Hilarie: My books at bedtime are a right good read

Mar 6 2010 by Hilarie Stelfox, Huddersfield Daily Examiner

RECOMMENDING books is always a bit risky because what one person believes to be the greatest novel since War and Peace may turn out to be another’s Midnight’s Children.

Of course, Midnight’s Children may be your idea of literature at its most fabulous. It’s certainly not mine.

However, today I’m going to chance it and make a few recommendations for World Book Day, celebrated this week.

First on my list of favourite books from the last couple of decades is the wonderfully atmospheric Snow Falling On Cedars by the American writer David Guterson. First published in 1994, it became an instant best seller.

I fell in love with this book because it was the first contemporary novel I’d read that made me fully understand the phrase ‘beautifully written.’

It’s a powerful story, with a central theme of racial prejudice.

Set in the years after World War II on the US Washington coast, it follows the trial of a Japanese American accused of murdering a fisherman.

What makes this book doubly appealing is the fact that in some squeamish North American schools it was banned for its exploration of racial themes, sexual content and obscene language.

However, there’s nothing gratuitous about Snow Falling On Cedars and it’s one of those books that lives with the reader for a long time afterwards.

Second up is something completely different – The 2½ Pillars of Wisdom by Alexander McCall Smith.

Although McCall Smith is best known for his No 1 Ladies Detective Agency, this little gem stands alone both in its subject matter and the fact that so far the author has produced only this volume in what he calls his Von Igelfeld Series.

I have been impatiently awaiting more since its publication in 2003. In fact the book is three short novels in one. The stories are so drily funny that they caused me to snort out loud while reading them on holiday by the side of a swimming pool.

They feature a pompous German professor of linguistics, Dr Moritz-Maria von Igelfeld, whose claim to fame is writing a book on Portuguese irregular verbs. His adventures are deliciously entertaining and quite ridiculous.

And my third offering is the historical work, featured in the BBC’s Top 100 books, Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett.

This book follows the fortunes of a medieval architect as he sets out to build a cathedral at a time when church and state were heavily intertwined. Historians probably throw their hands up in horror at such novels because they almost certainly contain many inaccuracies. But I think that Follett manages to capture the feel of the times and has filled his book with many fascinating characters – from earthy peasants and greedy priests to ruthless lords of the manor.

It’s a big book with a big theme and, as they say, a right good read.

Now, I’m sure that not everyone will approve of my choices. If that’s the case, then let me know what you’d recommend. I’m always open to suggestions – but I can’t promise that I’ll agree with you either.