Here are 100 books that 84, Charing Cross Road fans have personally recommended if you like
84, Charing Cross Road.
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I vividly remember visiting our local museum as a little girl and being fascinated by the carefully displayed artifacts of the past, especially the ordinary things people had touched and used on a daily basis: a wooden bowl, a stone tool, an old bottle, its logo embossed on a blue glass surface. It made me want to travel through time, to touch the past, to be inside the hearts and minds of the people who came before me. I wanted to learn about their lives, their joys and suffering, and especially to learn from their mistakes. Each of the books I’ve suggested offers an opportunity to step into the shoes of another and time travel with them.
Eng’s novel serves up everything I love about time travel through historical fiction – it’s transportive and compelling and opens a window into a time and culture I knew little about.
Toggling back and forth in time from contemporary Malaysia to its Japanese occupation during World War 2 and into the immediate post-war period, the writing is stunningly lyrical, the central characters are beautifully drawn, and the author evokes a sense of time and place that is shrouded in both tragedy and mystery.
Even better, the book explores some of my favorite themes: memory, love and the secrets we keep in order to survive.
Malaya, 1951. Yun Ling Teoh, the scarred lone survivor of a brutal Japanese wartime camp, seeks solace among the jungle-fringed tea plantations of Cameron Highlands. There she discovers Yugiri, the only Japanese garden in Malaya, and its owner and creator, the enigmatic Aritomo, exiled former gardener of the emperor of Japan. Despite her hatred of the Japanese, Yun Ling seeks to engage Aritomo to create a garden in memory of her sister, who died in the camp. Aritomo refuses but agrees to accept Yun Ling as his apprentice "until the monsoon comes." Then she can design a garden for herself.…
It is April 1st, 2038. Day 60 of China's blockade of the rebel island of Taiwan.
The US government has agreed to provide Taiwan with a weapons system so advanced that it can disrupt the balance of power in the region. But what pilot would be crazy enough to run…
I’ve always admired epistolary novels—stories told in the form of diaries, letters, or other mass media. They seem so real and so much more believable than plain narratives. When dealing with fantastic subjects, like paranormal phenomena, any technique that can draw the weird back into the real world helps me become more invested as a reader. It’s a quality I’ve also tried to capture as a horror writer. Moreover, the epistolary format pairs well with unreliable narrators, often filtering stories so as to make them more ambiguous and disturbing. From the many epistolary works I’ve read over the years, here are my picks for the most compelling—and creepy.
This phantasmagorical oral history unfolds during one of my favorite time periods, the psychedelic late 60s/early 70s. It also fuses two of my favorite sub-genres, folk horror and haunted houses.
I could easily visualize the setting and the different characters as I read their statements and tried to piece together the reality of what happened during the band’s infamous time at Wylding Hall.
After the tragic and mysterious death of one of their founding members, the young musicians in a British acid-folk band hole up at Wylding Hall, an ancient country house with its own dark secrets. There they record the classic album that will make their reputation but at a terrifying cost, when Julian Blake, their lead singer, disappears within the mansion and is never seen again. Now, years later, each of the surviving musicians, their friends and lovers (including a psychic, a photographer, and the band s manager) meets with a young documentary filmmaker to tell his or her own version…
All my life, I’ve been fascinated by interest-driven people and the subcultures they discover or form around themselves. Though my writing ranges from mainstream literary work to music criticism to speculative fiction in many different flavors, I’m best known for what one longtime reader referred to as my “oddly personable brand of horror.” Call them people-and-their-ghosts stories. I’ve written six novels and four collections, which have earned me the Shirley Jackson and International Horror Guild Awards, among other honors. I’ve also taught writing at the graduate, university, and secondary level for more than 25 years.
