A Bookshop on the Green Bookseller's List: Peter Simmonds
By
A Bookshop on the Green Bookseller's List: Peter Simmonds
By
Peter studied English and Spanish at the University of Edinburgh, spending a year in Seville before living in Buenos Aires for six months after graduation. He is currently studying a Masters in Creative Writing at University of Birmingham and is enjoying the trials and tribulations of trying to write a first novel. Peter joined The Bookshop on the Green team in May. These are his favourite books....
The Buried Giant
Kazuo Ishiguro
£9.99 £9.49Set in the mystical, foggy lands of Arthurian England, this is a beautiful story of love and memory with an emotional depth that exceeds the limits of the fantasy genre.
The Cider House Rules
John Irving
£10.99 £10.44Few can paint a character's whole life as vividly as Irving. This sweeping story starring the orphan Homer Wells and the eccentric Doctor Larch is a shining example.
On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft: Twentieth Anniversary Edition with Contributions from Joe Hill and Owen King
Stephen King
£10.99 £10.44A bible for any aspiring writer, though King's typically charming delivery during the memoir section is enough to keep all kinds of readers glued to the page.
The Wasp Factory
Iain Banks
£9.99 £9.49Banks' dark and twisted debut set the tone for his illustrious career- not one for the faint-hearted!
To Kill A Mockingbird: 60th Anniversary Edition
Harper Lee
£8.99 £8.54What can I really say? Just read it!
The Colour Of Magic: (Discworld Novel 1)
Terry Pratchett
£9.99 £9.49The whole Discworld series is a work of fantastical, satirical genius - and this is where it all started.
Bluets: AS SEEN ON BBC2’S BETWEEN THE COVERS
Maggie Nelson
£12.99 £12.34A beautifully observed book of prose-poems centred around Nelson's own obsession with the colour blue and her struggle to move on from a painful break-up.
Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner
James Hogg
£17.23Beyond the painfully stuffy title is a gripping and gruesome doppelgänger tale that pre-dates Jekyll and Hyde by more than sixty years.
I Am Legend: The Best of the SF Masterworks
Richard Matheson
£8.99 £8.54Though technically featuring vampires, this brilliantly simple tale of loneliness and survival played a key role in the birth of the zombie-survival subgenre.
The Secret History: From the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Goldfinch
Donna Tartt
£9.99 £9.49A thrilling 'whydunnit' told in reverse as the reasons behind the opening's events are beautifully unravelled. I couldn't put it down!
Paradise Lost
John Milton
£10.91Okay, I confess - I haven't read this one cover to cover. But I was nonetheless mesmerised by the sheer scope of Milton's vision which still poses interesting questions about the nature of God, free will and religion.
Fictions
Jorge Luis Borges
£9.99 £9.49Nothing short of a literary deity, Borges' simply-told short stories take minutes to read, but once you have wandered the aisles of the infinite library containing every possible combination of texts, or peaked through the window that lets you see all the known universe, they will live in the memory forever.