68 Best 「london」 Books of 2024| Books Explorer

In this article, we will rank the recommended books for london. The list is compiled and ranked by our own score based on reviews and reputation on the Internet.
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Table of Contents
  1. Soho
  2. A Fine Romance: Falling in Love With the English Countryside
  3. Wolf Hall
  4. Mrs Dalloway
  5. Small Island
  6. London: The Novel
  7. The Complete Sherlock Holmes, Vol. I (Barnes & Noble Classics)
  8. The Light Over London
  9. 1984 (Signet Classics)
  10. The Jane Austen Society
Other 58 books
No.1
100

Soho

Waterhouse, Keith
Sceptre

No London neighbourhood more resembles the restless downstream tide of the Thames than the ragged square mile of Soho, and into this human rabbit warren one evening slips Alex Singer, a student from Leeds in pursuit of his errant girlfriend. Twenty-four hours, three deaths, one fire and one mugging later, seduced, traduced and befriended, Alex is on his way to the Soho Ball. In this fast, funny and superbly crafted novel, Keith Waterhouse draws a vibrant portrait of London's liveliest quarter past and present and of its eccentric inhabitants.

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No.2
100

A Fine Romance, Falling in Love with the English Countryside is travel writing at its best by Susan Branch, New York Times best selling author. This charming book is part love story, part travel guide ~ a hand-written and watercolored diary/journal of Branch's six-day transatlantic crossing on board the Queen Mary 2 and a two-month ramble through the backroads of rural England. There are over three hundred photos, countless watercolor illustrations, wonderful quotes, recipes, a book list, a movie list, hand-drawn maps and so much more. Travel with Susan as she makes her way through wildflower hedgerows to visit the homes and gardens of her literary and artistic heroes including Beatrix Potter and Jane Austen. It's a travel guide that will help you plan a trip of your own, lovely for the armchair traveler because Susan really does take you there, and perfect for all Downton Abbey anglophiles. When you are finished, go to Susan's website where there is an interactive Appendix to the book .... you can experience driving across the Dales with Susan's own videos and find links to everything she writes about, the cottages and gardens you will want to see yourself. A Fine Romance is book three of a Susan Branch trilogy. Book One is The Fairy Tale Girl, followed by Martha's Vineyard, Isle of Dreams, and then A Fine Romance, Falling in Love with the English Countryside. All three are hand-lettered, watercolored, filled with photos, recipes and quotes and, as Susan says, as much magic as she could possibly stuff between two covers. Bon Voyage!

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No.3
100

Wolf Hall

Mantel, Hilary
Picador USA

WINNER OF THE 2009 MAN BOOKER PRIZEWINNER OF THE NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD FOR FICTIONA NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLEREngland in the 1520s is a heartbeat from disaster. If the king dies without a male heir, the country could be destroyed by civil war. Henry VIII wants to annul his marriage of twenty years and marry Anne Boleyn. The pope and most of Europe opposes him. Into this impasse steps Thomas Cromwell: a wholly original man, a charmer and a bully, both idealist and opportunist, astute in reading people, and implacable in his ambition. But Henry is volatile: one day tender, one day murderous. Cromwell helps him break the opposition, but what will be the price of his triumph?In inimitable style, Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall is "a darkly brilliant reimagining of life under Henry VIII. . . . Magnificent." (The Boston Globe).

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No.4
88

Mrs Dalloway

Woolf, Virginia
Benediction Classics

"Mrs. Dalloway was the first novel to split the atom. ... It is one of the most moving, revolutionary artworks of the twentieth century." (Michael Cunningham, author of The Hours.)"Virginia Woolf was one of the great innovators of that decade of literary Modernism, the 1920s. Novels such as Mrs Dalloway and To the Lighthouse showed how experimental writing could reshape our sense of ordinary life. Taking unremarkable materials - preparations for a genteel party, a day on a bourgeois family holiday - they trace the flow of associations and ideas that we call 'consciousness'." - The Guardian"Mrs Dalloway, ... a book for a lifetime" -- Christine Dwyer Hickey.Mrs Dalloway describes a day in 1923 in the life of an upper-class Londoner, Clarissa Dalloway, as she prepares for a party she is hosting. In lyrical language, Virginia Woolf describes Clarissa, her memories, day-dreams, regrets and fears, to masterfully entwine the past, present and future in what is regarded as one of the great novels of the twentieth century. "The novel's opening pages are probably the most ecstatic representation of running errands in the Western canon." (Evan Kindley). The novel is essentially plotless; using the springboard of the mundane preparations for a society party, it travels backwards and forwards through time, drawing the reader into the consciousness of the characters.Mrs Dalloway, perhaps Virginia Woolf's most popular work, and perhaps semiautobiographical, is a book worth reading and rereading.Virginia Woolf was a luminous novelist, a prolific essayist and book reviewer, and a diarist. With her husband Leonard, Woolf established and ran the Hogarth Press which published works by influential modernist writers. In their first five years, they published Katherine Mansfield, T. S. Eliot, E. M. Forster, Clive Bell, Roger Fry and Sigmund Freud. Woolf's haunting writing, her succinct insights into feminist, artistic, historical, political issues, and her revolutionary experiments with points of view and stream-of-consciousness altered the course of literature.

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No.5
88

Small Island

Levy, Andrea
Picador USA

Small Island is an international bestseller. It won the Orange Prize for Fiction, The Orange Prize for Fiction: Best of the Best, The Whitbread Novel Award, The Whitbread Book of the Year Award, and the Commonwealth Writers' Prize. It has now been adapted for the screen as a coproduction of the BBC and Masterpiece/WGBH Boston.\nHortense Joseph arrives in London from Jamaica in 1948 with her life in her suitcase, her heart broken, her resolve intact. Her husband, Gilbert Joseph, returns from the war expecting to be received as a hero, but finds his status as a black man in Britain to be second class. His white landlady, Queenie, raised as a farmer's daughter, befriends Gilbert, and later Hortense, with innocence and courage, until the unexpected arrival of her husband, Bernard, who returns from combat with issues of his own to resolve. \nTold in these four voices, Small Island is a courageous novel of tender emotion and sparkling wit, of crossings taken and passages lost, of shattering compassion and of reckless optimism in the face of insurmountable barriers---in short, an encapsulation of that most American of experiences: the immigrant's life.

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No.6
83

London: The Novel

Rutherfurd, Edward
Ballantine Books

“A TOUR DE FORCE . . . London tracks the history of the English capital from the days of the Celts until the present time. . . . Breathtaking.”—The Orlando SentinelA master of epic historical fiction, Edward Rutherford gives us a sweeping novel of London, a glorious pageant spanning two thousand years. He brings this vibrant city's long and noble history alive through his saga of ever-shifting fortunes, fates, and intrigues of a half-dozen families, from the age of Julius Caesar to the twentieth century. Generation after generation, these families embody the passion, struggle, wealth, and verve of the greatest city in the Old World.Praise for London“Remarkable . . . The invasion by Julius Caesar’s legions in 54 B.C. . . . The rise of chivalry and the Crusades . . . The building of the Globe theatre . . . and the coming of the Industrial Revolution. . . . What a delightful way to get the feel of London and of English history. . . . We witness first-hand the lust of Henry VIII. We overhear Geoffrey Chaucer deciding to write The Canterbury Tales. . . . Each episode is a punchy tale made up of bite-size chunks ending in tiny cliffhangers.”—The New York Times“Hold-your-breath suspense, buccaneering adventure, and passionate tales of love and war.”—The Times (London)“Fascinating . . . A sprawling epic.”—San Francisco Chronicle

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No.7
83

&&LDIV&&R&&LDIV&&R&&LI&&RThe Complete Sherlock Holmes, Volume I&&L/I&&R, by &&LB&&RSir Arthur Conan Doyle&&L/B&&R, is part of the &&LI&&RBarnes & Noble Classics&&L/I&&R&&LI&&R &&L/I&&Rseries, which offers quality editions at affordable prices to the student and the general reader, including new scholarship, thoughtful design, and pages of carefully crafted extras. Here are some of the remarkable features of &&LI&&RBarnes & Noble Classics&&L/I&&R: &&LDIV&&R New introductions commissioned from todays top writers and scholars Biographies of the authors Chronologies of contemporary historical, biographical, and cultural events Footnotes and endnotes Selective discussions of imitations, parodies, poems, books, plays, paintings, operas, statuary, and films inspired by the work Comments by other famous authors Study questions to challenge the readers viewpoints and expectations Bibliographies for further reading Indices & Glossaries, when appropriate All editions are beautifully designed and are printed to superior specifications; some include illustrations of historical interest. &&LI&&RBarnes & Noble Classics &&L/I&&Rpulls together a constellation of influences―biographical, historical, and literary―to enrich each readers understanding of these enduring works.&&L/DIV&&R&&L/DIV&&R&&LP style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"&&R&&LI&&R&&L/I&&R &&L/P&&R&&LP style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"&&R&&LI&&RThe Complete Sherlock Holmes&&L/I&&R comprises four novels and fifty-six short stories revolving around the world’s most popular and influential fictional detective―the eccentric, arrogant, and ingenious Sherlock Holmes. He and his trusted friend, Dr. Watson, step from Holmes’s comfortable quarters at 221b Baker Street into the swirling fog of Victorian London to exercise that unique combination of detailed observation, vast knowledge, and brilliant deduction. Inevitably, Holmes rescues the innocent, confounds the guilty, and solves the most perplexing puzzles known to literature. &&LBR&&R&&LBR&&R&&LI&&RVolume I&&L/I&&R of &&LI&&RThe Complete Sherlock Holmes&&L/I&&R starts with Holmes’s first appearance, &&LI&&RA Study in Scarlet&&L/I&&R, a chilling murder novel complete with bloodstained walls and cryptic clues, followed by the baffling &&LI&&RThe Sign of Four&&L/I&&R, which introduces Holmes’s cocaine problem and Watson’s future wife. The story collections &&LI&&RThe Adventures of Sherlock Holmes&&L/I&&R and &&LI&&RThe Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes&&L/I&&R feature such renowned tales as “A Scandal in Bohemia,” “The Red-Headed League,” and “The Musgrave Ritual.”&&LBR&&R&&LBR&&RTired of writing stories about Holmes, his creator, &&LB&&RSir Arthur Conan Doyle&&L/B&&R, killed him off at the end of “The Final Problem,” the last tale in &&LI&&RThe Memoirs&&L/I&&R. But the public outcry was so great that eight years later he published the masterful &&LI&&RThe Hound of the Baskervilles&&L/I&&R, which supposedly takes place before Holmes’s death.&&LBR&&R&&LBR&&RThe separate &&LI&&RVolume II&&L/I&&R of &&LI&&RThe Complete Sherlock Holmes&&L/I&&R collects the remaining accounts of Holmes’s exploits, including “The Adventure of the Empty House,” which reveals the elaborate circumstances behind Holmes’s literary resurrection.&&LBR&&R&&L/P&&R&&LDIV&&R&&LB&&RKyle Freeman&&L/B&&R, a Sherlock Holmes enthusiast for many years, earned two graduate degrees in English literature from Columbia University, where his major was twentieth-century British literature.&&L/DIV&&R&&L/DIV&&R

