Romantic Comedy by Curtis Sittenfield
I loved Romantic Comedy by Curtis Sittenfeld this year. Does what it says on the tin but also clever and zeitgeist-y with a nice take on the pandemic – among its many horrors, it gave some people a chance to step off the hamster wheel and refocus on their relationships. I think this is an important part of the pandemic story but understandably gets lost among bigger, negative themes.
Sittenfeld’s back catalogue is also brilliant and in particular I recommend Rodham, which reimagines Hillary Clinton’s life if she had ditched Bill early on. – Hepcat1
Dimension of Miracles by Robert Sheckley
For fans of Douglas Adams I’d recommend looking up the works of Robert Sheckley, starting with Dimension of Miracles. Written in 1968, this is a brilliant satire which still hits most of its targets today.
Adams hadn’t read any Sheckley before writing his own novels, but there are certainly similarities in tone, content and humour between the two. – nilpferd
The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid by Bill Bryson
I remember my raucous, unseemly and uncontrolled laughter when reading Bill Bryson’s memoir about his childhood. Crying laughter. And this was on a plane and it was one of those “what’s he laughing about” moments. This is his account of seeing an adult coming to grief after diving off a high board:
He fell with flawless grace for what seemed whole minutes. Such was the beauty of the moment, and the breathless silence of the watching multitudes, that the only sound to be heard across the lake was the faint whistle of his body tearing through the air towards the water far, far below. It may only be my imagination, but he seemed after a time to start to glow red, like an incoming meteor. He was really moving.
Would That Be Funny? by Lorin Clarke
Not rolling-about funny but I found much to smile at when reading Lorin Clarke’s 2023 memoir about her father, comedian John Clarke.
For those who still smile at recalling episodes of Clarke and Dawe, this book is a charmer. – MJMI
My Name is Barbra by Barbra Streisand
Streisand is a one-of-a-kind talent who overcame a difficult childhood, a jealous, unsupportive mother and seemingly teams of men who tried to obstruct her vision and control her when she wouldn’t succumb.
When singing with a symphony orchestra, she heard a wrong note, questioned the music, was condescended to and ignored again. When they finally checked the score that note was found to be incorrectly transcribed. She broke through so many ceilings in the film industry. Amazing life. – tonimaccer
The Book of Sand by Theo Clare
The sadly late Mo Hayder (writing as Theo Clare) wrote this book set in an alternative universe, and is somewhere between fantasy, sci-fi and mystery. The world and its disparate family of occupants is beautifully realised and the novel completely intrigues.
There are rumours that a second, posthumous novel, The Book of Clouds, is planned for release. – squidlet1
Shy by Mary Rodgers and Jesse Green
The best celebrity memoir of recent times is Shy: The Alarmingly Outspoken Memoirs of Mary Rodgers. Composer of note from a family of composers: daughter of Richard Rodgers, mother to Adam Guettel, friend to Stephen Sondheim (among many others).
Smart, gossipy, wonderfully self-deprecating and often laugh-out-loud hilarious. – ozjosh
Bryant & May series by Christopher Fowler
I highly recommend the Bryant & May novels by Christopher Fowler (who sadly died last year). The title characters are London’s two oldest serving policemen, part of the Peculiar Crimes squad, tasked with investigating odd, unorthodox crimes.
Extremely entertaining, often quite humorous (though at times grim – they’re certainly not “cozy” mysteries) and always full of fascinating details about London and its history. Given how cool, wet and miserable this summer has been in my part of Australia, I feel right at home re-reading them! – Sockamagee
Space by Stephen Baxter
Space spans a period from present day until the year 8800 AD and beyond. The book starts with the discovery of aliens and, over the next 6,000 years, the Baxter explores first contact as well as the human colonisation of various moons and planets. The destruction then re-engineering of Earth’s atmosphere is written about in great detail.
I find that the detail that Baxter goes into extremely fascinating, believable and beautiful – like a chapter where a human explores Venus for the first time, describing how the rocks glow an eerily beautiful red and how moving on the surface is like wading through water. Breathtaking. – PAC1979
Case Histories by Kate Atkinson
Atkinson’s Jackson Brodie series is dark, funny and clever. You follow Brodie, a PI, as well as the trajectory of minor characters who become major players in the following books.
Atkinson is a brilliant writer. Start with book one: Case Histories. – tonimaccer
Mordant’s Need series by Stephen Donaldson
Ah, fantasy. I enjoy it but find that sorcery, it seems, does not lend itself to brevity. In that spirit, may I recommend the mercifully brief and eminently readable Mordant’s Need series by Stephen Donaldson.
It spans a total of two books, features a heroine whose story arc extends beyond tired girl power tropes, and it has one of the best finales I’ve read. – TheBaronVonTiki
Harpo Speaks! by Harpo Marx
Rowman & Littlefield, US$27.99
Try this autobiography of Harpo Marx, co-written with Rowland Barber. You do not need to be a Marx brothers fan; in fact their movies barely get mentioned.
It’s the many famous people that he managed to meet and interact with that make this a truly memorable book. – woollcott
The Professor by Lauren Nossett
The Professor is Nossett’s sequel to her debut, The Resemblance. You can see the slight Donna Tartt/Tana French influence as former detective Marlitt Kaplan goes undercover to live with university students to clear a professor being investigated under a Title IX complaint about a student who died by suicide at a US university.
It’s tense as hell and my jaw dropped right up until the final line. – Sikonat
My Life and Hard Times by James Thurber
I recently reread this one. Surprised and delighted that something which reduced me to tears of laughter as a teenager is just as funny half a century on. – Bibliobat
Gardens of the Moon by Steven Erikson
Fourteen-odd years ago my brother bought me two books for my birthday. As a lapsed fantasy fan, I was a little nonplussed, but I very quickly got into the first, which was a small, underground novel called Game of Thrones. You may have heard of it.
It was the other book, though, that has stayed with me longer. Gardens of the Moon, the first of a 10-part series, is not an easy read and shouldn’t be anyone’s first fantasy book.
But the series as a whole is so vast and operatic I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend it to anyone who feels they can take on 10 very, very big books. I’m on a second read of the series now and it’s really rewarded me. – grafhamboy
Readers’ comments have been edited for length and clarity
