A mission statement from authors including Jeanette Winterson, Zadie Smith, and Mark Haddon, about the transformative power of reading: the way it inspires us, the tangible impact it can have on our wellbeing, and the importance it holds for us now and will continue to hold in the future
In any 24 hours there might be sleeping, eating, kids, parents, friends, lovers, work, school, travel, deadlines, emails, phone calls, Facebook, Twitter, the news, the TV, Playstation, music, movies, sport, responsibilities, passions, desires, dreams—why should anyone stop what they're doing and read a book? This book provides the much-needed answers. These essays explain that people have always needed stories. We need literature—novels, poetry—because we need to make sense of our lives, test our depths, understand our joys, and discover what humans are capable of. Great books can provide companionship when we are lonely, or peacefulness in the midst of an overcrowded daily life. Reading provides a unique kind of pleasure and no one should live without it. In the 10 essays in this book some of our finest authors and passionate advocates from the worlds of science, publishing, technology, and social enterprise tell us about the experience of reading, why access to books should never be taken for granted, how reading transforms our brains, and how literature can save lives. In any 24 hours there are so many demands on your time and attention—this collection is full of passionate arguments why you should make books one of them.

Stop What You're Doing and Read This!

Literature & Fiction

SMITH, ZADIE

ROSEN, Michaël

WINTERSON, JEANETTE

HADDON, Mark

Callil, Carmen

Essays & Correspondence

Vintage, UK

A Hay Festival and The Poole VOTE 100 BOOKS for Women Selection 'Believe the hype' The Times 'The almost preposterous talent was clear from the first pages' Julian Barnes, Guardian The international bestseller and modern classic of multicultural Britain - an unforgettable portrait of London One of the most talked about debut novels of all time, White Teeth is a funny, generous, big-hearted novel, adored by critics and readers alike. Dealing - among many other things - with friendship, love, war, three cultures and three families over three generations, one brown mouse, and the tricky way the past has of coming back and biting you on the ankle, it is a life-affirming, riotous must-read of a book. 'Funny, clever ... and a rollicking good read' Independent 'Astonishingly assured, funny and serious... I was delighted' Salman Rushdie 'Quirky, sassy and wise ... a big, splashy, populous production reminiscent of books by Dickens and Salman Rushdie ... demonstrates both an instinctive storytelling talent and a fully fashioned voice that's street-smart and learned, sassy and philosophical all at the same time' New York Times 'Smith writes like an old hand, and, sometimes, like a dream' New Yorker 'Outstanding ... A strikingly clever and funny book with a passion for ideas, for language and for the rich tragic-comedy of life' Sunday Telegraph 'Relentlessly funny ... idiosyncratic, and deeply felt' Guardian

White Teeth

Contemporary

Penguin Uk

The Autograph Man is Zadie Smith's whirlwind tour of celebrity and our fame-obsessed times. Following one Alex-Li Tandem - a twenty-something, Chinese-Jewish autograph dealer turned on by sex, drugs and organised religion - it takes in London and New York, love and death, fathers and sons, as Alex tries to discover how a piece of paper can bring him closer to his heart's desire. Exposing our misconceptions about our idols - about ourselves - Zadie Smith delivers a brilliant, unforgettable tale about who we are and what we really want to be. 'A glorious concoction written by our most beguiling and original prose-wizard' Independent on Sunday 'A brilliant comedy with a tantalising throb of mystic philosophy underneath' Philip Hensher, Books of the Year, Spectator 'A pleasure from the first page to the last' Evening Standard 'Intellectually agile ... ecstatic inventiveness' Time 'A classic' Spectator 'Genuinely funny and entertaining' Guardian 'Vibrant, highly imaginative' Jewish Chronicle 'Full of irony, humour, the search for love and the fear of death . . . a touching, thoughtful, deeply felt rite-of-passage novel' Sunday Telegraph

Autograph Man

Literary

'White Teeth' is a comic epic of multicultural Britain which tells the story of immigrants in England over a period of 40 years.

(smith).white teeth.

Vintage International

The Autograph Man

Villard

Martha and Hanwell

Penguin??Books

Zadie Smith's On Beauty is a funny, powerful and moving story about love and family Why do we fall in love with the people we do? Why do we visit our mistakes on our children? What makes life truly beautiful?Set in New England mainly and London partly, On Beauty concerns a pair of feuding families - the Belseys and the Kipps - and a clutch of doomed affairs. It puts low morals among high ideals and asks some searching questions about what life does to love. For the Belseys and the Kipps, the confusions - both personal and political - of our uncertain age are about to be brought close to home: right to the heart of family.'The novel I didn't want to finish, I was enjoying it so much' John Sutherland, Evening Standard'Thrums with intellectual sass and know-how' Literary Review'Delightfully entertaining . . . filled with humour, generosity and contemporary sparkle' Alex Clark, Daily Telegraph 'My novel of the year . . . Delicious' Liz Jones, Evening Standard'Satirical, wise and sexy' Washington Post'Heartstopping' The Times Literary Supplement'A triumph, Smith's comedy shines' Daily Mail'Ambitious, hugely impressive, beautifully observed' Guardian

on beauty pg6

Genre Fiction

Penguin

"The Book of Other People" is just that: a book of other people. Open its covers and you'll make a whole host of new acquaintances. Nick Hornby and Posy Simmonds present the ever-diverging writing life of Jamie Johnson; Hari Kunzru twitches open his net curtains to reveal the irrepressible Magda Mandela (at 4:30a.m., in her lime-green thong); Jonathan Safran Foer's Grandmother offers cookies to sweeten the tale of her heart scan; and Dave Eggers, George Saunders, David Mitchell, Colm Toibin, A.M. Homes, Chris Ware and many more each have someone to introduce to you, too. With an introduction by Zadie Smith and brand-new stories from over twenty of the best writers of their generation from both sides of the Atlantic, "The Book of Other People" is as dazzling and inventive as its authors, and as vivid and wide-ranging as its characters.

Book of Other People

Women's Fiction

A New York Times bestseller * Finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction * Longlisted for the Man Booker Prize An ambitious, exuberant new novel moving from North West London to West Africa, from the multi-award-winning author of White Teeth and On Beauty. Two brown girls dream of being dancers—but only one, Tracey, has talent. The other has ideas: about rhythm and time, about black bodies and black music, what constitutes a tribe, or makes a person truly free. It's a close but complicated childhood friendship that ends abruptly in their early twenties, never to be revisited, but never quite forgotten, either. Tracey makes it to the chorus line but struggles with adult life, while her friend leaves the old neighborhood behind, traveling the world as an assistant to a famous singer, Aimee, observing close up how the one percent live. But when Aimee develops grand philanthropic ambitions, the story moves from London to West Africa, where diaspora tourists travel back in time to find their roots, young men risk their lives to escape into a different future, the women dance just like Tracey—the same twists, the same shakes—and the origins of a profound inequality are not a matter of distant history, but a present dance to the music of time.

Swing Time: LONGLISTED for the Man Booker Prize 2017

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