The Reading Book

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The Taiwanese-American author and New Yorker contributor Hua Hsu’s Pulitzer prize-winning Stay True (Macmillan, Sept) is finally publishing in the UK. A portrait of Hsu’s friendship with a college friend who died tragically young, it is a richly observed examination of grief, being an outsider and the healing power of art. In the melancholy Father & Son (Picador, Sept), the Soft City author Jonathan Raban, who died at the start of this year, reflects on his relationship with his army captain father, and tells the intertwined stories of his father’s war years, as revealed in his letters to Raban’s mother, and his own recovery from a life-changing stroke. Samur D, et al. (2018). Does a single session of reading literary fiction prime enhanced mentalising performance? Four replication experiments of Kidd and Castano. DOI: This is a reading list for people who don’t have time for unimportant books. I only list the best books to read in each category. You can be sure that each one is fantastic and will be worth your time.

Help your child build their vocabulary and develop spelling skills with age-appropriate dictionaries from Oxford children's dictionaries. Children's fiction Follow your child’s natural interest and look up information on the internet. They won’t notice that they are practising their reading. They will also be practising vital retrieval and research skills Do you find dinosaurs fascinating? If so, this is one of the must-read books on the subject. Steve Brusatte reveals the different dinosaurs that roamed the planet – and the different worlds in which they lived. 40. A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson

Cain K, et al. (2011). Matthew effects in young readers: Reading comprehension and reading experience aid vocabulary development.DOI: Rich Dad Poor Dad: What the Rich Teach Their Kids About Money That the Poor and Middle Class Do Not! by Robert T. Kiyosaki There have been plenty of books written about Britney Spears, including Heart to Heart, which the singer co-wrote with her mother in 2000. But her autobiography The Woman in Me (Gallery, Oct) promises a new level of candour as it covers not just her childhood and early years of fame but the controversial conservatorship that placed her father in control of her medical and financial affairs in 2008, and which was terminated after a sensational court hearing two years ago. Faber is best known for his novels Under the Skin and The Crimson Petal and the White, but he’s been incubating a different kind of book for years, one about his greatest passion, music. The result is a series of finely tuned observations formed from personal memories, nuggets of neuroscience and interviews with musical luminaries, in which he attempts to explain “what really happens when we hear, and what’s really going on when we listen”. The answer is a combination of biology and biography. Sounds simple enough: Faber’s kaleidoscope-like book explains why it really isn’t. Orwell tells a fairy tale of a revolution against tyranny that ends in even more unjust totalitarianism. The animals on the farm are rife with idealism and desire to create a world of justice, equality, and progress. However, the new regimen attempts to control every aspect of the animals’ lives. 13. Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

If your child is using Letters and Sounds, you can find this list of eBooks by Letters and Sounds Phases useful. Bear in mind the following: Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby is said to be the quintessential novel of the Jazz Age. Set in 1922 amongst unfathomable indulgence and decadence, the novel highlights a man’s struggle to earn the love of the woman he’s obsessed with. Business and Money Must-Read Books 20. Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill

Open Library

Our Read with Oxford range of levelled readers help children develop reading confidence at home: Read with Oxford books > The Age of Surveillance Capitalism: The Fight for a Human Future at the New Frontier of Power by Shoshana Zuboff The Age of Surveillance Capitalism is one of the top must-read books on technology. The author gives us a look at how personal data has become a new form of capital. 32. Uncanny Valley by Anna Wiener Charlotte’s Web is a great reminder to be kind to all living creatures. This magical story takes place on a farm where a little girl tries to save her piglet from slaughter. Fern, the little girl, enlists the help of her farm friends to execute her clever plan. 16. Frankenstein by Mary Shelley A sprawling survey of the evolution of women’s bodies over 200m years, Cat Bohannon’s deeply researched book covers everything, as the author herself puts it, “from tits to toes”. Partly, it’s a bid to correct the “male norm” – the fact that scientists default to male bodies, be they mouse or human, when studying things in the lab. That means that models of normal functioning and disease all skew male, as do the treatments that are then developed. But this isn’t just a book for women: Bohannon invites you to “think of yourself: to think about where your body comes from, how the evolution of biological sex shapes it – whether you identify as a man, a woman, or another gender”.

If you’re interested in the truth behind controversial social issues, this book should be on your must-read book list. The authors reveal the facts behind issues, such as crime, shopping, and drugs. 31. The Age of Surveillance Capitalism: The Fight for a Human Future at the New Frontier of Power by Shoshana Zuboff Duff D, et al. (2015). The influence of reading on vocabulary growth:A case for a Matthew effect.DOI: Many children love graphic novels or comics. These are great for developing imagination. Children also learn how stories are presented in different ways and understand how pictures and text work together. There’s also quite a bit of reading between the lines needed hereIf you’re looking for interesting books to read, Sapiens should be on your list. It details the development of human beings from the earliest stages until now. The author also shows how our current world systems will banish natural selection and adaptation. 38. Long Walk to Freedom by Nelson Mandela Margaret Atwood recently described Mona Awad as her “literary heir apparent”. (Of Awad’s BookTok sensation Bunny, Atwood remarked: “You think, ‘She’s not going to go there … yes, she is.’”) Rouge (Scribner, Sept) plays with horror and humour in a surreal, gothic tale about a mother-daughter relationship that is also a biting satire on the beauty industry.