20 Books to Read Before You Die
If you're a book lover, you'll understand that so many books, so little time, is a real issue. There are so many renowned books out there, but how do we know which ones we absolutely have to read before we die? Most of these lists often just contain reams of classics, so I've compiled my own list of 20 books everyone should read before they die, including a mix of other genres. This reflects my own diverse reading tastes more accurately, and hopefully yours too!
To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
"The unforgettable novel of a childhood in a sleepy
Southern town and the crisis of conscience that rocked it, To Kill A
Mockingbird became both an instant bestseller and a critical success when it
was first published in 1960. It went on to win the Pulitzer Prize in 1961 and
was later made into an Academy Award-winning film, also a classic.
Compassionate, dramatic, and deeply moving, To Kill A
Mockingbird takes readers to the roots of human behavior - to innocence and
experience, kindness and cruelty, love and hatred, humor and pathos. Now with
over 18 million copies in print and translated into ten languages, this
regional story by a young Alabama woman claims universal appeal. Harper Lee
always considered her book to be a simple love story. Today it is regarded as a
masterpiece of American literature."
This is one of those rare examples of prescribed school
books which is actually enjoyable to read - I've never forgotten it since I
read it when I was 14!
Frankenstein - Mary Shelley
"Frankenstein, an instant bestseller and an important
ancestor of both the horror and science fiction genres, not only tells a
terrifying story, but also raises profound, disturbing questions about the very
nature of life and the place of humankind within the cosmos: What does it mean
to be human? What responsibilities do we have to each other? How far can we go
in tampering with Nature? In our age, filled with news of organ donation
genetic engineering, and bio-terrorism, these questions are more relevant than
ever."
I was always put off reading Frankenstein as I'm not someone
who enjoys sci-fi/horror, but I was so taken aback by the depth of emotional
exploration and social commentary within it that I absolutely fell in love with
it. It's now one of my all time favourites.
Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
"The compelling story of two outsiders striving to find
their place in an unforgiving world.
Drifters in search of work, George and his simple-minded
friend Lennie have nothing in the world except each other and a dream -- a
dream that one day they will have some land of their own. Eventually they find
work on a ranch in California’s Salinas Valley, but their hopes are doomed as
Lennie, struggling against extreme cruelty, misunderstanding and feelings of
jealousy, becomes a victim of his own strength."
I'm a fan of John Steinbeck in general, but Of Mice and Men
is a super quick and touching read that has always been in my thoughts since I
read it (again, for school!).
The Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
"Thrown in prison for a crime he has not committed,
Edmond Dantes is confined to the grim fortress of If. There he learns of a
great hoard of treasure hidden on the Isle of Monte Cristo and he becomes
determined not only to escape, but also to unearth the treasure and use it to
plot the destruction of the three men responsible for his incarceration. Dumas’
epic tale of suffering and retribution, inspired by a real-life case of
wrongful imprisonment, was a huge popular success when it was first serialized
in the 1840s."
This book can be summed up by the phrase 'revenge is
sweet'...except, is it? I think this classic carries some of the most important
messages about how to live your life, and whether bitterness and revenge is the
right way to achieve happiness in the end.
The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald
"Jay Gatsby is the man who has everything. But one
thing will always be out of his reach. Everybody who is anybody is seen at his
glittering parties. Day and night his Long Island mansion buzzes with bright young
things drinking, dancing, and debating his mysterious character. For
Gatsby---young, handsome, and fabulously rich---always seems alone in the
crowd, watching and waiting, though no one knows what for. Beneath the
shimmering surface of his life he is hiding a secret: a silent longing that can
never be fulfilled. And soon this destructive obsession will force his world to
unravel."
I was absolutely obsessed with The Great Gatsby when I first
read it, and have reread it countless times since. It's one of the most
evocative, atmospheric, and perfectly tragic books ever written.
The Picture of Dorian Gray - Oscar Wilde
"Written in his distinctively dazzling manner, Oscar
Wilde’s story of a fashionable young man who sells his soul for eternal youth
and beauty is the author’s most popular work. The tale of Dorian Gray’s moral
disintegration caused a scandal when it first appeared in 1890, but though Wilde
was attacked for the novel’s corrupting influence, he responded that there is,
in fact, “a terrible moral in Dorian Gray.” Just a few years later, the book
and the aesthetic/moral dilemma it presented became issues in the trials
occasioned by Wilde’s homosexual liaisons, which resulted in his imprisonment.
Of Dorian Gray’s relationship to autobiography, Wilde noted in a letter, “Basil
Hallward is what I think I am: Lord Henry what the world thinks me: Dorian what
I would like to be—in other ages, perhaps."
