Anyone who knows Karen Walker knows she’s an avid reader.
Turn the topic of conversation to one of books, and the fashion designer’s eyes light up as she animatedly describes the latest tome she’s working her way through. Hence why there’s nobody else we’d turn to when we decided we’d do a wrap-up of the best books to read this year. Here’s what she had to say:
KAREN’S TOP 5 READS FROM 2016
A.A Gill is Further Away: Helping with Enquiries
A.A Gill
“I read three of Adrian Gill’s books this year, and sadly, there’ll be no new work – his wonderful and unmistakable voice will be greatly missed in my world. I love this book particularly as the series of essays pluck seemingly randomly from any number of subjects that had crossed his path, all written with incredible humour, intelligence and a raw energy that is unmistakably Gill. My particular favourites of the collection: Chickens, Fatherhood, Arctic, Hyde Park and Dyslexia.”
Hera Lindsay Bird
Hera Lindsay Bird
“Poetry’s never been my thing. As the man once said, “The truth is like poetry, and everyone f**king hates poetry.” But, I have completely fallen for the poetry of Hera Lindsay Bird and devoured her self-titled first book. One of my favourite lines is from a poem called Monica:
Monica Geller off popular sitcom F.R.I.E.N.D.S
Is one of the worst characters in the history of television
She makes me want to wash my hands with hand sanitizer
Quite, quite genius.”
Rebecca
Daphne Du Maurier
“I came across this in my brother’s second-hand bookshop and thought it was worth the £1.50 price tag. I could not put it down and even got told off by an Uber driver in L.A for illegally having the light on in the back seat so I could read. No wonder it’s the template for every gothic, romantic thriller ever since. I chased it with the movie – Laurence Olivier at his sexiest.”
Love from Boy: Roald Dahl’s letters to his mother
Roald Dahl
“My good and ever-thoughtful friend, Deborah Smith, gave me this as a condolence gift this year and it hit just the right spot at exactly the right time. Moving, funny, and gorgeous to see Dahl’s voice reveal itself in his weekly letters to his mother from when he started at prep school, through his RAF career during WWII, into his time as a spy in Washington D.C and beyond. ‘Why doesn’t Mussolini take up some useful hobby? He could collect birds’ eggs instead of countries.’ Gorgeous.”
Department of Speculation
Jenny Offill
“A recommendation from a writer friend who never puts me wrong, Dept of Speculation is a fabulous fragmentary novel about marriage and motherhood. It’s sad and funny and smart and skittish and a ton of fun to read. “And that phrase – “sleeping like a baby.” Some blonde said it blithely on the subway the other day. I wanted to lie down next to her and scream for five hours in her ear.””
TOP OF THE PILE FOR THE HOLIDAYS
The Year of Magical Thinking
Joan Didion
“This has been top of my pile for a while now. Looking forward to reading Joan’s portrait of a marriage and a life.”
The Edwardians
Vita Sackville-West
“As a long time fan of her garden (Sissinghurst Castle Garden) and her girlfriend (Virginia Woolf) I think it’s about time I checked out her writing. This semi-autobiographical classic gives a glimpse into upper class Edwardian life and what’s not to love about that?”
The Nose
Nikolai Gogol
“My husband’s always raved about this Russian classic short story but the one in our house is in Russian so it’s never made it to my bedside table. However, Penguin has recently released it under Penguin Classics so it’s now finally in my reading pile. And best of all, it’s only 35 pages long so it’ll be done by morning tea time on Boxing Day!”
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
Muriel Spark
“A classic that I feel, somehow, I should have already read. Looking forward to digging into one of Time magazine’s 100 best English language novels since 1923.”
Ada
Vladimir Nabokov
“I’ve been a long-time fan of Nabokov and came across a first edition of Ada in L.A a few years back but, at 600+ pages, I’ve been putting off digging into it. With only 10 days of holiday I might find it stretches from summer ’16/’17 to summer ’17/’18.”
