Read Alike – If you liked these books, why not try these?

Reading for Pleasure: December 2021

Have you enjoyed reading a particular book and looking to read something exactly like it next? A book by the same author, or something in the same genre or subject perhaps? Or even because they are wacky and original. 

For December in our “Reading for Pleasure” series, we will be featuring books that are like some of the popular books that are available here in the library. 

Anita and Me 〰 Brick Lane

If you liked Meera Syal’s poignant tale of growing up in multicultural Britain “Anita and Me”, why not try Monica Ali’s “Brick Lane”, an epic saga about a Bangladeshi family living in the UK and explores the British immigrant experience.  

Monica Ali is a bestselling writer whose work has been translated into 26 languages. She is the author of five books: Brick Lane, Alentejo Blue, In the Kitchen, Untold Story and Love Marriage. Brick Lane was shortlisted for the 2003 Man Booker Prize for Fiction and was made into a film that was released in 2007. 

The Map of Time 〰 The Eyre Affair

If you liked “The Map of Time” by Felix J. Palma, an inventive story that weaves sci-fi and fantasy with history, pick up this original, ingenious and wacky read from the shelf, by featured author Jasper Fforde. His debut novel, “The Eyre Affair”, was finally published after 76 rejection letters in 2001.  

It spins a tale that intertwines mystery, comedy and intrigue in a post-modern world. It follows the literary detective Thursday Next, whose job includes spotting forgeries of Shakespeare’s lost plays, improving narrative plotlines and rescuing characters that have been kidnapped from literary masterpieces.  

If this has piqued your interest and curiosity, head over to our libraries on campus to discover our “Read Alike” recommendations and suggestions on both fiction and non-fiction titles.  

    

 Ghost , Horror and Mystery Stories

From medieval cathedrals to moody (or pretending to be) teenagers, to films, novels and computer games, the word Gothic, the Gothic sensibility, has been with us a long time. The first Goths were Germanic tribes forced into the Roman Empire by the ferocious Huns advancing towards Europe from the east. You might say they came originally as refugees, but they were part of the mass migrations that contributed (a bit) to the fall of Rome in the West.

So, when Renaissance writers on architecture were looking for an abusive term to describe several centuries of a style they despised, they picked on the Goths. After all, the Goths had ‘destroyed Rome’ and replaced the purity of Classical styles with their ‘barbaric’ pointy arches, coloured windows and fussy decoration. Of course, the cathedral style that began in medieval France had nothing to do with the Goths, but the name stuck.

Moving on to the eighteenth century, a new kind of emotional, romantic literature appeared. It mixed in a whole stew of ever-popular fascinations such as sex, death, bats, fear and virgins. As the setting was often the tumble-down remains of the original architectural style, the name Gothic was applied from the beginning and has remained as a shorthand for a wide range of literary genres. The Victorian Gothic Revival, a building style that is still all around us, helped preserve that familiar sensibility.

So anything with ghosts, blood, graveyards, sickly young women, spooky music, Halloween and all its cheesy paraphernalia, can all be labelled Gothic.

Suggested Reading:

Seduced by Twillight: the allure and contradictory messages of the popular saga by Natalie Wilson (2011)

American gothic culture: an Edinburgh companion, edited by Joel Faflak and Jason Haslam (2017)

The Woman in Black by Susan Hill (1998)

Both campuses in Luton and Bedford display a selection of items on the subject for further inspiration and reading.