One of the most beautifully written books ever published,
reading The Picture of Dorian Gary feels like looking at an exquisite piece of
art.
A Little Life - Hanya Yanagihara
"Brace yourself for the most astonishing, challenging,
upsetting, and profoundly moving book in many a season. An epic about love and
friendship in the twenty-first century that goes into some of the darkest
places fiction has ever traveled and yet somehow improbably breaks through into
the light. Truly an amazement—and a great gift for its readers.
When four classmates from a small Massachusetts college move
to New York to make their way, they're broke, adrift, and buoyed only by their
friendship and ambition. There is kind, handsome Willem, an aspiring actor; JB,
a quick-witted, sometimes cruel Brooklyn-born painter seeking entry to the art
world; Malcolm, a frustrated architect at a prominent firm; and withdrawn,
brilliant, enigmatic Jude, who serves as their center of gravity.
Over the decades, their relationships deepen and darken,
tinged by addiction, success, and pride. Yet their greatest challenge, each
comes to realize, is Jude himself, by midlife a terrifyingly talented litigator
yet an increasingly broken man, his mind and body scarred by an unspeakable
childhood, and haunted by what he fears is a degree of trauma that he’ll not
only be unable to overcome—but that will define his life forever."
This is one of those rare books which has stuck with me ever
since I read it for the first time nearly two years ago. Read my full review of
A Little Life here.
Atonement - Ian McEwan
"Ian McEwan’s symphonic novel of love and war,
childhood and class, guilt and forgiveness provides all the satisfaction of a
brilliant narrative and the provocation we have come to expect from this master
of English prose.
On a hot summer day in 1935, thirteen-year-old Briony Tallis
witnesses the flirtation between her older sister, Cecilia, and Robbie Turner,
the son of a servant. But Briony’s incomplete grasp of adult motives and her
precocious imagination bring about a crime that will change all their lives, a
crime whose repercussions Atonement follows through the chaos and carnage of
World War II and into the close of the twentieth century."
This is a book which will really make you think about the
longstanding effects your actions could have on those around you.
The Secret History - Donna Tartt
"Under the influence of their charismatic classics
professor, a group of clever, eccentric misfits at an elite New England college
discover a way of thinking and living that is a world away from the humdrum
existence of their contemporaries. But when they go beyond the boundaries of
normal morality they slip gradually from obsession to corruption and betrayal,
and at last - inexorably - into evil."
Life After Life - Kate Atkinson
"What if you could live again and again, until you got
it right?
On a cold and snowy night in 1910, Ursula Todd is born to an
English banker and his wife. She dies before she can draw her first breath. On
that same cold and snowy night, Ursula Todd is born, lets out a lusty wail, and
embarks upon a life that will be, to say the least, unusual. For as she grows,
she also dies, repeatedly, in a variety of ways, while the young century
marches on towards its second cataclysmic world war.
Does Ursula's apparently infinite number of lives give her
the power to save the world from its inevitable destiny? And if she can - will
she?"
The Line of Beauty - Alan Hollinghurst
"In the summer of 1983, twenty-year-old Nick Guest
moves into an attic room in the Notting Hill home of the Feddens: conservative
Member of Parliament Gerald, his wealthy wife Rachel, and their two children,
Toby-whom Nick had idolized at Oxford-and Catherine, highly critical of her
family's assumptions and ambitions.
As the boom years of the eighties unfold, Nick, an innocent
in the world of politics and money, finds his life altered by the rising
fortunes of this glamorous family. His two vividly contrasting love affairs,
one with a young black clerk and one with a Lebanese millionaire, dramatize the
dangers and rewards of his own private pursuit of beauty, a pursuit as
compelling to Nick as the desire for power and riches among his friends."
This dark comedy is extremely atmospheric and emotional - I
couldn't put it down.
The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
"The unforgettable, heartbreaking story of the unlikely
friendship between a wealthy boy and the son of his father’s servant, The Kite
Runner is a beautifully crafted novel set in a country that is in the process
of being destroyed. It is about the power of reading, the price of betrayal,
and the possibility of redemption; and an exploration of the power of fathers
over sons—their love, their sacrifices, their lies.
A sweeping story of family, love, and friendship told
against the devastating backdrop of the history of Afghanistan over the last
thirty years, The Kite Runner is an unusual and powerful novel that has become
a beloved, one-of-a-kind classic."
I first read this book when I was 17 for school and it has
stuck with me ever since.
The Underground Railroad - Colson Whitehead
"Cora is a slave on a cotton plantation in Georgia.
