Reading for Pleasure and Wellbeing
Browse our themed lists and find your next favourite novel, special interest, biography, self-help guide and more!
Welcome to Reading for Pleasure and Wellbeing
Library Services continues to develop its collection of general interest (fiction and non-fiction) books called Reading for Pleasure and Wellbeing. The collections can be found in both the Aldgate and Holloway Road libraries and can be borrowed for three weeks.
The purpose of the Reading for Pleasure and Wellbeing collection is to encourage you to pick up a book and read simply for enjoyment and inspiration.
Most books in this collection have been donated by staff and we have supplemented these additions by using Library Services funds in some instances.
We have created some themed lists based on the Reading for Pleasure collection and our main library holdings (be aware that the latter may have different loan periods).
Benefits of reading
Reading in your own time can help to enhance your vocabulary and writing style, and studies have shown a relationship between reading and improved academic performance.
There is a growing body of evidence which illustrates the importance of reading for pleasure for both educational purposes as well as personal development including mental wellbeing.
Reading is pleasurable, can be good for mental wellbeing and reduces stress. Liverpool Health Inequalities Research Institute research has proven that reading helps to treat mental health issues.
A 2016 report conducted by the University of Liverpool has shown that as a result of reading:
- 27% of the population have been inspired to make a positive change in their life such as look for a new job or end a bad relationship
- 36% of the population have been inspired to go travelling
- 19% of adults say they have taken up a new hobby
Black Artists in British Art by Location / Classmark: EBSCOhost - E-bookISBN: 9780857736086Publication Date: 2014Black artists have been making major contributions to the British art scene for decades, since at least the mid-twentieth century. Sometimes these artists were regarded and embraced as practitioners of note. At other times they faced challenges of visibility - and in response they collaborated and made their own exhibitions and gallery spaces.
Wild Light by Location / Classmark: Aldgate Reading for Pleasure and Wellbeing HARISBN: 9781408726808Publication Date: 2023-03-07With over 70 original illustrations, printmaker Angela Harding invites you to look at how the light changes the world around us, and how that changes us in its turn.
Rescue the Perishing by Location / Classmark: Holloway Road 362.87525092 COHISBN: 9780853037798Publication Date: 2015Rescue the Perishing is the first study to date of Eleanor Rathbone's commitment to the 'refugee question' from 1933 until her death in 1946. It explains how, from a working life devoted to championing the cause of the disadvantaged, the impoverished, and the underrepresented in British society, her humanitarian activism shifted towards Britain's imperial colonies, as well as Europe, before focusing on refugees, most of them Jewish, fleeing persecution in Nazi-occupied Europe before and during World War II.
Back to Black by Location / Classmark: Holloway Rd Reading for Pleasure ANDISBN: 9781786992772Publication Date: 2019Back to Black traces the long and eminent history of Black radical politics. Born out of resistance to slavery and colonialism, its rich past encompasses figures such as Marcus Garvey, Angela Davis, the Black Panthers and the Black Lives Matter activists of today. At its core it argues that racism is inexorably embedded in the fabric of society, and that it can never be overcome unless by enacting change outside of this suffocating system.
Women's Legal Landmarks by Location / Classmark: Ebook Central - EbookISBN: 9781782259787Publication Date: 2018Women's Legal Landmarks commemorates the centenary of women's admission in 1919 to the legal profession in the UK and Ireland by identifying key legal landmarks in women's legal history. Over 80 authors write about landmarks that represent a significant achievement or turning point in women's engagement with law and law reform. The landmarks cover a wide range of topics, including matrimonial property, the right to vote, prostitution, surrogacy and assisted reproduction, rape, domestic violence, FGM, equal pay, abortion, image-based sexual abuse, and the ordination of women bishops, as well as the life stories of women who were the first to undertake key legal roles and positions. Together the landmarks offer a scholarly intervention in the recovery of women's lost history and in the development of methodology of feminist legal history as well as a demonstration of women's agency and activism in the achievement of law reform and justice.
Forget Me Not by Location / Classmark: Location: Holloway Rd Reading for Pleasure and Wellbeing PAVISBN: 9781472986238Publication Date: 2023-06-22Join Sophie Pavelle on a low-carbon journey around Britain in search of ten animals and habitats threatened by climate change in the 21st century.Forget-me-not - a beautiful flower and a plea from our islands' wildlife.
The girl on the train by Location / Classmark: VLE books - EbookISBN: 9781448171682Publication Date: 2015Rachel catches the same commuter train every morning. She knows it will wait at the same signal each time, overlooking a row of back gardens. She’s even started to feel like she knows the people who live in one of the houses. ‘Jess and Jason’, she calls them. Their life - as she sees it - is perfect. If only Rachel could be that happy.
