5 books to make you sound intelligent at parties
WOLF HALL and BRING UP THE BODIES Hilary Mantel
Both books won Bookers. Both make British history addictive. Both remind you that you don’t need a fantasy when you have fact (and Thomas Cromwell). Say stuff like: “Hilary Mantel wrote the second book in just five months. What discipline!”
THE GREAT GATSBY F Scott Fitzgerald
The language, the slow unravelling of dreams and illusions, the romance and politics of the 20th century – it’s all there. Let’s hope the movie will be half as good. Say stuff like: “Fitzgerald captured a society and a set of young people; and he wrote them into myth.”
BEHIND THE BEAUTIFUL FOREVERS Katherine Boo
Both books won Bookers. Both make British history addictive. Both remind you that you don’t need a fantasy when you have fact (and Thomas Cromwell). Say stuff like: “Hilary Mantel wrote the second book in just five months. What discipline!”
THE GREAT GATSBY F Scott Fitzgerald
The language, the slow unravelling of dreams and illusions, the romance and politics of the 20th century – it’s all there. Let’s hope the movie will be half as good. Say stuff like: “Fitzgerald captured a society and a set of young people; and he wrote them into myth.”
BEHIND THE BEAUTIFUL FOREVERS Katherine Boo
Everyone has an opinion on Ms Boo. They all want to know how she
got so close to India. Say stuff like: “After spending three years in
India, she can see what we refuse to believe.”
THE ORIGINS OF SEX Faramerz Dabhoiwala
In 1612, if you were found guilty of adultery in Westminster, you’d be stripped to the waist, whipped and banished from the city. By 1650, you’d be killed for it. Today, nobody cares. Dr Dabhoiwala explains how. Say stuff like: “The book is not about the origin of sex, but the evolution of the Western attitude to it.”
SETHJI Shobhaa De
Her first novel in a decade. Has she changed with age? Have your tastes moved on? Say stuff like: “Oh, come on. Sethji is not Nitin Gadkari. Even fiction isn’t that daring, surely!”
THE ORIGINS OF SEX Faramerz Dabhoiwala
In 1612, if you were found guilty of adultery in Westminster, you’d be stripped to the waist, whipped and banished from the city. By 1650, you’d be killed for it. Today, nobody cares. Dr Dabhoiwala explains how. Say stuff like: “The book is not about the origin of sex, but the evolution of the Western attitude to it.”
SETHJI Shobhaa De
Her first novel in a decade. Has she changed with age? Have your tastes moved on? Say stuff like: “Oh, come on. Sethji is not Nitin Gadkari. Even fiction isn’t that daring, surely!”
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