A Selection of Favourite Books from Elizabeth Day
By Elizabeth Day
By Elizabeth Day
My Brilliant Friend
Elena Ferrante
£9.99 £9.49I love The Neapolitan Quartet - this is the first novel in that set, and Ferrante writes with blazing intelligence and indignation about what it means to be a woman chafing against the limitations of 1950s Naples. It’s also a riveting description of a lifelong female friendship - and there are vanishingly few of those in literature.
The Light Years
Elizabeth Jane Howard
£9.99 £9.49Elizabeth Jane Howard was a huge influence for me - her characters leap from the page like living, breathing people and her acutest insights are reserved for what makes us flawed yet lovable. She is the most amazing story-teller because she makes you care. Escaping into these novels is an experience I wish I could have again for the first time. I highly recommend gobbling them all up then reading Slipstream, her exquisite memoir.
Americanah: A novel
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
£8.99 £8.54One of the best books of the last decade: a brilliant dissection of race, class, immigration and kinship. It’s also a novel that never forgets its duty to entertain the reader.
Good and Mad: The Revolutionary Power of Women's Anger
Rebecca Traister
£9.99 £9.49Traister writes eloquently about women who have failed to lay claim to their own anger throughout history. Her thesis is that it’s a socially conditioned and sanctioned failure. She argues that the patriarchal society that we’ve been living in for millennia is not well served by women being in touch with their anger—because anger, in Traister’s eyes, can be a powerful force for change.
Tennis Lessons
Susannah Dickey
£8.99 £8.54I want as many people to know about this book as possible - Dickey should be spoken of in the same terms as Sally Rooney. This is an incisive, dark, fierce coming-of-age story written with all the lyricism you might expect from an Irish poet.
Detransition, Baby: Longlisted for the Women's Prize 2021 and Top Ten The Times Bestseller
Torrey Peters
£8.99 £8.54A comedy of manners about motherhood, seen through a trans lens. Peters is so shrewdly observational and funny that it had me in tears one minute and guffawing the next.
The Promise: WINNER OF THE BOOKER PRIZE 2021
Damon Galgut
£9.99 £9.49A panoramic family saga but also an extraordinary take on modern South Africa and what love, hope and promises really mean.
The Literary Almanac: A year of seasonal reading
Francesca Beauman
£14.99 £14.24An irresistibly charming, erudite guide to a year’s worth of reading. Full of intriguing recommendations and rich detail - I was informed and entertained by every page. The perfect gift for the book-lover in your life.