We Recommend

Heart -breakingly personal and profoundly universal in its portrayal of human suffering and the human condition. The book follows four characters in Mumbai, India during a period known as The Emergency under Indira Ghandi. At the end, I wept with anger and wanted to catch the next flight to India (although I'm not sure what I would have done once I got there).

What do we really know of ourselves? What memories do we store to create the story of our life? The winner of last year's Man Booker Prize focusses on Anthony, a 60-something-old man whose boring and orderly life falls apart after he receives a letter. Close to perfection with nary a wasted word. I had to read it twice.

This is perfect for those of you who think history books are lifeless, monotonous ramblings by lifeless, monotonous ramblers. So not true if you know Margaret MacMillan, a brilliant storyteller. It's a captivating narrative history on the peace conference after WWI, the Big Four who came to the table to carve out and create empires, and the other colourful characters who had a role in those decisions the impact of which can still be felt to this day.

A throat-clutching sense of dread is what I felt while reading this book by Nobel Prize winner, Jose Saramago. A strange epidemic of blindness hits a city. Almost no one is spared and a group of strangers are forced to live together in an asylum. It may take some pages before you get used to Saramago's minimal punctuation, but soon you'll be hurtling along with the characters not seeing or knowing what lies ahead.

Hysterically funny. This collection of restaurant reviews will have you cringing and laughing at the same time. That's because A.A. Gill of the U.K.'s Sunday Times has not one iota of politcial correctness. But don't worry. You'll get over yours in a hurry because he can turn a phrase like no one else. Here's one gem: "The amuse-geule came, as I knew it would: a crab cake the size of a shirt button that collapsed into vapours at the sight of a fork."

THE short story collection that few seem to know about. I can't help but compare other collections to Anderson's and not many have the raw power of his stories, which are told in a deceptively simple style. I was deeply affected when I read it as a teen and years later, still find it moves me. Un crie de coeur.

She is short, ugly and chubby with bunions on her feet, but the mind of Renee Michel is a thing of beauty and refinement. Who could guess that the inner lives and philosophical ramblings of Renee, a middle-aged concierge at an upscale apartment building in Paris, and Paloma Josse, a precocious 12-year-old girl who lives in the building, would be so incredibly engaging and amusing? I developed a deep affection for these characters and the end caught me off guard.

A head spinner of a book that challenges what you think you know about your brain. Dr. Doidge examines the fascinating frontier of brain plasticity describing real-life cases of people who've recovered from all kinds of devastating brain trauma. 'Never say never' must be his motto.

A haunting and restless novel. Beautifully written. The story follows several generations of a family in Ireland and Canada beginning with a young woman who falls madly in love with a sailor who's washed ashore. Now that's a love story.

I don't read many biographies but this one captivated me. It's a very personal, highly detailed and for the most part, sympathetic account of the doctor turned revolutionary, who along with Fidel Castro and a band of 80 some odd men, landed in Cuba and with the help of supporters, took over a country! (Unbelievable...80 men and most of them were killed. And you should see the rickety boat they came in... double unbelievable.) Whether you like his politics or not, this man walked the talk. But not the easiest man to live with, just ask his wife Aleida. (She's still alive.)