LOOK! BOOK!

It's the second Tuesday in the month and Julie is back with another installment of Look! Book!
For the second edition of Look! Book! I have selfishly chosen the books I want to read (or re-read) by the fire this December.
1. Colm Tóibin’s The Master (2004) is one of my all time faves but last year’s Brooklyn is a wonderful read. Tóibin tells the story of young Eilis who, alone, inexperienced and brave, leaves Ireland to make a life for herself in 1950s Brooklyn.
2. You might have heard that, earlier this year, Mumbai University banned Rohinton Mistry’s Such a Long Journey. Well there’s nothing quite like censorship to stir a girl’s interest. I’ve been meaning to read Such a Long Journey for ages as Mistry’s A Fine Balance might be the most breathtaking book of all time.
3. I recommend all of Nigel Slater's books wholeheartedly but The Kitchen Diaries most of all. Slater takes us through a year of more or less everything he eats and it’s all illustrated with Jonathan Lovekin’s mouthwatering photos.
4. Tonight I’m hosting my bookclub (I’m freakin’). This month we read Michelle Huneven’s Blame. Lots of big issues at play from alcoholism and atonement to love, guilt and forgiveness, but Huneven keeps the pace up brilliantly. Fingers crossed the discussion flows as well as the bubbly.
5. Back to New York for Mary McCarthy’s The Group - a veritable classic. McCarthy exposes the bizarre and clique-y world of 1930s New York through the lens of eight girlfriends who have just graduated from Vassar. None of the girls is perfect -each have fairly hideous flaws - but yet there is something altogether captivating about them all.
6. What book round up is complete without Margaret Atwood? Seriously I have heard phenomenal things about The Year of the Flood and when I saw the special editions Bloomsbury UK released to celebrate Atwood’s 70^th birthday, I knew I’d have to look into some overseas shipping. Sometimes it’s okay to judge a book by its cover.

Happy reading!

~ Julie