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House Of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski

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PREMISE: A young couple – Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist Will Navidson and his partner Karen Green – move into a small house on Ash Tree Lane. It soon becomes clear that something is terribly wrong – their new home is bigger on the inside than it is on the outside. What happened next is loosely recorded on videotapes and in interviews, and impelled an eccentric old man to compile – on loose sheets of paper, stained napkins, crammed notebooks – a definitive account of what took place at Ash Tree Lane that seems to unveil a thrilling and terrifying history.

When you have a minute, go on Goodreads and check out some of the reviews on this book. Particularly the 1 star ones. I could pick any at random to make my point but I’m choosing one of the twattiest by a guy named David (cool name, bell end) who states his “overpowering disgust at the people who continue to naively read this book“. He relates the authoring of this book to the downfall of society (?) and concludes by saying “I fear for the future of humanity”. What a wanker.

I love this book and would urge anyone to read it. It’s like nothing you’ve ever read before. But that’s just my opinion. Some people clearly don’t like it and some do. That’s how reading works. And, in general, any type of art. I’ve read a few books I didn’t like but I can’t think of any time I then felt disgust at people who did like them. Fuck off David. I fear for the future of humanity mainly due to colossal fucknuggets like you.

All The Colours Of The Dark by Chris Whitaker

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PREMISE: Late one summer, the town of Monta Clare is shattered by the abduction of teenager Joseph ‘Patch’ Macauley. Nobody more so than Saint Brown, who will risk everything to find her best friend.

Patch lies alone in a pitch-black room – until he feels a hand in his. Her name is Grace and, though they cannot see each other, she lights their world with her words. But when he escapes: there is no sign she ever even existed. Left with only her voice and her name, he paints her from broken memories – and charts an epic search to find her.

Straight into my top 5 all-time favourite reads. Absolutely astonishing book which, I’m more than happy to admit, made me cry at the end.

2026 update…this baby is my 2025 Portland Award winner.

American Tabloid by James Ellroy

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PREMISE: We are behind, and below, the scenes of JFK’s presidential election, the Bay of Pigs, the assassination—in the underworld that connects Miami, Los Angeles, Chicago, D.C….

Where the CIA, the Mob, J. Edgar Hoover, Howard Hughes, Jimmy Hoffa, Cuban political exiles, and various loose cannons conspire in a covert anarchy…

Where the right drugs, the right amount of cash, the right murder, buys a moment of a man’s loyalty…

Where three renegade law-enforcement officers—a former L.A. cop and two FBI agents—are shaping events with the virulence of their greed and hatred, riding full-blast shotgun into history….

My all-time favourite book. Read it more times than I can remember and it’s an absolute fucking monstrous ride through America’s shittest period every time I read it. Follow it up with The Cold Six Thousand and Blood’s A Rover and you have the finest body of non-fiction fiction ever written. Totally masterful and, for me, something everyone should read if you want to understand even a little more of the assassinations of JFK, RFK and MLK, the Bay of Pigs, Vietnam and the utter corruption of the United States. This may be fiction, but it’s likely right on the money.

Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr

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PREMISE: Constantinople, 1453:
An orphaned seamstress and a cursed boy with a love for animals risk everything on opposite sides of a city wall to protect the people they love.

Idaho, 2020:
An impoverished, idealistic kid seeks revenge on a world that’s crumbling around him. Can he go through with it when a gentle old man stands between him and his plans?

Unknown, Sometime in the Future:
With her tiny community in peril, Konstance is the last hope for the human race. To find a way forward, she must look to the oldest stories of all for guidance.

Bound together by a single ancient text, these tales interweave to form a tapestry of solace and resilience and a celebration of storytelling itself. 

Weirdly (or not…I don’t know) I’ve not read All The Light We Cannot See and went straight to this as I liked the sound of it. Man, Anthony Doerr can write. Got absolutely lost in this and that’s exactly why I read. Fantastic book.