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Isabel Allende

This piece of historical fiction tells the story of Victor Dalmau, a young doctor, caught up in the Spanish Civil War. Together with his sister-in-law, the pianist Roser Bruguera, he is forced out of Barcelona and into exile. When the opportunity to seek refuge in Chile arises, they take it. There, they find themselves enmeshed in a web of characters who come together in love and tragedy over the course of four generations. This book explores themes of hope, exile and belonging and explores a piece of fascinating history that I knew nothing about.

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Daphne Du Maurier

Rebecca is a 1930s gothic thriller that is suspenseful and so well crafted. It tells the haunting story of a young girl consumed by love and the struggle to find her identity.

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Angela Carter

This collection of short stories is a feminist rewriting of traditional fairy tales and folk tales. Carter challenges and subverts the patriarchal tradition of fairy tales by presenting a range of strong female protagonists seeking freedom from oppression. Her writing is gothic, dark, sensual and supernatural. It is just brilliant!

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Year or Wonder: Classical Music for Every day: Ms. Colwill

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Year or Wonder: Classical Music for Every day: Ms. Colwill

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Clemency Burton-Hill

Not one for reading all in one go, but I really recommend this book for anyone who is interested in finding out a little more about classical music but doesn’t know where to start. You don’t need to know anything about music to enjoy dipping into this book, which covers a great variety of musical styles. The author brings the music to life with a short, accessible explanation of each piece, which complements the music and gives you an idea of what to expect.

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Andrea Levy

Set against the backdrop of the Windrush generation of 1948, the novel centres on the lives of two couples, Gilbert and Hortense and their landlords Bernard and Queenie, whose fates become intertwined as they navigate a new way of living in post-war London. She tells their stories from the character’s perspectives, using their experiences, relationships and interactions to give a more intimate understanding of the past.

It is a moving and relevant exploration of racial discrimination, identity,

and immigration. I really enjoyed Levy’s writing, the novel holds much sadness,

and yet is often very funny.

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Giles Tremlett

The scars from Franco’s 36 year military dictatorship of Spain can be easily missed; through encounters with people, places, buildings and communities, this book reveals truths that will reframe your understanding and relationship with a country at the heart of europe.

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Monica Ali

This book exposed me to people, places, ideas and decisions that were beyond my lived experience; a debut novel by a young female author presenting the world both as it was, is, and could be.

The narrative places us alongside Nazaneen, a recent arrival in London, as her identity is shaped and contested through expectation, tradition, gender, ambition and love; a coming of age story for the global 21st century.

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Sum: Forty Tales from the Afterlives: Mr. Crabtree

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Sum: Forty Tales from the Afterlives: Mr. Crabtree

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David Eagleman

A collection of forty short pieces, each imagining a novel version of an afterlife.

Written by a neuroscientist, bursting with creativity and imagination, I return to it when I need to freshen up my thinking.

40 microdoses of philosophy, politics, society and humanity to give you new perspectives on ideas.

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David Graeber and David Wengrow

I found this book after listening to the surviving author, David Wengrow, on the Empire podcast (also highly recommended by me!). I was drawn in by these questions:

Is slavery hardwired into society?

Is hierarchy inevitable?

Who really built the pyramids?

A challenging read, but one that will make you think at least twice about what we humans have/have not achieved in the past and, perhaps, what we are capable of in the future.

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Min Jin Lee

Pachinko is the second novel by Harlem-based author and journalist Min Jin Lee. Published in 2017, Pachinko is an epic historical fiction novel following a Korean family who immigrates to Japan. The story features an ensemble of characters who encounter racism, discrimination, stereotyping, and other aspects of the 20th-century Korean experience of Japan.

It is divided into 3 books, each dedicated to the story of one generation of the family and is an enthralling read.

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Kurt Vonnegut

A meta-novel based around the experiences of a soldier during the Dresden bombings. More than an anti-war story, this book shows how stories can be written by breaking down literary norms.

I remember hugely enjoying this atypical book (and author) as a KS5 student.

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Ray Bradbury

While the novel is often classified as Science fiction work it is first and foremost a social criticism warning against the danger of censorship. It’s against limitation of creativity and freedom

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Barabara Kingsolver

Explaining colonialism during the Colony of Congo. An american missionary family arrives to the heart of the Congo and want to harvest and live like in the US not respecting the way congolese plant their crops and live their culture

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Niall Williams

All I can remember is how much I enjoyed reading this book. I can’t remember anything about the storyline but I can recall the strong feelings and vivid irish imagery that the book evokes. Maybe you’ll enjoy it too.

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One Hundred Years of Solitude: Ms. McAteer

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One Hundred Years of Solitude: Ms. McAteer

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Gabriel Garcia Marquez

One Hundred Years of Solitude (Cien años de soledad), tells the multi-generational story of the Buendía family, whose patriarch, José Arcadio Buendía, founded the fictitious town of Macondo. It intertwines issues of family politics, political corruption, incoming technological change with magical realism and takes you on a journey through the life and death of Macondo through the eyes of the Buendía family. Garcia Marquez won the Nobel Prize for Literature for this novel and it is proclaimed as one of the most influential novels of the Latin American literary boom of the 60s-70s. It has been translated into 46 languages and sold over 50 million copies. For me it holds a special place in my heart as I read it at university as part of a Comparative American Literature course and it helped kick start my wanderlust days of South American work & travel. I would later meet Mario Vargas Llosa and John King who read to Borges when he was blind during the turbulent times of Argentina’s military dictatorships.

