Sunday Best: 80 Great Books from a Lifetime of Reviews
Sunday Best: 80 Great Books from a Lifetime of Reviews
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Abstract
In 1977, newly installed as a professor of English at Oxford, the author took the position of chief reviewer for the Sunday Times. In a career spanning over 40 years and upwards of 1,000 reviews, the author has kept abreast of the brightest and best books of the day, distilling his thoughts each week for the entertainment of Sunday readers. Contained in this volume is the cream of that substantial crop: a choice selection of the books which the author has most cherished. Covering subjects as diverse as the science of laughter, the art of Grayson Perry, the history of madness, and Sylvia Plath's letters, this is a collection of treats and surprises, suffused with careful thought, wisdom, and enjoyment. The result is a compendium of titles which have stood the test of time, offered with the author's warmest recommendation.
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- Introduction
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John Carey
- The Mediterranean in History: edited by David Abulafia, 2003
- The Rise and Fall of Adam and Eve: The Story that Created Us: Stephen Greenblatt, 2017
- Madness in Civilization: A Cultural History of Insanity: Andrew Scull, 2015
- Eat Me: A Natural and Unnatural History of Cannibalism: Bill Schutt, 2017
- Stonehenge: Rosemary Hill, 2008
- Universe of Stone: Chartres Cathedral and the Triumph of the Medieval Mind: Philip Ball, 2008
- Vauxhall Gardens: A History: David Coke and Alan Borg, 2011
- A Thing in Disguise: The Visionary Life of Joseph Paxton: Kate Colquhoun, 2003
- Singled Out: How Two Million Women Survived Without Men after the First World War: Virginia Nicholson, 2007
- Private Words: Letters and Diaries from the Second World War: edited by Ronald Blythe, 1991
- In the Fifties: Peter Vansittart, 1995
- The Greatest Shows on Earth: A History of the Circus: Linda Simon, 2014
- A Great Feast of Light: Growing Up Irish in the Television Age: John Doyle, 2006
- Consuming Passions: Leisure and Pleasure in Victorian Britain: Judith Flanders, 2006
- IQ: The Brilliant Idea that Failed: Stephen Murdoch, 2007
- The Spirit Level: Why More Equal Societies Almost Always Do Better: Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett, 2009
- Leadville: A Biography of the A40: Edward Platt, 2000
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John Carey
- The Jewel House: Elizabethan London and the Scientific Revolution: Deborah E. Harkness, 2007
- Darwin’s Island: The Galapagos in the Garden of England; Darwin’s Sacred Cause: Race Slavery and the Quest for Human Origins: Steve Jones, 2009 Adrian Desmond and James Moore, 2009
- The Age of Wonder: How the Romantic Generation Discovered the Beauty and Terror of Science: Richard Holmes, 2008
- You’re Looking Very Well: The Surprising Nature of Getting Old: Lewis Wolpert, 2011
- The Science of Love and Betrayal: Robin Dunbar, 2012
- Laughter: A Scientific Investigation; Crying: The Natural and Cultural History of Tears: Robert R. Provine, 2000 Tom Lutz, 2000
- Mauve: How One Man Invented a Colour that Changed the World: Simon Garfield, 2000
- Uncle Tungsten: Memories of a Chemical Boyhood: Oliver Sacks, 2001
- American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer: Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin, 2008
- Being Mortal: Illness, Medicine, and What Matters in the End: Atul Gawande, 2014
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John Carey
- The Piano Shop on the Left Bank: The Hidden World of a Paris Atelier: T.E. Carhart, 2000
- No Voice from the Hall: Early Memories of a Country House Snooper: John Harris, 1998
- Gypsies: An English History: David Cressy, 2018
- Fishing in Utopia: Sweden and the Future that Disappeared: Andrew Brown, 2008
- Family Secrets: Derek Malcolm, 2003
