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Below isPuzzleactressKelly Macdonalds list.
After Youd Gone, by Maggie OFarrellI love this womans writing.
Ive read everything, but this was the first.
I finished it in the bath and cried my eyes out.
Its about grief, love, loss … all the big stuff.
I went to a book reading of hers with the sole purpose of befriending her.
Dirt Music, by Tim WintonI just finished this one.
Having never been to Australia, Winton transports you there within a few pages.
Western Australia feels like a present day Wild West here the scorched landscape and its watchful inhabitants.
It arouses all your senses.
And I want to slather Lu Fox in sunscreen and give him a book and a gentle hug.
The Drivers Seat, by Muriel SparkI read a thriller by mistake!
Its a deconstructed murder mystery, a mind unravelling.
I picked this one up when I was about 14.
It was the first grown-up novel I ever read.
I hadnt expected to understand or even get to the end of it.
I was so proud of myself.
Shes feisty and feral.
Shes hilarious about the goings-on.
And Alan Bennett was their friend and neighbor.
A Manual for Cleaning Women, by Lucia BerlinThis relates to my Maggie OFarrell obsession.
She recommended Lucia Berlin in an interview I read a few years ago.
So, like any good stalker, I checked it out.
These stories feel very contemporary.
I suppose if Ive learned anything from reading, its that people dont change very much through the ages.
Our personal problems and our joys are entirely relatable, whatever the era.
The women Berlin writes about seem entirely real.
you’re free to feel them in the room with you.
There is humor and real beauty in her words.
If I were the underlining throw in, these books would be heaving with Biro.
But Im no vandal.
Lucia in London & Mapp and Lucia, by E.F. BensonThis book entertained me during a pregnancy.
Its all fetes and musical soirees and fighting tooth and nail to be top dog.
LOL, as they say.
My baby got jiggled for days on end with my laughter.
Its about growing up and the grown-ups that havent quite.
Writing Home,by Alan BennettI love having a look at the world through this mans iconic glasses.