Emma, the bored and restless translator into English of the works of a reclusive, once-celebrated Brazilian author, learns that the author has disappeared. On impulse, and uninvited, Emma ducks out of her Pittsburgh life and a relationship she has tired of, jets off to Brazil, and insinuates herself into the ongoing investigation into what has happened. Less a detective story than a constantly unfolding act of decoding—like Helene Hanff, Emma seems to have an easier time coaxing layered meaning out of words than interpreting gestures or interactions with actual people—Ways to Disappearis packed with doubts about humanity but soul-deep love of books, Brazil, and the process of translation. (Novey herself has translated the brilliant and enigmatic Clarice Lispector.) This being 21st Century American lit, the relationships that form feel less stable, healthy, and sustainable. And yet, in indulging her fascination with the mysteries of other places…
Finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for First Fiction
NPR Best Book of 2016 Buzzfeed Best Debut of 2016 BUST Magazine Best Book of 2016
Winner of the 2016 Brooklyn Eagles Literary Prize for Fiction
New York Times Editors' Choice
2016 Barnes & Noble Discover selection
"An elegant page-turner....Charges forward with the momentum of a bullet." --New York Times Book Review
For fans of Robin Sloan's Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore and Maria Semple's Where'd You Go, Bernadette, an inventive, brilliant debut novel about the disappearance of a famous Brazilian novelist…
A Duke with rigid opinions, a Lady whose beliefs conflict with his, a long disputed parcel of land, a conniving neighbour, a desperate collaboration, a failure of trust, a love found despite it all.
Alexander Cavendish, Duke of Ravensworth, returned from war to find that his father and brother had…
All my life, I’ve been fascinated by interest-driven people and the subcultures they discover or form around themselves. Though my writing ranges from mainstream literary work to music criticism to speculative fiction in many different flavors, I’m best known for what one longtime reader referred to as my “oddly personable brand of horror.” Call them people-and-their-ghosts stories. I’ve written six novels and four collections, which have earned me the Shirley Jackson and International Horror Guild Awards, among other honors. I’ve also taught writing at the graduate, university, and secondary level for more than 25 years.
Really, almost anything in the Nero Wolfe/Archie Goodwin series would fit here. A lazy, blustering, brilliant recluse, Nero Wolfe is perpetually badgered, kicking and grumbling, back toward humanity either by his passions—American cuisine, beer, books, orchids—or by Archie, his leg-man/lacky/surrogate son. I picked this specific novel because it involves a murder amid a gathering of world-class chefs; the cooking banter alone is worth the price of admission (which will be cheap; how and why have these books somehow fallen off our collective cultural radar??). None of Nero’s adventures among his fellow human beings make him want to venture out of the fortress he has made for himself inside his Manhattan brownstone. But they’ll make you want to hole up in his company. The man himself thinks he just wants to be left alone with his interests and comforts. But what he creates and relies on to sustain him feels pretty…
As Nero Wolfe prepares to speak at a gathering of the world’s great chefs, one is found indelicately murdered. When the target for killing shifts to himself, the great detective must close this case quickly or his next meal may be his last.
World-class cuisine, charming company . . . The secret ingredient is poison.
Everyone knows that too many cooks spoil the broth, but you'd hardly expect it to lead to murder. But that's exactly what's on the menu at a five-star gathering of the world's greatest chefs. As guest of honor, Wolfe was lured from his brownstone to…
A thing I love about detective stories is that, from the moment they were probably invented by Edgar Allen Poe in 1841, authors have been playing with the form. Poe’s The Murders in the Rue Morgue begins with a display of Dupin’s ratiocinative powers, and detective stories do often involve a protagonist reasoning through clues and red herrings on the way toward the resolution of a central mystery. But the kinds of “clues” we use to make sense of (or make peace with) the world are varied, and the mysteries that obsess us are vast—as illustrated over and over again in this mutable genre.
A reader begins a book only to discover that the same sixteen pages are printed over and over—so begins a journey across the beginning of novels and through continents. This is a book that breaks rules and taught me how to read it page by page—and I love that feeling.
Though first published in 1979, Calvino’s novel is remarkably timely with respect to the impact of data science and artificial intelligence on literature, as well as the “author’s position with regard to Trends of Contemporary Thought and Problems That Demand a Solution.”
