David Mitchell's Cloud Atlas
Cloud Atlas is a collection of six interlocking stories that twist in and out of each other. Each story features a different main character. At first the stories don't seem to be related but then you come across a part where the previous story is in some way mentioned in the next story. Then you get suspicious about why these very different stories are in the same book! Cloud Atlas incorporates a historical journal, letters, science fiction, an unusual interview and so much more. To be ho...

Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels
Satire from the 1700s
Lemuel Gulliver has the habit of getting shipwrecked or stranded on odd little islands. His first adventure takes him to the land of Lilliput where he finds himself surrounded by a swarm of tiny people. After escaping those murderous munchkins and returning home he sets off on another adventure which puts him in the place of the Lilliputians. But Gulliver still has more strange places and people to visit (men who command a floating island, miserable and infirm immortals, horses that talk),...

Angela Carter's The Magic Toyshop
Enter the Magic Toyshop...
The first Angela Carter book I ever read was Nights at the Circus, which I enjoyed immensely so it may seem a bit strange that it took me a good 15 years or so before I picked up another of her books. The Magic Toyshop is the story of 15 year old Melanie who dreams of getting married and wishes she was 40 already so she'd know how her life had already turned out! After tragedy strikes, Melanie and her younger siblings, Jonathon and Victoria are sent to live with their uncle above his toysho...

The Last Kingdom by Bernard Cornwell
One English Boy's Life Amongst the Vikings
The Last Kingdom, by Bernard Cornwell, starts in Northumbria, England, in 866 AD and revolves around the life of Uhtred, an English boy who is captured by invading Danes and brought up as a Viking. The Last Kingdom and its sequels are the story of how England became the country it is today, about the struggle between Christianity and Paganism and how those warring religions shaped the country. Anyone with an interest in the Saxon chronicles would enjoy this book, although expect a wry take ...