it's the sixth of April and I'm currently
in lockdown in Paris. I can't go out, I can't go to the café's, the restaurants, I
can't even work that much but I can read books and if you're in lockdown I've got
a good idea for you read some books and if you're not in lockdown I've got an idea
for you. read some books because today I've got six of my favorite works of literature. Three American, one Canadian, one British and
another British but the author was born elsewhere. four by men, two by women
four novels two biographies or autobiographies all of them wonderful. These are books
that I love and have moved me or educated me or changed my worldview in
one way or another but, at the same time, I've chosen books that you can read even
if English is not your first language without searching the dictionary for
every other word. Each of these books has literary merit but the complexity
lies in the ideas and the situations and not in the size of its vocabulary. I'll
put a link in the descript
ion for all the books. By the way, these are affiliate
links. However, you can purchase these books at any good bookstore. so without
further ado let's get started with the first book and it is the Life of Pi by
Yann Martel. A Canadian writer, first published in 2001. You might have seen
the film version by Ang Lee the film is excellent, One of the best film
adaptations of a book I've seen. However, the book is magnificent. It tells a story
of an Indian boy called Piscine Molitor, shortened to P
I and his father owns a
zoo in the city of Pondicherry and one day he decides to start a new life in Canada with his family and the zoo. Unfortunately the boat they are
traveling in is destroyed in a storm. Pi scrambles to a lifeboat where he is
joined by an orangutan, a zebra and a tiger called Richard Parker. He survives
at sea for 227 days. Now it's a terrific book crammed full of fantastic
descriptions, philosophy it's moving and it's funny. Very, very funny. I must admit
that I had this boo
k on my bookshelf for years and somehow I thought a story
about a boy and a tiger on a boat for 227 days. yeah it's not for me but one
that picked it up. And I'm so glad I did. It's it's a wonderful heartwarming book it's
beautifully written so don't be put off by the strangeness of its plot and do
give it a try. and I defy you not to get hooked by this book within the first
few pages. Now the level would be upper intermediate onwards. I think at that
level you can handle it. And here's a taste
from the first
page of the novel. I had been twin you before in the north for five months on
that first trip I had come to the subcontinent completely unprepared
actually I had a preparation of one word when I told a friend who knew the
country well of my travel plans he said casually they speak a funny English in
India they like words like bamboozle I remembered his words as my plane started
is to send towards Delhi so the word bamboozle was my one preparation for the
rich noisy functioning mad
ness of India I used the word on occasion and truth be
told it served me well to Clark at the train station I said I didn't think the
fare would be so expensive you're not trying to bamboozle me are you he smiled
and chanted no sir there is no banboozlement here I have quoted you the
correct fare. The next book is The Secret History by Donna Tartt and American
writer and it was first published in 1992. It's a story of an elite group of students of
classical Greek and their charismatic professor
and the friendships between
them. Then the tale takes a darker turn and we hear of murder and blackmail and
cover-up and more. And the story is so good you just can't stop reading and
it's a really beautifully crafted novel and it holds your attention from
beginning to end and it's just so entertaining. I'm not generally a fan of
thrillers but this book elevates the genre to a whole different level and I
can't even imagine anybody not enjoying this book. It's well-written, it's
compelling and en
gaging. So if you're looking for a mystery novel with
literary merit then this is for you. You can tackle this book at intermediate
level. okay it's a nicely crafted novel but the writing style is always
approachable and here's the opening "the snow in the mountains was melting
and Bonnie had been dead for several weeks before we came to understand the
gravity of our situation." And the next book is Hand to Mouth by Paul Auster,
first published in 1997 and it's the first of two autobiographies.
I love this
book. It's it's a story of epic failure. Before Paul Auster became a published
writer everything he did, certainly in a professional sense, failed. He tried his
hand at numerous jobs without success, he lived in Paris for three years, I think,
and he worked for a time as a lowly paid translator. Later on he even spent one of his life developing a card game based on baseball and the car game is actually
included in the book. like everything else, it failed miserably.
It''s full of hum
or and bizarre adventures but it's a tale of a happy
ending. Spoiler alert in the end he gets his book
published and how he's a very successful author. I'm sure you know him.
I like these stories of redemption and Hand to Mouth won't disappoint even if
you haven't read any other books by Paul Auster and, I encourage you to do so,
you'll like this book and you can read it even at an intermediate level. it's
a challenge but you can do it. By the way, if you're not familiar with the
expression hand
-to-mouth it means you only just have enough money to live and
here's the first paragraph from the book: "In my late 20s and early 30s I went
through a period of several years when everything I touched turned to failure
my marriage ended in divorce my work as a writer foundered and I was
overwhelmed by money problems I'm not just talking about an occasional
shortfall or some periodic belt tightening but a constant, grinding
almost suffocating lack of money that poisoned my soul and kept me in a
state
of never-ending panic." And next we have A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy
Toole, written in 1963 but published posthumously in 1980. Wow what a
masterpiece and the story of how this book got published is as intriguing as
and as tragic as the book itself Toole killed himself at the age of 31
in 1969 his mother found a smeared copy of the book amongst tools possessions
and then she took it from publisher to publisher but it was rejected by seven
different publishers. She finally calle
d repeatedly a guy called Walker Percy at
Loyola University New Orleans and in the forward to the book this
is what he wrote. "The lady was persistent and it somehow came to pass that she
stood in my office handing me the hefty manuscript there was no getting out of
it only one hope remained that I could read a few pages and they would be bad
enough for me, in good conscience to read no father. Usually I can do just that.
