Category: Reading for Wellbeing

Cavedweller

Although this novel deals with challenging themes – domestic violence, death, judgement, small town prejudices – it’s really infused with a strong sense of hope and resilience. And the writing is just beautiful – haunting, earthy and lyrical.

Red dust road

She tells tales of the everyday and gives voice to people you can actually imagine meeting in your daily life. But in bringing these people to life on the page and narrating everyday experiences, she suffuses the apparently ordinary with the truly magical.

A concise Chinese-English dictionary for lovers by Xiaolu Guo

It’s an illuminating examination of the points at which an Eastern and a Western culture intersect, a remarkable exposure of the flaws in common stereotypes, and a convincing portrait of a young woman discovering herself against the backdrop of urban Britain.

Mavis’s shoes

This story tells how families were fragmented and how some lucky ones found each other. Although fiction, the horror of the greatest loss of civilian life, in a Scottish town, in World War II, is described, as is the warmth and resilience of the `Bankies`. The author has brought the Blitz alive through Lenny and her war experience.

The shipping news

I loved this book when I read it because it’s dark, but it is positive in the end, the prose is great, the language is rich and the whole tapestry of these imperfect human beings and their lives in this small and slightly weird community is very rich and satisfying.