Welcome to Charterhouse Reading@Home. As reading for pleasure is something we are passionate about at Charterhouse, we wanted to share a few of our favourite reads with you in this booklet. We hope that you will enjoy browsing this great list of recommendations, and be inspired to take part in our new challenge!

Reading challenge

Our reading list on the following pages has ten recommended titles in each category. Read one book for a Commendation, 3 for an Academic Distinction and 5+ for a reward voucher. Truly impress by reading one book from each category! Email your Housemaster or tell them what you’ve read at your weekly Zoom.

Books labelled (YA) can be read by all and are particularly suitable for Under School. Reasons to read for pleasure

1. Reading boosts empathy

Reading allows you to step into someone else’s shoes and experience their life. And because empathising with others can change what we do and how we act, it is key to Charterhouse’s core values:

2. You'll get better grades

And not just in English! Research has shown that children who read for pleasure make greater progress in Maths than their peers who don’t.1

3. You'll develop an impressive vocabulary

Researchers estimate pupils learn one new word of vocabulary for every thousand words read.2 So consider this: between the ages of 5 and 18 pupils with an average daily reading time of 30+ minutes are projected to encounter 13.7 million words. Their peers who average less than 15 minutes of reading per day are likely to be exposed to only 1.5 million words. The difference is more than 12 million words!

4. Reading lowers stress and anxiety, boosting your wellbeing

Pupils who enjoy reading and writing and do it regularly outside school are three times more likely to have high levels of mental wellbeing and report greater levels of happiness than those who don’t.3

5. It will help you to grow your imagination and critical thinking skills

You can visit places you've never been, and imagine worlds that don’t even exist. You can question, anticipate plot twists, and work things out. Einstein famously said: “Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand."4

1 https://www.ucl.ac.uk/ioe/news/2020/may/how-longitudinal-data-reveals-benefits-reading-pleasure-rftrw-s01e02 2 https://www.renaissance.com/2018/01/23/blog-magic-15-minutes-reading-practice-reading-growth/ 3 https://literacytrust.org.uk/news/children-who-enjoy-reading-and-writing-have-significantly-better-mental-wellbeing-their- peers/ 4 https://quoteinvestigator.com/2013/01/01/einstein-imagination/ ebooks and Audiobooks Pupils can access our online reading platform, ePlatform, to discover over 2000 ebooks and audiobooks. ePlatform is available across multiple devices as both an app and website, and titles can be read or listened to both on and offline. Many of the titles in this reading list are available on ePlatform.

The app can be downloaded from the AppStore or PlayStore. Once installed, search for ‘Charterhouse’ then login using your usual school 365 account.

To access online, go to https://charterhouse.wheelers.co/ and click ‘Sign in’ from the top right corner. Enter your school 365 login details when prompted.

Audiobooks - all available via ePlatform

Mythos: A retelling of the myths of Ancient Greece, written and read by Stephen Fry

In Stephen Fry's vivid retelling, we gaze in wonder as wise Athena is born from the cracking open of the great head of Zeus, and follow doomed Persephone into the dark and lonely realm of the Underworld. We shiver in fear when Pandora opens her jar of evil torments and watch with joy as the legendary love affair between Eros and Psyche unfolds.

Mythos captures these extraordinary myths for our modern age - in all their dazzling and deeply human relevance.

When breath becomes air, written by Paul Kalanithi, narrated by Cassandra Campbell and Sunil Malhotra

At the age of thirty-six, on the verge of completing a decade's training as a neurosurgeon, Paul Kalanithi was diagnosed with inoperable lung cancer. One day he was a doctor treating the dying, the next he was a patient struggling to live.

What makes life worth living in the face of death? What do you do when life is catastrophically interrupted? What does it mean to have a child as your own life fades away?

The kite runner, written and narrated by Khaled Hosseini (YA)

Afghanistan, 1975: Twelve-year-old Amir is desperate to win the local kite-fighting tournament and his loyal friend Hassan promises to help him. But neither of the boys can foresee what will happen to Hassan that afternoon, an event that is to shatter their lives. After the Russians invade and the family is forced to flee to America, Amir realises that one day he must return to Afghanistan under Taliban rule to find the one thing that his new world cannot grant him: redemption.

Why we sleep, written by Matthew Walker, narrated by John Sackville

Sleep is one of the most important aspects of our life, health and longevity and yet it is increasingly neglected in twenty-first-century society, with devastating consequences: every major disease in the developed world - Alzheimer's, cancer, obesity, diabetes - has very strong causal links to deficient sleep.

Professor Matthew Walker explores twenty years of cutting-edge research to solve the mystery of why sleep matters. Looking at creatures from across the animal kingdom as well as major human studies, he examines everything from what really happens during REM sleep to the effect of caffeine and alcohol, and why our sleep patterns change across a lifetime. Freakonomics: A rogue economist explores the hidden side of everything, written by Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner, narrated by Stephen Dubner

Freakonomics is at the heart of everything we see and do and the subjects that bedevil us daily: from parenting to crime, sport to politics, fat to cheating, fear to traffic jams. Asking provocative and profound questions about human motivation and contemporary living and reaching some astonishing conclusions, Freakonomics will make you see the familiar world through a completely original lens.

Wonder, written by R.J. Palacio, narrated by Diana Steele, Nick Podehl and Kate Rudd (YA)

'My name is August. won't describe what I look like. Whatever you're thinking, it's probably worse.'

Auggie wants to be an ordinary ten-year-old. He does ordinary things - eating ice cream, playing on his Xbox. He feels ordinary - inside. But ordinary kids don't make other ordinary kids run away screaming in playgrounds. Ordinary kids aren't stared at wherever they go. All Auggie wants is to be accepted - but can he convince his new classmates that he's just like them, underneath it all?

The Odyssey, written by Homer, narrated by Anton Lesser

Arguably the first great adventure story in the Western canon, The Odyssey is a poem about violence and the aftermath of war; about wealth, poverty and power; about marriage, family and identity; and about travellers, hospitality and the changing meanings of home in a strange world.

1984, written by George Orwell, narrated by Patrick Troughton

Hidden away in the Record Department of the sprawling Ministry of Truth, Winston Smith skilfully rewrites the past to suit the needs of the Party. Yet he inwardly rebels against the totalitarian world he lives in, which demands absolute obedience and controls him through the all-seeing telescreens and the watchful eye of Big Brother, symbolic head of the Party. In his longing for truth and liberty, Smith begins a secret love affair with a fellow-worker Julia, but soon discovers the true price of freedom is betrayal.

I know why the caged bird sings, written by Maya Angelou, multiple narrators (BBC)

'I write about being a Black American woman, however, I am always talking about what it's like to be a human being. This is how we are, what makes us laugh, and this is how we fall and how we somehow, amazingly, stand up again' Maya Angelou.

In this first volume of her autobiography, Maya Angelou beautifully evokes her childhood with her grandmother in the American south of the 1930s. Loving the world, she also knows its cruelty. As a Black woman she has known discrimination, violence and extreme poverty, but also hope, joy, achievement and celebration.

Ready player one, written by Ernest Cline, narrated by Wil Wheaton (YA)

It's the year 2044 and the real world has become an ugly place. Like most of humanity, Wade Watts escapes this depressing reality by spending his waking hours jacked into the OASIS, a sprawling virtual utopia when you can be anything you want to be. And like most of humanity, Wade is obsessed by the ultimate lottery ticket that lies concealed within this alternate reality: OASIS founder James Halliday has promised that control of the OASIS - and his massive fortune - to the person who can solve the riddles he has left scattered throughout his creation. For years, millions have struggled fruitlessly to attain this prize. And then Wade stumbles onto the key to the first puzzle.

