Wednesday, November 30, 2016

Ten top books about postwar Britain

Orange Prize winning and Booker Prize shortlisted author Linda Grant's new novel is The Dark Circle. One of Grant's top ten books about postwar Britain, as shared at the Guardian:
Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell

Orwell’s 1949 novel...has never been out of print. Government surveillance, perpetual war and historical revisionism make only the technology seem dated. He anticipated the new forms totalitarianism would take. It is a novel for every decade, a permanent warning of the dystopian future ahead. (The internet meme of the CCTV camera next to the blue plaque on his house is a Photoshopped fake, by the way.)
Read about another entry on the list.

Nineteen Eighty-four is on Ella Cosmo's list of five fictional books-within-a-book too dangerous to read, the list of four books that changed Peter Twohig, the Guardian's list of the five worst book covers ever, the Independent's list of the fifteen best opening lines in literature, W.B. Gooderham's top ten list of books given in books, Katharine Trendacosta and Amanda Yesilbas's list of ten paranoid science fiction stories that could help you survive, Na'ima B. Robert's top ten list of Romeo and Juliet stories, Gabe Habash's list of ten songs inspired by books and a list of the 100 best last lines from novels. The book made Charlie Jane Anders's list of ten science fiction novels we pretend to have read, Juan E. Méndez's list of five books on torture, P. J. O’Rourke's list of the five best political satires, Daniel Johnson's five best list of books about Cold War culture, Robert Collins' top ten list of dystopian novels, Gemma Malley's top 10 list of dystopian novels for teenagers, is one of Norman Tebbit's six best books and one of the top ten works of literature according to Stephen King. It made a difference to Isla Fisher, and appears on John Mullan's lists of ten of the best Aprils in literature, ten of the best rats in literature, and ten of the best horrid children in fiction.

--Marshal Zeringue