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No.8
81

The Light Over London

Kelly, Julia
Gallery Books

Reminiscent of Martha Hall Kelly’s Lilac Girls and Kristin Hannah’s The Nightingale, this entrancing story “is a poignant reminder that there is no limit to what women can do. A nostalgic, engrossing read” (Julia London, New York Times bestselling author). It’s easier for Cara Hargraves to bury herself in the past than to confront the present, which is why working for a gruff but brilliant antiques dealer is perfect. While clearing out an estate, she pries open an old tin that holds the relics of a lost relationship: an unfinished diary from World War II and a photo of a young woman in uniform. Captivated by the hauntingly beautiful diary, Cara begins her search for the author, never guessing that it might reveal her own family’s wartime secrets.In 1941, nineteen-year-old Louise Keene feels trapped in her Cornish village, waiting for a wealthy suitor her mother has chosen for her to return from the war. But when Louise meets Flight Lieutenant Paul Bolton, a dashing RAF pilot stationed at a local base, everything changes. And changes again when Paul’s unit is deployed without warning.Desperate for a larger life, Louise joins the women’s auxiliary branch of the British Army in the anti-aircraft gun unit as a gunner girl. As bombs fall on London, she and the other gunner girls show their bravery and resilience while performing their duties during deadly air raids. The only thing that gets Louise through those dark, bullet-filled nights is knowing that she and Paul will be together when the war is over. But when a bundle of her letters to him are returned unopened, she learns that wartime romance can have a much darker side.“Sweeping, stirring, and heartrending in all the best ways, this tale of one of WWII’s courageous, colorful, and enigmatic Gunner Girls will take your breath away” (Kristin Harmel, bestselling author of The Room on Rue Amelie).

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No.9
80

Written 75 years ago, 1984 was George Orwell’s chilling prophecy about the future. And while 1984 has come and gone, his dystopian vision of a government that will do anything to control the narrative is timelier than ever...This 75th Anniversary Edition includes:• A New Introduction by Dolen Perkins-Valdez, author of Take My Hand, winner of the 2023 NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work—Fiction• A New Afterword by Sandra Newman, author of Julia: A Retelling of George Orwell’s 1984“The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.”Winston Smith toes the Party line, rewriting history to satisfy the demands of the Ministry of Truth. With each lie he writes, Winston grows to hate the Party that seeks power for its own sake and persecutes those who dare to commit thoughtcrimes. But as he starts to think for himself, Winston can’t escape the fact that Big Brother is always watching...A startling and haunting novel, 1984 creates an imaginary world that is completely convincing from start to finish. No one can deny the novel’s hold on the imaginations of whole generations, or the power of its admonitions—a power that seems to grow, not lessen, with the passage of time.• Nominated as one of America’s best-loved novels by PBS’s The Great American Read •

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No.10
80

* INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER * "This novel delivers sweet, smart escapism."--People "Fans ofThe Chilbury Ladies' Choir and The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society will adoreThe Jane Austen Society... A charming and memorable debut, which reminds us of the universal language of literature and the power of books to unite and heal." --Pam Jenoff,New York Times bestselling author ofThe Lost Girls of Paris Just after the Second World War, in the small English village of Chawton, an unusual but like-minded group of people band together to attempt something remarkable. One hundred and fifty years ago, Chawton was the final home of Jane Austen, one of England's finest novelists. Now it's home to a few distant relatives and their diminishing estate. With the last bit of Austen's legacy threatened, a group of disparate individuals come together to preserve both Jane Austen's home and her legacy. These people--a laborer, a young widow, the local doctor, and a movie star, among others--could not be more different and yet they are united in their love for theworks and words of Austen. As each of them endures their own quiet struggle with loss and trauma, some from the recent war, others from more distant tragedies, they rally together to create the Jane Austen Society. A powerful and moving novel that explores the tragedies and triumphs of life, both large and small, and the universal humanity in us all, Natalie Jenner'sThe Jane Austen Society is destined to resonate with readers for years to come.

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No.11
79

Her Fearful Symmetry: A Novel

Niffenegger, Audrey
Scribner

From the author of the #1 bestselling The Time Traveler's Wife, a spectacularly compelling novel—set in and near Highgate Cemetery in London, about the love between twins, men and women, ghosts and the living.Julia and Valentina Poole are twenty-year-old sisters with an intense attachment to each other. One morning the mailman delivers a thick envelope to their house in the suburbs of Chicago. Their English aunt Elspeth Noblin has died of cancer and left them her London apartment. There are two conditions for this inheritance: that they live in the flat for a year before they sell it and that their parents not enter it. Julia and Valentina are twins. So were the girls’ aunt Elspeth and their mother, Edie.The girls move to Elspeth’s flat, which borders the vast Highgate Cemetery, where Christina Rossetti, George Eliot, Stella Gibbons, and other luminaries are buried. Julia and Valentina become involved with their living neighbors: Martin, a composer of crossword puzzles who suffers from crippling OCD, and Robert, Elspeth’s elusive lover, a scholar of the cemetery. They also discover that much is still alive in Highgate, including—perhaps—their aunt.

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No.12
79

Bloomsbury Girls

Jenner, Natalie
St Martins Pr

Natalie Jenner, the internationally bestselling author of The Jane Austen Society, returns with a compelling and heartwarming story of post-war London, a century-old bookstore, and three women determined to find their way in a fast-changing world in Bloomsbury Girls. Bloomsbury Books is an old-fashioned new and rare book store that has persisted and resisted change for a hundred years, run by men and guided by the general manager's unbreakable fifty-one rules. But in 1950, the world is changing, especially the world of books and publishing, and at Bloomsbury Books, the girls in the shop have plans: Vivien Lowry: Single since her aristocratic fiance was killed in action during World War II, the brilliant and stylish Vivien has a long list of grievances--most of them well justified and the biggest of which is Alec McDonough, the Head of Fiction. Grace Perkins: Married with two sons, she's been working to support the family following her husband's breakdown in the aftermath of the war. Torn between duty to her family and dreams of her own. Evie Stone: In the first class of female students from Cambridge permitted to earn a degree, Evie was denied an academic position in favor of her less accomplished male rival. Now she's working at Bloomsbury Books while she plans to remake her own future. As they interact with various literary figures of the time--Daphne Du Maurier, Ellen Doubleday, Sonia Blair (widow of George Orwell), Samuel Beckett, Peggy Guggenheim, and others--these three women with their complex web of relationships, goals and dreams are all working to plot out a future that is richer and more rewarding than anything society will allow.

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No.13
79

In this "glorious dance through the traditional glamour and suffocating expectations of a bygone era" (Genevieve Graham, USA TODAY bestselling author), a group of young women are swept up in a life-changing journey as they become three of the last debutantes to be presented to Queen Elizabeth II. When it's announced that 1958 will be the last year debutantes are to be presented at court, thousands of eager mothers and hopeful daughters flood the palace with letters seeking the year's most coveted invitation: a chance for their daughters to curtsy to the young Queen Elizabeth and officially come out into society. In an effort to appease her traditional mother, aspiring university student Lily Nichols agrees to become a debutante and do the Season, a glittering and grueling string of countless balls and cocktail parties. In doing so, she befriends two very different women: the cool and aloof Leana Hartford whose apparent perfection hides a darker side and the ambitious Katherine Norman who dreams of a career once she helps her parents find their place among the elite. But the glorious effervescence of the Season evaporates once Lily learns a devastating secret that threatens to destroy her entire family. "Woven with heartfelt emotion, this novel is a captivating, unforgettable story of one woman's journey to find love, truth, and, most importantly, herself" (Kelly Bowen, author of The Paris Apartment) in midcentury Great Britain.

