The Man Who Was Thursday by G K Chesterton (O.P.)
Recommended by Nicolas Desaedeleer
The Man Who Was Thursday by G.K. Chesterton features Gabriel Syme, a poet conscripted to a secret anti-anarchist council, who seems to infiltrate a peculiar anarchist group. The underlying conflict revolves around revealing the identity and motives of the council’s members, especially the elusive figure of Sunday. The book gives much to think about: right and wrong, faithfulness, scepticism, and whether a blatant evil can be self-deluding. Most impressive is its dream-like narrative and structure: a political thriller that gradually grows into an allegorical work of facts and propositions, its absurd reversals and symbolism making one question whether the invincible is indeed invincible, and heroism reconstructed by paradoxically humorous illustrations and unending suspense.
The Logic of Life by Tim Harford
Recommended by James Chapman
This book was non fiction as it is primarily focused on statistics and how the world works. I somewhat enjoyed the book but after a while I found it slightly tiresome as I couldn't really grasp the point of the book or what it was trying to say. It may have been purely interesting facts. It almost asks the reader to place things into perspective in life. An example was weighing up cost with enjoyment and consequences.
Black Water Sister by Zen Cho
Recommended by Reyansh Barua
This was a brilliant book that used the return to Malaysia to really delve into the problems of this normal family that seemed almost perfect on the outside. It also teaches you to leave the past in the past and not carry it on like the spirit of her grandmother.
Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky
Recommended by Aadit Mukhopadhyay
Children of Time is a brilliant science fiction book, set in the future, where humans have advanced greatly and are now capable of travelling to and terra-forming distant planets. Dr Kern is the head of one such project and plans to release monkeys onto the surface. However, these monkeys are infected with a virus that will make them stronger and more clever over the generations so that in the future, the monkeys would almost become human. Back on earth, terrorists try to stop Kern and her fellow revolutionaries. This leads to nuclear war on earth, which in turn leads to an ice age. Kern is left in stasis orbiting her world. The next part of the novel starts centuries later, when the people who stayed on earth find Kern's world - which didn't quite turn out as Kern intended (the virus infected spiders rather than monkeys) - and tracks the consequences. The ending is very spectcular and there is a striking plot twist. With all of the different complex threads in the book, I think that it is one of the best science fiction books in history.
Champion by Marie Lu
Recommended by Elliott Altberger
This is the third book in the Legend series, and continues following the story of Day and June. It is very interesting because it keeps you guessing throughout the book, never knowing which side is one step ahead of the other. It can also be related to real life, focusing a lot on the discrepancies between rich and poor areas, as well as how countries are ruled. There are multiple different governing styles, but there is a sense of 'the grass is always greener on the other side', because each one has its own set of problems.
Wings of Fire: The Dragonet Prophecy by Tui T Sutherland
Recommended by Dylan Gleasure
In Wings of Fire: The Dragonet Prophecy, basically, there is a prophecy and some dragons have to fill it out. I personally enjoyed the parts in which there is a lot of action since there is a gladiator style arena. Unfortunately, this only happens for a small section but there is a fair bit of small snippets of fighting if you're into that. There are plot twists as well if you are into that kind of thing such as the prohecy being wrong and how one of the dragons meets his family who traded him for food. There is some romance but very little. If you like action and plot twists, it is a great book but not the best since I have read more interesting works.
Brief Answers to the Big Questions by Stephen Hawking
Recommended by Ozan Isikli
Published after his death, this is a collation of all Hawking's work to answer the biggest questions in physics, some of which can be based on practical science (time travel; black holes) and some which remain purely in the realm of theory (extraterrestrials; the multiverse) for now. Everything is explained clearly, in a style peppered with poetry and comic reflections alike, and Hawking's unique talent and understanding of his subject allows him to view difficult concepts such as particle spin - the spinning ball that is neither a ball nor spinning - or long-distance space travel in novel, enlightening ways.
Many thanks to 4EN.A and 4EN.H for this excellent and eclectic list of suggestions, and to Mr Hager for collating them.
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