After putting my ten best authors down I figured that my 5 best books would follow on. The only criteria for this has been those books that I would happily pick up and re-read and no matter how often I do this they still retain the same thrill as the first reading. Again this is my own list and my opinions will not be similar to someone elses. So in no particular order here they are.
A Town Like Alice - Nevile Shute
This book is probably one of the most selfless love stories I have ever read. The book tells the tale of Jean Paget who was one of a party of women who was taken prisoner by the Japanese and were forced to walk as a group all across Malaysia as the Japanese didn’t know where to put them. During this trek she meets Joe Harmon an Australian soldier and they fall in love. Following the war she returns to England where she inherits a large amount of money. She decides to find Joe Harmon who is now working in a small australian outback town called Willstown. Although he is in love with her he doesn’t want her to marry him and live there as it is not as nice a town as nearby Alice springs. In order to marry Joe, Jean resolves with her inheritance to transform Willstown into Alice Springs.
Tales of the City - Armistead Maupin
This story tells the tale of Mary Ann Singleton who moves to San Francisco and becomes a tenant at 28 Barbary Lane run by the mysterious Anna Madrigal. The book introduces all the characters that form large parts of this and later books Michael Tolliver, Brian, Mona Ramsey etc. The books covers all aspects of san Franciscan life including its thriving Gay culture whilst basically making us all part of the strange and unusual lives of the residents and friends of Barbary Lane.
Bless the Child - Cathy Cash Spellman
This book concerns the fight of good over evil over a child called Cody who is the keeper of the Isis Amulet which if it falls into the wrong hands can bring forth the Evil Sekhmet Stone that can cause the end of the world. Full of religious and occult references, gods and teh devil himself this is a book that I enjoy re-reading.
Ripper - Michael Slade
Ripper is the story of 10 crime authors sent to a lonely island as part of a literary competition where they are being murdered one after the other. This is one of Slade’s best and has all my favourite Slade characters Zinc, De Clerq and of course the Mad Dog.
My Family and Other Animals - Gerald Durrell
This story chronicles some of the time that the Durrell Family spent in Corfu after leaving the cold of Britain for the promise of warmer climates. The book not only covers all the interesting animals that Gerald, then 12, encounters during his time there but also packs in interesting anecdotes about his eccentric family ie his mother, brothers Larry and Leslie and his sister Margot. The book is so funny that it is very difficult to put down.