15 essential books to read in your lifetime

Think about the countless lives we've lived within the pages of books. We’ve been residents of Austen's England, guests at lavish parties in Gatsby's mansion, and companions on the perilous journey to Mount Doom. Literature has the uncanny ability to immerse us in narratives that awaken our curiosity and expand our understanding of the world.

This week, we put our team to the task of crafting the ultimate reading bucket list. In this carefully curated collection, we've compiled our most loved classic novels, contemporary masterpieces, and non-fiction works. Each book has been selected with utmost care – think of it as if we were personally placing it into your hands!

Whether you yearn to traverse the winding streets of a forgotten city, explore the depths of the human psyche, or uncover the secrets of the natural world, this collection has a little something for everyone.

Captivating Classics

1. The Grapes of Wrath (1939), John Steinbeck

Set in the Great Depression in south central United States, the novel carries Steinbeck’s hallmark authenticity, as farmers battle drought, poverty and injustice. Unbelievable hardship beats down even the most stoic, and yet somehow, the best qualities of humanness prevail. The book was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished fiction, followed by the author’s Nobel Prize for Literature. The story will rip your heart out, but you’ll never forget it as perhaps the best book you ever read. 

2. To Kill a Mockingbird (1960), Harper Lee

Ditto most of what was said above about Steinbeck, but we’ve moved from the farm to a courtroom and to racial prejudice. Every reader wants Atticus Finch for their daddy, or at the very least, as their attorney. And every reader takes Scout to their heart. It’s not all high drama, there is plenty to smile about between these pages. Another Pulitzer Prize winner, and the most often quoted favourite book of all time.

3. Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949), George Orwell

With its themes of propaganda, surveillance, authoritarianism, historical denialism, and freedom of expression and thought as liabilities, 1984 was both a story of its time, and ahead of its time. As a fictional reflection on the possibilities created by Stalin and Hitler, sadly, many of Orwell’s fictional predictions have come to pass. The world continues to endure wars, truth and fact is distorted by governments to sway the masses, a potential leader’s charisma and lies will determine votes. If you worry about how things can go completely haywire, read this book. 

4. The Stranger (1942), Albert Camus

Translated from the French, the author cleverly reels us in, then shocks us. The main character is an ordinary man who commits an absurd crime on a hot day, brought to that state by a string of events, but almost unconsciously. Awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature, Camus was a philosopher, who makes us look at ourselves and think about what we see.

5. The Harp in the South (1948), Ruth Park

Ruth Park – the antipodean equivalent to Steinbeck perhaps –  sent this, her first novel, to the Sydney Morning Herald, in response to a competition. She won. The story resides deeply in the DNA of the Great Depression, Catholic-Irish Australian working-class family. Startling realism grips the reader as chaotic life in a boarding-house in the slums of Sydney unfolds. The intensity of your compassion will be put to the test. This is the first book in what became a series, each a stand-alone triumph.

Unputdownable Contemporaries

1. The Winds of War (1971) Herman Wouk

You think you know about WWII and can’t be bothered reading about it again? You might think again when you open the first page of this enthralling family saga. You’ll bump into real people, and finally understand this era of human history through the book’s historical accuracy that spans the period from six months before Germany’s invasion of Poland, and ends at Japan’s bombing of Pearl Harbour. Compulsively readable, with an excellent sequel. 

2. The Turning (2004) Tim Winton

From a most loved novelist, comes this masterful collection of interconnecting short stories of people facing problems, some common, some uncommon, always transformative. The environment and landscape, the characters, the sights and the very textures, are all wholly Australian. There is human brokenness between these pages, but also survival and redemption. Everything by Winton is worthy of your time.

3. The Secret History (1992), Donna Tartt

Set within the author’s own college, the narrator is one of 6 friends, all students of the Classics. Their charismatic tutor has created something of a mysterious clique within the group, where outsiders are unwelcome, except for Richard, who manages to infiltrate. There is murder afoot, and with its overtones of Greek tragedy, this engrossing tale is regularly referred to as an inverted detective story because the reader knows who-done-it, but not why.

4. Shantaram (2003), Gregory David Roberts

Controversy has always followed this book. Initially published to much acclaim as non-fiction but then poo-pooed by critics who relegated it to fiction. Ultimately, literary wisdom places it as creative non-fiction, with evidence of facts noted on public record in Australia, India, Africa, and Afghanistan. Shantaram is a big book that you won’t want to put down, describing the exploits of the author, who was a very naughty boy: a bank robber, prison escapee, trader in dangerous goods, and also something of a loveable Samaritan.

5. A Twist in the Tale (1988) Jeffrey Archer

Each of the collection’s stories has been carefully constructed by this successful novelist, British peer of the realm, former politician, convicted criminal, and witty rogue with a clever pen. Every tale carries a surprise ending, which means you won’t be putting the light out until the end. Each has a flawed main character, who, much like its author, has a lesson to learn about life. 

Riveting Non-Fiction

1. Pacific (2015), Simon Winchester

If the history, geo-political canvas, culture, and everything else about the area in which you live is of interest, here’s the book that lays it all out for you. The Pacific is the one vast area where western and eastern interests align, and sometimes collide. Winchester is a fascinatingly thrilling storyteller whose research and factual accounting is indisputable. This is a book for now and for the future.

2. Joe Cinque’s Consolation (2004), Helen Garner

This most outstanding Australian author attended the criminal trials at the centre of this compelling drama. In her inimitable and unpretentious style, Garner made the comment to a journalist that the only way she could get her head around the murder of Joe Cinque was to write about it. Now we can all get our heads around it, albeit with some incredulity, and a greater understanding of narcissism.

3. Angela’s Ashes (1996) Frank McCourt

This memoir, or slice of life, won a Pulitzer Prize for its author, and follows the trials of a desperately impoverished Irish immigrant family living in Brooklyn USA and their return during the Depression to Limerick, Ireland. Overshadowing McCourt’s family life is his father’s alcoholism and the misery it inflicted on every member of the family, how it was negotiated and endured. Gritty and raw, and yet brimming with humour and heartbreaking honesty, it’s a sad, funny, cracker of a story.

4. A Fortunate Life (1981) Albert Facey

Life wasn’t meant to be easy, but dang, it sure shouldn’t have been this hard for a young parentless Aussie kid who you’ll surely wish you could scoop up into your arms and adopt. We follow Albert’s tribulations as a farmed out young boy, and subsequently to the battlefields of Gallipoli, to the loss of his own farm and the loss of his beloved wife of 60 years. Throughout, Albert is forever the optimist, taking every hardship in his stride: living a fortunate life. Your heart will swell.

5. Endurance: Shackleton’s Incredible Voyage (1959), Alfred Lansing

The remarkable story of an unrealised dream by polar explorers to cross the Antarctic. When their ship became trapped in ice, what ultimately followed was nothing short of miraculous. You will read of incredibly harrowing effort and stamina, of loss and survival in an inhospitable land with no escape. The expedition started in August 1914 and ended in January 1917. Above all, this is a story of the nobility of true mateship, with unexpected smatterings of humour. There is only one word to describe this utterly enthralling and factual account based on first-hand reports and interviews: unbelievable!