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No.14
79

Lonely Planet: The world's leading travel guide publisherLonely Planet London is your passport to the most relevant, up-to-date advice on what to see and skip, and what hidden discoveries await you. Explore ancient castles, modern galleries and world-class museums, catch a show on the West End, and down a pint in a traditional pub -all with your trusted travel companion. Get to the heart of London and begin your journey now!Inside Lonely Planet London Travel Guide: Full-colour maps and images throughout Highlightsand itineraries help you tailor your trip to your personal needs and interests Insider tips to save time and money and get around like a local, avoiding crowds and trouble spots Essential infoat your fingertips - hours of operation, phone numbers, websites, transit tips, prices Honest reviews for all budgets - eating, sleeping, sight-seeing, going out, shopping, hidden gems that most guidebooks miss Cultural insights give you a richer, more rewarding travel experience - history, music, shopping, food, theatre Free, convenient pull-outLondon map (included in print version), plus over 50 colour maps Covers The City, West End, South Bank, Kensington, Notting Hill, Camden, Greenwich and moreThe Perfect Choice: Lonely Planet London, our most comprehensive guide to London, is perfect for both exploring top sights and taking roads less travelled. Looking for just the highlights? Check out Lonely PlanetPocket London, a handy-sized guide focused on the can't-miss sights for a quick trip.Looking for more extensive coverage? Check out Lonely Planet England guide for a comprehensive look at all the country has to offer.About Lonely Planet: Lonely Planet is a leading travel media company and the world's number one travel guidebook brand, providing both inspiring and trustworthy information for every kind of traveller since 1973. Over the past four decades, we've printed over 145 million guidebooks and phrasebooks for 120 languages, and grown a dedicated, passionate global community of travellers. You'll also find our content online, and in mobile apps, video, 14 languages, 12 international magazines, armchair and lifestyle books, ebooks, and more, enabling you to explore every day. Lonely Planet enables the curious to experience the world fully and to truly get to the heart of the places they find themselves, near or far from home.TripAdvisor Travelers' Choice Awards 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2016 winner in Favorite Travel Guide category'Lonely Planet guides are, quite simply, like no other.' - New York Times'Lonely Planet. It's on everyone's bookshelves, it's in every traveller's hands. It's on mobile phones. It's on the Internet. It's everywhere, and it's telling entire generations of people how to travel the world.' - Fairfax Media (Australia)

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No.15
78

From the author of the "jaunty, heartbreaking winner" (People) and international bestseller Dear Mrs. Bird comes a charming and uplifting novel set in London during World War II about a plucky young journalist and her adventures as wartime advice columnist. London, November 1941. Following the departure of the formidable Henrietta Bird from Woman's Friend magazine, things are looking up for Emmeline Lake as she takes on the new challenges as a wartime advice columnist. Her relationship with boyfriend Charles is blossoming, while Emmy's best friend Bunty, still reeling from the very worst of the Blitz, is bravely looking to the future. Together, the friends are determined to Make a Go of It. When the Ministry of Information calls on Britain's women's magazines to help recruit female workers to the war effort, Emmy is thrilled to step up and help. But when she and Bunty meet a young mother who shows them the very real challenges that women war workers face, Emmy must confront a dilemma between doing her duty and standing by her friends. As funny, heartwarming, and touching as Dear Mrs. Bird, Yours Cheerfully is an endearing portrait of female friendship and "a fruitful exploration of the solidarity among women in times of grief, love, and hardship" (Publishers Weekly).

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No.16
78

London's Hidden Walks: Volumes 1-3

Millar, Stephen
Metro Publications Ltd

Londons Hidden Walks

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No.17
78

From the author of the bestselling "jaunty, heartbreaking winner" (People) Dear Mrs. Bird comes a charming and irresistible novel featuring plucky aspiring journalist Emmy Lake as she navigates life, love, and friendship in London during World War II. London, April 1943. A little over a year since she married Captain Charles Mayhew and he went away to war, Emmy Lake is now in charge of "Yours Cheerfully," the hugely popular advice column in Woman's Friend magazine. Cheered on by her best friend Bunty, Emmy is dedicated to helping readers face the increasing challenges brought about by over three years of war. The postbags are full and Woman's Friend is thriving. But Emmy's world is turned upside down when glamorous socialite, the Honorable Mrs. Cressida Porter, becomes the new publisher of the magazine, and wants to change everything the readers love. Aided by Mrs. Pye, a Paris-obsessed fashion editor with delusions of grandeur, and Small Winston, the grumpiest dog in London, Mrs. Porter fills the pages with expensive clothes and frivolous articles about her friends. Worst of all, she announces that she is cutting the "Yours Cheerfully" column and her vision for the publication's future seems dire. With the stakes higher than ever, Emmy and her friends must find a way to save the magazine that they love. Heartwarming, funny, and joyfully uplifting, the third novel in the Emmy Lake Chronicles is a moving tribute to friendship and overcoming adversity.

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No.18
78

This dazzling and yet intimate book is the first modern one-volume history of London from Roman times to the present. An extraordinary city, London grew from a backwater in the Classical age into an important medieval city, a significant Renaissance urban center, and a modern colossus. Roy Porter paints a detailed landscape--from the grid streets and fortresses of Julius Caesar and William the Conqueror to the medieval, walled "most noble city" of churches, friars, and crown and town relationships. Within the crenelated battlements, manufactures and markets developed and street-life buzzed.London's profile in 1500 was much as it was at the peak of Roman power. The city owed its courtly splendor and national pride of the Tudor Age to the phenomenal expansion of its capital. It was the envy of foreigners, the spur of civic patriotism, and a hub of culture, architecture, great literature, and new religion. From the eighteenth through the twentieth centuries, London experienced a cruel civil war, raging fires, enlightenment in thought, government, and living, and the struggle and benefits of empire. From the lament that "London was but is no more" to "you, who are to stand a wonder to all Years and ages...a phoenix," London became an elegant, eye-catching, metropolitan hub. It was a mosaic, Porter shows, that represented the shared values of a people--both high and low born--at work and play.London was and is a wonder city, a marvel. Not since ancient times has there been such a city--not eternal, but vibrant, living, full of a free people ever evolving. In this transcendent book, Roy Porter touches the pulse of his hometown and makes it our own, capturing London's fortunes, people, and imperial glory with brio and wit.

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No.19
78

A Bear Called Paddington

Bond, Michael
HarperCollins
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No.20
78

This charming, irresistible debut novel set in London during World War II about a young woman who longs to be a war correspondent and inadvertently becomes a secret advice columnist is “a jaunty, heartbreaking winner” (People)—for fans of The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society and Lilac Girls. Emmeline Lake and her best friend Bunty are doing their bit for the war effort and trying to stay cheerful, despite the German planes making their nightly raids. Emmy dreams of becoming a Lady War Correspondent, and when she spots a job advertisement in the newspaper she seizes her chance; but after a rather unfortunate misunderstanding, she finds herself typing letters for the formidable Henrietta Bird, renowned advice columnist of Woman’s Friend magazine.Mrs. Bird is very clear: letters containing any Unpleasantness must go straight into the bin. But as Emmy reads the desperate pleas from women who many have Gone Too Far with the wrong man, or can’t bear to let their children be evacuated, she begins to secretly write back to the readers who have poured out their troubles. “Fans of Jojo Moyes will enjoy AJ Pearce’s debut, with its plucky female characters and fresh portrait of women’s lives in wartime Britain” (Library Journal)—a love letter to the enduring power of friendship, the kindness of strangers, and the courage of ordinary people in extraordinary times. “Headlined by its winning lead character, who always keeps carrying on, Pearce's novel is a delight” (Publishers Weekly). Irrepressibly funny and enormously moving, Dear Mrs. Bird is “funny and poignant…about the strength of women and the importance of friendship” (Star Tribune, Minneapolis).

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No.21
77

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The #1 bestselling, award-winning author of Life after Life transports us to a restless London in the wake of the Great War—a city bursting with money, glamour, and corruption—in this spellbinding tale of seduction and betrayal.\\n"[Shrines of Gaiety] is set during Jazz Age London, in all its fizzy madness and desperation for the new, the better, the hustle. Atkinson simply has a magician's ability to switch readers’ moods within a few paragraphs, and as dark as her stories can get, within them always shines a beacon of humanity.” –Gillian Flynn, bestselling author of Dark Places\\n1926, and in a country still recovering from the Great War, London has become the focus for a delirious new nightlife. In the clubs of Soho, peers of the realm rub shoulders with starlets, foreign dignitaries with gangsters, and girls sell dances for a shilling a time.\\nThe notorious queen of this glittering world is Nellie Coker, ruthless but also ambitious to advance her six children, including the enigmatic eldest, Niven, whose character has been forged in the crucible of the Somme. But success breeds enemies, and Nellie’s empire faces threats from without and within. For beneath the dazzle of Soho’s gaiety, there is a dark underbelly, a world in which it is all too easy to become lost.\\nWith her unique Dickensian flair, Kate Atkinson gives us a window in a vanished world. Slyly funny, brilliantly observant, and ingeniously plotted, Shrines of Gaiety showcases the myriad talents that have made Atkinson one of the most lauded writers of our time.

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No.22
77

Mr. Dickens and His Carol

Silva, Samantha
Flatiron Books

"CHARMING...I READ IT IN A COUPLE OF EBULLIENT, CHRISTMASSY GULPS." ―Anthony Doerr, #1 New York Times bestselling author of All The Light We Cannot See"GRACED BY THE GHOSTLY PRESENCE OF MR. DICKENS HIMSELF...PROMISES TO PUT YOU IN THE HOLIDAY SPIRIT." ―USA TodayA beloved, irresistible novel that reimagines the story behind Charles Dickens' Christmas classicCharles Dickens is not feeling the Christmas spirit. His newest book is an utter flop, the critics have turned against him, relatives near and far hound him for money. While his wife plans a lavish holiday party for their ever-expanding family and circle of friends, Dickens has visions of the poor house. But when his publishers try to blackmail him into writing a Christmas book to save them all from financial ruin, he refuses. And a serious bout of writer’s block sets in.Frazzled and filled with self-doubt, Dickens seeks solace in his great palace of thinking, the city of London itself. On one of his long night walks, in a once-beloved square, he meets the mysterious Eleanor Lovejoy, who might be just the muse he needs. As Dickens’ deadlines close in, Eleanor propels him on a Scrooge-like journey that tests everything he believes about generosity, friendship, ambition, and love. The story he writes will change Christmas forever.

