Books of the month

27 Feb 2018

Get reading this month with our top picks for your bookshelf.

1. Winter by Ali Smith  

Scottish writer Ali Smith has released the follow up to her celebrated 2017 novel Autumn. The series, which will ultimately be rounded out by Spring and Summer, examines the complex social and political climate of Britain following Brexit through Smith’s famed humanitarian lens. Winter follows a new set of characters, but borrows thematically from Autumn, sensitively exploring the ways in which political divisions impact people, and the ways they relate to one another.

2. The Wisdom of Sundays by Oprah Winfrey

This beautifully designed book features personal essays from Oprah herself, as well as conversations with some of her most intriguing friends and collaborators, including Arianna Huffington, Shonda Rhimes, Cheryl Strayed and Elizabeth Gilbert. The book is broken up into ten sections, each exploring a stage of Oprah’s own emotional journey, and invites readers to consider their own emotional wellbeing, and the small but effective ways they can enrich their own lives and those around them.

3. The Good Pilot Peter Woodhouse by Alexander McCall Smith

Best known for his beloved series the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency, Alexander McCall Smith brings his knack for enchanting storytelling to this wartime romance. The story begins in England in 1944 where Val Elliot is working on a farm. There, she meets U.S. Air Force Pilot, Mike, who is stationed nearby. Their courtship soon becomes centered around a border collie (the titular Peter Woodhouse), who Val rescues from an abusive owner and donates to the Air Force station. Peter Woodhouse soon comes to impact both their lives, inspiring love and friendship that transforms the lives of the people around him, and their perspectives on the war.

4. The Party by Elizabeth Day

Described by critics as ‘Brideshead Revisited meets The Talented Mr Ripley’, Elizabeth Day’s third novel deftly explores privilege, obsession and jealousy. It tells the story of Martin Gilmour, a self-confessed outsider, whose education at Britain’s top schools has not afforded him entry into the rarified upper class that his aristocratic best friend, Ben, inhabits. At Ben’s glittering 40th birthday tensions, secrets and jealousies come to an electrifying head.

5. Feel Free by Zadie Smith

Often described as one of the great talents of her generation, Zadie Smith’s collection of non-fiction essays, explore everything from race and class, to Facebook and libraries. The book unites work that has been published in The New Yorker and The New York Review of Books, as well as previously unseen personal essays, and promises to be one of the most exciting non-fiction anthologies of the year.