This book is a sprawling exploration of English society in a period of tumultuous change. Set in the fictional town of Middlemarch in the early 1830s, it explores, through the lives of the inhabitants, ambition, idealism, the status of women, and the intricate web of social relations in a community on the cusp of modernity...

While the Lord of the Rings is the most popular of Tolkien’s works, this is a book that he never intended to write. He was first and always a philologist, and it was languages that fascinated him. He began to make up and create languages as a teenager, and it was the urge to give these languages a people, a culture, and a history that drove him to create an entire mythology, which eventually, became The Silmarillion...

This is a poignant, and often humorous, story of the Mendes family in Bombay, about living with a family member struggling with mental illness and the profound impact this has on all their lives. The story is narrated by the unnamed son, who is trying to come to terms with his mother Imelda’s (Em) recurring battles with bipolar disorder, while his father, Augustine (‘The Big Hoom’) serves as the family’s stoic anchor amidst the chaos, of which there is plenty...

The novel is set in Vienna in the 1960’s, in a café that becomes the gathering place for a varied and initially unconnected group of people, who eventually grow into a community. The story begins when Robert Simon, a young man, who spent years working in the market stalls takes a leap of faith to open his own cafe...

Penelope Lively's novel Heat Wave offers a psychologically astute portrayal of a family grappling with the destructive cycle of infidelity, set against the backdrop of a long, hot English summer...

This is a story about time travel, and it is set in the now almost forgotten Paris of the 1950’s. Laurain indulges himself and his readers by writing about the city as it was then. He writes about the people of the day, both the famous and the perfectly ordinary, as well the places that have since disappeared or have changed so much as to be unrecognisable...

Ursula Le Guin is one of the most influential writers of the  20th century. She wrote twenty-three novels, twelve volumes of short stories, five collections of essays, eleven volumes of poetry, thirteen children’s books and four works of translation. She won numerous awards and honours, including multiple Hugo and Nebula awards, the National Book Award, and the Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters...

This is a brilliant book. It’s so good that I can’t help but gush about it to everyone I know and tell them to do themselves a favour and read it. Of course, not everyone is interested in science-fiction, but if you are, this is a must read. Project Hail Mary is based on a couple of classic science fiction tropes, a threat to humanity, and first contact with an alien species. This is in no way a criticism. I love tropes, particularly huge, overarching themes like this...

Reading this book was an experience. So much about it was unexpected and wonderful. This is my first time reading Mary Stewart and I think I've found a new favourite writer...

E.C.R. Lorac is one of the pen-names of Edith Caroline Rivett, who also wrote under the pseudonyms, Carol Carnac and Mary Le Bourne. She was a prolific writer who wrote more than seventy murder mysteries. She was well-known in literary circles and she was successful in her lifetime. Her novels were both popular and critically acclaimed, but unlike some of her better known contemporaries, her books were forgotten after her death...

Old Herbaceous tells the story of a man and his life in the garden, surrounded by plants and flowers that he gives all his time and his love to. At the beginning of the book we meet Burt Pinnegar, a somewhat crotchety old man, the retired head-gardener at the manor house, who's looking back on his life and reliving his memories...

This is a charming book that I find myself wanting to recommend to everyone. It's a book about books and reading, but unlike other books of this kind, which tend to be non-fiction, it's a novel, and it features a very real person, Queen Elizabeth, who is the uncommon reader in the title. It's a delightful account of the journey of a once non-reader into the world of books.