Good reads – 5 book recommendations for investing in your downtime
It’s not all about finance. Sometimes it’s good to read a good book and escape into a well-written story. With the Booker Prize releasing its shortlist ahead of the 2021 winner announcement later this year, our CEO David Bellingham lists some of his favourite previous Booker prize winners.
Midnight’s Children by Salman Rushdie was the 1981 winner. A great winding story that portrays the transition of India from British colonial rule through partition and to an independent state via the parallel and connected life of the main character, a boy called Saleem Sinai. This novel was also awarded the best of the Booker prize winners.
The Testaments, by Margaret Atwood, was a joint winner in 2019. This was the much-awaited sequel to The Handmaid’s Tale. If you have read The Handmaid’s Tale, or even watched the series, you will, like me, race through The Testaments. A great and satisfying story, made more shocking by the fact that Margaret Atwood only references things that have actually happened in the world when describing this society.
Amsterdam is a novel by Ian McEwan that is on this list, not just because of the title and reference to where we are based, but also because it is a darkly funny story with a deeper insight into human interrelations and societal pressures. A fun shorter read.
The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga, the 2008 award winner is a unique approach of a novel that starts out in the form of a letter written by the author to the Chinese president. It is a commentary on the class struggle in India and sometimes dark, occasionally gruesome and frequently funny novel. It was also made into a movie that was released earlier this year.
Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart. Finally, the most recent winner; Shuggie Bain won in 2020. This is a beautifully written account of a boy, Shuggie (Scottish for Hugh) growing up in Glasgow in the 1970s and 1980s to an alcoholic mother and absent father. A grim view of working-class Scotland in the era after the mines had closed that is sometimes depressing and anger-inducing. Not a light read, but a story that stays with you.
I hope you get to enjoy something on this list and feel free to share your favourites with us.
