Have you discovered a hidden gem? Share your "must read" with The Book Programme.
May
"Memoirs of a Geisha" by Arthur Golden, it is a fictional story about a japanese girl, with distinctive blue grey eyes, who becomes a geisha in order to find the man she once met on a bridge. it is beautifully written
Paul Caulfield
The Road by Cormac McCarthy. A beautiful, allegorical tale of a post-apocalyptic journey by a father and son toward a tragic and uncertain future. spare but lyrical, this is a 21st century classic.
Thomas, Belfast
鈥淓xtremely Loud and Incredibly Close鈥 by Jonathan Safran Foer, although his first novel; 鈥淓verything is Illuminated鈥 is equally as good.
paul
The Kite Runner is a life changing book. Read it now!
Frederick Williams
David Thomson: Woodbrook. This is a personal account of the author's involvement with an Anglo-Irish landowning family who farmed in Co. Leitrim during the 1930s. He interleaves his personal reminiscences with penetrating insights into the great events of Irish history - the Famine, the Penal Laws, the Plantations, the Emergency, showing how these affected the lives and thinking of the ordinary people he knew and loved. He was a Scot born in India, and has taught me, an Englishman who have lived in Northern Ireland for over twenty years, more about my adoptive country than any other book I've read. And it's beautifully written.
Angela McMenamy
Communion: A True Story by Whitley Strieber. For those with an open mind about alien aductions, this is an analysis of the effects of a personal experience where even the subject of it questions the reality of it. An intriguing story which may leave you sleeping with the lights on for a while!
Owen
My War Gone By, I Miss It So. By Anthony Loyd this book is as visceral I dissection of war as I have read. The author travelled to both the Bosnian and Chechen conflicts freelance and reported from the front-line on both. His book examines the pain and carnage of war, as well as addiction and the personal struggles which led him to the warzones.
Ian Craig
When I was a teenager I read Aldous Huxleys' 'Brave new world'. Bearing in mind when it was written, it really was advanced and more than a little disturbing.
Caraline Malcolmson
From Baghdad With Love, J Kopelman. The story of a soldier stationed in Iraq and the pursuit of saving a puppy and bringing it home to America
tina brown
On The Brinks by Sam Millar.A powerful book. I read this in London and it make me homesick for Belfast. It is dark, funny and honest. He shows warts and all and makes no excuses about the mistakes in his lfe.
Bill Corr
CH Spurgeon on Creation and Evolution, complied by David Harding in an interview format. A marvellous book based on information gleaned from the work of CHS, who was one of the first Christian leaders to recognize the dangers of Evolution. With a Forward from, Professor Andy McIntosh.
Nigel Bakhai
'How To Commit Suicide In Ten Easy Steps' by KJ Rolling because it is choc full of spoof commercials and is a scathing swipe at the likes of loyalism and celebrities.
Sam
"Keep the Aspidistra Flying" by George Orwell. The struggle of a socialist conscience with the choices in life that money brings.
david speers
the wasp factory by ian banks- pure twisted genius
Joe Murray
On The Brinks by sam millar. A powerful memoir by now one of the stars of Irish writing. You will laugh and cry. Then read it all again...
Lem
It's called "The Tree with no Branches" by Ella Race. It's about nine-year-old Leila who, after witnessing a dramatic event, is sent away on holiday by her parents to stay with her aunt and uncle in the North of England.As this holiday becomes an annual occurrence throughout her teenage years, she discovers a branch of her family whose triumphs and tragedies are not as ordinary as they appear.
Debbie Johnston
'The American Pastoral' by Philip Roth condemns America for all its flaws, long before it was trendy to do so, a chilling, life altering read.
Jose Fernandez
My hidden gem is Phantoms in the Brain, by V.S. Ramachandran. Helps me to understand my own 'inner life'.
Alan in Belfast
Anthony Blair, Captain of School by an Old Boy (John Morrison) - it鈥檚 a fun satire, written by a Westminster correspondent in his idle moments, which examines the sense of darkness and futility that clouds over Blair, a school boy under the wing of Headmaster Dr Bush!
John Wright
Ayn Rand's 'The Virtue of Selfishness'. A must-read in any serious pursuit of ethical integrity.
Michael McDonald
Bob was a Protestant Horse, because it gives a 'novel' view of Northern Ireland
Hazel Irvine
My favourite has to be Eureka Street which made me laugh and think. Tried Ripley Bogle by the same author but it just didn't grab me in the same way. Special mention for the humour and compassion in all of Colin Bateman's novels.
Colin Bateman
Divorcing Jack - because I have no shame
Declan McAlister
Eureka Street by Robert McLiam Wilson is the best book written about Belfast of the last 50 years. It straddles the pre and post ceasefire world and makes Belfast a living, vibrant character that is by turns beautiful and unforgiving. It's a very special work.
Nicola Brady
One by One in the Darkness, by Deirdre Madden. The focus of this story is three sisters and their mother, and how they each individually deal with the way the Troubles have effected their family. I always appreciate a serious female role, where so many other novelists would choose to have a male protagonist in similar stories.
Neil
That Which Was by Glenn Patterson because I just read it at the weekend and enjoyed it.
Deborah
Eureka Street
Robert McLiam Wilson
William Boyd
Fodder by Tara West: captures the zeitgeist in Belfast, from the cafe culture through to cultural diversity. Unpretentious, original, well-written, very funny, memorable characters.
Noel Russell
Call My Brother Back. a highly evocative recreation of a family's life in Belfast during the Troubles..of the 20s and 30s.
Sites Like This