Verse novels

Booked by Kwame Alexander (YA)

Twelve-year-old Nick is a football-mad boy who absolutely hates books. In this follow-up to the Newbery-winning novel The Crossover, football, family, love, and friendship take centre stage as Nick tries to figure out how to navigate his parents’ break-up, stand up to bullies, and impress the girl of his dreams. These challenges – which seem even harder than scoring a tie-breaking, game-winning goal – change his life, as well as his best friend’s. This energetic novel-in-verse by the poet Kwame Alexander captures all the thrills and setbacks, the action and emotion of a World Cup match.

The Iliad by Homer

The Iliad centres on the pivotal four days towards the end of the ten-year war between the Greeks and the Trojans. In a series of dramatic set pieces, it follows the story of the humiliation of Achilleus at the hands of Agamemnon and his slaying of Hektor: a barbarous act with repercussions that ultimately determine the fate of Troy. The Iliad not only paints an intimate picture of individual experience, but also offers a universal perspective in which human loss and suffering are set against a vast and unpitying divine background where fickle, quarrelsome gods decide the fate of men. Citizen by Claudia Rankine

'Everywhere were flashes, a siren sounding and a stretched-out roar. Get on the ground. Get on the ground now. Then I just knew.’ 'And you are not the guy and still you fit the description because there is only one guy who is always the guy fitting the description.'

In this moving, critical and fiercely intelligent collection of prose poems, Rankine examines the experience of race and racism in Western society through sharp vignettes of everyday prejudice as well as longer meditations on the violence - whether linguistic or physical - that has impacted the lives of Serena Williams, Zinedine Zidane, Mark Duggan and others.

Long way down by Jason Reynolds (available as an ebook on ePlatform) (YA)

AND THEN THERE WERE SHOTS Everybody ran, ducked, hid, tucked themselves tight.

Pressed our lips to the pavement and prayed the boom, followed by the buzz of a bullet, didn't meet us. After Will's brother is shot in a gang crime, he knows the next steps. Don't cry. Don't snitch. Get revenge. So he gets in the lift with Shawn's gun, determined to follow The Rules.

The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo (YA)

Xiomara has always kept her words to herself. When it comes to standing her ground in her Harlem neighbourhood, she lets her fists and her fierceness do the talking. But X has secrets – her feelings for a boy in her bio class, and the notebook full of poems that she keeps under her bed. And a slam poetry club that will pull those secrets into the spotlight. Because in spite of a world that might not want to hear her, Xiomara refuses to stay silent. 'I fell in love at slam poetry. This one will stay with you a long time.' - Angie Thomas

Black flamingo by Dean Atta (YA)

Big hearted and dizzyingly flamboyant, Atta’s verse novel about a black gay teen reclaiming his identity as a drag artist is bold and heart-warming.

Michael waits in the stage wings, wearing a pink wig, pink fluffy coat and black heels. One more step will see him illuminated by spotlight. He has been on a journey of bravery to get here, and he is almost ready to show himself to the world in bold colours ...

Punching the air by Ibi Zoboi and Yusef Salaam (YA)

One fateful night, an altercation in a gentrifying neighbourhood escalates into tragedy. ‘Boys just being boys’ turns out to be true only when those boys are white. Suddenly, at just sixteen years old, Amal Shahid’s bright future is upended: he is convicted of a crime he didn’t commit and sent to prison. Despair and rage almost sink him until he turns to the refuge of his words, his art. This never should have been his story. But can he change it? With spellbinding lyricism, award-winning author Ibi Zoboi and prison reform activist Yusef Salaam tell a moving story about how one boy is able to maintain his humanity and fight for the truth in a system designed to strip him of both.

We come apart by Sarah Crossan and Brian Conaghan (YA)

Jess would never have looked twice at Nicu if her friends hadn't left her in the lurch. Nicu is all big eyes and ill-fitting clothes, eager as a puppy, even when they're picking up litter in the park for community service. He's so not her type. Appearances matter to Jess. She's got a lot to hide. Nicu thinks Jess is beautiful. His parents brought Nicu here for a better life, but now all they talk about is going back home to find Nicu a wife. The last thing Nicu wants is to get married. He wants to get educated, stay in England. But his dad's fists are the most powerful force in Nicu's life, and in the end, he'll have to do what his dad wants. As Nicu and Jess get closer, their secrets come to the surface. The only safe place they have is with each other.

Moonrise by Sarah Crossan (available as an ebook on ePlatform) (YA)

They think I hurt someone. But I didn't. You hear? Cos people are gonna be telling you all kinds of lies. I need you to know the truth.

Joe hasn't seen his brother for ten years, and it's for the most brutal of reasons. Ed is on death row. But now Ed's execution date has been set, and Joe is determined to spend those last weeks with him, no matter what other people think ...

The golden gate by Vikram Seth

The golden gate is a brilliantly achieved novel written in verse. Set in the 1980s in the affluence and sunshine of California's Silicon Valley, it is an exuberant and witty story of twenty-somethings looking for love, pleasure and the meaning of life.

Graphic novels

Sapiens: the birth of humankind: a graphic novel by Yuval Noah, David Vandermeulen & Daniel Casanave (YA)

In this first volume of the full-colour illustrated adaptation of his ground-breaking book, renowned historian Yuval Harari tells the story of humankind's creation and evolution, exploring the ways in which biology and history have defined us and enhanced our understanding of what it means to be human. From examining the role evolving humans have played in the global ecosystem to charting the rise of empires, Sapiens challenges us to reconsider accepted beliefs, connect past developments with contemporary concerns, and view specific events within the context of larger ideas.

Welcome to the new world by Jake Halpern and Michael Sloan (YA)

Welcome to the New World began as a ground-breaking comic strip in the New York Times. Every week, the Aldabaan family's experiences – of leaving Syria for a life in America - would be retold as a cartoon strip keeping step as events unfolded in real life. One Pulitzer Prize later, this stunning graphic novel fills in the gaps, gradually revealing an America which is full of contradictions: foreign yet familiar, ignorant but kind, cruel yet generous. It's also an intimate portrait of family dynamics and everyday fortitude, from the first day at a new school to getting a new job (any job!) against the clock. It seems that if you can't turn back, the only way to go is onwards.

Glass town by Isabel Greenberg (YA)

Four children: Charlotte, Branwell, Emily and Anne have invented a world so real and vivid that they can step right into it. But can reality be enough, when fiction is so enticing? And what happens to an imaginary world when its creators grow up?

The entrancing story of the Brontë siblings’ childhood imaginary world, from the New York Times bestselling graphic novelist, Isabel Greenberg.

The arrival by Shaun Tan (YA)

What drives so many to leave everything behind and journey alone to a mysterious country, a place without family or friends, where everything is nameless and the future is unknown? This silent graphic novel is the story of every migrant, every refugee, every displaced person, and a tribute to all those who have made the journey.

'The arrival is an absolute wonder. It's not often you see art of this quality, or a book that's so brave.' - Marjane Satrapi, author of Persepolis

V for vendetta by Alan Moore and David Lloyd (YA)

A powerful story about loss of freedom and individuality, V for vendetta takes place in a totalitarian England following a devastating war that changed the face of the planet. In a world without political freedom, personal freedom and precious little faith in anything, comes a mysterious man in a white porcelain mask who fights political oppressors through terrorism and seemingly absurd acts. A gripping tale of the blurred lines between ideological good and evil.