And then she sees something shocking. It’s only a minute until the train moves on, but it’s enough.
Now everything’s changed. Now Rachel has a chance to become a part of the lives she’s only watched from afar.
Now they’ll see; she’s much more than just the girl on the train....
Different, Not Less by Location / Classmark: Holloway Rd Reading for Pleasure and Wellbeing HAYISBN: 9781922616180Publication Date: 2023-04-04An empowering lived-experience guide to celebrating and supporting neurodivergence from 24-year-old actor, social media star and disability advocate Chloé Hayden.
Dava Shastri's last day: a novel by Location / Classmark: Holloway Rd Reading for Pleasure RAMISBN: 9781538724712Publication Date: 2021Dava Shastri, one of the world's wealthiest women, has always lived with her sterling reputation in mind. A brain cancer diagnosis at the age of seventy, however, changes everything, and Dava decides to take her death-like all matters of her life-into her own hands.
Monica by Location / Classmark: Holloway Rd Reading for Pleasure and Wellbeing CLOISBN: 9781787334861A dazzling, spectacular tapestry of interconnected narratives that together tell a life story, Monica is the new graphic novel from one of the most iconic storytellers of all time. This eponymous protagonist is a rag-to-riches character who, after being abandoned by her freewheelin' parents in childhood, succeeds in clawing her way to the top - only to lose it all in a stroke of bad luck. She lives out the rest of her days in search of her parents, encountering a cast of eccentric characters who help to piece together her story.
Lift Your Vibe by Location / Classmark: Holloway Rd Reading for Pleasure NORISBN: 9780241448694Publication Date: 2021For many of us, work, socialising and keeping fit are more challenging than ever and we are feeling disconnected from and unsure of the world around us. In Lift Your Vibe Richie shares his transformative, simple-to-follow daily rituals that fit into even the busiest schedule.
★ Featured List ★
Graphic Novels
The Odyssey: a Graphic Novel by Location / Classmark: Holloway Rd Reading for Pleasure and Wellbeing HINISBN: 9780763642686With bold imagery and an ear tuned to the music of Homer's epic poem, Gareth Hinds reinterprets the ancient classic as it's never been told before.
Thomas Girtin: the Forgotten Painter by Location / Classmark: Holloway Rd Reading for Pleasure and Wellbeing ZARISBN: 9781914224072Part historical narrative, part modern fiction, the book consists of two interlinked stories: the first focuses on the 18thcentury painter Thomas Girtin and his relationship with his friend and rival J.M.W. Turner; the second tells the tale of three amateur artists in the present day, united by a shared interest in Girtin's art.
Jane Eyre: the graphic novel : original text version by Location / Classmark: Holloway Rd Reading for Pleasure and Wellbeing CORISBN: 9781906332068
Patsy by Location / Classmark: Aldgate Reading for Pleasure DENISBN: 9781786077103Publication Date: 2020Patsy yearns to escape the beautiful but impoverished Jamaican town where she was raised for a new life in New York and the chance to start afresh. Above all, she hopes to be reunited with her oldest friend, Cicely, and to rekindle their young love.
The Song of Achilles by Location / Classmark: Holloway Rd Reading for Pleasure MILISBN: 9781408891384Publication Date: 2017Greece in the age of heroes. Patroclus, an awkward young prince, has been exiled to the court of King Peleus and his perfect son Achilles. Despite their differences, Achilles befriends the shamed prince, and as they grow into young men skilled in the arts of war and medicine, their bond blossoms into something deeper - despite the displeasure of Achilles's mother Thetis, a cruel sea goddess. But when word comes that Helen of Sparta has been kidnapped, Achilles must go to war in distant Troy and fulfill his destiny. Torn between love and fear for his friend, Patroclus goes with him, little knowing that the years that follow will test everything they hold dear.
Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Location / Classmark: Holloway Rd Reading for Pleasure and Wellbeing - LOISBN: 9781529366587Publication Date: 2021Seventeen-year-old Lily Hu can't remember exactly when the question took root, but the answer was in full bloom the moment she and Kathleen Miller walked under the flashing neon sign of a lesbian bar called the Telegraph Club. America in 1954 is not a safe place for two girls to fall in love, especially not in Chinatown. Red-Scare paranoia threatens everyone, including Chinese Americans like Lily. With deportation looming over her father--despite his hard-won citizenship--Lily and Kath risk everything to let their love see the light of day
Love after love by Location / Classmark: Aldgate Reading for Pleasure PERISBN: 9780571356225Publication Date: 2020After Betty Ramdin's abusive husband dies, she invites a colleague, Mr. Chetan, to move in with her and her son, Solo, as their lodger. Over time, these three form an unconventional family, loving each other deeply and depending upon one another. Then, one a fateful night, Solo overhears Betty confiding in Mr. Chetan and learns a secret that plunges him into torment. Ultimately sends him running to live a lonely life in New York City, devastating Betty in the process. Yet, both Solo and Betty are buoyed by the continuing love and friendship of Mr. Chetan, until his own burdensome secret is uncovered with heart breaking consequences. In vibrant, addictive Trinidadian prose, Love After Love questions who and how we love, the obligations of family, and the consequences of choices made in desperation.