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If on a Winter's Night a Traveller: Ms. De Bortoli

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If on a Winter's Night a Traveller: Ms. De Bortoli

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Italo Calvino

If on a Winter's Night a Traveller is an ingenious collection of ten different stories, all interlinked by the two main characters: the Reader and the Other Reader. In turns, they become protagonists of some of these stories in a vertiginous exploration of mystery, spies, menace, tragedy, comedy and premonition.

If you love reading, this will be the most inspiring novel, if you are a reluctant reader this novel will definitely make you realise what you have missed so far!

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Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett

Two of the world’s best known authors team up to write this classic, which is a fantastic comedy about the coming of the End Times.

Good Omens follows the hilarious conflict between good and evil; and how a boy who was destined to bring about the end of the world is actually not that much into the whole scheme.

This novel deals with themes of religion and conflicting moral values from an ironic and comedic lens.

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Sosuke Natsukawa

The Cat Who Saved Books is a fantasy which focuses on Rintaro Natsuki, a highschool boy who has just inherited his grandfather’s bookselling business. With the help of a talking tabby cat, he sets out on a mission to rescue as many books as he can that are in peril of being neglected or destroyed.

This novel explores the themes of loss, grief, and love; and it instills a renewed appreciation for books and their immense power in everyday life. It is a gripping and emotional read, but also very heartwarming.

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Anthony Burgess

A Clockwork Orange is set in a futuristic dystopian England, where violence is rampant among youths and the adults have become complacent to this way of life.

Alex, the narrator of the story, is a young criminal who becomes apprehended by the state and is forced to undergo psychological rehabilitation after a series of violent crimes.

The novel depicts the effects of the culture of violence on the populace, as well as the effects of the rehabilitation programme on young Alex. Moreover, it also explores the way individuals think, act, speak, and live their lives under the influence of politics and the illusion of perfectionism.

A Clockwork Orange delves into themes of violence, politics, and psychology. The novel contains very creative  language and makes use of invented words inspired by Russian slang.

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Regenesis: Feeding the World Without Devouring the Planet: Ms. Skinner

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Regenesis: Feeding the World Without Devouring the Planet: Ms. Skinner

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George Monbiot

Regenesis is a deeply researched passion piece that ranges from microbiology to social justice by way of apple trees and GM wheat. There is a temptation when writing about enormous topics to oversimplify but Monbiot resists this. He acknowledges, even embraces, the complexity of the crisis we face.

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Amor Towles

This  is the story of Count Alexander Rostov, a Russian nobleman who, after the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917, is sentenced to lifelong imprisonment in Moscow’s Metropol Hotel. As the years pass, the Count witnesses his country changing outside his window, and he must learn to reconcile these changes with the past he holds dear. However, his time in the hotel teaches him lessons he would not have learned otherwise as the Count befriends people of different nationalities and classes. Towles explores personal growth, the inevitability of change and the nature of government and power. The novel illustrates how people’s lives are intertwined and how the present can be informed but not mired by the past.

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Siddhartha Mukherjee

This is a brilliant book to get to grips with the complexities of the cell. Siddhartha Mukherjee is my favourite non-fiction author, he is a brilliant scientist and accomplished author. I highly recommend this book to anyone studying biology at A level!

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Terry Hayes

There is nothing better than a good suspense novel that is easy to read and difficult to put down. ‘The astonishing story of one man’s breakneck race against time to save America from oblivion’.

PS Shantaram is a brilliant book but Mr Shorey beat me to putting it on this list!

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Gregory David Roberts

I have been to India many times and in 2014 lived there for 3 years.  I fell in love with the country. This book is set in India. The pacing is expertly balanced, offering moments of heart-pounding action, tender introspection, and edge-of-your-seat suspense.

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Emma Donoghue

I sometimes find books hard to get into but I found I couldn’t put this one down because I just wanted to know what was going to happen - it was such an exciting read.

I love stories about people experiencing the world differently and this one is told from the perspective of someone who does just that.

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Brit Bennett

A remarkable and gripping novel by this young African-American author. The book is fast-paced and moving and tells the story of Nadia, as she struggles with coming of age in a small southern California town following the death of her mother and of the pressures and struggles and challenges of making her own choices in a world she does not feel part of.

The book covers themes of grief, of secrets, of friendship, of community. Of how to live in a community and in a world where you are judged for your actions and your choices. Of how many different ways there are to be a mother, a father, a daughter and a son. Of mistakes made, of heart-break and of love.

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Ingvar Ambjørnsen

A beautiful story of friendship told from the perspective of two agoraphobic young men, trying to find their way in the real world. The characters fumble through difficult situations and battle their lack of understanding of the world around them and the anxieties caused by this.
Contains very strong language and themes.

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George Orwell

Animal Farm tells the story of farm animals who rebel against their oppressive human master in hope for a better life. The story seems simple at first, but as it unfolds, the plot thickens, becoming more intriguing and compelling with every chapter. Exploring corruption, manipulation, political recession, totalitarianism, and communism.

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Richard Dawkins

Probably the cleverest book I’ve ever read. It explains how animals can display altruistic behaviour, despite the fight for ‘survival of the fittest’. It is generally considered the most important work on evolution since Dawin’s Origin of Species and led to Dawkins being elected Professor for the Public Understanding of Science at Oxford.

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Alan Moore

Set in a dystopian 1990’s UK, V for Vendetta is a powerful story of rebellion against oppressive control. I had never been into graphic novels before, until I read this. It's so smart and subtle and it took my breath away