Bloom by Kevin Panetta and Savanna Ganucheau (YA)

Though he loved working there as a kid, Ari cannot fathom a life wasting away over rising dough and hot ovens. But while interviewing candidates for his replacement, Ari meets Hector, an easy going guy who loves baking as much as Ari wants to escape it. As they become closer over batches of bread, love is ready to bloom … that is, if Ari doesn’t ruin everything.

Heartstopper by Alice Oseman (YA)

Charlie and Nick are at the same school, but they've never met ... until one day when they're made to sit together. They quickly become friends, and soon Charlie is falling hard for Nick, even though he doesn't think he has a chance. But love works in surprising ways, and Nick is more interested in Charlie than either of them realised.

Heartstopper is about love, friendship, loyalty and mental illness. It encompasses all the small stories of Nick and Charlie's lives that together make up something larger, which speaks to all of us.

The adventures of Alexander Humboldt by Andrea Wulf and Lillian Melcher (YA) 88-year-old Humboldt takes us on a fantastic voyage, back through his life, tracing his footsteps around the rainforests, mountains and crocodile-infested rivers of South America when he was a young man. Travel with him to Venezuela, to Lake Valencia, the Llanos and the Orinocco, and follow him during his time in Cuba, Cartagena, Bogota and his one-year trek across the Andes, as he climbs the volcano Chimborazo, explores Inca monuments, and visits Washington D.C. to meet Thomas Jefferson and campaign for the abolition of slavery.

With encounters with indigenous peoples, missionaries, colonists and jaguars, and incorporating Humboldt's own sketches, drawings and manuscripts, this is a thrilling adventure story of history's most daring scientist. Ghost world by Daniel Clowes (YA)

Ghost World is the story of Enid and Rebecca, teenage friends facing the unwelcome prospect of adulthood, and the uncertain future of their complicated relationship. Clowes conjures a balanced semblance, both tender and objective, of their fragile existence, capturing the mundane thrills and hourly tragedies of a waning adolescence, as he follows a tenuous narrative thread through the fragmented lives of these two fully realised young women.

The Great War: The first day of the Battle of the Somme by Joe Sacco (YA) On 1st July 1916, almost 20,000 British soldiers were killed and another 40,000 were wounded during the first day of The Somme. In The Great War, cartoonist Joe Sacco depicts the events of that day in an extraordinary, 24-foot-long wordless panorama: from British soldiers going ‘over the top’ and being cut down in No-Man’s-Land, to the tens of thousands of wounded soldiers retreating and the dead being buried en masse.

Sport and Games

Into thin air by John Krakauer (non-fiction)

In March 1996, Outside magazine sent veteran journalist and seasoned climber Jon Krakauer on an expedition led by celebrated Everest guide Rob Hall. Despite the expertise of Hall and the other leaders, by the end of summit day, eight people were dead. Krakauer's book is at once the story of the ill-fated adventure and an analysis of the factors leading up to its tragic end. Written within months of the events it chronicles, Into Thin Air clearly evokes the majestic Everest landscape. As the journey up the mountain progresses, Krakauer puts it in context by recalling the triumphs and perils of other Everest trips throughout history. The author's own anguish over what happened on the mountain is palpable as he leads readers to ponder timeless questions.

The queen’s gambit by Walter Tevis

When she is sent to an orphanage at the age of eight, Beth Harmon soon discovers two ways to escape her surroundings, albeit fleetingly: playing chess and taking the little green pills given to her and the other children to keep them subdued. Before long, it becomes apparent that hers is a prodigious talent, and as she progresses to the top of the US chess rankings she is able to forge a new life for herself. But she can never quite overcome her urge to self-destruct. For Beth, there's more at stake than merely winning and losing.

Keeper by Mal Peet (available as an ebook on ePlatform) (YA)

The award-winning first novel from Carnegie Medal-winning Mal Peet introduces legendary sports journalist Paul Faustino and the haunting tale of the world's greatest goalkeeper: the man they call El Gato, ‘the Cat’. As Paul interviews El Gato, the World Cup stands on the table between them. In the hours that follow, El Gato tells his incredible story – how he, a poor logger's son, learns to become a World Cup-winning goalkeeper so good he is almost unbeatable. And the most remarkable part of this story is the man who teaches him: the mysterious Keeper, who haunts a football pitch at the heart of the claustrophobic rainforest...

The boxer by Nikesh Shukla (YA)

Told over the course of the ten rounds of his first fight, this is the story of amateur boxer Sunny. A seventeen year old feeling isolated and disconnected in the city he's just moved to, Sunny joins a boxing club to learn to protect himself after a racist attack. He finds the community he's been desperately seeking at the club, and a mentor in trainer Shobu, who helps him find his place in the world. But racial tensions are rising in the city, and when a Far Right march through Bristol turns violent, Sunny is faced with losing his new best friend Keir to radicalisation.

Armistice runner by Tom Palmer (YA)

Lily has lots of worries. She’s struggling to compete in her fell-running races and, worse, she’s losing her gran to Alzheimer’s. But then she discovers her great-great- grandfather’s diaries from the First World War. Could his incredible story of bravery help her reconnect with her gran and even give her the inspiration she needs to push through and win?

The nowhere men: the unknown story of football's true talent spotters by Michael Calvin

A teenage boy plays football in a suburban park. His name is Raheem Sterling. The call is made: “Get down here quick. This is something special”. A young goalkeeper struggles on loan at Cheltenham Town in League Two. His name is Jack Butland. Within months he will be playing for England.

Welcome to football’s hidden tribe. Scouts are everywhere yet nowhere, faceless and nameless, despite making the informed decisions worth millions. Award- winning sportswriter Michael Calvin opens up their hidden world, examining their disconnected lifestyles, petty betrayals and the unconsidered professionalism of men who spend long, lonely hours on the road. Fever pitch by Nick Hornby (available as an ebook on ePlatform)

For many people watching football is mere entertainment, to some it's more like a ritual; but to others, its highs and lows provide a narrative to life itself.

But, for Nick Hornby, his devotion to the game has provided one of few constants in a life where the meaningful things - like growing up, leaving home and forming relationships, both parental and romantic - have rarely been as simple or as uncomplicated as his love for Arsenal.

'A spanking 7-0 away win of a football book. . . inventive, honest, funny, heroic, charming' - Independent.

They don't teach this by Eniola Aluko (non-fiction) First class honours law degree. 102 appearances for England women's national football team. First female pundit on . UN Women UK ambassador. Guardian columnist.

All of these achievements belong to Eni Aluko, who, is keen to share her experiences, aiming to inspire readers. Aluko was appointed UN Women UK ambassador with a focus on promoting gender empowerment in 2016, and in October 2018 she was named by Marie Claire as one of ten Future Shapers Award Winners, recognising individuals who are changing women's futures for the better. She recently finished her playing career at Juventus and is now Sporting Director of Aston Villa Women.

Shoe dog by Phil Knight (non-fiction)

In 1962, fresh out of business school, Phil Knight borrowed $50 from his father and created a company with a simple mission: import high-quality, low-cost athletic shoes from Japan. Selling the shoes from the boot of his Plymouth, Knight grossed $8000 in his first year. Today, Nike's annual sales top $30 billion. In an age of start-ups, Nike is the ne plus ultra of all start-ups, and the swoosh has become a revolutionary, globe-spanning icon, one of the most ubiquitous and recognisable symbols in the world today. A memoir rich with insight, humour and hard-won wisdom, this book is also studded with lessons - about building something from scratch, overcoming adversity, and ultimately leaving your mark on the world.

