Alisha
I’ve always loved books and reading in all the different ways I’ve come across it! I remember being read to before bed when I was little and going to the library on a Friday after school to choose another big pile of books to take home with me. I was the person everyone knew as the bookworm and would always have a book on me, even at family parties (still am!). My little list consists of books I loved growing up that I still think of and remember fondly and books I’ve really enjoyed over the past few years.
- Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
- A Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller
- The Chaos Walking Trilogy by Patrick Ness
- Small Worlds by Caleb Azumah Nelson
- Cherry Heaven by L.J. Adlington
- The Daevabad Trilogy by Shannon Chakraborty
- Giovanni’s Room by James Baldwin
- Enter Ghost by Isabella Hammad
- I, Coriander by Sally Gardner
- The Safekeep by Yael Van Der Wouden
If you want to pick up any of these titles they are available here
The Willoughby Book Club Team's Favourite Books - Alisha
Olivia
My reading tastes vary year to year, depending on where I am and what I'm doing in any particular moment. It means some of my favourite books seem slightly idiosyncratic, but they just makes sense in my weird, little brain! I like a bit of everything really, but I'm mainly drawn to fully fleshed out characters and locations, and a plot hook that grabs me by the scruff. In my list below you'll find (among other things) hippies, Neapolitans, shapeshifters, and Palestinian freedom fighters. These are books that I have avidly recommended to friends and readers of all kinds, so I hope you'll find something that piques your literary interest.
- The Neapolitan Quartet by Elena Ferrante
- Against the Loveless World by Susan Abulhawa
- Don't Skip Out On Me by Willy Vlautin
- Drop City by T.C. Boyle
- Patsy by Nicole Dennis-Benn
- Paul Takes the Form of a Mortal Girl by Andrea Lawlor
- Ghost Wall by Sarah Moss
- Autobiography of Red by Anne Carson
- The Vegetarian by Han Kang
- The Offing by Benjamin Myers
If you want to pick up any of these titles they are available here
The Willoughby Book Club Team's Favourite Books - Olivia
Marianne
My reading has wandered far and wide over the years, and I couldn't possibly narrow down all my favourite titles from a life of reading, that's far too hard a question. So my list consists of titles I've returned to again and again, for comfort reading, for laughs, for seeing things in a re-read that I didn't notice previously. These are all books I've recommended to others, I hope there's something that might interest you here too.
- Radical Love by Omid Safi
- Mapp and Lucia by E F Benson
- Eggs, Beans and Crumpets by P G Wodehouse
- Lolly Willowes by Sylvia Townsend Warner
- Foster by Claire Keegan
- Persuasion by Jane Austen
- Comet in Moominland by Tove Jansson
- The Spinning Heart by Donal Ryan
- The Heart in Winter by Kevin Barry
- The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame
If you want to pick up any of these titles they are available here
The Willoughby Book Club Team's Favourite Books - Marianne
Aishah
Lemony Snickett told me to never trust anyone who doesn’t carry a book with them, and I took that to heart and still don’t leave the house without one.
This list was more of a struggle than I thought it would be, I’m quite easily pleased and if I enjoy a book, I tend to call it my favourite which results in a very long list. My family is full of avid readers who all have very varied tastes and this influenced a lot of my reading growing up. Even now, we still love gifting each other books and recommending our current reads to just about everyone. A lot of the books on this list come from when I was a teen, and I was the most into reading I have ever been. Whether it's a memory of the first series I bought as it was released and eagerly awaited each new instalment, or my friend's in school passing along the same book so we could all get in on the hype, or reading the books of my mum’s childhood favourite show, all the books on this list hold a special memory. They are more just the words inside. For quite a solo hobby, making this list reminded me that one of my favourite things about books and reading is how it fosters community and connection.
- Percy Jackson and the Olympians by Rick Riordan
- The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
- The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
- Goodnight Mr Tom by Michelle Magorian
- The Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder
- The Book Thief by Marcus Zuzak
- The Girl from the Other Side: Siúil, a Rún by Nagabe
- Delilah Green Doesn’t Care by Ashley Herring Blake
- The Anthropocene Reviewed by John Green
- The Poppy War by R.F. Kuang
If If you want to pick up any of these titles they are available here
The Willoughby Book Club Team's Favourite Books - Aishah
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