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No.23
77

The Lost English Girl

Kelly, Julia
Gallery Books

The acclaimed author of the "sweeping and beautifully written novel" (Woman's World) The Light Over London weaves an epic saga of love, motherhood, and betrayal from World War II to the 1960s. Liverpool, 1935: Raised in a strict Catholic family, Viv Byrne knows what's expected of her: marry a Catholic man from her working-class neighborhood and have his children. However, when she finds herself pregnant after a fling with Joshua Levinson, a Jewish man with dreams of becoming a famous Jazz musician, Viv knows that a swift wedding is the only answer. Her only solace is that marrying Joshua will mean escaping her strict mother's scrutiny. But when Joshua makes a life-changing choice on their wedding day, Viv is forced once again into the arms of her disapproving family. Five years later and on the eve of World War II, Viv is faced with the impossible choice to evacuate her young daughter, Maggie, to the countryside estate of the affluent Thompson family. In New York City, Joshua gives up his failing musical career to serve in the Royal Air Force, fight for his country, and try to piece together his feelings about the family, wife, and daughter he left behind at eighteen. However, tragedy strikes when Viv learns that the countryside safe haven she sent her daughter to wasn't immune from the horrors of war. It is only years later, with Joshua's help, that Viv learns the secrets of their shared past and what it will take to put a family back together again. Telling the harrowing story of England's many evacuated children, bestselling author Julia Kelly's The Lost English Girl explores how one simple choice can change the course of a life, and what we are willing to forgive to find a way back to the ones we love and thought lost.

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No.24
77

Julian Fellowes's Belgravia

Fellowes, Julian
Grand Central Publishing

FROM THE CREATOR OF DOWNTOWN ABBEYThe New York Times bestselling novel about scandalous secrets and star-crossed lovers On the evening of 15 June 1815, the great and the good of British society have gathered in Brussels at what is to become one of the most tragic parties in history - the Duchess of Richmond's ball. For this is the eve of the Battle of Waterloo, and many of the handsome young men attending the ball will find themselves, the very next day, on the battlefield.For Sophia Trenchard, the young and beautiful daughter of Wellington's chief supplier, this night will change everything. But it is only twenty-five years later, when the upwardly mobile Trenchards move into the fashionable new area of Belgravia, that the true repercussions of that moment will be felt. For in this new world, where the aristocracy rub shoulders with the emerging nouveau riche, there are those who would prefer the secrets of the past to remain buried...

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No.25
77

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Party Crasher and Love Your Life comes “a hilarious tale . . . hijinks worthy of classic I Love Lucy episodes . . . too good to pass up.” (USA Today)“Sophie Kinsella keeps her finger on the cultural pulse, while leaving me giddy with laughter.”—Jojo Moyes, author of The Giver of Stars and The Last Letter from Your LoverBecky Bloomwood has a fabulous flat in London’s trendiest neighborhood, a troupe of glamorous socialite friends, and a closet brimming with the season’s must-haves. The only trouble is, she can’t actually afford it—not any of it. Her job writing at Successful Saving magazine not only bores her to tears, it doesn’t pay much at all. And lately Becky’s been chased by dismal letters from the bank—letters with large red sums she can’t bear to read. She tries cutting back. But none of her efforts succeeds. Her only consolation is to buy herself something . . . just a little something.Finally a story arises that Becky actually cares about, and her front-page article catalyzes a chain of events that will transform her life—and the lives of those around her—forever.Praise for Sophie Kinsella and Confessions of a Shopaholic“Kinsella’s Bloomwood is plucky and funny. . . . You won’t have to shop around to find a more winning protagonist.”—People“If a crème brûlée could be transmogrified into a book, it would be Confessions of a Shopaholic.”—The Star-Ledger“A have-your-cake-and-eat-it romp, done with brio and not a syllable of moralizing. . . . Kinsella has a light touch and puckish humor.”—Kirkus Reviews

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No.26
77

Bridget Jones's Diary: A Novel

Fielding, Helen
Penguin Books

The iconic #1 bestseller by Helen Fielding and basis for the films starring Renee Zellweger, Colin Firth, Patrick Dempsey and Emma Thompson.Bridget Jones's Diary is the devastatingly self-aware, laugh-out-loud account of a year in the life of a thirty-something Singleton on a permanent doomed quest for self-improvement. Caught between the joys of Singleton fun, and the fear of dying alone and being found three weeks later half eaten by an Alsatian; tortured by Smug Married friends asking, "How's your love life?" with lascivious, yet patronizing leers, Bridget resolves to: reduce the circumference of each thigh by 1.5 inches, visit the gym three times a week not just to buy a sandwich, form a functional relationship with a responsible adult and learn to program the VCR. With a blend of flighty charm, existential gloom, and endearing self-deprecation, Bridget Jones's Diary has touched a raw nerve with millions of readers the world round. Read it and laugh—before you cry, "Bridget Jones is me!"

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No.27
76

The Key to My Heart: A Novel

Louis, Lia
Emily Bestler Books

A Goodreads Most Anticipated Romance\\nA heartwarming novel about hope after loss as a young widow receives mysterious messages of love from the “must-buy author” (Jodi Picoult) of Eight Perfect Hours.\\nSparkly and charming Natalie Fincher has it all—a handsome new husband, a fixer-upper cottage of her dreams, and the opportunity to tour with the musical she’s spent years writing. But when her husband suddenly dies, all her hopes and dreams instantly disappear.\\nTwo and a half years later, Natalie is still lost. She works, sleeps (well, as much as the sexually frustrated village foxes will allow), and sees friends just often enough to allay their worries, but her life is empty. And she can only bring herself to play music at a London train station’s public piano where she can be anonymous. She’s lost motivation, faith in love, in happiness…in everything.\\nBut when someone begins to mysteriously leave the sheet music for her husband’s favorite songs at the station’s piano, Natalie begins to feel a sense of hope and excitement for the first time. As she investigates just who could be doing this, Natalie finds herself on an unexpected journey toward newfound love for herself, for life, and maybe, for a special someone.

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No.28
76

Flatshare

O'Leary, Beth
Flatiron Books

About the Author\\nBeth O’Leary worked in children's publishing before becoming a full-time author. She is the author of the Sunday Times bestselling novel The Flatshare, which has been translated into more than thirty languages.\\nWhat if your roommate is your soul mate? A joyful, quirky romantic comedy, Beth O'Leary's The Flatshare is a feel-good novel about finding love in the most unexpected of ways.\\nTiffy and Leon share an apartment. Tiffy and Leon have never met.\\nAfter a bad breakup, Tiffy Moore needs a place to live. Fast. And cheap. But the apartments in her budget have her wondering if astonishingly colored mold on the walls counts as art.\\nDesperation makes her open minded, so she answers an ad for a flatshare. Leon, a night shift worker, will take the apartment during the day, and Tiffy can have it nights and weekends. He’ll only ever be there when she’s at the office. In fact, they’ll never even have to meet.\\nTiffy and Leon start writing each other notes – first about what day is garbage day, and politely establishing what leftovers are up for grabs, and the evergreen question of whether the toilet seat should stay up or down. Even though they are opposites, they soon become friends. And then maybe more.\\nBut falling in love with your roommate is probably a terrible idea…especially if you've never met.

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No.29
76

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • “Get ready to be swept up in a whirlwind romance. It absolutely charmed me.”—Reese Witherspoon (A Reese’s Book Club Pick)“The perfect book to get lost in . . . Josie Silver’s characters sneak their way into your heart and stay.”—Jill Santopolo, author of The Light We LostTwo people. Ten chances. One unforgettable love story.Laurie is pretty sure love at first sight doesn’t exist anywhere but the movies. But then, through a misted-up bus window one snowy December day, she sees a man who she knows instantly is the one. Their eyes meet, there’s a moment of pure magic . . . and then her bus drives away.Certain they’re fated to find each other again, Laurie spends a year scanning every bus stop and cafe in London for him. But she doesn’t find him, not when it matters anyway. Instead they “reunite” at a Christmas party, when her best friend, Sarah, giddily introduces her new boyfriend to Laurie. It’s Jack, the man from the bus. It would be.What follows for Laurie, Sarah, and Jack is ten years of friendship, heartbreak, missed opportunities, roads not taken, and destinies reconsidered. One Day in December is a joyous, heartwarming, and immensely moving love story to escape into and a reminder that fate takes inexplicable turns along the route to happiness.

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No.30
76

Meet Me in London

Toffolo, Georgia
Hqn Books
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No.31
76

The Switch

O'Leary, Beth
Quercus Publishing

'o'leary Does It Again! The Switch Is A Warm, Funny And Feisty Tale Of Generational Location Swapping That Will Have You Laughing And Tearing Up In Equal Measure. Populated By A Cast Of Characters You'll Wish You Knew In Real Life. It's An Absolute Joy From Beginning To End' Mike Gayle, Author Of Half A World Away Eileen Is Sick Of Being 79. Leena's Tired Of Life In Her Twenties. Maybe It's Time They Swapped Places... When Overachiever Leena Cotton Is Ordered To Take A Two-month Sabbatical After Blowing A Big Presentation At Work, She Escapes To Her Grandmother Eileen's House For Some Overdue Rest. Eileen Is Newly Single And About To Turn Eighty. She'd Like A Second Chance At Love, But Her Tiny Yorkshire Village Doesn't Offer Many Eligible Gentlemen. Once Leena Learns Of Eileen's Romantic Predicament, She Proposes A Solution: A Two-month Swap. Eileen Can Live In London And Look For Love. Meanwhile Leena Will Look After Everything In Rural Yorkshire. But With Gossiping Neighbours And Difficult Family Dynamics To Navigate Up North, And Trendy London Flatmates And Online Dating To Contend With In The City, Stepping Into One Another's Shoes Proves More Difficult Than Either Of Them Expected. Leena Learns That A Long-distance Relationship Isn't As Romantic As She Hoped It Would Be, And Then There Is The Annoyingly Perfect - And Distractingly Handsome - School Teacher, Who Keeps Showing Up To Outdo Her Efforts To Impress The Local Villagers. Back In London, Eileen Is A Huge Hit With Her New Neighbours, But Is Her Perfect Match Nearer Home Than She First Thought?

