Safie’s Comments (group member since Feb 25, 2016)

Safie’s comments from the My Top Five Books group.

The Remains of the Day is beautifully written, although the film is just as powerful, and it is Anthony Hopkins's voice I now hear when I read it.

Mine too. It was the first book I borrowed when, aged 10, I was given an honorary adult membership card at my local library

Today is the first day of Spring, from my point of view anyway. (Not from the POV of most people in Ireland). But it feels like Spring so here goes:

1) If this is a Man/The Truce - Primo Levi

Probably the most powerful book (or rather books) I have read about the holocaust.

2) The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro

A profound and unforgettable treatise on repressed love and regret.

3) Eva Luna - Isabel Allende

Almost everything Allende writes is beautiful and I think this is her best work.

4) Saint Maybe - Anne Tyler

A young man takes a remarkable step to repair a wrong. A story of the unexpected turns life can take told in Anne Tyler's inimitably warm, nonjudgmental style.

5) The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams

Adams bequeathed to the world the gift of unending laughter. This is still funny, after all these years.

Great list. You remind me that I have revisit the Turgenev novel. It stunned me when I was about 17. And at some point, I will need to find the time to finish Les Miserables.

Thank you. Your turn to provide a list, I believe.

So here goes with my first list:

My Top Five Books today are:
Anne Tyler - Searching for Caleb
Because of the profound sadness not just of losing someone but of finding them again.
Thomas Hardy - The Return of the Native
A novel that deals as so many of Hardy's novels do with the huge consequences that can be derived from seemingly insignificant acts.
Bill Bryson - A Short History of Nearly Everything
Simply the best rough guide to science I have ever read.
The God of Small Things - Arundhati Roy
Someone asked to borrow this recently, and I had to refuse. I cannot allow it out of my proximity.
Evelyn Waugh - A Handful of Dust
A book that flickers onto my radar every now and again, and when it does, it catches at something deep within.

People often ask me to name my top five favourite books of all time. The trouble is, these are choices that can change from day to day. They can change in the course of one single day. I created this group to take account of this ever evolving selection. People are welcome to post and repost their top five lists as their choices change.