The wave: in pursuit of the oceans' greatest furies by Susan Casey (non-fiction)

Some people are drawn towards nature at its most extreme - and it doesn't get more extreme than giant waves. These deadly waves have a strangely hypnotic pull on two types of person: for scientists and super-surfers, rogue waves are a grail, and they will go to dangerous lengths to hunt them down. This is a white-knuckle ride with the men who live to catch rogue waves. It zips from Lloyds of London to rusty oil rigs, tropical Tahitian surf shacks to super- computer data labs. Find out what happens when nature confronts nature at her most ferocious.

Viruses and Pandemics

Station Eleven by Emily St John Mandel

One snowy night in Toronto, famous actor Arthur Leander dies on stage whilst performing the role of a lifetime. That same evening a deadly virus touches down in North America. The world will never be the same again. Twenty years later Kirsten, an actress in the Travelling Symphony, performs Shakespeare in the settlements that have grown up since the collapse. But then her newly hopeful world is threatened.

If civilization was lost, what would you preserve? And how far would you go to protect it?

The quiet at the end of the world by Lauren James (available as an ebook on ePlatform) (YA)

How far would you go to save those you love? Lowrie and Shen are the youngest people on the planet after a virus caused global infertility. Closeted in a pocket of London and doted upon by a small, ageing community, the pair spend their days mudlarking and looking for treasure – until a secret is uncovered that threatens not only their family but humanity’s entire existence. Now Lowrie and Shen face an impossible choice: in the quiet at the end of the world, they must decide what to sacrifice to save the whole human race...

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte (available as an ebook on ePlatform)

Before brooding Mr Rochester, before she ever heard anything about anyone in an attic, Jane Eyre survived an epidemic at a girls’ boarding school. And it’s this experience – witnessing the deadly greed, incompetence, and cruelty of the men who run the boarding school, and who put her and her fellow students at risk – that shapes Jane’s character and outlook.

A flagship of Victorian fiction, Jane Eyre intrigues readers through the vigorous courage of Jane's voice, a forceful depiction of childhood injustice, an unflinching examination of the restraints placed upon women, and an exploration into the complexities of both faith and passion.

Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood

The book opens in a postapocalyptic world where our narrator, Snowman, appears to be the last true human on Earth—and the caretaker of a small band of child-like humanoids he refers to as the Crakers. We spend the rest of the novel learning about a global pandemic and how the world came to be this way—and just who was responsible and why.

'Gripping and remarkably imagined' - London Review of Books.

The plague by Albert Camus

The townspeople of Oran are in the grip of a deadly plague, which condemns its victims to a swift and horrifying death. Fear, isolation and claustrophobia follow as they are forced into quarantine. Each person responds in their own way to the lethal disease: some resign themselves to fate, some seek blame, and a few, like Dr Rieux, resist the terror.

An immediate triumph when it was published in 1947, The Plague is in part an allegory of France's suffering under the Nazi occupation, and a story of bravery and determination against the precariousness of human existence.

The stand by Stephen King (YA)

A man escapes from a biological testing facility, unknowingly carrying a deadly weapon: a mutated strain of super-flu that will wipe out over 99 percent of the world's population within a few weeks. Those who remain are scared, bewildered, and in need of a leader. Two emerge - Mother Abagail, the benevolent 108-year-old woman who urges them to build a peaceful community in Boulder, Colorado; and Randall Flagg, the 'dark man', the apostate of death, the warlord of the charnel house and Prince of Evil. Now the survivors must choose between them - and ultimately decide the fate of all humanity.

Love in the time of cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez (available as an ebook on ePlatform)

In their youth, Florentino Ariza and Fermina Daza fall passionately in love. When Fermina eventually chooses to marry a wealthy, well-born doctor, Florentino is devastated, but he is a romantic. As he rises in his business career he whiles away the years in 622 affairs, yet he reserves his heart for Fermina. Her husband dies at last, and Florentino purposefully attends the funeral. Fifty years, nine months, and four days after he first declared his love for Fermina, he will do so again.

The pandemic century: a history of global contagion from the Spanish flu to Covid-19 by Mark Honigsbaum (non-fiction)

Ever since the 1918 Spanish influenza pandemic, scientists have dreamed of preventing catastrophic outbreaks of infectious disease. Yet, despite a century of medical progress, viral and bacterial disasters continue to take us by surprise, inciting panic and dominating news cycles. From the Spanish flu and the 1924 outbreak of pneumonic plague in , to the 1930 'parrot fever' pandemic and the more recent SARS, Ebola, Zika and – now – COVID-19 epidemics, the last 100 years have been marked by a succession of unanticipated pandemic alarms. Honigsbaum chronicles 100 years of history in 10 outbreaks. Bringing us right up-to- date with a chapter on COVID-19, this fast-paced, critically-acclaimed book combines science history, medical sociology and thrilling front-line reportage to deliver the story of our times. The Covid–19 catastrophe: what′s gone wrong and how to stop it happening again by Richard Horton (non-fiction)

In this short and hard-hitting book, Horton, editor of the medical journal The Lancet, scrutinizes the actions governments around the world took, and failed to take, as the virus spread from its origins in Wuhan to the global pandemic that it is today. He shows that many Western governments and their scientific advisors made assumptions about the virus and its lethality that turned out to be mistaken. Valuable time was lost, leaving health systems unprepared for the avalanche of infections that followed. Drawing on his own scientific and medical expertise, Horton outlines the measures that need to be put in place, at both national and international levels, to prevent this kind of catastrophe from happening again

The vaccine race: how scientists used human cells to combat killer viruses by Meredith Wadman (non-fiction)

Until the late 1960s, tens of thousands of children suffered crippling birth defects if their mothers had been exposed to rubella, popularly known as German measles, while pregnant. There was no vaccine and little understanding of the virus. In June 1962, a young biologist in Philadelphia produced the first safe, clean cells that made possible the mass-production of vaccines against many common childhood diseases. Two years later, in the midst of a German measles epidemic, his colleague developed the vaccine that would one day effectively wipe out rubella for good. Meredith Wadman’s account of this great leap forward in medicine is a fascinating and revelatory read.

Fantasy and magic

Children of virtue and vengeance by Tomi Adeyemi (YA)

After battling the impossible, Zélie and Amari have finally succeeded in bringing magic back to the land of Orïsha. But the ritual was more powerful than they could've imagined, reigniting the powers of not only the maji, but of nobles with magic ancestry, too. Now, Zélie struggles to unite the maji in an Orïsha where the enemy is just as powerful as they are. But with civil war looming on the horizon, Zélie finds herself at a breaking point: she must discover a way to bring the kingdom together or watch as Orïsha tears itself apart.

Railsea by China Mieville (YA)

On board the moletrain Medes, Sham Yes ap Soorap watches in awe as he witnesses his first moldywarpe hunt. The giant mole bursting from the earth, the harpoonists targeting their prey, the battle resulting in one’s death and the other’s glory – are extraordinary. But no matter how spectacular it is, travelling the endless rails of the railsea, Sham senses that there’s more to life. Even if his captain can think only of her obsessive hunt for one savage mole. When they find a wrecked train, it's a welcome distraction. But the impossible salvage Sham finds there leads to trouble. Soon he's hunted on all sides: by pirates, trainsfolk, monsters and salvage-scrabblers. And it might not be just Sham's life that's about to change. It could be the whole of the Railsea. Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke

The year is 1806. Centuries have passed since practical magicians faded into the nation's past. But scholars of this glorious history discover that one remains: the reclusive Mr Norrell, whose displays of magic send a thrill through the country. Proceeding to London, he raises a beautiful woman from the dead and summons an army of ghostly ships to terrify the French. Yet the cautious, fussy Norrell is challenged by the emergence of another magician: the brilliant novice Jonathan Strange. Young, handsome and daring, Strange is the very antithesis of Norrell. So begins a dangerous battle between these two great men which overwhelms that between England and France. And their own obsessions and secret dabblings with the dark arts are going to cause more trouble than they can imagine.