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No.32
76

Here for the Drama

Bromley, Kate
Graydon House

It wouldn't be the theater without a few theatrics... Becoming a famous playwright is all Winnie ever dreamed about. For now, though, she'll have to settle for assisting the celebrated, sharp-witted feminist playwright Juliette Brassard. When an experimental theater company in London, England, decides to stage Juliette's most renowned play, The Lights of Trafalgar, Winnie and Juliette pack their bags and hop across the pond.  But the trip goes sideways faster than you can say "tea and crumpets." Juliette stubbornly butts heads with the play's director and Winnie is left stage-managing their relationship. Meanwhile, Winnie's own work seems to have stalled, and though Juliette keeps promising to read it, she always has some vague reason why she can't. Then, Juliette's nephew, Liam, enters stage left. He's handsome, he's smart, he is devastatingly British...and his family ties to Juliette pose a serious problem, forcing Winnie to keep their burgeoning relationship on the down-low. What could go wrong? Balancing a production seemingly headed for disaster, a secret romance and the sweetest, most rambunctious rescue dog, will Winnie save the play, make her own dreams come true and find love along the way--or will the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune get the best of her?

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No.33
76

A #1 New York Times BestsellerFrom #1 New York Times bestselling author Julia Quinn comes the story of Daphne Bridgerton, in the first of her beloved Regency-set novels featuring the charming, powerful Bridgerton family, now a series created by Shondaland for Netflix.In the ballrooms and drawing rooms of Regency London, rules abound. From their earliest days, children of aristocrats learn how to address an earl and curtsey before a prince—while other dictates of the ton are unspoken yet universally understood. A proper duke should be imperious and aloof. A young, marriageable lady should be amiable…but not too amiable.Daphne Bridgerton has always failed at the latter. The fourth of eight siblings in her close-knit family, she has formed friendships with the most eligible young men in London. Everyone likes Daphne for her kindness and wit. But no one truly desires her. She is simply too deuced honestfor that, too unwilling to play the romantic games that captivate gentlemen.Amiability is not a characteristic shared by Simon Basset, Duke of Hastings. Recently returned to England from abroad, he intends to shun both marriage and society—just as his callous father shunned Simon throughout his painful childhood. Yet an encounter with his best friend’s sister offers another option. If Daphne agrees to a fake courtship, Simon can deter the mamas who parade their daughters before him. Daphne, meanwhile, will see her prospects and her reputation soar.The plan works like a charm—at first. But amid the glittering, gossipy, cut-throat world of London’s elite, there is only one certainty: love ignores every rule...This novel includes the 2nd epilogue, a peek at the story after the story.

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No.34
76

THE INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER IS NOW A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE!A GOOD MORNING AMERICA BOOK CLUB PICKTheir lives began together, but their worlds couldn't be more different. After thirty years of missed connections, they're about to meet again...Minnie Cooper knows two things with certainty: that her New Year's birthday is unlucky, and that it's all because of Quinn Hamilton, a man she's never met. Their mothers gave birth to them at the same hospital just after midnight on New Year's Day, but Quinn was given the cash prize for being the first baby born in London in 1990--and the name Minnie was meant to have, as well. With luck like that, it's no wonder each of her birthdays has been more of a disaster than the one before.When Minnie unexpectedly runs into Quinn at a New Year's party on their mutual thirtieth birthday, she sees only more evidence that fortune has continued to favor him. The gorgeous, charming business owner truly seems to have it all--while Minnie's on the brink of losing her pie-making company and her home. But if Quinn and Minnie are from different worlds, why do they keep bumping into each other? And why is it that each fraught encounter leaves them both wanting more?A moving, joyful love story, This Time Next Year explores the way fate leads us to the people we least expect--no matter what the odds.

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No.35
76

Internationally bestselling author Sophie Irwin brings us another delightful, escapist historical romance, led by an audacious heroine who has suddenly inherited a fortune--but it has strings attached... When shy Miss Eliza Balfour married the austere Earl of Somerset, twenty years her senior, it was the match of the season--no matter that he was not the husband Eliza wanted. Now, ten years later, Eliza is widowed. Suddenly, she is left titled, rich, and, for the first time in her life, utterly in control of her own future.  She's always lived by society's conventions, but now, Eliza has resolved to do as she wants.  And what she wants is to head to Bath with her cousin Margaret, pursue painting, learn to drive, and flirt with Bath's most alluring new resident, the infamous Lord Melville. But when the ripples of Eliza's behavior reach her late husband's nephew--who broke Eliza's heart, years ago--Eliza will learn that freedom does not come without consequences. The only way to ensure she can keep her fortune is to avoid all scandal--but where's the fun in that?

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No.36
76

"Bridgerton fans will swoon over this entertaining romp through Britain's Regency-era high society." --People "A Lady's Guide to Fortune Hunting is a sharp, modern, and absolutely delicious take on the marriage plot. Sophie Irwin's debut is one of the most fun, romantic books I've read in a long time. I cannot wait to see what she does next." --Taylor Jenkins Reid, New York Times bestselling author of Malibu Rising A whip-smart debut that follows the adventures of an entirely unconventional heroine who throws herself into the London Season to find a wealthy husband.  But the last thing she expects is to find love... Kitty Talbot needs a fortune. Or rather, she needs a husband who has a fortune. Left with her father's massive debts, she has only twelve weeks to save her family from ruin.    Kitty has never been one to back down from a challenge, so she leaves home and heads toward the most dangerous battleground in all of England: the London season.     Kitty may be neither accomplished nor especially genteel--but she is utterly single-minded; imbued with cunning and ingenuity, she knows that risk is just part of the game.    The only thing she doesn't anticipate is Lord Radcliffe. The worldly Radcliffe sees Kitty for the mercenary fortune-hunter that she really is and is determined to scotch her plans at all costs, until their parrying takes a completely different turn.... This is a frothy pleasure, full of brilliant repartee and enticing wit--one that readers will find an irresistible delight.

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No.37
76

White Teeth: A Novel

Smith, Zadie
Random House

On New Year's morning, 1975, Archie Jones sits in his car on a London road and waits for the exhaust fumes to fill his Cavalier Musketeer station wagon. Archie--working-class, ordinary, a failed marriage under his belt--is calling it quits, the deciding factor being the flip of a 20-pence coin. When the owner of a nearby halal butcher shop (annoyed that Archie's car is blocking his delivery area) comes out and bangs on the window, he gives Archie another chance at life and sets in motion this richly imagined, uproariously funny novel. Epic and intimate, hilarious and poignant, White Teeth is the story of two North London families--one headed by Archie, the other by Archie's best friend, a Muslim Bengali named Samad Iqbal. Pals since they served together in World War II, Archie and Samad are a decidedly unlikely pair. Plodding Archie is typical in every way until he marries Clara, a beautiful, toothless Jamaican woman half his age, and the couple have a daughter named Irie (the Jamaican word for "no problem"). Samad--devoutly Muslim, hopelessly "foreign"--weds the feisty and always suspicious Alsana in a prearranged union. They have twin sons named Millat and Magid, one a pot-smoking punk-cum-militant Muslim and the other an insufferable science nerd. The riotous and tortured histories of the Joneses and the Iqbals are fundamentally intertwined, capturing an empire's worth of cultural identity, history, and hope.Zadie Smith's dazzling first novel plays out its bounding, vibrant course in a Jamaican hair salon in North London, an Indian restaurant in Leicester Square, an Irish poolroom turned immigrant café, a liberal public school, a sleek science institute. A winning debut in every respect, White Teeth marks the arrival of a wondrously talented writer who takes on the big themes--faith, race, gender, history, and culture--and triumphs.

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No.38
76

The Reading List: A Novel

Adams, Sara Nisha
William Morrow Paperbacks

A BEST OF SUMMER READ ACCORDING TO NEWSWEEK, PARADE MAGAZINE, NBC NEWS, LITHUB, AND POPSUGAR!"The most heartfelt read of the summer...a surprising delight of a novel."--ShondalandAn unforgettable and heartwarming debut about how a chance encounter with a list of library books helps forge an unlikely friendship between two very different people in a London suburb.Widower Mukesh lives a quiet life in Wembley, in West London after losing his beloved wife. He shops every Wednesday, goes to Temple, and worries about his granddaughter, Priya, who hides in her room reading while he spends his evenings watching nature documentaries.Aleisha is a bright but anxious teenager working at the local library for the summer when she discovers a crumpled-up piece of paper in the back of To Kill a Mockingbird. It’s a list of novels that she’s never heard of before. Intrigued, and a little bored with her slow job at the checkout desk, she impulsively decides to read every book on the list, one after the other. As each story gives up its magic, the books transport Aleisha from the painful realities she’s facing at home.When Mukesh arrives at the library, desperate to forge a connection with his bookworm granddaughter, Aleisha passes along the reading list…hoping that it will be a lifeline for him too. Slowly, the shared books create a connection between two lonely souls, as fiction helps them escape their grief and everyday troubles and find joy again.

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No.39
76

“A book you won’t be able to put down. A Bangladeshi immigrant in London is torn between the kind, tedious older husband with whom she has an arranged marriage (and children) and the fiery political activist she lusts after. A novel that’s multi-continental, richly detailed and elegantly crafted.” —Curtis Sittenfeld, author of SisterlandAfter an arranged marriage to Chanu, a man twenty years older, Nazneen is taken to London, leaving her home and heart in the Bangladeshi village where she was born. Her new world is full of mysteries. How can she cross the road without being hit by a car (an operation akin to dodging raindrops in the monsoon)? What is the secret of her bullying neighbor Mrs. Islam? What is a Hell's Angel? And how must she comfort the naïve and disillusioned Chanu?As a good Muslim girl, Nazneen struggles to not question why things happen. She submits, as she must, to Fate and devotes herself to her husband and daughters. Yet to her amazement, she begins an affair with a handsome young radical, and her erotic awakening throws her old certainties into chaos.Monica Ali’s splendid novel is about journeys both external and internal, where the marvelous and the terrifying spiral together.