Some might not consider this detective fiction, but I think—like The Aspern Papers (James) and The Savage Detectives (Bolaño)—the quest to find an obscure or missing text (or artist) fits within the genre and, indeed, is one of my favorite kinds of detective stories.
"You are about to begin reading Italo Calvino's new novel...Relax. Concentrate. Dispel every other thought. Let the world around you fade." —from If On A Winter's Night a Traveler
Italo Calvino's stunning classic imagines a novel capable of endless possibilities in an intricately crafted, spellbinding story about writing and reading.
If on a Winter's Night a Traveler is a feat of striking ingenuity and intelligence, exploring how our reading choices can shape and transform our lives. Originally published in 1979, Italo Calvino's singular novel crafted a postmodern narrative like never seen before—offering not one novel but ten, each with a…
My life is, in many ways, centered around bookstores. It all began at Three Lives & Co., a magical indie in the West Village of Manhattan. My girlfriend, now wife, worked there as a bookseller, and it was through her experience (and me hanging around the shop) that I developed an appreciation for how vital and wondrous bookstores can be. I was so enamored that I spent years researching the history of bookstores, visiting as many bookstores as I could, and talking to as many booksellers as possible. The result is my book.
I love this book because, even though it’s fiction and over one hundred years old, it captures what many of us still love about bookstores and bookselling. Christopher Morley is a wizard and one of the greatest bookstore admirers, which comes across in nearly every page of this charming tale.
"Parnassus on Wheels" (1917) was Christopher Morley?s first published novel. It tells the story of Roger Mifflin, who sells his travelling book business to 39-year-old Helen McGill. The latter is tired of taking care of her ailing older brother Andrew, a businessman, farmer, and author. The novel is told from the perspective of Mrs McGill and was in part inspired by David Grayson?s novel "The Friendly Road." Morley wrote a sequel to this story called "The Haunted Bookshop." Christopher Morley (1890?1957) was an American author, poet and journalist from Pennsylvania. His father was a mathematics professor and his mother a…
The Duke's Christmas Redemption
by
Arietta Richmond,
A Duke who has rejected love, a Lady who dreams of a love match, an arranged marriage, a house full of secrets, a most unneighborly neighbor, a plot to destroy reputations, an unexpected love that redeems it all.
Lady Charlotte Wyndham, given in an arranged marriage to a man she…
My life is, in many ways, centered around bookstores. It all began at Three Lives & Co., a magical indie in the West Village of Manhattan. My girlfriend, now wife, worked there as a bookseller, and it was through her experience (and me hanging around the shop) that I developed an appreciation for how vital and wondrous bookstores can be. I was so enamored that I spent years researching the history of bookstores, visiting as many bookstores as I could, and talking to as many booksellers as possible. The result is my book.
I delighted in Deutsch’s meditation on bookstores. His unique perspective, gained from years of running the Seminary Co-Op in Chicago, shines through the pages of this book. I especially loved his insights about why we so enjoy a good browse. I also appreciated the book's frankness—an honest assessment of just how hard running a bookstore can be.
From a devoted reader and lifelong bookseller, an eloquent and charming reflection on the singular importance of bookstores
Do we need bookstores in the twenty-first century? If so, what makes a good one? In this beautifully written book, Jeff Deutsch-the former director of Chicago's Seminary Co-op Bookstores, one of the finest bookstores in the world-pays loving tribute to one of our most important and endangered civic institutions. He considers how qualities like space, time, abundance, and community find expression in a good bookstore. Along the way, he also predicts-perhaps audaciously-a future in which the bookstore not only endures, but realizes…
My life is, in many ways, centered around bookstores. It all began at Three Lives & Co., a magical indie in the West Village of Manhattan. My girlfriend, now wife, worked there as a bookseller, and it was through her experience (and me hanging around the shop) that I developed an appreciation for how vital and wondrous bookstores can be. I was so enamored that I spent years researching the history of bookstores, visiting as many bookstores as I could, and talking to as many booksellers as possible. The result is my book.