The dark lady by Akala (YA)

A pickpocket with an exceptional gift. A prisoner of extraordinary value. An orphan haunted by dreams of the mysterious dark lady.

Henry is an orphan, an outsider, a thief. He is also a fifteen-year-old invested with magical powers ...

This brilliant, at times brutal, first novel will glue you to your seat as you are hurled into a time when London stank and boys like Henry were forced to find their own route through the tangled streets and out the other side.

The night circus by Erin Morgenstern

The circus arrives without warning. It is simply there, when yesterday it was not. A sign hanging upon iron gates reads: Opens at Nightfall Closes at Dawn As dusk shifts to twilight, tiny lights begin to flicker all over the tents, as though the whole circus is covered in fireflies. When the tents are aglow, sparkling against the night sky, the sign lights up: Le Cirque des Rêves The Circus of Dreams The gates shudder and unlock, seemingly by their own volition. Now the circus is open. Now you may enter.

The bloody chamber by Angela Carter

Discover Angela Carter’s classic feminist retelling of favourite fairy tales interwoven by a master of seductive, luminous storytelling.

From familiar fairy tales and legends - Red Riding Hood, Bluebeard, Puss in Boots, Beauty and the Beast, vampires and werewolves - Angela Carter has created an absorbing collection of dark, sensual, fantastic stories.

The midnight library by Matt Haig

When Nora Seed finds herself in the Midnight Library, she has a chance to make things right. Up until now, her life has been full of misery and regret. She feels she has let everyone down, including herself. But things are about to change. The books in the Midnight Library enable Nora to live as if she had done things differently. With the help of an old friend, she can now undo every one of her regrets as she tries to work out her perfect life. But things aren't always what she imagined they'd be, and soon her choices place the library and herself in extreme danger. Before time runs out, she must answer the ultimate question: what is the best way to live?

The crystal cave by Mary Stewart (YA)

So begins the story of Merlin, born the illegitimate son of a Welsh princess in fifth century Britain, a world ravaged by war. Small and neglected, with his mother unwilling to reveal his father's identity, Merlin must disguise his intelligence - and hide his occasional ability to know things before they happen - in order to keep himself safe. While exploring the countryside near his home, Merlin stumbles across a cave filled with books and papers and hiding a room lined with crystals. It is the home of Galapas, who becomes Merlin's tutor and friend, and who teaches Merlin to understand the world around him... and to harness the power of the crystal cave to see the future.

The left-handed booksellers of London by Garth Nix (YA)

In a slightly alternate London in 1983, Susan Arkshaw is looking for her father, a man she has never met. Crime boss Frank Thringley might be able to help her, but Susan doesn't get time to ask Frank any questions before he is turned to dust by the prick of a silver hatpin in the hands of the outrageously attractive Merlin. Merlin is a young left-handed bookseller (one of the fighting ones) who, with the right-handed booksellers (the intellectual ones), is a magical being who polices the mythic and legendary Old World when it intrudes on the modern world. What will happen now that their quests have collided?

The book of dust: La belle sauvage by Philip Pullman (available as an ebook on ePlatform) (YA)

Malcolm Polstead's Oxford life has been one of routine, ordinary even. He is happiest playing with his daemon, Asta, in their canoe, La Belle Sauvage. But now as the rain builds, the world around Malcolm and Asta is set to become increasingly far from ordinary.

Finding himself linked to a baby by the name of Lyra Belacqua, Malcolm is forced to undertake the challenge of his life and to make a dangerous journey that will change him and Lyra for ever…

Anti-racism

What is race? by Claire Heuchan and Nikesh Shukla (non-fiction) (YA)

Aimed at younger teenagers, this book explores the history of race and society, giving context to how racist attitudes come into being. It looks at belonging and identity, the damaging effects of stereotyping and the benefits of positive representation. The authors talk sensitively about how to identify and challenge racism, and how to protect against and stop racist behaviour.

On the come up by Angie Thomas (YA)

The award-winning author of The Hate U Give returns with a powerful story about hip hop, freedom of speech – and fighting for your dreams, even as the odds are stacked against you.

Bri wants to be one of the greatest rappers of all time. As the daughter of an underground hip hop legend who died right before he hit big, Bri’s got massive shoes to fill. But when her first song goes viral for all the wrong reasons, Bri finds herself at the centre of controversy and portrayed by the media as more menace than MC. And with an eviction notice staring her family down, Bri no longer just wants to make it – she has to. Even if it means becoming the very thing the public has made her out to be.

SLAY by Brittney Morris (available as an ebook on ePlatform) (YA)

By day, seventeen-year-old Kiera Johnson is a college student, and one of the only black kids at Jefferson Academy. By night, she joins hundreds of thousands of black gamers who duel worldwide in the secret online role-playing card game, SLAY. No one knows Kiera is the game developer - not even her boyfriend, Malcolm. But when a teen in Kansas City is murdered over a dispute in the SLAY world, the media labels it an exclusionist, racist hub for thugs. With threats coming from both inside and outside the game, Kiera must fight to save the safe space she's created. But can she protect SLAY without losing herself?

Black and British by David Olusoga (YA and adult versions) (non-fiction)

In this vital re-examination of a shared history, historian and broadcaster David Olusoga tells the rich and revealing story of the long relationship between the British Isles and the people of Africa and the Caribbean.

Tyler Johnson was here by Jay Coles (YA)

When Marvin Johnson's twin, Tyler, goes to a party, Marvin decides to tag along to keep an eye on his brother. But what starts as harmless fun turns into a shooting, followed by a police raid.

The next day, Tyler has gone missing, and it's up to Marvin to find him. But when Tyler is found dead and the cops blame the shooting, a video is leaked online that tells an even more chilling story: Tyler has been shot and killed by a police officer. Terrified as his mother unravels and mourning a brother who is now a hashtag, Marvin must learn what justice and freedom really mean.

The bluest eye by Toni Morrison

Unlovely and unloved, Pecola prays each night for blue eyes like those of her privileged white schoolfellows. At once intimate and expansive, unsparing in its truth-telling, The Bluest Eye shows how the past savagely defines the present. A powerful examination of our obsession with beauty and conformity, Toni Morrison’s virtuosic first novel asks powerful questions about race, class, and gender with the subtlety and grace that have always characterised her writing.

Noughts and Crosses by Malorie Blackman (available as an ebook on ePlatform) (YA) Sephy is a Cross: she lives a life of privilege and power. But she's lonely, and burns with injustice at the world she sees around her. Callum is a nought: he's considered to be less than nothing - a blanker, there to serve Crosses - but he dreams of a better life.

They've been friends since they were children, and they both know that's as far as it can ever go. Noughts and Crosses are fated to be bitter enemies - love is out of the question. Then - in spite of a world that is fiercely against them - these star-crossed lovers choose each other. But this is love story that will lead both of them into danger.

The tradition by Jericho Brown (poetry)

Jericho Brown’s daring poetry collection The Tradition details the normalization of evil and its history at the intersection of the past and the personal. Brown’s poetic concerns are both broad and intimate, and at their very core a distillation of the incredibly human: What is safety? Who is this nation? Where does freedom truly lie?

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry.