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No.40
76

A New York Times bestsellerA WASHINGTON POST “FEEL-GOOD BOOK guaranteed to lift your spirits”“A warm, charming tale about the rewards of revealing oneself, warts and all.”—PeopleThe story of a solitary green notebook that brings together six strangers and leads to unexpected friendship, and even loveClare Pooley's next book, Iona Iverson's Rules for Commuting, is forthcomingJulian Jessop, an eccentric, lonely artist and septuagenarian believes that most people aren't really honest with one another. But what if they were? And so he writes—in a plain, green journal—the truth about his own life and leaves it in his local café. It's run by the incredibly tidy and efficient Monica, who furtively adds her own entry and leaves the book in the wine bar across the street. Before long, the others who find the green notebook add the truths about their own deepest selves—and soon find each other In Real Life at Monica's Café.The Authenticity Project's cast of characters—including Hazard, the charming addict who makes a vow to get sober; Alice, the fabulous mommy Instagrammer whose real life is a lot less perfect than it looks online; and their other new friends—is by turns quirky and funny, heartbreakingly sad and painfully true-to-life. It's a story about being brave and putting your real self forward—and finding out that it's not as scary as it seems. In fact, it looks a lot like happiness.The Authenticity Project is just the tonic for our times that readers are clamoring for—and one they will take to their hearts and read with unabashed pleasure.

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No.41
76

NW: A Novel

Smith, Zadie
Penguin Books

A 2012 National Book Critics Circle Award Finalist • One of The New York Times Book Review's 10 Best Books of 2012 • One of TIME's Top 10 Fiction Books of 2012 • One of The Wall Street Journal's Best 10 Fiction Books of 2012 • A New York Times and Washington Post Notable Book of 2012“[NW] is that rare thing, a book that is radical and passionate and real.” —Anne Enright, The New York Times Book Review“A triumph . . . As Smith threads together her characters' inner and outer worlds, every sentence sings.” —The Guardian“A powerful portrait of class and identity in multicultural London.” —Entertainment WeeklySet in northwest London, Zadie Smith’s brilliant tragicomic novel follows four locals—Leah, Natalie, Felix, and Nathan—as they try to make adult lives outside of Caldwell, the council estate of their childhood. In private houses and public parks, at work and at play, these Londoners inhabit a complicated place, as beautiful as it is brutal, where the thoroughfares hide the back alleys and taking the high road can sometimes lead you to a dead end. Depicting the modern urban zone—familiar to city-dwellers everywhere—NW is a quietly devastating novel of encounters, mercurial and vital, like the city itself.

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No.42
76

Queenie

Carty-Williams, Candice
Gallery Books

ONE OF TIME’S 100 BEST BOOKS OF THE YEARONE OF NPR’S BEST BOOKS OF 2019NAMED ONE OF THE MOST ANTICIPATED BOOKS OF 2019 BY WOMAN’S DAY, NEWSDAY, PUBLISHERS WEEKLY, BUSTLE, AND BOOK RIOT!“[B]rilliant, timely, funny, heartbreaking.” —Jojo Moyes, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Me Before YouBridget Jones’s Diary meets Americanah in this disarmingly honest, boldly political, and truly inclusive novel that will speak to anyone who has gone looking for love and found something very different in its place.Queenie Jenkins is a twenty-five-year-old Jamaican British woman living in London, straddling two cultures and slotting neatly into neither. She works at a national newspaper, where she’s constantly forced to compare herself to her white middle class peers. After a messy break up from her long-term white boyfriend, Queenie seeks comfort in all the wrong places…including several hazardous men who do a good job of occupying brain space and a bad job of affirming self-worth.As Queenie careens from one questionable decision to another, she finds herself wondering, “What are you doing? Why are you doing it? Who do you want to be?”—all of the questions today’s woman must face in a world trying to answer them for her.With “fresh and honest” (Jojo Moyes) prose, Queenie is a remarkably relatable exploration of what it means to be a modern woman searching for meaning in today’s world.

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No.43
76

When a woman inherits her estranged mother's bookstore in London's Primrose Hill, she finds herself thrust into the pages of a new story--hers--filled with long-held family secrets, the possibility of new love, and, perhaps, the single greatest challenge of her life. When Valentina Baker was only eleven years old, her mother, Eloise, unexpectedly fled to her native London, leaving Val and her father on their own in California. Now a librarian in her thirties, fresh out of a failed marriage and still at odds with her mother's abandonment, Val feels disenchanted with her life. In a bittersweet twist of fate, she receives word that Eloise has died, leaving Val the deed to her mother's Primrose Hill apartment and the Book Garden, the storied bookshop she opened almost two decades prior. Though the news is devastating, Val jumps at the chance for a new beginning and jets across the Atlantic, hoping to learn who her mother truly was while mourning the relationship they never had. As Val begins to piece together Eloise's life in the U.K., she finds herself falling in love with the pastel-colored third-floor flat and the cozy, treasure-filled bookshop, soon realizing that her mother's life was much more complicated than she ever imagined. When Val stumbles across a series of intriguing notes left in a beloved old novel, she sets out to locate the book's mysterious former owner, though her efforts are challenged from the start, as is the Book Garden's future. In order to save the store from financial ruin and preserve her mother's legacy, she must rally its eccentric staff and journey deep into her mother's secrets. With Love from London is a story about healing and loss, revealing the emotional, relatable truths about love, family, and forgiveness.

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No.44
76

Yinka, Where Is Your Huzband?: A Novel

Damilola Blackburn, Lizzie
Penguin Books

“Yinka is a lovable and relatable disaster—which is to say, she isn’t actually a disaster at all...I adore her.”—Emily Henry, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Book Lovers\\n“Feel good, funny, and clever, it’s got smash-hit written all over it!” –Josie Silver, New York Times bestselling author of One Day in December\\nMeet Yinka: a thirty-something, Oxford-educated, British Nigerian woman with a well-paid job, good friends, and a mother whose constant refrain is “Yinka, where is your huzband?”\\nYinka’s Nigerian aunties frequently pray for her delivery from singledom, her work friends think she’s too traditional (she’s saving herself for marriage!), her girlfriends think she needs to get over her ex already, and the men in her life…well, that’s a whole other story. But Yinka herself has always believed that true love will find her when the time is right.\nStill, when her cousin gets engaged, Yinka commences Operation Find-A-Date for Rachel's Wedding. Aided by a spreadsheet and her best friend, Yinka is determined to succeed. Will Yinka find herself a huzband? And what if the thing she really needs to find is herself?\nYinka, Where is Your Huzband? is a fresh, uplifting story of an unconventional heroine who bravely asks the questions we all have about love. Wry, moving, irresistible, this is a love story that makes you smile but also makes you think--and explores what it means to find your way between two cultures, both of which are yours.\\nNAMED A MOST ANTICIPATED BOOK OF 2022 BY MARIE CLAIRE, PARADE, ESSENCE, MS. MAGAZINE, POPSUGAR, BUSTLE, BOOKRIOT, DEBUTIFUL AND MORE!

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No.45
76

The Lost Ticket

Sampson, Freya
Berkley

One of Amazon’s Best Books of September!\\nStrangers on a London bus unite to help an elderly man find his missed love connection in the heartwarming new novel from the acclaimed author of The Last Chance Library.\\nWhen Libby Nicholls arrives in London, brokenhearted and with her life in tatters, the first person she meets on the bus is elderly Frank. He tells her about the time in 1962 that he met a girl on the number 88 bus with beautiful red hair just like hers. They made plans for a date at the National Gallery art museum, but Frank lost the bus ticket with her number on it. For the past sixty years, he’s ridden the same bus trying to find her, but with no luck.\\nLibby is inspired to action and, with the help of an unlikely companion, she papers the bus route with posters advertising their search. Libby begins to open her guarded heart to new friendships and a budding romance, as her tightly controlled world expands. But with Frank’s dementia progressing quickly, their chance of finding the girl on the 88 bus is slipping away.\\nMore than anything, Libby wants Frank to see his lost love one more time. But their quest also shows Libby just how important it is to embrace her own chances for happiness—before it’s too late—in a beautifully uplifting novel about how a shared common experience among strangers can transform lives in the most marvelous ways.

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No.46
76

Nobody ever talks to strangers on the train. It’s a rule. But what would happen if they did?\\nFrom the New York Times bestselling author of The Authenticity Project comes an escapist read that will transport you, cheer you, and make you smile—and make you, too, wish you had Iona’s gift for bringing out the best in everyone.\\n“A not-to-be-missed read in the mode of Gail Honeyman's Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine.” —Booklist, starred review\\nEvery day Iona, a larger-than-life magazine advice columnist, travels the ten stops from Hampton Court to Waterloo Station by train, accompanied by her dog, Lulu. Every day she sees the same people, whom she knows only by nickname: Impossibly-Pretty-Bookworm and Terribly-Lonely-Teenager. Of course, they never speak. Seasoned commuters never do.\nThen one morning, the man she calls Smart-But-Sexist-Manspreader chokes on a grape right in front of her. He’d have died were it not for the timely intervention of Sanjay, a nurse, who gives him the Heimlich maneuver.\nThis single event starts a chain reaction, and an eclectic group of people with almost nothing in common except their commute discover that a chance encounter can blossom into much more. It turns out that talking to strangers can teach you about the world around you--and even more about yourself.

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No.47
76

Now a major motion picture A Man Called Otto starring Tom Hanks!#1 New York Times bestseller—more than 3 million copies sold!Meet Ove. He’s a curmudgeon—the kind of man who points at people he dislikes as if they were burglars caught outside his bedroom window. He has staunch principles, strict routines, and a short fuse. People call him “the bitter neighbor from hell.” But must Ove be bitter just because he doesn’t walk around with a smile plastered to his face all the time?Behind the cranky exterior there is a story and a sadness. So when one November morning a chatty young couple with two chatty young daughters move in next door and accidentally flatten Ove’s mailbox, it is the lead-in to a comical and heartwarming tale of unkempt cats, unexpected friendship, and the ancient art of backing up a U-Haul. All of which will change one cranky old man and a local residents’ association to their very foundations.Fredrik Backman’s beloved first novel about the angry old man next door is a thoughtful exploration of the profound impact one life has on countless others. “If there was an award for ‘Most Charming Book of the Year,’ this first novel by a Swedish blogger-turned-overnight-sensation would win hands down” (Booklist, starred review).