Life is hell for all the slaves, but especially bad for Cora; an outcast even
among her fellow Africans, she is coming into womanhood—where even greater pain
awaits. When Caesar, a recent arrival from Virginia, tells her about the
Underground Railroad, they decide to take a terrifying risk and escape. Matters
do not go as planned—Cora kills a young white boy who tries to capture her.
Though they manage to find a station and head north, they are being hunted.
In Whitehead’s ingenious conception, the Underground
Railroad is no mere metaphor—engineers and conductors operate a secret network
of tracks and tunnels beneath the Southern soil. Cora and Caesar’s first stop
is South Carolina, in a city that initially seems like a haven. But the city’s
placid surface masks an insidious scheme designed for its black denizens. And
even worse: Ridgeway, the relentless slave catcher, is close on their heels.
Forced to flee again, Cora embarks on a harrowing flight, state by state,
seeking true freedom.
Like the protagonist of Gulliver’s Travels, Cora encounters
different worlds at each stage of her journey—hers is an odyssey through time
as well as space. As Whitehead brilliantly re-creates the unique terrors for
black people in the pre–Civil War era, his narrative seamlessly weaves the saga
of America from the brutal importation of Africans to the unfulfilled promises
of the present day. The Underground Railroad is at once a kinetic adventure
tale of one woman’s ferocious will to escape the horrors of bondage and a
shattering, powerful meditation on the history we all share. "
Gone Girl - Gillian Flynn
"Marriage can be a real killer.
On a warm summer morning in North Carthage, Missouri, it is
Nick and Amy Dunne’s fifth wedding anniversary. Presents are being wrapped and
reservations are being made when Nick’s clever and beautiful wife disappears
from their rented McMansion on the Mississippi River. Husband-of-the-Year Nick
isn’t doing himself any favors with cringe-worthy daydreams about the slope and
shape of his wife’s head, but passages from Amy's diary reveal the alpha-girl
perfectionist could have put anyone dangerously on edge. Under mounting
pressure from the police and the media—as well as Amy’s fiercely doting parents—the
town golden boy parades an endless series of lies, deceits, and inappropriate
behavior. Nick is oddly evasive, and he’s definitely bitter—but is he really a
killer?
As the cops close in, every couple in town is soon wondering
how well they know the one that they love. With his twin sister, Margo, at his
side, Nick stands by his innocence. Trouble is, if Nick didn’t do it, where is
that beautiful wife? And what was in that silvery gift box hidden in the back
of her bedroom closet?
With her razor-sharp writing and trademark psychological
insight, Gillian Flynn delivers a fast-paced, devilishly dark, and ingeniously
plotted thriller that confirms her status as one of the hottest writers around.
One of the most critically acclaimed suspense writers of our
time, New York Times bestseller Gillian Flynn takes that statement to its
darkest place in this unputdownable masterpiece about a marriage gone terribly,
terribly wrong. The Chicago Tribune proclaimed that her work “draws you in and
keeps you reading with the force of a pure but nasty addiction.” Gone Girl’s
toxic mix of sharp-edged wit and deliciously chilling prose creates a
nerve-fraying thriller that confounds you at every turn."
One of the best thrillers ever written, with an incredible
plot twist in the middle - read my full review of Gone Girl here.
The Book Thief - Markus Zusak
"It is 1939. Nazi Germany. The country is holding its
breath. Death has never been busier, and will be busier still.
By her brother's graveside, Liesel's life is changed when
she picks up a single object, partially hidden in the snow. It is The
Gravedigger's Handbook, left behind there by accident, and it is her first act
of book thievery. So begins a love affair with books and words, as Liesel, with
the help of her accordian-playing foster father, learns to read. Soon she is
stealing books from Nazi book-burnings, the mayor's wife's library, wherever
there are books to be found.
But these are dangerous times. When Liesel's foster family
hides a Jew in their basement, Liesel's world is both opened up, and closed
down.
In superbly crafted writing that burns with intensity,
award-winning author Markus Zusak has given us one of the most enduring stories
of our time."
Not many books can make me cry, but this one certainly did -
which is a testament to the depth of this beautifully simple tragedy.
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time - Mark Haddon
"Christopher John Francis Boone knows all the countries
of the world and their capitals and every prime number up to 7,057. He relates
well to animals but has no understanding of human emotions. He cannot stand to
be touched. And he detests the color yellow.
