In these extraordinary days, the need to stay at home has thrown us back on our own resources, from streaming TV and movies to losing ourselves in a book ... here’s a few ideas for your bookshelf or e-reader

A Fine Balance – Rohinton Mistry
A book to get lost in – it will keep you up late at night, as you follow its four unforgettable characters through the mid-70s and the State of Internal Emergency that has such a dramatic impact on all their lives. Panoramic yet intimate, intensely political yet suffused with the everyday; and, above all, unputdownable, A Fine Balance tells a necessary and compelling story through four - and more - vividly drawn lives.

Sapiens – Yuval Noah Harari
“Homo sapiens rules the world because it is the only animal that can believe in things that exist purely in its own imagination, such as gods, states, money and human rights,” says Yuval Noah Harari. In the beginning there were six human species and today there is just one – us. Sapiens tells the story of how we got here from there, about the creation of money, the evolution of agriculture and the spread of religion… and so much more. You’ll be stopping every five minutes to share Harari’s jaw-dropping revelations …

Emma – Jane Austen
If you saw the recent movie and were charmed by it, there’s little doubt that the original novel is well worth a visit. The most striking thing, on re-reading Jane Austen’s classic story of Emma Woodhouse, the heroine Austen herself declared that “no one but myself would like”. It turned out that she was wrong, and perhaps there is something of Emma in all of us for her to have become such a literary classic. Emma’s infamous matchmaking and its fallout, especially for poor Harriet Smith, is, in the end, redeemed by her growing humility and ability to accept her own failings … and along the way we are treated to dialogue that is deliciously sly and witty. Go on, you’ve got time …

American Dirt – Jeanine Cummins
Sunday Times and New York Times bestseller that tells the heart-in-mouth story of Lydia and her son Luca as they flee Acapulco heading for the border and safety in the US. Opening with a scene of unimaginable violence, it becomes a game of cat-and-mouse as Lydia and her son take extraordinary risks to reach their goal. A book that’s provoked a good deal of controversy and accusations of cultural appropriation, but put that to one side and you’ve got a page-turning read.

A Little Life - Hanya YanagiharaOne of the biggest bestsellers of the last five years, this is a book that, once read, will never leave you. It follows four classmates from college to life in New York – aspiring actor Willem, JB, an artist intent on achieving fame, architect Malcolm and, the flame around which they circle, Jude, brilliant but broken, with a past that haunts him and refuses to loosen its grip. Horrifying, heartbreaking but utterly humane and impossible to put down.

Lee Child’s Jack Reacher novels
Time to get to know Jack Reacher (and once you do you’ll know that he’s nothing like Tom Cruise!) as he wanders far and wide across the States, inexplicably always managing to run headlong into trouble and forced to use his wealth of skills and talents to extricate himself and others. This is the man who always knows what time it is – even in the dead of night – and can take on multiple assailants simultaneously without breaking into a sweat. He must also have bought and thrown away more clothes than most of us wear in a lifetime. He travels light and has no use of laundrettes ….

Mindfulness – Mark Williams and Danny Penman
Subtitled ‘A practical guide to finding peace in a frantic world’, which is something we could all do with in the extraordinary times we are living through. Written to help alleviate the stresses of a world which had, until recently, become so rushed, it serves equally well now with its simple yet powerful practices, to ease some of the anxiety, stress and fear we’re all feeling. Complete with guided meditations.

The Salt Path – Raynor Winn
Just days after learning that her husband Moth is terminally ill Raynor Winn watched as their home and business were lost – a triple whammy that would fell all but the strongest.
With nothing else to lose, Ray suggests – inspired by a book she’d read in her twenties – they walk the South West Coast path, all 630 miles of it. With little in the way of resources, financial or otherwise, they set off into the unknown, and a journey that will have unexpected results. A life-affirming book which reveals just what is and isn’t important and what really constitutes home.

Educated by Tara Westover
Born in Idaho to a father opposed to public education, Tara Westover never went to school. Instead she worked in her father's junkyard or stewed herbs for her mother, a self-taught herbalist and midwife. Tara was 17 the first time she set foot in a classroom, and then pursued learning for the next ten years, a journey that took her as far as Cambridge, where she wondered if she’d travelled too far and if there was still a way to get home. Educated is her account of that journey.

An Astronaut’s Guide to Life on Earth by Chris Hadfield
Chris Hadfield, former Commander of the International Space Station, is the man who transmitted his rendition of Space Oddity from the ISS.
Chris Hadfield was nine in 1969 when man first set foot on the moon. And, like thousands of other nine-year-olds he knew what he was going to be. But … he was in Canada and NASA only took Americans and Canada had no space agency. Undeterred he taught himself everything he needed to become an astronaut …
Becoming an astronaut, experiencing the adrenaline of launch, the wonder of space and walking in it, taught him a lot and here he shares what he’s learned in a hugely readable, fascinating mash-up of memoir and not-quite-self-help but inspiring observations.

Flowers for Algernon - Daniel Keyes
Algernon is a laboratory mouse who has undergone surgery to increase his intelligence. The story is told through a series of progress reports written by Charlie Gordon, the first human subject for the surgery, and it touches on ethical and moral themes such as the treatment of the mentally disabled. A tour de force and expertly executed, this is another one you won’t forget in a hurry.

Make this the time you check out some of the wonderful local authors, most taking inspiration from the place they call home.

Lady of Hay by Barbara Erskine
The original timeslip novel.

The Merrily Watkins series by Phil Rickman
Cases for the Diocese’s Deliverance Officer, as she does battle with the powers of evil.

The Running Hare, The Meadow, The Glorious Life of Oak by John Lewis-Stempel
Immerse yourself in the intimate life of the natural world.