One of the best things about life beyond retirement and into the golden years can be simple guilt-free ‘me time’, when you often get to do what you want, when you want.
It’s also a stage in life when a love for reading can be indulged. It may be a habit you dropped amid the busyness of life, climbing career ladders, tending to children and all the other must-dos that drive younger lives.
Whether it’s a second time around with an old love, or you come to one of life’s true pleasures as a reading newbie, here are a few titles you may want to get into this year:
1. All the Light We Cannot See, by Anthony Doerr Ten years in the writing, Doerr’s ambitious work shines a light on people trying to be good to one another, even against all the odds. It centres on a blind French girl and a German boy whose paths cross as they try to survive World War II’s devastation in occupied France. It took out the 2015 Pulitzer for fiction.
2. The Secret Chord, by Geraldine Brooks Sydney-born Pulitzer winner Brooks powerfully retells the story of the Biblical King David’s rise to power and his fall from grace. It’s a vivid story of faith, family, desire and power that brings David magnificently alive.
3. A Long Lunch, by Simon Hoggart This is a collection of gossipy, funny, telling and even startling anecdotes about other people. It’s described as the perfect toilet book, and that’s meant as high praise. It sounds like a good choice for the man of the house …
4 . All Passion Spent, by Vita Sackville-West Published in 1931, this is one of Sackville-West’s most popular works of fiction, later adapted for TV by the BBC. It’s a gentle read, one that addresses people’s control over their own lives, and recommended for curling up and getting lost in an older time.
