Books to read this autumn
"Autumn, the year's last, loveliest smile." ~ William Cullen Bryant
The classic shelf:
1. Dracula (Bram Stoker, 1897)
"I sometimes think we must be all mad and that we shall wake to sanity in strait-waistcoats."
2. Jane Eyre (Charlotte Brontë, 1847)
"I am no bird; and no net ensnares me: I am a free human being with an independent will."
3. The Picture of Dorian Gray (Oscar Wilde, 1890)
"You will always be fond of me. I represent to you all the sins you never had the courage to commit."
4. Rebecca (Daphne du Maurier, 1938)
"Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again..."
The cozy shelf:
1. The Best Of Sherlock Holmes (Arthur Conan Doyle, 1887-1927)
"My name is Sherlock Holmes. It is my business to know what other people do not know."
2. The Body in the Library (Agatha Christie, 1942)
"What I feel is that if one has got to have a murder actually happening in one's house, one might as well enjoy it, if you know what I mean."
3. Grimm's Complete Fairy Tales (Wilhelm Grimm and Jacob Grimm, 1812)
"Mirror, mirror, here I stand. Who is the fairest in the land?"
4. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (J.K. Rowling, 2000)
"If you want to know what a man's like, take a good look at how he treats his inferiors, not his equals."
The alternative shelf:
1. Amsterdam (Ian McEwan, 1998)
"We know so little about each other. We lie mostly submerged, like ice floes, with our visible social selves projecting only cool and white."
2. Gentlemen and Players (Joanne Harris, 2005)
"I like autumn. The drama of it; the golden lion roaring through the back door of the year, shaking its mane of leaves. A dangerous time; of violent rages and deceptive calm, of fireworks in the pockets and conkers in the fist."
3. The Last Days of Night (Graham Moore, 2016)
"It seems likely that ours will be the last generation to ever gaze, wide-eyed, at something truly novel. That our kind will be the last to ever stare in disbelief at a man-made thing that could not possibly exist. We made wonders, boys. I only wonder how many of them are left to make."
4. The Small Hand: A Ghost Story (Susan Hill, 2010)
"Gradually, it would sink in on itself and then into the earth. How old was this house? A hundred years? In another hundred there would be nothing left of it."
My to-read shelf:
1. The God of Small Things (Arundhati Roy, 1998)
"This was the trouble with families. Like invidious doctors, they knew just where it hurt."
2. I Let You Go (Clare Mackintosh, 2014)
"I want to fix an image of him in my head, but all I can see when I close my eyes is his body, still and lifeless in my arms. I let him go, and I will never forgive myself for that."
3. A Medal for Murder (Frances Brody, 2010)
"Jim Sykes, my assistant, is an ex-policeman who endearingly believes he does not look at all like an ex-policeman."
4. Perfume: The Story of a Murderer (Patrick Süskind, 1985)
"Odors have a power of persuasion stronger than that of words, appearances, emotions, or will. The persuasive power of an odor cannot be fended off, it enters into us like breath into our lungs, it fills us up, imbues us totally. There is no remedy for it."
The classic shelf:
1. Dracula (Bram Stoker, 1897)
"I sometimes think we must be all mad and that we shall wake to sanity in strait-waistcoats."
2. Jane Eyre (Charlotte Brontë, 1847)
"I am no bird; and no net ensnares me: I am a free human being with an independent will."
3. The Picture of Dorian Gray (Oscar Wilde, 1890)
"You will always be fond of me. I represent to you all the sins you never had the courage to commit."
4. Rebecca (Daphne du Maurier, 1938)
"Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again..."
The cozy shelf:
1. The Best Of Sherlock Holmes (Arthur Conan Doyle, 1887-1927)
"My name is Sherlock Holmes. It is my business to know what other people do not know."
2. The Body in the Library (Agatha Christie, 1942)
"What I feel is that if one has got to have a murder actually happening in one's house, one might as well enjoy it, if you know what I mean."
3. Grimm's Complete Fairy Tales (Wilhelm Grimm and Jacob Grimm, 1812)
"Mirror, mirror, here I stand. Who is the fairest in the land?"
4. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (J.K. Rowling, 2000)
"If you want to know what a man's like, take a good look at how he treats his inferiors, not his equals."
The alternative shelf:
1. Amsterdam (Ian McEwan, 1998)
"We know so little about each other. We lie mostly submerged, like ice floes, with our visible social selves projecting only cool and white."
2. Gentlemen and Players (Joanne Harris, 2005)
"I like autumn. The drama of it; the golden lion roaring through the back door of the year, shaking its mane of leaves. A dangerous time; of violent rages and deceptive calm, of fireworks in the pockets and conkers in the fist."
3. The Last Days of Night (Graham Moore, 2016)
"It seems likely that ours will be the last generation to ever gaze, wide-eyed, at something truly novel. That our kind will be the last to ever stare in disbelief at a man-made thing that could not possibly exist. We made wonders, boys. I only wonder how many of them are left to make."
4. The Small Hand: A Ghost Story (Susan Hill, 2010)
"Gradually, it would sink in on itself and then into the earth. How old was this house? A hundred years? In another hundred there would be nothing left of it."
My to-read shelf:
1. The God of Small Things (Arundhati Roy, 1998)
"This was the trouble with families. Like invidious doctors, they knew just where it hurt."
2. I Let You Go (Clare Mackintosh, 2014)
"I want to fix an image of him in my head, but all I can see when I close my eyes is his body, still and lifeless in my arms. I let him go, and I will never forgive myself for that."
3. A Medal for Murder (Frances Brody, 2010)
"Jim Sykes, my assistant, is an ex-policeman who endearingly believes he does not look at all like an ex-policeman."
4. Perfume: The Story of a Murderer (Patrick Süskind, 1985)
"Odors have a power of persuasion stronger than that of words, appearances, emotions, or will. The persuasive power of an odor cannot be fended off, it enters into us like breath into our lungs, it fills us up, imbues us totally. There is no remedy for it."
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