Pengiun Great Ideas Series

I've just come across this series of "life-changing books" and at £4.99 a book they're nice and affordable. The first one I bought is below but I'll be dipping into the catalogue to buy a few more in the coming months.

Marcus Aurelious - Meditations.

I found this little gem in the Colisseum bookshop. It's a little book of wisdom to dip into now and then. Marcus Aurelious Anoninus was born to an upper- class Roman family in 121 and he was a philosopher from an early age. This was written when he was older and was never meant for publication. Apparently it was one of the books that Bill Clinton turned to for some wisdom during Monicagate!!

"Your mind will be like its habitual thoughts; for the soul becomes dyed with the colour of its thoughts. Soak it then in such trains of thought as, for example:" Where life is possible at all, a right life is possible"

Holiday Reading!

The Reluctant Fundamentalist - Mohsin Hamid

Brilliant book. The Pakistani protagonist wins a scholarship to Princeton University and fully embraces western ways. A visit back to his folks in Pakistan brings with it the realisation that he is losing touch with both his heritage and his values. Very easy to read but thought provoking at the same time. Set around 9/11 - despite being accepted by his American workmates, he finds they become increasingly suspicious of him as he tries to reconnect with his past. Although a short book there is so much in here and it touches on how a relationship can have a profound affect on a person leading to instability. Our narrator and the girl he loves both have to find themselves but where he lost himself materially her identity is tied up in a previous impossible relationship but the only way for her to be happy is to lose herself to it completely. Very sad, but excellent read.

The Island - Victoria Hislop

A novel which spans 4 generations beginning in Crete. Another one of those tales where a modern day character has to delve back into the family history in order to make sense of the present. However, anyone with half a brain would be able to tell our modern day character how to proceed with her life, and I thought having to link the present with the past in the way it was done, was the weakest part of the book and the story wouldn't have suffered any if it had been missed out. Although I thoroughly enjoyed the rest of the book and would recommend it, it is a bit of a well trodden path only deviating by the subject matter of a leper colony which was fascinating and pretty much saved the book for me. All round it's probably worth the ride.

On The Edge - Richard Hammond

A great book for any Top Gear/Hamster fans. Whilst covering his early life and career it's mostly about the crash and aftermath. Very, very moving and honest account by both him and his wife Mindy - it is a bit gushy in parts, but I think given what they have been through they're allowed to be. Best read of the holiday. If you only read one book this summer, make it this one.

Update!

I've just about finished the Barbara Kingsolver book. I'm pleased that I stuck to my challenge to read no more than a chapter a day. I haven't managed to pick it up every day, but it's been a good exercise and I've gotten so much more out of the book than I would have.

I picked up The Audacity of Hope by Barack Obama at the airport and started reading it on holiday. I like him. I like his ideas. I hope America is ready to embrace the thought of an African American President. I think he could be a force for change. If American changes, there will be a spin off on the rest of the world too and that can only be a good thing.

Catherine Ryan Hyde

It was only while I was compiling a list of my favourite films that I remembered about Catherine Ryan Hyde.

I thought I had first happened upon her through the film Pay It Forward. Although it bummed at the box office it's an immensley moving story about a boy whose school project is a philosophy about 'paying it forward' as opposed to 'paying it back'. Kind of good turns in advance. It's a great concept and the story is about both reconiciliation and estrangement and has the most unexpected ending ever.

Love in the Present Tense is another of her novels which examines love ... the pathos kind, between a man and a young boy whom he is forced to adopt.

CRH has a way of examining the deeper themes of life, in a kind of upside down sort of way. She doesn't go for the easy endings either. Electric God is a riches to rags story about loss, both material and relational and the first of her books I read, although it's only today that I realised who wrote it.

Like with Barbara Kingsolver there's still alot of her writing for me to discover, which feels like I have a lot of treats ahead of me.

...previously

 

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(click the names)

Mitch Albom
Terry Brooks
Michael Crichton
Roddy Doyle
Ben Elton
Thomas Hardy
Joanne Harris
Tom Holt
Nick Hornby
Stephen King
Barbara Kingsolver
C.S.Lewis
Billy Roche
Catherine Ryan Hyde
Tom Sine
Tolstoy
Danny Wallace
Mary Wesley