The Nickel boys by Colson Whitehead

Abandoned by his parents, brought up by his loving, strict and clear-sighted grandmother, Curtis Elwood is about to enroll in the local black college. But given the time and the place, one innocent mistake is enough to destroy his future, and so Elwood arrives at The Nickel Academy, which claims to provide 'physical, intellectual and moral training’. In reality, the Nickel Academy is a chamber of horrors, where physical, emotional and sexual abuse is rife, where corrupt officials and tradesmen do a brisk trade in supplies intended for the school, and where any boy who resists is likely to disappear 'out back'. Stunned to find himself in this vicious environment, Elwood tries to hold on to Dr King's ringing assertion, 'Throw us in jail, and we will still love you.' But Elwood's fellow inmate and new friend Turner thinks Elwood is naive and worse; the world is crooked, and the only way to survive is to emulate the cruelty and cynicism of their oppressors. Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.

Small Island by Andrea Levy

It is 1948, and England is recovering from a war. But at 21 Nevern Street, London, the conflict has only just begun. Queenie Bligh's neighbours do not approve when she agrees to take in Jamaican lodgers, but Queenie doesn't know when her husband will return, or if he will come back at all. What else can she do?

Gilbert Joseph was one of the several thousand Jamaican men who joined the RAF to fight against Hitler. Returning to England as a civilian he finds himself treated very differently. It's desperation that makes him remember a wartime friendship with Queenie and knock at her door.

Gilbert's wife Hortense, too, had longed to leave Jamaica and start a better life in England. But when she joins him she is shocked to find London shabby, decrepit, and far from the golden city of her dreams. Winner of the Orange Prize.

Solitude

A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles

On 21 June 1922, Count Alexander Rostov - recipient of the Order of Saint Andrew, member of the Jockey Club, Master of the Hunt - is escorted out of the Kremlin, across Red Square and through the elegant revolving doors of the Hotel Metropol.

Deemed an unrepentant aristocrat by a Bolshevik tribunal, the Count has been sentenced to house arrest indefinitely. But instead of his usual suite, he must now live in an attic room while Russia undergoes decades of tumultuous upheaval.

Can a life without luxury be the richest of all?

The Martian by Andy Weir (available as an ebook on ePlatform)

After a dust storm nearly kills him and forces his crew to evacuate while thinking him dead, Mark finds himself stranded and completely alone with no way to even signal Earth that he’s alive—and even if he could get word out, his supplies would be gone long before a rescue could arrive. Chances are, though, he won't have time to starve to death. The damaged machinery, unforgiving environment, or plain-old ‘human error’ are much more likely to kill him first. But Mark isn't ready to give up yet. Drawing on his ingenuity, his engineering skills—and a relentless, dogged refusal to quit—he steadfastly confronts one seemingly insurmountable obstacle after the next. Will his resourcefulness be enough to overcome the impossible odds against him?

Invisible man by Ralph Ellison

The story of an African American man who is invisible 'simply because people refuse to see me'. The novel follows the invisible man from his expulsion from a Southern college to a terrifying Harlem race riot and give voice to the experience of an entire generation of black Americans with its themes of race, alienation, society, self and solitude.

Life of Pi by Yann Martel (available as an ebook on ePlatform)

After the tragic sinking of a cargo ship, a solitary lifeboat remains bobbing on the wild, blue Pacific. The only survivors from the wreck are a sixteen-year-old boy named Pi, a hyena, a zebra (with a broken leg), a female orang-utan - and a 450- pound Royal Bengal tiger. The scene is set for one of the most extraordinary and best-loved works of fiction in recent years.

Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe

'I made him know his Name should be Friday, which was the Day I sav'd his Life...I likewise taught him to say Master'. Robinson Crusoe's seafaring adventures are abruptly ended when he is shipwrecked, the solitary survivor on a deserted island. He gradually creates a life for himself, building a house, cultivating the land, and making a companion from the native whose life he saves. Daniel Defoe's enthralling story-telling and imaginatively detailed descriptions have ensured that his fiction masquerading as fact remains one of the most famous stories in English literature. On one level a simple adventure story, the novel also raises profound questions about moral and spiritual values, society, and man's abiding acquisitiveness. The loneliest girl in the universe by Lauren James (YA)

Romy Silvers is the only surviving crew-member of a spaceship travelling to a new planet, on a mission to establish a second home for humanity. Alone in space, she is the loneliest girl in the universe until she hears about a new ship which has launched from Earth – with a single passenger on board. A boy called J. Their only communication is via email – and due to the distance between them, their messages take months to transmit. And yet Romy finds herself falling in love. Can you fall in love with someone you've never met, never even spoken to – someone who is light years away? But what does Romy really know about J? And what do the mysterious messages which have started arriving from Earth really mean? Sometimes, there's something worse than being alone...

Aristotle and Dante discover the secrets of the universe by Benjamin Alire Saenz (YA)

Aristotle is an angry teen with a brother in prison. Dante is a know-it-all who has an unusual way of looking at the world. When they meet at the swimming pool, they seem to have nothing in common. But as the two loners start spending time together, they discover that they share a special kind of friendship - the kind of friendship that changes lives and lasts a lifetime. And it is through their friendship that Ari and Dante will learn the most important truths about themselves, and about the kind of people they want to be.

The Salt Path by Raynor Winn (non-fiction)

Just days after Raynor learns that Moth, her husband of 32 years, is terminally ill, their home is taken away and they lose their livelihood. With nothing left and little time, they make the brave and impulsive decision to walk the 630 miles of the sea- swept South West Coast Path, from Somerset to Dorset, via Devon and Cornwall.

Carrying only the essentials for survival on their backs, they live wild in the ancient, weathered landscape of cliffs, sea and sky. Yet through every step, every encounter and every test along the way, their walk becomes a remarkable journey.

Long walk to freedom by Nelson Mandela (non-fiction)

The autobiography of Nelson Mandela, detailing his ascent from an anti- apartheid activist to ANC leader and cultural icon. Mandela was imprisoned for a total of 27 years, 18 of which were spent on Robben Island. Of his time there he wrote: “Prison itself is a tremendous education in the need for patience and perseverance. It is above all a test of one’s commitment.”

'Essential reading for anyone who wants to understand history - and then go out and change it' - Barack Obama.

Touching the void by Joe Simpson (non-fiction)

Touching the Void is the heart-stopping account of Joe Simpson's terrifying adventure in the Peruvian Andes. He and his climbing partner, Simon, reached the the summit of the remote Siula Grande in June 1995. A few days later, Simon staggered into Base Camp, exhausted and frost-bitten, with news that that Joe was dead.

What happened to Joe, and how the pair dealt with the psychological traumas that resulted when Simon was forced into the appalling decision to cut the rope, makes not only an epic of survival but a compelling testament of friendship.

Spies and detectives

One of us is lying by Karen McManus (YA)

Five students go to detention. Only four leave alive. Yale hopeful Bronwyn has never publicly broken a rule. Sports star Cooper only knows what he's doing in the baseball diamond. Bad boy Nate is one misstep away from a life of crime. Prom queen Addy is holding together the cracks in her perfect life. And outsider Simon, creator of the notorious gossip app at Bayview High, won't ever talk about any of them again. He dies 24 hours before he could post their deepest secrets online. Investigators conclude it's no accident. All of them are suspects.

Orphan, monster, spy by Matt Killeen (available as an ebook on ePlatform) (YA)

A teenage spy. A Nazi boarding school. The performance of a lifetime. Sarah has played many roles - but now she faces her most challenging of all. Because there's only one way for a Jewish orphan spy to survive at a school for the Nazi elite. And that's to become a monster like them. They think she is just a little girl. But she is the weapon they never saw coming... with a mission to destroy them all.

"This clever novel explores how unacceptable attitudes can take hold, which makes it timely as well as tense" - The Sunday Times.