Admittedly, this is a book more about reading than bookstores, but I admire Gabbert’s ability to write so eloquently about the ways that we find books, read books, and treasure books. Each essay is unique, but I was able to patch together my own narrative—and reconsider my relationship to my mind and my books—along the way.
Contagiously curious essays on reading, art, and the life of the mind, from the acclaimed author of The Unreality of Memory.
Who are we when we read? When we journal? Are we more ourselves alone or with friends? Right now or in memory? How does time transform us and the art we love?
In sixteen dazzling, expansive essays, the acclaimed essayist and poet Elisa Gabbert explores a life lived alongside books of all kinds: dog-eared and destroyed, cherished and discarded, classic and clichėd, familiar and profoundly new. She turns her witty, searching mind to the writers she admires, from Plath…
From my first exposure to Elisabeth Elliot’s writing when I was a teenager, I was intrigued by her story: a missionary few had ever heard of who became an author with several books published by a Big Five publishing company. Over the years I both wrestled with and was encouraged by her work. I’ve now spent more than a decade conducting original research on Elliot’s life. I believe learning more about her and the influences that shaped her enriches our understanding of our past and, thus, of our present and offers us important tools for approaching the future.
Elisabeth Elliot considered Katherine Mansfield not only a literary role model, but a person with whom she had so much in common that reading Mansfield’s letters helped explain Elliot herself.
Thus, this moving collection of letters between Mansfield and her husband sheds important light on how Elliot saw herself, reflecting her challenges in her relationship with her parents, her deep connection with her brother Tom, her passionate love for her husband, her strong and deeply private emotions, her determination to face her own mortality, and her dedication to excellence in her work.
The correspondence of Katherine Mansfield and John Middleton Murry is a story in its own right, as compelling and poignant as any that Mansfield herself invented. Here, juxtaposed for the first time, are 300 letters exchanged between them during their extraordinary eleven-year relationship. The letters begin in January 1912, a month after their first meeting, when both were relative newcomers to the London literary scene; the last, a letter from Murry, was written four days before Katherine died, in Fontainebleau, in January 1923. The intervening years were ones of both feverish creativity and heartbreaking frustration; of intense closeness and unassailable…
This book follows the journey of a writer in search of wisdom as he narrates encounters with 12 distinguished American men over 80, including Paul Volcker, the former head of the Federal Reserve, and Denton Cooley, the world’s most famous heart surgeon.
In these and other intimate conversations, the book…
I’ve been fascinated by bio-pics since I was about 10 or 11, when I first saw The Tommy Steele Story, made just a few years after he became a star, with Tommy Steele himself playing the lead (a rare thing). What began as a simple love for watching these films has grown into a deeper interest in how they shape our understanding of real lives. Now, I write, talk about, and reflect on the genre, exploring its impact and storytelling techniques. I hope you enjoy the books on this list as much as I have, and fingers crossed they’ll become films in the future!
When I was working on the fundraising campaign to raise money for the statue of Virginia Woolf for Richmond, I was constantly being quoted the line, “I’d rather die than live in Richmond.” This line, uttered by Nicole Kidman as Woolf in The Hours, was completely made up by the screenwriter.
Woolf’s decade (1914–1924) in Richmond was actually one of her most prolific. She launched the Hogarth Press, wrote major works, and hosted literary gatherings whilst also navigating the upheaval of World War I. This book, drawing from her letters and diaries, paints a richer picture of her time in Richmond. I think this bio-pic would challenge the Bloomsbury-dominated narrative and put pay to that rogue quote.
"I ought to be grateful to Richmond & Hogarth, and indeed, whether it's my invincible optimism or not, I am grateful." Virginia Woolf
Although more commonly associated with Bloomsbury, Virginia and her husband Leonard Woolf lived in Richmond-upon-Thames for ten years from the time of the First World War (1914-1924). Refuting the common misconception that she disliked the town, this book explores her daily habits as well as her intimate thoughts while living at the pretty house she came to love - Hogarth House. Drawing on information from her many letters and diaries, the editor reveals how Richmond's relaxed way…
