Internationally recognised art and literary critic, writer and cultural producer. Published in ELLE, Glamour, Esquire and Cosmopolitan; member of the Union of Writers.
A holiday is the perfect time to read a book you might otherwise put down. Not a light beach read, but something that stays with you. We’ve chosen ten books that demand your attention. They reward it by offering a new perspective or a sharper way of thinking. This is a reading list to upgrade your mind.
Kazuo Ishiguro, The Buried Giant For anyone who thinks about memory and forgetting. In a misty, medieval England, a strange fog is making everyone forget. An elderly couple, Axl and Beatrice, set out to find their son, who they can barely remember. Their journey is a story about memory, both for a person and a whole society. It asks a simple, difficult question: is it better to remember a painful truth, or to forget?
Virginia Woolf, Orlando For those who appreciate bold books about identity. This novel follows Orlando, who lives for centuries and changes from a man into a woman. Woolf uses this premise to explore identity, social roles, and the nature of time itself. It’s a book about the freedom to be yourself, written with wit and style.
Max Frisch, I’m Not Stiller For anyone who has ever wanted a fresh start. A man is arrested when he returns to Switzerland. They call him Anatol Stiller, a sculptor who has been missing for years. But he denies it. He calls himself Mr White. He insists he has nothing to do with the man who left his wife. The novel is his prison diary, a brilliant book about a simple question: can you ever truly escape who you are?
John Irving, The Cider House Rules For lovers of big, classic, character-driven novels. This is a story about an orphanage in Maine. Its director, Dr. Larch, delivers babies but also provides illegal abortions. His apprentice, the orphan Homer Wells, must decide where his own principles lie. The book deals with big themes: choice, compassion, and when it’s right to break the rules.
Mariana Leky, What You Can See from Here For a little bit of magic in a normal world. In a small German village, everyone knows the legend: if someone dreams of an okapi, someone will die within 24 hours. When an old woman has the dream, the village holds its breath. In that single day, secrets are revealed and confessions are made. It’s a charming book about how the thought of death can make us more honest.
Donna Tartt, The Secret History For fans of the classic ‘dark academia’ thriller. Five clever students at an elite college become obsessed with ancient Greek culture and their charismatic professor. They decide to try and recreate a Dionysian ritual. It goes wrong, and someone ends up dead. But this isn’t a ‘whodunnit’. It’s a story about guilt, arrogance, and how easily a group of smart people can do something terrible.
Umberto Eco, The Name of the Rose For those who want a medieval murder mystery with a philosophical core. The year is 1327. A series of murders shakes a remote Italian monastery. A visiting Franciscan monk, William of Baskerville, is asked to investigate. He is a sort of medieval Sherlock Holmes. The book is a brilliant detective story. But it’s also a maze of ideas about knowledge, power, and even the importance of laughter.
Gabriel García Márquez, One Hundred Years of Solitude For anyone ready to tackle a true landmark of literature. If you’ve never read it, a holiday is the perfect time. This is the story of seven generations of the Buendía family in the mythical town of Macondo. Here, rain can last for years and the dead come back for conversations. Behind the magic is a story about a family, about love, and about how history seems to repeat itself.
Daniel Kahneman, Thinking, Fast and Slow For a user’s guide to your own mind. I confess, this is the only non-fiction book on the list. Kahneman, a Nobel Prize winner, explains that we have two systems of thought. One is fast and emotional. The other is slow and logical. This book shows you the mental shortcuts and biases that shape your decisions every day. It’s a tool to improve how you think.
Cixin Liu, The Three-Body Problem For anyone who thinks about the future and humanity’s place in it. This is the book that reshaped modern science fiction. It begins with a strange video game and a series of suicides among top scientists. It quickly becomes a story about humanity’s first contact with an alien race. The novel weaves together Chinese history, physics, and game theory into something completely new.
