Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides

Title: The Virgin Suicides
Author: Jeffrey Eugenides
Blurb: The shocking thing about the girls was how nearly normal they seemed when their mother let them out for the one and only date of their lives. Twenty years on, their enigmatic personalities are embalmed in the memories of the boys who worshipped them and who now recall their shared adolescence: the brassiere draped over a crucifix belonging to the promiscuous Lux; the sisters' breathtaking appearance on the night of the dance; and the sultry, sleepy street across which they watched a family disintegrate and fragile lives disappear.

The haunting, humourous and tender story of the brief lives of the five entrancing Lisbon sisters, now a major film.

Buy this book now from Amazon
Buy this book now from Waterstones

Read More

This Book Will Save Your Life by A.M. Homes

Title: This Book Will Save Your Life
Author: A.M. Homes
Blurb: Trading stocks and shares out of his beautiful LA home, Richard Novak sees no one except his trainer, housekeeper and nutritionist, who delivers regular supplies of macrobiotic, low card food. He is so out of touch with his feelings that his life has slowed almost to a standstill. Following an attack of inexplicable and excruciating pain that lands him in the emergency room, Richard befriends Anhil, a doughnut shop owner. His solitary routine broken, and his diet sabotaged by sugary baked goods, Richard's dramatic emotion thaw begins...

Buy this now on Amazon
Buy this book now from Waterstones

Read More

Juliet, Naked by Nick Hornby

Title: Juliet, Naked
Author: Nick Hornby
Blurb: Annie's put fifteen years into safe, slightly obsessive Duncan, and now she'd like her money back, please. It's time to move on. But she lives in Gooleness, the north's answer to a question nobody asked, Is she really going to find real, proper, feel-it-deep-down-in-your-boots love on a damp and windy seafront? Or perhaps she should follow her heart and pursue Tucker, the reclusive American rock star, who keeps emailing her his smart advice.

But between Annie and her second chance lie a few obstacles. There's Malcolm, the world's most judgemental therapist, and Barnesy, the north's most extrovert dancer. There's what men and women will do and won't do for love. And of course, there's Tucker...

Hilarious and tender, Juliet, Naked will move you in ways both profound and surprising.

Buy this now from Amazon

Read More

Girlfriend in a Coma by Douglas Coupland

Title: Girlfriend in a Coma
Author: Douglas Coupland
Blurb: It's 15 December 1979, and Richard's girlfriend Karen has entered a deep coma. She only took a couple of valium washed down with a cocktail, but now she's locked away in suspended animation, oblivious to the passage of time. What if she were to wake up decades later - a 17-year-old in a distant future, a future where world has gone dark?

Buy this now from Amazon

Read More

Pay it Forward by Catherine Ryan Hyde

Title: Pay It Forward
Author: Catherine Ryan Hyde
Blurb: It all started with a school project:

Think of an idea for world change and put it into action.

Whilst this proved a little ambitious for most of his classmates, twelve-year-old Trevor thought he would start by doing something good for three people. But instead of paying him back, he would ask them to 'pay it forward' by doing a favor for three more people. If it all went to plan, Trevor thought, it could be the start of a long chain of human kindness...

Sound unlikely? Well other people had their doubts too - Trevor's teacher, his classmates, his mother, in fact everyone in his small California town. It could never really work...could it?

Buy this now from Amazon

Read More

How to Lose Friends and Alienate People by Toby Young

Title: How to Lose Friends and Alienate People
Author: Toby Young
Blurb: In 1995 high-flying British journalist Toby Young left London for New York to become a contributing editor at Vanity Fair. Other Brits had taken Manhattan - Alistair Cook, Tina Brown, Anna Wintour - so why couldn't he?

But things did not go according to plan. Within the space of two years he was fired from Vanity Fair, banned from the most fashionable bar in the city and couldn't get a date for love or money. How to Lose Friends and Alienate People is Toby Young's bestselling account of the five years he spent steadily working his way down the New York food chain, from glossy magazine to crash-test dummy for interactive sex toys.

Now a Motion Picture featuring Simon Pegg, Kirsten Dunst, Jeff Bridges and Gillian Anderson.

Buy this now from Amazon

Read More

The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold

Title: The Lovely Bones
Author: Alice Sebold
Blurb: My name is Salmon, like the fish; first name, Susie. I was fourteen when I was murdered on December 6, 1973. My murderer was a man from our neighborhood. My mother liked his border flowers, and my father talked to him once about fertilizer.

This is Susie Salmon, speaking from heaven - which looks a lot like her school playground, with the good kind of swing sets, counsellors to help newcomers adjust, and friends to room with. Everything Susie wants appears as soon as she thinks of it - except the one thing she wants most: to be back with the people she loved on earth.

Watching from her place in heaven, Susie sees her happy, suburban family devastated by her death, isolated even from one another as they each try to cope with their terrible loss alone. Over the years, her friends and siblings grow up, fall in love, do all the things she never had the chance to do herself.

But life is not quite finished with Susie yet....

Buy this now from Amazon

Read More