 | Moon Tiger by Penelope Lively
Buy used from: £0.01 Every word Lively has written is a joy and this is her at her best
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 | A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith
Buy new: £5.99 / Used from: £0.77 Inspiring tale of spirit overcoming disadvantage
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 | The Greengage Summer by Rumer Godden
Buy used from: £18.60 Again I love every word she wrote but this is an essential read for every teenage girl
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 | Beloved by Toni Morrison
Buy new: £6.79 / Used from: £1.16 You will think about this book for ages
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 | The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett
Buy used from: £0.97 All his books are well written page turners and so varied. This is my favourite.
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 | The Catcher in the Rye by J. Salinger
Buy new: £4.89 / Used from: £2.22 And every young person should read this one. Angst at its best.
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 | The Road Taken by Michael Buerk
Buy new: £5.99 / Used from: £0.01 One of the best auto-biographies. Great insights into South Africa, well written, self effacing and very funny.
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 | The Grass Is Singing by Doris May Lessing
Buy new: £3.99 / Used from: £2.50 Part of an insightful trilogy into Southern Africa
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 | Frankenstein: or, the Modern Prometheus: Or, the Modern Prometheus (Penguin Popular Classics) by Mary Shelley
Buy new: £2.00 / Used from: £0.01 Read about this book and put it in its historical setting in terms of what women could get away with writing and read the romantic poets at the same time and it's a revelation
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 | Diary of an Ordinary Woman by Margaret Forster
Buy new: £5.99 / Used from: £0.01 Again, do read every word she writes but this is a good starting point
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 | Tara Road by Maeve Binchy
Buy new: £5.59 / Used from: £0.01 Because they were everywhere I didn't read her for years but she is a great story teller. Again read everything but this is my favourite
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 | Jane Eyre (Penguin Classics) by Charlotte Brontë
Buy new: £5.24 / Used from: £1.80 Essential and always remembered
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 | Wide Sargasso Sea (Penguin Modern Classics) by Jean Rhys
Buy new: £4.99 / Used from: £0.97 Prequel to Jane Eyre - they don't always work but this one does - disturbing, thought provoking and beautifully written
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 | Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China by Jung Chang
Buy new: £4.99 / Used from: £0.73 You'll never wonder why Chinese people are so inscutable again and you'll never forget reading this book
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 | Pride and Prejudice (Oxford World's Classics) by Jane Austen
Buy used from: £0.01 Just so clever, and so far ahead of its time. Great Characters.
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 | Charlotte Gray by Sebastian Faulks
Buy new: £9.54 / Used from: £7.15 Another author worth reading everything from but this is my favourite
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 | Great Expectations (Collector's Library) by Charles Dickens
Buy new: £5.99 / Used from: £3.15 Same again really - read the lot but start here
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 | Family Life: Birth, Death and the Whole Damn Thing by Elisabeth Luard
Buy used from: £1.20 Really one of my top favourites. It will make you laugh and make you cry and most of all make you realise what are the things in life which matter
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 | A Mad World, My Masters: Tales from a Traveller's Life by John Simpson
Buy new: £4.14 / Used from: £0.01 A really interesting life and valuable inside stories. He may be a trifle smug but there is a lightness of touch and humour here.
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 | Slow Boats to China by Illus. Salim Gavin Young
Buy used from: £56.79 Inspiring travel book from a great travel writer
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 | Saturday by Ian McEwan
Buy new: £4.95 / Used from: £0.01 Another favourite author and this is one I couldn't put down
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 | The Crimson Petal And The White by Michel Faber
Buy new: £4.99 / Used from: £0.01 Huge tome, I cared about the heroine from the first page
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 | No Angel (Spoils of Time Trilogy) by Penny Vincenzi
Buy used from: £0.01 The Spoils of Time trilogy: Some of her novels are a bit 'sex and shopping' but these are in a different league. The saga of a publishing family over several generations.
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