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No.48
76

Mornings with Rosemary

Page, Libby
Simon & Schuster

The international bestselling debut about friendship and love—featuring the life-changing relationship between an anxious young reporter and an eighty-six-year-old lifelong swimmer that “follows in the footsteps of the enormously popular A Man Called Ove…charming and heartwarming” (Kirkus Reviews).We’re never too old to make new friends—or make a difference. Rosemary Peterson has lived in Brixton, London, all her life, but everything is changing. The library where she used to work has closed. The family grocery store has become a trendy bar. And now the lido, an outdoor pool where she’s swum daily since its opening, is threatened with closure by a local housing developer. It was at the lido that Rosemary escaped the devastation of World War II; here she fell in love with her husband, George; here she found community during her marriage and since George’s death.Twentysomething Kate Matthews has moved to Brixton and feels desperately alone. A once-promising writer, she now covers forgettable stories for her local paper. That is, until she’s assigned to write about the lido’s closing. Soon Kate’s portrait of the pool focuses on a singular woman: Rosemary. And as Rosemary slowly opens up to Kate, both women are nourished and transformed in ways they never thought possible. “Charming [and] an unusually poignant tale of married love” (The Washington Post), Mornings with Rosemary is a feel-good novel that captures the heart and spirit of a community across generations—an irresistible tale of love, loss, aging, and friendship.*Originally published as The Lido

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No.49
76

Amazing Grace Adams

Littlewood, Fran
Henry Holt & Co

Bernadette, Eleanor Oliphant, Rosie, Ove . . . meet Amazing Grace Adams, the funny, touching, unforgettable story of an invisible everywoman pushed to the brink--who finally pushes back. Grace Adams gave birth, blinked, and now suddenly she is forty-five, perimenopausal and stalled--the unhappiest age you can be, according to the Guardian. And today she's really losing it. Stuck in traffic, she finally has had enough. To the astonishment of everyone, Grace gets out of her car and simply walks away. Grace sets off across London, armed with a £200 cake, to win back her estranged teenage daughter on her sixteenth birthday. Because today is the day she'll remind her daughter that no matter how far we fall, we can always get back up again. Because Grace Adams used to be amazing. Her husband thought so. Her daughter thought so. Even Grace thought so. But everyone seems to have forgotten. Grace is about to remind them . . . and, most important, remind herself.

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No.50
76

Now with a beautiful new series look, Miss Marple may be on holiday at a fancy London hotel, but she’s back on the case when a mysterious guest checks out…\nWhen Miss Marple comes up from the country for a holiday in London, she finds what she’s looking for at Bertram’s Hotel: traditional decor, impeccable service, and an unmistakable atmosphere of danger behind the highly polished veneer.\nYet not even Miss Marple can foresee the violent chain of events set in motion when an eccentric guest makes his way to the airport on the wrong day….

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No.51
76

The Other Mothers

Faulkner, Katherine
Gallery Books

The author of the "twisty, fast-paced" (The Sunday Times, London) Greenwich Park returns with a fresh and deftly paced thriller about murder, class, and motherhood in an exclusive London community. When a young nanny is found dead in mysterious circumstances, new mom, Tash, is intrigued. She has been searching for a story to launch her career as a freelance journalist. But she has also been searching for something else--new friends to help her navigate motherhood. She sees them at her son's new playgroup. The other mothers. A group of sleek, sophisticated women who live in a neighborhood of tree-lined avenues and stunning houses. The sort of mothers Tash herself would like to be. When the mothers welcome her into their circle, Tash discovers the kind of life she has always dreamt of--their elegant London townhouses a far cry from her cramped basement flat and endless bills. She is quickly swept up into their wealthy world via coffees, cocktails, and playdates. But when another young woman is found dead, it's clear there's much more to the community than meets the eye. The more Tash investigates, the more she's led uncomfortably close to the other mothers. Are these women really her friends? Or is there another, more dangerous reason why she has been so quickly accepted into their exclusive world? Who, exactly, is investigating who?

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No.52
76

Greenwich Park

Faulkner, Katherine
Gallery Books

“A twisty, fast-paced” (The Sunday Times, London) debut thriller, as electrifying as the #1 New York Times bestseller The Girl on the Train, about impending motherhood, unreliable friendship, and the high price of keeping secrets.\\nIn this “gloriously tangled game of cat and mouse that kept the twists coming until the very last moment” (Ruth Ware, #1 New York Times bestselling author), Helen’s idyllic life—handsome architect husband, gorgeous Victorian house, and cherished baby on the way—begins to change the day she attends her first prenatal class.\\nThere, she meets Rachel, an unpredictable single mother-to-be who doesn’t seem very maternal: she smokes, drinks, and professes little interest in parenthood. Still, Helen is drawn to her. Maybe Rachel just needs a friend. And to be honest, Helen’s a bit lonely herself. At least Rachel is fun to be with. She makes Helen laugh, invites her confidences, and distracts her from her fears.\\nBut her increasingly erratic behavior is unsettling. And Helen’s not the only one who’s noticed. Her friends and family begin to suspect that her strange new friend may be linked to their shared history in unexpected ways. When Rachel threatens to expose a past crime that could destroy all of their lives, it becomes clear that there are more than a few secrets laying beneath the broad-leaved trees and warm lamplight of Greenwich Park.

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No.53
76

The #1 New York Times Bestseller, USA Today Book of the Year, now a major motion picture starring Emily Blunt.The debut psychological thriller that will forever change the way you look at other people's lives, from the author of Into the Water and A Slow Fire Burning.“Nothing is more addicting than The Girl on the Train.”—Vanity Fair“The Girl on the Train has more fun with unreliable narration than any chiller since Gone Girl. . . . [It] is liable to draw a large, bedazzled readership.”—The New York Times“Marries movie noir with novelistic trickery. . . hang on tight. You'll be surprised by what horrors lurk around the bend.”—USA Today“Like its train, the story blasts through the stagnation of these lives in suburban London and the reader cannot help but turn pages.”—The Boston Globe“Gone Girl fans will devour this psychological thriller.”—PeopleEVERY DAY THE SAMERachel takes the same commuter train every morning and night. Every day she rattles down the track, flashes past a stretch of cozy suburban homes, and stops at the signal that allows her to daily watch the same couple breakfasting on their deck. She’s even started to feel like she knows them. Jess and Jason, she calls them. Their life—as she sees it—is perfect. Not unlike the life she recently lost.UNTIL TODAYAnd then she sees something shocking. It’s only a minute until the train moves on, but it’s enough. Now everything’s changed. Unable to keep it to herself, Rachel goes to the police. But is she really as unreliable as they say? Soon she is deeply entangled not only in the investigation but in the lives of everyone involved. Has she done more harm than good?

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No.54
76

Charlotte Holmes's life is in peril when her brilliant deductive skills are put to the test in her most dangerous investigation yet, locked aboard a ship at sea.\\nAfter feigning her own death in Cornwall to escape from Moriarty’s perilous attention, Charlotte Holmes goes into hiding. But then she receives a tempting offer: Find a dossier the crown is desperately seeking, and she might be able to go back to a normal life.\\nHer search leads her aboard the RMS Provence. But on the night Charlotte makes her move to retrieve the dossier, in the midst of a terrifying storm in the Bay of Biscay, a brutal murder takes place on the ship.\\nInstead of solving the crime, as she is accustomed to doing, Charlotte must take care not to be embroiled in this investigation, lest it become known to those who harbor ill intentions that Sherlock Holmes is abroad and still very much alive.

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No.55
76

USA Today bestselling author Sherry Thomas turns the story of the renowned Sherlock Holmes upside down in the first novel in this Victorian mystery series....With her inquisitive mind, Charlotte Holmes has never felt comfortable with the demureness expected of the fairer sex in upper class society. But even she never thought that she would become a social pariah, an outcast fending for herself on the mean streets of London.When the city is struck by a trio of unexpected deaths and suspicion falls on her sister and her father, Charlotte is desperate to find the true culprits and clear the family name. She’ll have help from friends new and old—a kind-hearted widow, a police inspector, and a man who has long loved her.But in the end, it will be up to Charlotte, under the assumed name Sherlock Holmes, to challenge society’s expectations and match wits against an unseen mastermind.An NPR Best Book of 2016

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No.56
76

London: A Biography

Ackroyd, Peter
Anchor

A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOKHere are two thousand years of London’s history and folklore, its chroniclers and criminals and plain citizens, its food and drink and countless pleasures. Blackfriar’s and Charing Cross, Paddington and Bedlam. Westminster Abbey and St. Martin in the Fields. Cockneys and vagrants. Immigrants, peasants, and punks. The Plague, the Great Fire, the Blitz. London at all times of day and night, and in all kinds of weather. In well-chosen anecdotes, keen observations, and the words of hundreds of its citizens and visitors, Ackroyd reveals the ingenuity and grit and vitality of London. Through a unique thematic tour of the physical city and its inimitable soul, the city comes alive.

