Books

Do you like reading in English?  Advanced students and overseas teachers sometimes ask me to recommend books to read. Here are some of the authors that I've enjoyed reading recently.  You can find out more about them and their books by following the links

Barbara Kingsolver is an American novelist. I've enjoyed all her books that I've read, but particularly "Prodigal Summer" and "The Poisonwood Bible".  I think she just gets better and better.   http://www.kingsolver.com/bookshelf/bookshelf.asp

Anne Tyler is another American author whose books I enjoy, especially when I'm on holiday.  Her books are often about people escaping in some way from the life they've been leading (not that I want to escape from mine!)  http://mostlyfiction.com/contemp/tyler.htm 

Margaret Atwood, a Canadian writer, is very popular here.   http://www.randomhouse.com/features/atwood/bookshelf.html

Joanne Harris.  At last a British writer, well actually she's half French.  You may have seen the film "Chocolat" which was based on her book of the same name.  She creates a very real atmosphere through her writing.  Most of her stories are set in France and involve food! http://www.joanne-harris.co.uk/books/books.html     

As you can see I prefer women writers.  I think this is because they often write from a more personal point of view than men.  Recently I read two books by a man and they were very different from my usual choices of books.   They were the first two books of a trilogy by Philip Pulman, and were actually written for children, although they are certainly suitable for adults too.  The trilogy, His Dark Materials, which has been very popular with young British teenagers, is set in worlds parallel to our own.  http://www.randomhouse.com/features/pullman/  

A non-fiction book that I really enjoyed recently was "The Art of Travel" by Alain De Botton . In it he talks about why and how we travel not just where. it was funny as well as thought-provoking. http://www.alaindebotton.com/travel.htm