GreenMetropolis.Com

** One of the best novels ever written ** Recommended by Rob

A discrete advertisement in "The Times", addressed to "those who appreciate Wisteria and Sunshine..", is the prelude to revelatory month for four very different women.

** The most beautiful book i have ever read - i know i was going to love it by the third page ** Recommended by Donne

** A must read for everyone. Powerful gripping to the very last page. ** Recommended by Sarah

Chronicled from the perspective of a fanatical youngster, through disillusioned adolescence, to an adult "who should know better", the author - an Arsenal fan - examines the absurdities and traumas of everyday life and football. Combines anecdote with a wider commentary on the state of the game.

** This really is something special, magical. It's one of those rare books that when you've finished it, you feel like something's missing ** Recommended by Louise

** A beautifully crafted, lyrical modern fairytale ** Recommended by Marianne

The night Dr David Henry delivers his wife's twins is a night that will haunt five lives for ever. For though David's son is a healthy boy, his daughter has Down's syndrome. And, in a shocking act of betrayal whose consequences only time will reveal, he tells his wife their daughter died while secretly entrusting her care to a nurse.

** A wonderfully absorbing story about an artistic but penniless Edwardian family, a serious study of creativity, partly autobiographical. Rebecca West is overlooked as an important early 20th century writer. My copy (Virago 1970s) is in pieces, I've read it so often. ** Recommended by Judith

It is 1941 and Captain Antonio Corelli, a young Italian officer, is posted to the Greek island of Cephallonia as part of the occupying forces. When the local doctor's daughter's letters to her fiance go unanswered, the working of the eternal triangle seems inevitable.

** I love the way he tells this story,his adventures and the interactions that he has at all stages of his life seem credible in their detail and content.He also includes travel and cross cultural experiences which illuminate that regardless of culture people are basically the same.A memorable work! ** Recommended by Erica

** The ultimate anti-war book, mixing satire with farce, and ending with a book that questions everything. ** Recommended by Ian

** Please forget Disney! This is a great read, full of wit and wisdom, and so much more than just a children's book. I prefer the gentler orginal version to the sadder and more cynical rewrite that appeared in the Once and Future King. ** Recommended by Gillian

Kamryn Matika has a great job, a hectic social life and no responsibilities - one birthday card will change all of that for ever ...

** I can read this book again and again, it inspires me and reassures me that it's okay to think 'outside the box'. One of those childrens books that becomes an adults favourite! ** Recommended by Kate

The story of a woman struggling to reclaim her dignity after a violent, abusive marriage and a worsening drink problem. Paula Spencer recalls her contented childhood, the audacity she learned as a teenager, the exhilaration of her romance with Charlo, and the marriage to him that left her powerless.

Elizabeth Bennet is at first determined to dislike Mr. Darcy, who is handsome and eligible. This misjudgment only matched in folly by Darcy's arrogant pride. Their first impressions give way to truer feelings in a comedy concerned with happiness and how it might be achieved.

** It's laugh-out-loud funny, with fascinating detail. The warmth of Corfu radiates straight off the page ** Recommend by Emma

This work weaves together three stories of human love within a larger tapestry of lives inhabiting the mountains and small farms of southern Appalachia. It portrays various people who find their connections to one another, and to the flora and fauna with whom they share a place.

Jay Gatsby is the man who has everything. But one thing will always be out of his reach. Everybody who is anybody is seen at his glittering parties. Day and night his Long Island mansion buzzes with bright young things drinking, dancing and debating his mysterious character.

Sandra Gregory desperate to get home, agreed to smuggle an addict's personal supply of heroin. This memoir tells of the events leading up to her arrest, and the horrific conditions in Lard Yao prison. Following relentless campaigning by her parents, who refused to forget they had a daughter, she was pardoned by the King of Thailand in 2000.

** Realistic portrait of life at that time. Tragic outcome to the inner fight between a woman's passionate nature and duty. ** Recommended by Christine

A very warm, funny, affectionate tale of growing up in Dublin in the 50s and 60s -- a true-life rags to riches with all the appeal of a family saga.

One of a series of fiction titles for schools. Scout, the keen-eyed narrator, and her brother Jem interrupt their games to champion their lawyer father when, in a hostile, racist town in the American South, he battles to defend Tom, who is black and accused of murder.

Erases the boundaries of language, genre and time to offer a meditation on humanity's dangerous will to power, and where it may lead us.

** It describes the author's life as a child in a rural village in the 1920s and 1930s with amazing detail and passion and transports you to the hardship of a time long gone (hopefully never to return). ** Recommended by Susan

They plan to have a quiet country honeymoon. Then Lord Peter Wimsey and his bride Harriet Vane find the previous owner's body in the cellar. Set in a country village seething with secrets and snobbery, this is a love story with detective interruptions and a detective story with romantic interruptions.