Although gifted with a superbly logical brain, for fifteen-year-old
Christopher everyday interactions and admonishments have little meaning. He
lives on patterns, rules, and a diagram kept in his pocket. Then one day, a
neighbor's dog, Wellington, is killed and his carefully constructive universe
is threatened. Christopher sets out to solve the murder in the style of his
favourite (logical) detective, Sherlock Holmes. What follows makes for a novel
that is funny, poignant and fascinating in its portrayal of a person whose
curse and blessing are a mind that perceives the world entirely
literally."
My Dark Vanessa - Kate Elizabeth Russell
"Exploring the psychological dynamics of the
relationship between a precocious yet naïve teenage girl and her magnetic and
manipulative teacher, a brilliant, all-consuming read that marks the explosive
debut of an extraordinary new writer.
2000. Bright, ambitious, and yearning for adulthood,
fifteen-year-old Vanessa Wye becomes entangled in an affair with Jacob Strane,
her magnetic and guileful forty-two-year-old English teacher.
2017. Amid the rising wave of allegations against powerful
men, a reckoning is coming due. Strane has been accused of sexual abuse by a
former student, who reaches out to Vanessa, and now Vanessa suddenly finds
herself facing an impossible choice: remain silent, firm in the belief that her
teenage self willingly engaged in this relationship, or redefine herself and
the events of her past. But how can Vanessa reject her first love, the man who
fundamentally transformed her and has been a persistent presence in her life?
Is it possible that the man she loved as a teenager—and who professed to
worship only her—may be far different from what she has always believed?"
This book was my first read of 2021, and its undramatic,
understated way of showing the effect of abuse on a woman's life is haunting.
It's not a book that I would say I enjoyed reading - because for the most part
it's extremely uncomfortable - but it's such an important read. Trigger warning
for sexual abuse/gaslighting/suicide.
Women & Power - Mary Beard
"At long last, Mary Beard addresses in one brave book
the misogynists and trolls who mercilessly attack and demean women the world
over, including, very often, Mary herself. In Women & Power, she traces the
origins of this misogyny to its ancient roots, examining the pitfalls of gender
and the ways that history has mistreated strong women since time immemorial. As
far back as Homer’s Odyssey, Beard shows, women have been prohibited from
leadership roles in civic life, public speech being defined as inherently male.
From Medusa to Philomela (whose tongue was cut out), from Hillary Clinton to
Elizabeth Warren (who was told to sit down), Beard draws illuminating parallels
between our cultural assumptions about women’s relationship to power—and how
powerful women provide a necessary example for all women who must resist being
vacuumed into a male template. With personal reflections on her own online
experiences with sexism, Beard asks: If women aren’t perceived to be within the
structure of power, isn’t it power itself we need to redefine? And how many
more centuries should we be expected to wait?"
Educated - Tara Westover
"Tara Westover was 17 the first time she set foot in a
classroom. Born to survivalists in the mountains of Idaho, she prepared for the
end of the world by stockpiling home-canned peaches and sleeping with her
"head-for-the-hills bag". In the summer she stewed herbs for her
mother, a midwife and healer, and in the winter she salvaged in her father's
junkyard.
Her father forbade hospitals, so Tara never saw a doctor or
nurse. Gashes and concussions, even burns from explosions, were all treated at
home with herbalism. The family was so isolated from mainstream society that
there was no one to ensure the children received an education and no one to
intervene when one of Tara's older brothers became violent.
Then, lacking any formal education, Tara began to educate
herself. She taught herself enough mathematics and grammar to be admitted to
Brigham Young University, where she studied history, learning for the first
time about important world events like the Holocaust and the civil rights
movement. Her quest for knowledge transformed her, taking her over oceans and
across continents, to Harvard and to Cambridge. Only then would she wonder if
she'd traveled too far, if there was still a way home.
Educated is an account of the struggle for self-invention.
It is a tale of fierce family loyalty and of the grief that comes with severing
the closest of ties. With the acute insight that distinguishes all great
writers, Westover has crafted a universal coming-of-age story that gets to the
heart of what an education is and what it offers: the perspective to see one's
life through new eyes and the will to change it."
If you're a fan of non-fiction, you have to make sure you
read this unbelievable memoir (if you haven't already).
This is Going to Hurt - Adam Kay
"Welcome to the life of a junior doctor: 97-hour weeks,
life and death decisions, a constant tsunami of bodily fluids, and the hospital
parking meter earns more than you.
Scribbled in secret after endless days, sleepless nights and
missed weekends, Adam Kay's This is Going to Hurt provides a no-holds-barred
account of his time on the NHS front line. Hilarious, horrifying and
heartbreaking, this diary is everything you wanted to know – and more than a
few things you didn't – about life on and off the hospital ward."
This book is a must-read - especially if you live in the UK.
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