 | Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman's Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia by Elizabeth Gilbert
Buy used from: £0.41 This is the complete book: biography, travel writing, self-help guide. I've lost count of the number of friends I've bought this for. Instruction manual on great writing and getting one's life back!
|
 | Instead of a Letter by Diana Athill
A classic account of youth, love, loss and a life lived in book publishing. Enthralling, beautifully written. Also to be recommended are Stet and Yesterday Morning by same author.
|
 | Shadow in Tiger Country by Louise Arthur
Buy used from: £0.01 Part journal extract, part memoir, this is Tim and Louise Arthur's story of their love, a celebration of Louise's life and of Louise's tragic demise from cancer. A testament to enduring love.
|
 | Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain
Buy new: £6.19 / Used from: £0.01 Everyone's familiar with Bourdain's Tarantinoesque escapades in the kitchens of the East Coast but it's STILL a truly unmissable read for all foodies and armchair adventurers.
|
 | Maiden Voyage by T. Aebi
Buy new: £6.43 / Used from: £2.21 Even if the very idea of large bodies of water sends shivers down your spine, you will be enthralled by Aebi's teenage trip around the world on a boat with only her cat for company.
|
 | Shutterbabe: Adventures in Love and War by Deborah Copaken Kogan
Buy used from: £20.40 This book takes you right into the heart of what it is to be a young, naive, ambitious, hungry, fearless female war photojournalist searching for and finding the answers to the meaning of (her) life.
|
 | Julie and Julia: 365 Days, 524 Recipes, 1 Tiny Apartment Kitchen by Julie Powell
Buy used from: £11.99 You live in a big city, you hate your crappy job: what do you do? You write a fantastically funny, f-word filled book on how to cook 500 recipes from one gourmet recipe book in a year.
|
 | Albany Park by Patrice Chaplin
Buy used from: £46.62 This is the story of two teenagers in the 50s leaving south London for adventures on the continent. Fearless, passionate, quite mad. Follow up with the sequel, Another City.
|
 | The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
Buy new: £3.49 / Used from: £1.08 You don't need to be into all things literary to appreciate Plath's fictionalised retelling of her own brilliance, passion and insanity.
|
 | The Man Who Ate Everything: Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Food, But Were Afraid to Ask by Jeffrey Steingarten
Buy used from: £0.01 For all lovers of food, science and travel - Steingarten ventures into the world of all things culinary to eat the food we don't have to. The man is crazy, passionate, funny, adorable. Love him.
|
 | Before I Say Goodbye by Ruth Picardie
Buy used from: £0.01 The story of journalist Ruth Picardie's last months after a tragic misdiagnosis of cancer. The journey is honest, moving, often funny, dignified, it forces you to rethink the value of your own life.
|
 | Money into Light: "Emerald Forest" Diary by John Boorman
Buy used from: £0.01 Director John Boorman's account of the process of getting a film made - and this happens to be one of the most beautiful and memorable films of the period.
|
 | Serious: The Autobiography by John McEnroe
Buy new: £6.96 / Used from: £0.01 McEnroe is unafraid to expose every unpleasant characteristic and incident in a memoir that ultimately reveals him to be a hugely likeable human being, great sportsman and engaging writer.
|
 | The Scent of Dried Roses by Tim Lott
Buy used from: £0.01 If you've suffered depression (and if you haven't) Lott's story of his illness, his mother's subsequent suicide and his journey towards understanding and acceptance is profoundly moving.
|
Listmania!