Short listed for the Richard & Judy Book Club 2007. Presents a story set in Los Angeles about one man's effort to bring himself back to life. This work reveals what can happen if you are willing to open up to the world around you.

** I saw the film in the summer holidays and bought and read the book. I was hooked on TH. When I went back to school in September it was a set book for mock GCE. It was also a set text for a Speech & Drama exam I did that autumn. Total immersion 40 years ago has stayed with me. I still love TH and reread my old favourites when I need comfort and solace ** Recommended by Sharyn

** The heroine who gets so much wrong whilst all-unknowing, and the amazingly good characters in this novel, make it my favourite Austen book. ** Recommended by Emma

** A wonderful book that makes you laugh and cry and puts a whole new perspective on 'The Wizard Of Oz' A brilliant read. ** Recommended by XXchezXX

** It's exciting, nerve wracking and shocking all at the same time. Never have i felt so uncomfortable reading a book. In my opinion Collins was the best of his time (yes - even better than Dickens) and at the same time ahead of his time. ** Recommended by Dawn

** Writing during the Thirties and Forties, he evokes the real feeling for English village characters that have practically disappeared now. I believe this book is part of a trilogy. ** Recommended by Martin

** A witty, bittersweet and beautifully written romance, with a charming heroine redeeming (possibly) a dissipated and world-weary hero. Lovers of good English start here ! ** Recommended by Thelma

** This book really helped me through a family bereavement. It is sensitive, at times quite emotional but funny as well, and seems to make sense of life when you are feeling most vulnerable. Everyone should read this book. ** Recommended by Clare

** An enchanting read. Short enough to read at one sitting and never fails to make me feel good. ** Recommended by Elizabeth

** This book was a fascinating read. It gives great insight into the autistic mind, is highly entertaining, but most of all it pinches at little facets of my 'ordinary' personality and makes it painfully obvious how close to autistic some of us are (yes, I mean it!) As an engineer with a mathematical mind, I found a lot of parallels. ** Recommended by Michael

This extraordinary, magical novel is the story of Clare and Henry who have known each other since Clare was six and Henry was thirty-six, and were married when Clare was twenty-two and Henry thirty.

In the Polish village where he was born, Leo Gursky fell in love with a young girl called Alma and wrote a book in her honour. These days he is just about surving life in America. Meanwhile, a young girl, hoping to find a cure for her mother's loneliness, stumbles across a book that changed her mother's life and she goes in search of the author.

** 'Oliver Twist' exemplifies many of the qualities which make Dickens so great- memorable characters (Fagin, Bill sykes, the Artful Dodger etc etc), humour and pathos in equal measure, a gripping story, and providing a grim insight into London's misery (at the time). ** Recommended by Brian

A tale of disaster at sea. The only survivor from the wreck of a cargo ship on the Pacific, 16-year-old Pi spends 221 days on a lifeboat with a hyena, a zebra, a female orang-utan and a 450-pound Royal Bengal Tiger called Richard Parker.

** Like Harry Potter, these books were written for children however these books hold a much greater apeal for an adult reader, examining life, death, the soul, evolution and religion whilst maintaining an exciting story with very engaging characters. The stories are extremely well written, keep you turning the pages and have the reader thinking about some of the biggest questions about life- fabulous stuff! ** Recommended by Jane

Jo Clifford, a successful journalist, is all set to disprove hypnosis and past-life regression, until she submits to a simple hypnotic session and finds herself reliving the experiences of Matilda, Lady of Hay, the wife of a baron at the time of King John.

Enter the world of Gormenghast, the crumbling castle to which the seventy-seventh Earl, Titus Groan, is Lord and heir. It is the cobwebbed kingdom of Byzantine government and age-old rituals, a world primed to implode beneath the weight of centuries of intrigue, treachery, manipulation, and murder. This work is a sequel to "Titus Groan".

All three parts of epic masterpiece 'The Lord of the Rings' in one paperback. Features brand new packaging, the definitive edition of the text, fold-out flaps with the original two-colour maps, and a revised and expanded index.

** A beautifully-written, charming, magical children's tale that will never fail to inspire wonder in me, no matter how many times I read it! ** Recommended by Emma

** A superb story of the lives of twin brothers in a Welsh farming family, and their small community, from Victorian times to the seventies, with a beautifully drawn cast of somewhat eccentric characters. ** Recommended by Felicity

** A story which charts the lives and loves of a group of people living in San Francisco. Great light-hearted fun ** Recommended by Neal

Eleven-year-old Owen Meany, playing in a Little League baseball game in New Hampshire, hits a foul ball and kills his best friend's mother. Owen does not believe in accidents and believes he is God's instrument. What happens to Owen after that 1953 foul is both extraordinary and terrifying.