And then there were none by Agatha Christie

1939. Europe teeters on the brink of war. Ten strangers are invited to Soldier Island, an isolated rock near the Devon coast. Cut off from the mainland, with their generous hosts Mr and Mrs U.N. Owen mysteriously absent, they are each accused of a terrible crime. When one of the party dies suddenly they realise they may be harbouring a murderer among their number.

‘One of the very best, most genuinely bewildering Christies’ – Observer. Agent running in the field by John Le Carré

Nat, a veteran of Britain's Secret Intelligence Service, thinks his years as an agent runner are over. But MI6 have other plans. To tackle the growing threat from Moscow Centre, Nat is put in charge of The Haven, a defunct substation of London General with a rag-tag band of spies. His weekly badminton session with the young, introspective, Brexit-hating Ed, offers respite from the new job. But it is Ed, of all unlikely people, who will take Nat down the path of political anger that will ensnare them all.

Running girl by Simon Mason (available as an ebook on ePlatform) (YA)

Meet Garvie Smith. Highest IQ ever recorded at Marsh Academy. Lowest ever grades. What's the point? Life sucks. Nothing surprising ever happens. Until Chloe Dow's body is pulled from a pond. His ex-girlfriend. DI Singh is already on the case. Ambitious, uptight, methodical - he's determined to solve the mystery - and get promoted. He doesn't need any 'assistance' from notorious slacker, Smith. Or does he?

First in a trilogy.

The sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen

It is April 1975, and Saigon is in chaos. At his villa, a general of the South Vietnamese army is, with the help of his trusted captain, drawing up a list of those who will be given passage aboard the last flights out of the country. But the captain is secretly observing and reporting on the group to a higher-up in the Viet Cong. The Sympathizer is a gripping spy novel, an astute exploration of extreme politics, and a moving love story, The Sympathizer explores a life between two worlds and examines the legacy of the Vietnam War in literature, film, and the wars we fight today.

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.

An officer and a spy by Robert Harris

Paris, 1895: an army officer, Georges Picquart, watches a convicted spy, Alfred Dreyfus, being publicly humiliated in front of a baying crowd. Dreyfus is exiled for life to Devil's Island; Picquart is promoted to run the intelligence unit that tracked him down.

But when Picquart discovers that secrets are still being handed over to the Germans, he is drawn into a dangerous labyrinth of deceit and corruption that threatens not just his honour but his life.

Our friends in Berlin by Anthony Quinn

London, 1941. The city is in blackout and an enemy is hiding in plain sight. Jack Hoste has become entangled in a national treachery. His mission: to locate the most dangerous Nazi agent in the country. He soon receives a promising lead in Amy Strallen, whose life is a world away from the machinations of Nazi sympathisers. But when Hoste pays a visit to Amy’s office, the dangerous game he is playing becomes even more lethal.

‘A gripping espionage thriller’ - Observer.

The spy who changed history: the untold story of how the Soviet Union won the race for America’s top secrets by Svetlana Lokhova (non-fiction)

On a sunny September day in 1931, a Soviet spy walked down the gangplank of the luxury transatlantic liner SS Europa and into New York. Attracting no attention, Stanislav Shumovsky had completed his journey from Moscow to enrol at a top American university. He was concealed in a group of 65 Soviet students heading to prestigious academic institutions. But he was after far more than an excellent education.

The spy and the traitor by Ben Macintyre (non-fiction)

On a warm July evening in 1985, a middle-aged man stood on the pavement of a busy avenue in the heart of Moscow, holding a plastic carrier bag. In his grey suit and tie, he looked like any other Soviet citizen. The bag alone was mildly conspicuous, printed with the red logo of Safeway, the British supermarket.

The man was a spy. A senior KGB officer, for more than a decade he had supplied his British spymasters with a stream of priceless secrets from deep within the Soviet intelligence machine. No spy had done more to damage the KGB. The Safeway bag was a signal: to activate his escape plan to be smuggled out of Soviet Russia.

Empathy and wellbeing

We are all made of molecules by Susin Nielsen (available as an ebook on ePlatform) (YA)

Meet Stewart. He’s geeky, gifted and sees things a bit differently to most people. His mum has died and he misses her all the more now he and Dad have moved in with Ashley and her mum. Meet Ashley. She’s popular, cool and sees things very differently to her new family. Her dad has come out and moved out – but not far enough. And now she has to live with a freakazoid step-brother. Stewart can’t quite fit in at his new school, and Ashley can’t quite get used to her totally awkward home, which is now filled with some rather questionable decor. And things are about to get a whole lot more mixed up when these two very different people attract the attention of school hunk Jared... Am I normal yet? by Holly Bourne (available as an ebook on ePlatform) (YA)

All Evie wants is to be normal. And now that she's almost off her meds and at a new college where no one knows her as the-girl-who-went-nuts, there's only one thing left to tick off her list... But relationships can mess with anyone's head - something Evie's new friends Amber and Lottie know only too well. The trouble is, if Evie won't tell them her secrets, how can they stop her making a huge mistake?

Bird therapy by Joe Harkness (non-fiction)

When Joe Harkness suffered a breakdown in 2013, he tried all the things his doctor recommended: medication helped, counselling was enlightening, and mindfulness grounded him. But nothing came close to nature, particularly birds. How had he never noticed such beauty before? Soon, every avian encounter took him one step closer to accepting who he is. The positive change in Joe's wellbeing was so profound that he started a blog to record his experience. Three years later he has become a spokesperson for the benefits of birdwatching, spreading the word everywhere from Radio 4 to Downing Street. In this ground-breaking book filled with practical advice, Joe explains the impact that birdwatching had on his life, and invites the reader to discover these extraordinary effects for themselves.

Reasons to stay alive by Matt Haig (non-fiction)

Aged 24, Matt Haig's world caved in. He could see no way to go on living. This is the true story of how he came through crisis, triumphed over an illness that almost destroyed him and learned to live again.

A moving, funny and joyous exploration of how to live better, love better and feel more alive, Reasons to Stay Alive is more than a memoir. It is a book about making the most of your time on earth.

Turtles all the way down by John Green (available as an ebook on ePlatform) (YA)

Aza's life is filled with complications. Living with anxiety and OCD is enough but when Daisy, her Best and Most Fearless Friend, brings her on a mission to find a fugitive billionaire things are about to get even more complicated. To find Russell Pickett, Aza must enter the world of his geeky, but maybe kind-of- cute son, Davis. But the chances of first love could send Aza into a spiral of anxiety... A perfect coming-of-age novel filled with love, mystery and Star Wars fan-fiction.

Why we sleep by Matthew Walker (available as an ebook on ePlatform)

Professor Matthew Walker explores twenty years of cutting-edge research to solve the mystery of why sleep matters. Looking at creatures from across the animal kingdom as well as major human studies, Why We Sleep delves in to everything from what really happens during REM sleep to how caffeine and alcohol affect sleep and why our sleep patterns change across a lifetime, transforming our appreciation of the extraordinary phenomenon that safeguards our existence.

Positively teenage by Nicola Morgan

Full of practical, proven strategies for physical and mental health, Positively Teenage will show you lots of ways to flourish physically and mentally - from doing things you enjoy to learning new skills; looking after your diet, exercise and attitude to being healthy online; getting great sleep to understanding your personality - allowing you to take control of many areas of your life. With these new strengths and skills, you can survive any storms and thrive on any challenge.

Every day by David Leviathan (YA)

Each morning, A wakes up in a different body. There’s never any warning about who it will be, but A is used to that. Never get too attached. Avoid being noticed. Do not interfere. And that’s fine – until A wakes up in the body of Justin and meets Justin’s girlfriend, Rhiannon. From that moment, the rules by which A has been living no longer apply. Because finally A has found someone he wants to be with – every day . . .

