Broadly speaking I have two great literary loves. Sure I enjoy plenty of grand historical fiction, and certainly I won’t argue the objective worth of any literary giant with you. But when I’m browsing in a bookstore, or sitting at home in …

I absolutely love Ishiguro. “Remains of the Day” is the best. “Never Let Me Go”, which I finished reading recently, was fascinating too. The only reason I didn’t mention these was I thought they might not be obscure enough.

But I wonder if it is correct to say English is his second language. He moved to UK when he was six, so technically English is probably the second language he learned. But he grew up and has lived in UK since then and he admits that he doesn’t speak Japanese well.

Sarah Caudwell’s Thus Was Adonis Murdered is splendid, and so are the sequels The Shortest Way to Hades and The Sirens Sang of Murder– I marked the wittiest bits in the margins so I could find them quickly. Sadly, I recommend you avoid the fourth book, The Sybil in Her Grave, written after a long hiatus and much inferior.

Patricia McKillip is a beautifully poetic author of books of fantasy, some considered YA but I still enjoy them. My old favorite is the Riddlemaster trilogy: Riddlemaster of Hed, Heir of Sea and Fire, and Harpist in the Wind.

People may well know about these, but when I’m ill, tired, or depressed, I reach for P.G. Wodehouse, or Terry Pratchett’s fantasy. If you like Pratchett’s description of an indignant duchess– “Her bosom rose and fell like an empire”– you have a lot of fun ahead of you. Start with any book about the City Watch, the witches, or Death.

My Heartbeat, Garret Freymann-Weyr: Wee girl who adores her older brother and his best friend (for whom she has a delicious crush) starts to understand that maybe her older brother and her crush are smooching. Heartachingly messy and gorgeous.

My Sister’s Keeper, Jodi Picoult: A thirteen-year-old girl, born out of a test-tube cocktail for maximum matchage to her older sister, seeks medical emancipation from her parents. She’s been, to her mind, not much more than a container for spare bodyparts for her cancer-riddled sister. They’re tied together like conjoined twins in a lot of ways, forcing the healthy sister to live her life in hospitals.

Each chapter alternates the first-person perspective of the affected parties; mom, dad, test-tube sis, lawyer, child advocate…eerily absent the voice of the sick sister throughout.

Way Past Cool, Jess Mowry: Life inside an Oakland gang as told by the kids, most in preteen and early teen years. Intense, lovely, raw-knuckle storytelling.