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The 26 Recommended Reads featured in the 2009 Mslexia Writer's Diary

A wonderful and wide-ranging selection of books as recommended by writers in the I Urge You to Read section of the 2009 Mslexia Writer's Diary.

Sharon and my Mother in Law: Ramallah Diaries by Suad Amiry (Granta)
With My Lazy Eye by Julia Kelly (Quercus)
A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini (Bloomsbury)
Empires of the Indus: From Tibet to Pakistan – The Story of a River by Alice Albinia (John Murray)
The New Moon's Arms by Nalo Hopkinson (Little, Brown)
'Living Like Weasels' by Annie Dillard (in Teaching a Stone to Talk) (Harper Perennial)
The Icarus Girl by Helen Oyeyemi (Bloomsbury)
The Ice House by Minette Walters (Pan Books)
The Meadow by James Galvin (Holt) (USA)
The Children's Bach by Helen Garner (Penguin, Australia)
Don't Shoot the Clowns: Taking a Circus to the Real Iraq by Jo Wilding (New Internationalist)
Pig Tales by Marie Darrieussecq (Faber)
Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson (Faber)
Disquiet by Julia Leigh (Faber)
Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy (Oxford World's Classics)
A Far Country by Daniel Mason (Picador)
The Future Homemakers of America by Laurie Graham (Fourth Estate)
The Bloody Chamber by Angela Carter (Vintage)
The Slaves of Solitude by Patrick Hamilton (Constable)
Evil by Rennie Sparks (Black Hole Press) (USA)
Elizabeth and Her German Garden by Elizabeth von Arnim (Virago)
Walk the Blue Fields by Claire Keegan (Faber)
Gone to Soldiers by Marge Piercy (Penguin) (USA)
The Black Book of Secrets by FE Higgins (Macmillan)
Attachment by Isabel Fonseca (Chatto & Windus)
The Descendants by Kaui Hart Hemmings (Jonathan Cape)

Buy the diary

Winners of the Recommended Reads Competition

Everyone who bought a diary before 5 December was entered into a competition to win a fantastic package of 26 books – all of the recommended reads above. Two runners-up also had the chance to win a mystery package of ten books each, chosen from the list of recommended reads. These are the winners; warmest congratulations to them. We hope they enjoy their wonderful prizes!

"I am looking forward to their arrival – perfect timing as we actually just put up some new bookshelves!" – Jenifer Klepfer

1st Prize - Jenifer Klepfer, from Berkshire.

Runner-up - Kristin Hutchinson, from Essex.

Runner-up - Carol Powells, from Northumberland.