International Literacy Day 

Established in 1966, the International Literacy Day was set up to highlight the importance of literacy to individuals, communities and society alike. Every year it brings to light not only the improvements in world literacy rates, but also the remaining literacy challenges worldwide.  

Literacy is the ability to read and write. In the 1980’s, around 70% of the world’s population was illiterate! Thanks to global efforts, more recent statistics show that figure has dropped dramatically with less than 13% of the world’s population being illiterate. 

In honour of the all the achievements made thus far, and all the ones to come, Number Nine are sharing our current favourite five books!  

Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman 

Eleanor Oliphant is an unusual heroine.  She is neither immediately likable nor devilishly striking.  Instead, she emerges as an awkward mess, struggling incessantly with social interactions, which she attempts to avoid at all cost.  This said throughout this read you will learn to love this unlikely protagonist.  You will come to understand her weekends spent with a bottle of vodka and frozen pizza, and by the end you will find yourself persistently routing for her, deadpan weirdness, unconscious wit and all.  We await the major motion picture with an open heart akin to Eleanor’s at the end of the novel. 

Everything I Know About Love by Dolly Alderton 

From the opening page I found myself, Iphone out, taking snaps of the vodka-laced prose of this reflective memoir.  On too many occasions I found myself relating to the trials and tribulations of journalist Dolly Alderton.  From the unforgettable sound of an AOL dial tone or the hours spent on MSN talking to BOYS (only Girl’s school girls will truly understand), right down to the absurd xoBabYgAL4eVAxo MSN name, this book had been down to a T.  Not forgetting the tragic university nights out spent in sordid kitchens, endless nights too drunk to care about how long I had spent on the night bus or crying like a baby at yet another break up. Never have I ever read a book so relatable and well written.   

Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow by Yuval Noah Harari  

This sequel to the widely popular Sapiens is at times a close-to-the-bone part-historical part-imagined understanding of humanity as we move toward a brave new future of technology and discovery. Harari is a great storyteller with grounded and developed ideas about where humanity is headed in our not too distant future. Anyone who has ever wondered if we will ever overcome death, or how robotics and A.I. might come to eliminate certain processes in our societies should read this book. My advice; read Sapiens, then Homo Deus and take the latter with a pinch of salt as Harari’s account is an occasionally frighteningly solemn account of humanities darker sides.  

Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn  

Now a major series on Sky, Sharp Objects was the debut novel by Gone Girl author Gillian Flynn.  This twisted tale of mental illness and family ties is the perfect mix of psychological thriller and neurotic novella.  Not one for the frail hearted, this novel plays with dark themes, images of razor blades, teeth and young dead girls occurring throughout.  Flynn is not delicate in the manner she approaches this dark, twisted and disturbing novel, I am still haunted by the neurotic mother dancing around her hall way as her children lie sickly and wan in bed upstairs. More graphic than Gone Girl but not as gruesome as Flynn’s later work Dark Places, which will scare the hell out of you.  

The Girls by Emma Cline 

A coming of age story like nothing you will have read before, this perfect summer read is stunning, thrilling and claustrophobic.  Set in California in 1969, you will find yourself immediately enticed by the flower power, hippy happenings as told through the eyes of 14-year Evie.   Quickly becoming unsettling, the allure of the cult she stumbles upon is hard to escape even once the book is shut.