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No.57
76

"So engrossing, clearheaded, and lucid that its arrival is not just welcome but cause for celebration."―Dan Cryer, Newsday Stephen Greenblatt, the charismatic Harvard professor who "knows more about Shakespeare than Ben Jonson or the Dark Lady did" (John Leonard, Harper's), has written a biography that enables us to see, hear, and feel how an acutely sensitive and talented boy, surrounded by the rich tapestry of Elizabethan life; full of drama and pageantry, and also cruelty and danger; could have become the world's greatest playwright. A young man from the provinces―a man without wealth, connections, or university education―moves to London. In a remarkably short time he becomes the greatest playwright not just of his age but of all time. His works appeal to urban sophisticates and first-time theatergoers; he turns politics into poetry; he recklessly mingles vulgar clowning and philosophical subtlety. How is such an achievement to be explained?Will in the World interweaves a searching account of Elizabethan England with a vivid narrative of the playwright's life. We see Shakespeare learning his craft, starting a family, and forging a career for himself in the wildly competitive London theater world, while at the same time grappling with dangerous religious and political forces that took less-agile figures to the scaffold. Above all, we never lose sight of the great works―A Midsummer Night's Dream, Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, Macbeth, and more―that continue after four hundred years to delight and haunt audiences everywhere. The basic biographical facts of Shakespeare's life have been known for over a century, but now Stephen Greenblatt shows how this particular life history gave rise to the world's greatest writer. Bringing together little-known historical facts and little-noticed elements of Shakespeare's plays, Greenblatt makes inspired connections between the life and the works and deliver "a dazzling and subtle biography" (Richard Lacayo, Time). Readers will experience Shakespeare's vital plays again as if for the first time, but with greater understanding and appreciation of their extraordinary depth and humanity.A Best Book of the Year: The New York Times 10 Best Books of 2004; Time magazine's #1 Best Nonfiction Book; A Washington Post Book World Rave ; An Economist Best Book ; A San Francisco Chronicle Best Book; A Christian Science Monitor Best Book; A Chicago Tribune Best Book; A Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Best Book ; NPR's Maureen Corrigan's Best. 16 pages of color illustrations

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No.58
76

A must-have for every fan of literature and Paris. The Book Lover's Guide to Paris is an extensive and informative travel companion, shedding new light on an ever-popular subject and spanning three centuries of the city's unique literary history, from Victor Hugo's Paris to the Lost Generation literati and present-day works such as Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code. Including unique, full-color photographs to reveal the settings readers have imagined in their favourite books, as well as insights into to lives, literature, haunts and homes of some of the world's best writers. This guide will enable book lovers to explore the abundance of literary history Paris has to offer, as well as making the most of the city itself.

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No.59
76

Many of the greatest names in literature have visited or made their home in the colorful and diverse metropolis of London. From Charles Dickens to George Orwell, Virginia Woolf to Bernadine Evaristo, London's writers have bought the city to life through some of the best known and loved stories and characters in fiction.This book takes you on an area-by-area journey through London to discover the stories behind the stories told in some of the most famous novels, plays and poems written in, or about, the city. * Find out which poet almost lost one of his most important manuscripts in a Soho pub.* Discover how Graham Greene managed to survive the German bomb that destroyed his Clapham home.* Climb down the dingy steps from London Bridge to Thames path below and imagine how it felt to be Nancy trying to save Oliver Twist, only to then meet her own violent death.* Drink in same pub Bram Stoker listened to the ghost stories that inspired Dracula, the plush drinking house where Noel Coward performed, and the bars and cafes frequented by modern writers.* Tour the locations where London's writers, and their characters lived, worked, played, loved, lost and died.This is the first literature guide to London to be fully illustrated with beautiful color photographs throughout the book. This unique book can be used a guidebook on a physical journey through London, or as a treasury of fascinating, often obscure tales and information for book lovers to read wherever they are.

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No.60
75

London: A Guide for Curious Wanderers presents a miscellany of historic and quirky curiosities to spot as you wander around the capital.

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No.61
75

Great Expectations (Signature Classics)

Dickens, Charles
Union Square and Co

Pip is a poor orphan, a boy with “no expectations” being raised by his unkind sister and her husband in a small home on the marshes of Kent. But when Pip meets the bizarre Miss Havisham and her beautiful ward, Estella, he starts to yearn for a life as a gentleman. However, Pip will discover that wealth and honesty do not go hand in hand, and that kindness can be found in the most surprising places. A love story, a mystery, and a sharp critique of upper-class English society, Great Expectations remains one of Dickens’s best-regarded works.

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No.62
75

Product Description \nA stunning new edition of Virginia Woolf's engulfing portrait of one day in a woman's life, featuring a new foreword by Jenny Offill, the New York Times bestselling author of Weather and Dept. of SpeculationA Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition\\n"Mrs. Dalloway said she would buy the flowers herself." It's one of the most famous opening lines in literature, that of Virginia Woolf's beloved masterpiece of time, memory, and the city. In the wake of World War I and the 1918 flu pandemic, Clarissa Dalloway, elegant and vivacious, is preparing for a party and remembering those she once loved. In another part of London, Septimus Smith is suffering from shell-shock and on the brink of madness. Their days interweave and their lives converge as the party reaches its glittering climax. In a novel in which she perfects the interior monologue and recapitulates the life cycle in the hours of the day, from first light to the dark of night, Woolf achieves an uncanny simulacrum of consciousness, bringing past, present, and future together, and recording, impression by impression, minute by minute, the feel of life itself.\\nThis edition is collated from all known proofs, manuscripts, and impressions to reflect the author's intentions, and includes a catalog of emendations, an illuminating introduction and endnotes by the distinguished feminist critic Elaine Showalter, and a map of Mrs. Dalloway's London.\n Review \n“Woolf’s classic feels even more relevant after a year of lockdown has rendered many of us so frantically introspective. . . . This new Penguin Classics edition is superb.” ―\nRon Charles, The Washington Post Book Club\\n“A revelation . . . A remarkably expansive and an irreducibly strange book. Nothing you might read in a plot summary prepares you for the multitudes it contains.” ―\nJenny Offill, from the Foreword“One of the most moving, revolutionary artworks of the twentieth century.” ―\nMichael Cunningham\\n"At a time when our most ordinary acts―shopping, taking a walk―have come to seem momentous, a matter of life or death, Clarissa’s vision of everyday shopping as a high-stakes adventure resonates in a peculiar way. We are all Mrs. Dalloway now." ―\nThe New Yorker\n About the Author \nVirginia Woolf (1882-1941), one of the great twentieth-century authors, was at the center of the Bloomsbury Group and is a major figure in the history of literary feminism and modernism. She published her first novel,\nThe Voyage Out, in 1915, and between 1925 and 1931 produced what are now regarded as her finest masterpieces, including\nMrs. Dalloway (1925),\nTo the Lighthouse (1927), and\nThe Waves (1931). She also maintained an astonishing output of literary criticism, short fiction, journalism, and biography, including the playfully subversive\nOrlando (1928) and the passionate feminist essay\nA Room of One's Own (1929).\\nJenny Offill (foreword) is the author of the\nNew York Times bestselling novel\nWeather; the nationally bestselling novel\nDept. of Speculation, which was one of\nThe New York Times Book Review's Ten Best Books of 2014; and the novel\nLast Things, which was a\nNew York Times Notable Book and a finalist for the\nLos Angeles Times Book Prize for First Fiction. She lives in upstate New York and teaches at Bard College and in the low residency program at Queens University of Charlotte.\\nElaine Showalter (introduction, notes) is Professor of English, Emerita, at Princeton University, and the author of many works of feminist literary criticism.\\nStella McNichol (editor) was the author of several critical studies on Virginia Woolf.

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No.63
75

Oliver Twist (Penguin Classics)

Dickens, Charles
Penguin Classics

A gripping portrayal of London's dark criminal underbelly, published in Penguin Classics with an introduction by Philip Horne.The story of Oliver Twist - orphaned, and set upon by evil and adversity from his first breath - shocked readers when it was published. After running away from the workhouse and pompous beadle Mr Bumble, Oliver finds himself lured into a den of thieves peopled by vivid and memorable characters - the Artful Dodger, vicious burglar Bill Sikes, his dog Bull's Eye, and prostitute Nancy, all watched over by cunning master-thief Fagin. Combining elements of Gothic Romance, the Newgate Novel and popular melodrama, Dickens created an entirely new kind of fiction, scathing in its indictment of a cruel society, and pervaded by an unforgettable sense of threat and mystery.\nThis Penguin Classics edition of Oliver Twist is the first critical edition to faithfully reproduce the text as its earliest readers would have encountered it from its serialisation in Bentley's Miscellany, and includes an introduction by Philip Horne, a glossary of Victorian thieves' slang, a chronology of Dickens's life, a map of contemporary London and all of George Cruikshank's original illustrations.\nFor more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

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No.64
75

"Madeline, Madeline, where have you been?" "We've been to London to see the Queen." The small but feisty heroine, Madeline, and her charming world have been loved by children and adults alike for eighty years. Take a trip to London in this timeless picture book classic. First published in 1939, MADELINE and its sequels have been adapted into numerous formats, spawning television series and a live action feature film. "The illustrations are stunningly beautiful and touchingly eccentric" The Guardian "No one has ever written more delightful stories" New York Herald Tribune

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No.65
75
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No.66
75

Katie In London

Mayhew, James
Orchard Books

Come on a magical tour with Katie and discover London's most famous sights!\nWhen Katie and her brother Jack visit London with Grandma, something very unexpected happens . . . One of the Trafalgar Square lions comes to life and takes them on a wonderful tour of all the best sights! Including Buckingham Palace, the Tower of London, Big Ben and the London Eye.\n'London comes to life in this magical adventure' - Independent \nFeaturing many of London's key landmarks, this storybook has become a bestselling introduction to London, and is perfect for children visiting the city for the first time.

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No.67
75

A stunning, full-color illustrated edition of the classic novel about the magical nanny who has delighted children and adults the world over. Experience the fantastical adventures of the magical nanny who inspired the classic film, stage show, and young imaginations the world over in a whole new way. This illustrated gift edition features silver foil on the cover and beautiful artwork by Júlia Sardà that re-imagines Mary's London in rich, full color. Ideal for the lifelong Mary Poppins fan or serious collector, this edition also makes for a lovely family read-aloud.

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No.68
75

A Bear Called Paddington

Bond, Michael
HarperCollins

The classic novel about Paddington—who's now a major movie star!Paddington Bear had traveled all the way from Peru when the Browns first met him in Paddington Station. Since then, their lives have never been quite the same . . . for ordinary things become extraordinary when a bear called Paddington is involved.First published in 1958, A Bear Called Paddington is the first novel by Michael Bond, chronicling the adventures of this lovable bear. Paddington has charmed readers for generations with his earnest good intentions and humorous misadventures. This brand-new edition of the classic novel contains the original text by Michael Bond and illustrations by Peggy Fortnum.

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