of book shops, libraries and public conveniences, decides to master the language of carnal desire. Again, I cannot wait to read this book!

Last but not least I am going to recommend a book of novellas by an old master, Stefan Zweig, an author who took his own life in 1942 at the age of 61, cutting his writing career tragically short. A couple of years ago for the Babington Book club I chose his novel The Post Office Girl, published post-humously, and fell in love with his writing. This collection of Selected Stories includes his most powerful novellas. It's the perfect book to have handy for a long journey, when you can dip in and out of Zweig's captivating world.

I hope you like my recommendations and tell me what you think. Happy reading!

Bad Hair and Book Club

Though it’s my daughter who’s taking the A 2’s, they’ve affected me too. I’ve not had one trip to London since her school ended almost three weeks ago. Nobody has forced me stay home and look after her, but I’m a mother and want to be here to support her and pick her up if her confidence wobbles. Just like when she was a baby.

Due to a lack of trips to London my hair is two weeks overdue colour and cut. And we're off to Oxford to spend son’s birthday weekend with him and girlfriend, then going onto a friends house for Sunday lunch on the way back home. I haven’t seen her for two years. Hair out of shape is not good for either of these events. Think of all the pictures that will remain on various pc’s.

The hair situation came to a crisis point last night as I was getting ready for a book club I run at Babington House. As usual I was short on time. Normally my long hair just needs a quick blow dry and some product. But no, last night it was not playing ball.

With seriously frizzy, straight-and-curly-in-wrong-places coiffure, I greeted my fellow book lovers. ‘You look well,’ said one in that concerned tone, which really meant, ‘You just got out of the shower without making yourself up?’

I’m sure I'm being paranoid, but three weeks in the country without the refreshing effects of some London glamour does get to a girl. A point which was beautifully expressed in the book of the month, Stefan Zweig’s ‘The Post Office Girl’. Although she was poverty stricken and lived some 100 years ago in Austria. So, really, I have nothing to complain about. Ah, the enlightening effects of literature.