A stunningly original novel that will make you view the world from a different perspective.

Behind the mask by Tyson Fury (non-fiction)

A Manchester lad from Irish Traveller stock, born three months premature and weighing just a pound at birth, Tyson (named after his father's boxing hero) grew up to become one of the most unlikely heavyweight champions in history. This 'dream come true' soon turned to nightmare, however, as alcohol and drug abuse took hold and Tyson was stripped of his titles. What followed was the darkest moment of his life - detailed in this book for the first time - in which he came within seconds of ending everything.

Speaking candidly about his struggles with mental health, Fury’s story shows that vulnerability and depression can affect anyone.

Historical fiction and non-fiction

Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell

Hamnet is a novel inspired by the son of a famous playwright. It is a story of the bond between twins, and of a marriage pushed to the brink by grief. It is also the story of a kestrel and its mistress; a flea that boards a ship in Alexandria; and a glovemaker's son who flouts convention in pursuit of the woman he loves. Above all, it is a tender and unforgettable reimagining of a boy whose life has been all but forgotten, but whose name was given to one of the most celebrated plays ever written.

Winner of the Women’s Prize for Fiction.

The five: the untold lives of the women killed by Jack the Ripper by Hallie Rubenhold (non-fiction)

Polly, Annie, Elizabeth, Catherine and Mary-Jane are famous for the same thing, though they never met. They came from Fleet Street, Knightsbridge, Wolverhampton, Sweden and Wales. They wrote ballads, ran coffee houses, lived on country estates, they breathed ink-dust from printing presses and escaped people-traffickers. What they had in common was the year of their murders: 1888. Their murderer was never identified, but the name created for him by the press has become far more famous than any of these five women. In this devastating narrative of five lives, historian Hallie Rubenhold finally sets the record straight, and gives these women back their stories. Winner of the Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-fiction.

Salt to the sea by Ruta Sepetys (available as an ebook on ePlatform) (YA)

It's early 1945 and a group of people trek across Germany, bound together by their desperation to reach the ship that can take them away from the war-ravaged land. Four young people, each haunted by their own dark secret, narrate their unforgettable stories. Fans of The Book Thief or Helen Dunmore's The Siege will be totally absorbed. This inspirational novel is based on a true story from the Second World War. When the German ship the Wilhelm Gustloff was sunk in port in early 1945 it had over 9000 civilian refugees, including children, on board. Nearly all were drowned. Ruta Sepetys brilliantly imagines their story. Winner of the CILIP Carnegie medal.

Winter in Madrid by CJ Sansom

1940: The Spanish Civil War is over, and Madrid lies ruined, its people starving, while the Germans continue their relentless march through Europe. Britain now stands alone while General Franco considers whether to abandon neutrality and enter the war.

Into this uncertain world comes Harry Brett: a traumatized veteran of Dunkirk turned reluctant spy for the British Secret Service. Sent to gain the confidence of old school friend Sandy Forsyth, now a shady Madrid businessman, Harry finds himself involved in a dangerous game – and surrounded by memories. Fatherland by Robert Harris

Fatherland is set in an alternative world where Hitler has won the Second World War. It is April 1964 and one week before Hitler's 75th birthday. Xavier March, a detective of the Kriminalpolizei, is called out to investigate the discovery of a dead body in a lake near Berlin's most prestigious suburb. As March discovers the identity of the body, he uncovers signs of a conspiracy that could go to the very top of the German Reich. And, with the Gestapo just one step behind, March, together with an American journalist, is caught up in a race to discover and reveal the truth - a truth that has already killed, a truth that could topple governments, a truth that will change history.

All the light we cannot see by Anthony Doerr (available as an ebook on ePlatform)

For Marie-Laure, blind since the age of six, the world is full of mazes. The miniature of a Paris neighbourhood, made by her father to teach her the way home. The microscopic layers within the invaluable diamond that her father guards in the Museum of Natural History. The walled city by the sea, where father and daughter take refuge when the Nazis invade Paris. And a future which draws her ever closer to Werner, a German orphan, destined to labour in the mines until a broken radio fills his life with possibility and brings him to the notice of the Hitler Youth.

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize.

Midnight in Chernobyl (non-fiction)

The story of Chernobyl is more complex, more human, and more terrifying than the Soviet myth. Adam Higginbotham has written a harrowing and compelling narrative which brings the 1986 disaster to life through the eyes of the men and women who witnessed it first-hand. Drawing on hundreds of hours of interviews conducted over the course of more than ten years, as well as letters, unpublished memoirs, and documents from recently-declassified archives, this book makes for a masterful non-fiction thriller.

Catch-22 by Joseph Heller (available as an ebook on ePlatform)

Set in the closing months of World War II, this is the story of a bombardier named Yossarian who is frantic and furious because thousands of people he has never met are trying to kill him. His real problem is not the enemy - it is his own army which keeps increasing the number of missions the men must fly to complete their service. If Yossarian makes any attempts to excuse himself from the perilous missions then he is caught in Catch-22: if he flies he is crazy, and doesn't have to; but if he doesn't want to fly he must be sane and has to. That's some catch...

The help by Kathryn Stockett (available as an ebook on ePlatform) (YA)

There's Aibileen, raising her seventeenth white child and nursing the hurt caused by her own son's tragic death; Minny, whose cooking is nearly as sassy as her tongue; and white Miss Skeeter, home from College, who wants to know why her beloved maid has disappeared.

Skeeter, Aibileen and Minny. No one would believe they'd be friends; fewer still would tolerate it. But as each woman finds the courage to cross boundaries, they come to depend and rely upon one another. Each is in a search of a truth. And together they have an extraordinary story to tell...

The boy at the top of the mountain by John Boyne (YA)

When Pierrot becomes an orphan, he must leave his home in Paris for a new life with his Aunt Beatrix, a servant in a wealthy household at the top of the German mountains. But this is no ordinary time, for it is 1935 and the Second World War is fast approaching; and this is no ordinary house, for this is the Berghof, the home of Adolf Hitler.

Quickly, Pierrot is taken under Hitler's wing, and is thrown into an increasingly dangerous new world: a world of terror, secrets and betrayal, from which he may never be able to escape.

Reading Q&A

Q. I really struggle to motivate myself to read. How do I start?

A. Find a book that grabs your attention, and don’t be afraid to stop reading a book you aren’t enjoying and pick up something else. Try different genres as well as different authors. Maybe you will enjoy listening to an audiobook while you’re exercising? You can also motivate yourself by tracking your reading progress – think of it as working like a fitbit but for books! Try the app Bookly (free version), which allows you to set an annual target for books read plus a daily target for minutes spent reading, or join Goodreads and add a to-be-read-list alongside your current read – this is also a great place to see what others are reading.

Q. I often read a whole series very quickly (e.g. Harry Potter, the Cherub series) and then nothing in between. How can I become more adventurous with my reading?

A. Ask the Library team ([email protected])! They can recommend reads based on what you have previously enjoyed so that you don’t get stuck in a reading rut.

Q. Do audiobooks have the same benefits as reading?

A. A recent review by the National Literacy Trust found evidence that listening to an audiobook requires the same cognitive skills as reading in print, and supports the development of skills such as language comprehension and the ability to understand and retain information. There is some evidence that we retain more information for more complex subjects if we put more effort into the process, such as reading weighty topics.

Q. When and where is the best time to read?

A. There’s no best time – whatever works for you! Many people read before bed (and this is a great idea because screen time can disrupt sleeping patterns), but some of the most prolific readers just grab 10 minutes here and there throughout the day – it’s amazing how much reading time that can add up to!

@CharterhouseLib