This Book Kills by Location / Classmark: Aldgate Reading for Pleasure GURISBN: 9781803705415Publication Date: 2023When Hugh Henry Van Boren, one of the most popular and richest kids in Jess Choudhary's school, is found dead, the student body is left reeling and wondering who the murderer could be...
Jess, a student under strict instructions to keep her record clean or risk losing her scholarship, finds herself at the centre of the investigation when it's revealed that Hugh died in the exact same way as a character in a short story she wrote. And then Jess receives an anonymous text thanking her for the inspiration.
With time running out, Jess knows if she doesn't solve this mystery she'll finally have something in common with Hugh Henry. She'll be dead too.
The complete robot by Location / Classmark: Holloway Rd - 813.5ASIISBN: 9780586057247Publication Date: 1995In these stories, Asimov creates the Three Laws of Robotics and ushers in the Robot Age - when Earth is ruled by master-machines and when robots are more human than mankind.
This Monk Wears Heels by Location / Classmark: Holloway Rd Reading for Pleasure NISISBN: 9781786786173Publication Date: 2022IT'S TIME TO BE TRUE TO YOU.
This book is for anyone who's ever felt like they don't fit in. And for all those who dare to be different. Do you show who you truly are? Do you say what you really think? Or do you hide your heart's desire and camouflage yourself to look like others? It is too easy to limit ourselves for fear of what other people will think. The message of this book is that we can choose to love our uniqueness-and that our diversity offers hope for the world. This Monk Wears Heels is a guide to self-love, self-acceptance, and taking a Buddhist approach to life. Kodo Nishimura reveals how inclusive the Buddhist teachings really are-and that, yes, it is possible to be a Buddhist monk and do makeup and wear sparkly earrings. This book is about being who you really are, totally unapologetically and with full conviction. It will show you how to shine in your own colors and be celebrated for yourself.
- The Big Jubilee ReadQueen Elizabeth II was the longest-serving monarch in British history, with a reign stretching from 6 February 1952 to 8 September 2022. The Big Jubilee Read was created in Spring 2022 to coincide with the late Queen's Platinum Jubilee, celebrating great books from across the Commonwealth. Library Services will keep this list available even though Queen Elizabeth II has passed away because so many books that celebrate writers from across the world are included.
Girl, Woman, Other by Location / Classmark: VLE books - EbookISBN: 9780241985007Publication Date: 2019This is Britain as you've never read it.
This is Britain as it has never been told.
From Newcastle to Cornwall, from the birth of the twentieth century to the teens of the twenty-first, Girl, Woman, Other follows a cast of twelve characters on their personal journeys through this country and the last hundred years. They're each looking for something - a shared past, an unexpected future, a place to call home, somewhere to fit in, a lover, a missed mother, a lost father, even just a touch of hope . . .
The Tempest by Location / Classmark: Holloway Rd Reading for Pleasure and Wellbeing SHAISBN: 9781107021525Publication Date: 2013-05-16The Tempest presents a captivating narrative set on a secluded island. The story follows Prospero, a powerful sorcerer who conjures a tempest to exact revenge on those who wronged him. This intricate tale explores the depths of human ambition, the consequences of betrayal, and the potential for redemption.
Storyland: a New Mythology of Britain by Location / Classmark: Aldgate Reading for Pleasure JEFISBN: 9781529408003Publication Date: 2022Soaked in mist and old magic, Storyland is a new illustrated mythology of Britain, set in its wildest landscapes. It begins between the Creation and Noah's Flood, follows the footsteps of the earliest generation of giants from an age when the children of Cain and the progeny of fallen angels walked the earth, to the founding of Britain, England, Wales and Scotland, the birth of Christ, the wars between Britons, Saxons and Vikings, and closes with the arrival of the Normans. These are retellings of medieval tales of legend, landscape and the yearning to belong, inhabited with characters now half-remembered: Brutus, Albina, Scota, Arthur and Bladud among them.