Indeed the first paragraph often suffices. My only fear was that this one
might not be bad enough or might be just good enough so that I would have to keep
reading. In this case I read on and on first with the sinking feeling that he
was not bad enough to quit then with a prickle of interest then a growing
excitement and finally an incredulous It surely was not possible that it was so
good." So the book finally got published in 1980 and it became a sensation
winning the Pulitzer Prize. What I don't understand is how it is possible that
this book got rejected by so man
y publishers from the first paragraph you
know it's great and you you can't stop reading. it tells a story of Ignatius
J. Reiley, thirty years old living with his mother. He's brilliant, creative,
romantic but weird - really weird and this is the story of his adventures, or
rather, misadventures in his hometown of New Orleans. it's so funny and
beautifully written and it's just so sad that we didn't get to see more books
from this great writer. The book is for advanced readers. There is a little
New Orleans slang in it but you'll manage once you get used to it but
certainly the writing style is more elaborate than the other books I've
recommended here but if you think you can tackle it then do try. It's worth the
effort. By the way, you might ask why is there
never been a film made of this book. well, like the book, the making of the
film has been shrouded with tragedy. A film was planned in 1982 with John
Belushi and Richard Pryor both of whom died before production. There was a plan
to make a film starring John Candy but he died then another movie project with
Chris Farley but he died too. Director John Waters was interested in turning it
into a movie starring Divine and, guess what? Devine died too. And Steven
Soderbergh planned a movie in 2005 but yet again the project was beset by
tragedy including the murder of the head of the Louisiana State Film Commission
and the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans. In 2013
Steven Soderbergh remarked "I think it's
cursed I'm not prone to superstition but
that project has gotten bad mojo on it." And the next book is Graham Greene, Our
Man in Havana first published in 1958. Now when you think of Graham Greene you
don't really think of comedies but this is a very funny book it's a black comedy
set in Cuba before the revolution and during the Batista regime.
James Wormold is a single father who sells vacuum cleaners and he has a
sixteen-year-old daughter with expensive tastes. He doesn't earn
much money as a
vacuum cleaner salesman but then he meets Hawthorne who recruits
him into MI6 as a British spy. The trouble is, he doesn't have any secret
information to send them. Fearing he'll be fired
he sends sketches for a new vacuum cleaner and tells them that it's
a military installation and so it goes on and he gets deeper and deeper into
the world of espionage. Now I'm a fan of Graham Greene and perhaps some of his
other books such as the Quai American and The Power and the Glory have had a
greater lit
erary impact but this book which has a backdrop of depravity of the
Batista regime is really interesting it touches on satire but it's more
about poking fun at Britishness and The Secret Service at a time before the
invention of James Bond and it is, above all, a really entertaining book. And
here's a quote from the book talking about Havana. "It was a city to visit not
a city to live in but it was the city where Wormold had first fallen in love
and he was held to it as though to the scene of a
disaster. Time gives poetry to
a battlefield." And the next book is, well I have it here, it's the book
that I actually have at the moment in this apartment and it's Wild Swans by
Jung Chang and it tells a story of three generations of a female family. Chang's
grandmother, her mother and herself and each led an extremely life with a
backdrop of history, politics and the culture of China and it's a fascinating
read. Chang's grandmother, who had bound feet from the age of two, which made
extremely
painful for her to walk, became a concubine of a warlord. Chang's mother
worked for the Communist Party during the Revolution and Chiang herself tells
of her suffering during the Cultural Revolution before leaving China
in 1978 and she eventually became the first national of the People's Republic
of China to obtain a doctorate from a British University. And this book
illuminates the rich tapestry of Chinese history in the 20th century but it's not a
dry, history book it tells a story and it tel
ls it so well I do highly recommend
this book it's a work of literature that is both informative and it grabs you on
an emotional level and I think that's rare. You can read this with an
intermediate level. It's challenge but you can do it. The most challenging thing,
actually, is remembering all the names and the dates and the events that are
happening it's breakneck speed throughout this extraordinary book.
Here's a snippet for you from the first page. "At the age of 15 my grandmother became t
he concubine of a warlord general the
police chief of a tenuous national government in China.
The year was 1924 and China was in chaos much of it, including Manchuria, where my
grandmother lived was ruled by warlords. The liaison was arranged by her father a
police official in the provincial town of Yixian in southwest Manchuria about
a hundred miles north of the Great Wall and 250 miles northeast of Beijing." Thank
you for watching I hope you enjoyed the video and I hope too that you're going t
o
try reading some of those marvelous books and if you do have any book
recommendations of your own then we'd love to hear them put them in the
comments. Stay healthy. Bye
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