confessions of an english opium eater (thomas de quincey)

twentieth century drug addled tales revolve around dance music, star wars, and spurious sexual encounters. in the nineteenth century it was all a bit more sedate... schoolboys drinking sherry and exchanging latin anecdotes and the such like. clearly a very intelligent, or at least well read, man, but you don't want to have it rammed down your throat every minute.

angels and demons (dan brown)

this is a good page turner, though will seem a bit familiar after the da vinci code... for the grail quest, read the turbulent interplay between science and religion, and fill in the blanks from there. still, brown knows how to keep the suspense going, and there are some neat twists, as well as a gargantuan wrench, towards the end, so it's basically a good, entertaining read: buy some popcorn and settle in.

catch 22 (joseph heller)

gut wrenching, convoluted, heart breaking, and laugh out loud hilarious, this is a genuine twentieth century classic. be warned though, if you don't love it after ten pages, don't punish yourself with the remaining six hundred.

family matters (rohinton mistry)

this is a well written family tale, concerning a dysfunctional parsi family. the dual temporal narratives are quite neatly linked: the present day trauma of the troubled family interspersed with the parkinson addled remembrances of the dying grandfather of the events which are the root of the problems. well written, and a genuinely good story without too much reliance on the 'look at me, i'm indian tricks' so popular with diasporic writers who aren't as effective as mistry.