- Swimming with My Father: A Memoir: Tim Jeal, 2004
- Unapologetic: Why, Despite Everything, Christianity Can Still Make Surprising Emotional Sense: Francis Spufford, 2012
- Publisher: Tom Maschler, 2005
- Untold Stories: Alan Bennett, 2005
- Grayson Perry: Portrait of the Artist as a Young Girl: as told to Wendy Jones, 2006
- Naked at Lunch: The Adventures of a Reluctant Nudist: Mark Haskell Smith, 2015
- Ahead of the Class: How an Inspiring Headmistress Gave Children Back Their Future: Marie Stubbs, 2003
- Worrying: A Literary and Cultural History: Francis O’Gorman, 2015
- Alamein to Zem Zem: Keith Douglas, 1946
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John Carey
- Feast: Why Humans Share Food: Martin Jones, 2007
- The Reinvention of Humanity: A Story of Race, Sex, Gender and the Discovery of Culture: Charles King, 2019
- Don’t Sleep, There Are Snakes: Life and Language in the Amazonian Jungle: Daniel Everett, 2008
- Letters to Lily on How the World Works: Alan Macfarlane, 2005
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John Carey
- The Fortunes of Francis Barber: The True Story of a Jamaican Slave Who Became Samuel Johnson’s Heir: Michael Bundock, 2015
- Sarah: The Life of Sarah Bernhardt: Robert Gottlieb, 2010
- Bulwer Lytton: The Rise and Fall of a Victorian Man of Letters: Leslie Mitchell, 2003
- Damned to Fame: The Life of Samuel Beckett; Samuel Beckett: The Last Modernist; The World of Samuel Beckett, 1906–1946: James Knowlson, 1996 Anthony Cronin, 1996 Lois Gordon, 1996
- Eric Gill: Fiona MacCarthy, 1989
- Betjeman: The Bonus of Laughter: Bevis Hillier, 2004
- Eileen: The Making of George Orwell: Sylvia Topp, 2020
- The World Is What It Is: The Authorized Biography of V.S. Naipaul: Patrick French, 2008
- Hergé: The Man Who Created Tintin: Pierre Assouline, translated by Charles Ruas, 2009
- The Last Englishman: The Double Life of Arthur Ransome: Roland Chambers, 2009
- Furious Interiors: Wales, R.S. Thomas and God: Justin Wintle, 1996
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John Carey
- The Poet’s Tale: Chaucer and the Year that Made the Canterbury Tales: Paul Strohm, 2015
- Shakespeare’s Language: Frank Kermode, 2000
- Shakespeare’s Wife: Germaine Greer, 2007
- The Letters of Charles Dickens, Volume Eight: 1856–1858: edited by Graham Storey and Kathleen Tillotson, 1995
- The New Annotated Sherlock Holmes, 2 vols: edited by Leslie S. Klinger, 2004
- The Short Sharp Life of T.E. Hulme: Robert Ferguson, 2002
- Robert Graves and the White Goddess, 1940–1985; Robert Graves: Life on the Edge; Robert Graves: Collected Writings on Poetry: Richard Perceval Graves, 1995 Miranda Seymour, 1995 edited by Paul O’Prey, 1995
- The Letters of Sylvia Plath, Volume 2: 1956–1963: edited by Peter K. Steinberg and Karen V. Kukil, 2018
- Faulks on Fiction: The Secret Life of the Novel: Sebastian Faulks, 2011
- The Good Soldier Švejk: Jaroslav Hašek, translated by Paul Selver, 1930
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John Carey
- Beatrix Potter: A Life in Nature: Linda Lear, 2006
- Orchard: A Year in England’s Eden: Benedict Macdonald and Nicholas Gates, 2020
- Owl Sense: Miriam Darlington, 2018
- The Spade as Mighty as the Sword: The Story of World War Two’s Dig for Victory Campaign: Daniel Smith, 2011
- Bertie, May and Mrs Fish: Country Memories of Wartime: Xandra Bingley, 2005
- Running for the Hills: A Family Story: Horatio Clare, 2006
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John Carey
- A Short Treatise of the Great Virtues: The Uses of Philosophy in Everyday Life: André Comte-Sponville, 1995
- The Human Touch: Our Part in the Creation of the Universe: Michael Frayn, 2006
- The Clock Mirage: Our Myth of Measured Time: Joseph Mazur, 2020
- Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind: Yuval Noah Harari, 2014
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John Carey
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