Genre: Auto-biography
In the early 80s, Gregory David Roberts, an armed robber and heroin addict, escaped from an Australian prison to India, where he lived in a Bombay slum. There, he established a free health clinic and also joined the mafia, working as a money launderer, forger and street soldier. He found time to learn Hindi and Marathi, fall inlove, and spend time being worked over in an Indian jail. Then, in case anyone thought he was slacking, he acted in Bollywood and fought with the Mujahedeen in Afghanistan... Amazingly, Roberts wrote 'Shantaram' three times after prison guards trashed the first two versions. It's a profound tribute to his willpower... At once a high-kicking, eye-gouging adventure, a love saga and a savage yet tenderly lyrical fugitive vision.
Thud! by Terry Pratchett
Genre: Fantast, science fiction and humour
Koom Valley? That was when the trolls ambushed the dwarfs, or the dwarfs ambushed the trolls. It was far away. It was a long time ago.
But if he doesn't solve the murder of just one dwarf, Commander Sam Vimes of Ankh-Morpork City Watch is going to see it fought again, right outside his office.
With his beloved watch crumbling around him and war-drums sounding, he must unravel every clue, outwit every assassin and brave any darkness to find the solution. And darkness is following him.
Oh...and at six o'clock every day, without fail, with no excuses, he must go home to read Where's my cow?, with all the right farmyard noises, to his little boy.
There are some things you have yo do.
Five Quarters of an Orange by Joanne Harris
Genre: General fiction
Beyond Main street of Les Laveuses runs the Loire, smooth and brown as a sunning snake - but hiding in deadly undertow beneath its moving surface. This is where Framboise, a secretive widow named after a raspberry liquer, plies her culinary trade at the creperie - and lets her memory play strange games.
Into this world comes the threat of revelation as Framboise's nephew- a profiting Parisan- attempts to exploit the growing success of the country recipes she has inherited from her mother, a woman remembered with contempt by the villagers of Le Laveuses. As the spilt blood of a tragic wartime childhood flows again, exposure beckons for Framboise the widow with an invented past.
Animal Farm by George Orwell
Genre: General fiction
Old Major, the boar, dreams of farms run by animals for animals, with liberty and equality for all. When the animals of Manor Farm, led by the pigs Napoleon and Snowball, drive out Farmer Jones and set up Animal Farm the dream seems to be coming true. But as the pigs become more powerful Old Major's vision turns horribly sour.
Genre: Romance, drama and humour
Vanity no love, has been my folly
When Elizebeth Bennet first meets eligible bachelor Fitzwilliam Darcy, she thinks arrogant and conceited, while he struggles to remain indifferent to her good looks and lively mind. When she later discovers that Darcy has involved himself in the troubled relationship between his friend Bingley and her beloved sister, Jane, she is determined to dislike him more than ever. In the sparkling comedy of manners that follows, Jane Austen shows the folly of judging by first impressions and superbly evokes the friendships, gossip and snobberies of provincial middle-class life.
Tales of the Black Widowers by Isaac Asimov
Genre: General fiction, mystery and humour
Twelve mystery masterpieces.
- The Acquisitive Chuckle
- Ph as in Phony
- Truth to Tell
- Go, Little Book!
- Early Sunday Morning
- The Obvious Factor
- The Pointing Finger
- Miss What?
- The Lullaby of Broadway
- Yankee Doodle Went to Town
- The Curious Omission
- Out of Sight
Equal Rites by Terry Pratchett
Genre: Fantasy and humour
They say that a little knowledge is a dangerous thing, but it is not half so bad as a lot of ignorance.
There are some situations where the correct the correct response is to display the sort of ignorance, which happily and wilfully flies in the face of facts. In this case, the birth of a baby girl, born a wizard-by mistake. Everybody knows that there's no such thing as a female wizard. But now it's gone and happened, there's nothing much anyone can do about it. Let the battle of the sexes begin...
