You may have noticed that the Library team have been leaving books for you to find around our campuses this term as part of their ongoing #OffTheShelf campaign. As well as giving students the opportunity to take home and read found copies, we hope that these copies will be passed on. There’s even a space in each book for each reader to leave a review.
Why are we doing this?
We know reading has an educational impact, helping with everything from improving vocabulary to exploring new ideas, but reading also can have a positive impact on your health. In an increasingly busy world, we want to encourage everyone to take some time out of their day and relax and reading offers a great escape. Research shows that reading for pleasure can dramatically enhance your wellbeing, helping to de-stress and improve your relationships with others.
It doesn’t matter what you read. Whether it’s a graphic novel, a magazine, or the latest Booker winner, just take some time out and find something that you love.
Our Recommendations
All the #OffTheShelf books have been carefully selected by UWTSD staff with particular themes in mind for each book drop. In doing so, the ambition is to provoke thought and start important conversations.
To those of you who may have missed the opportunity to pick up a copy of some of the Library’s favourite titles, we hope you enjoy these reading lists. We hope you find them as compelling and challenging as we have.
Keep your eyes peeled in the upcoming months for more titles around your campus and don’t forget to let UWTSD Library know what you think.
Follow them on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.
#OffTheShelf Reading Lists
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Focusing on the National Libraries Week 2018 theme of wellbeing, ranging from practical guides to inspiration
Sane New World – Ruby Wax
How to Bullet Plan – Rachel Wilkerson Miller
The Travelling Cat Chronicles – Hiro Arikawa
Feel the Fear and Do it Anyway – Susan Jeffers
Reasons to Stay Alive – Matt Haig
Mindset – Dr Carol S. Dweck
How Not to Be a Boy – Robert Webb
The Stranger on the Bridge – Jonny Benjamin
The Things You Can Only See When You Slow Down – Haemin Sunim
The Shadow of the Wind – Carlos Ruiz Zafon
Kakeibo: The Japanese Art of Saving Money – Fumiko Chiba
Counselling for Toads – Robert de Board
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Highlighting black authors and experiences
Diversify – June Sarpong
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings – Maya Angelou
Beloved – Toni Morrison
Half of a Yellow Sun – Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race – Reni Eddo-Lodge
Natives – Akala
The Good Immigrant – ed. by Nikesh Shukla
The Color Purple – Alice Walker
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Highlighting LGBT authors and experiences
A Brief History of Seven Killings – Marlon James
The Picture of Dorian Gray – Oscar Wilde
Fingersmith – Sarah Waters
Carol – Patricia Highsmith
Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches – Professor Audre Lorde
Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic – Alison Bechdel
Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit – Jeanette Winterson
The Last Romeo – Justin Myers
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Celebrating inspirational women
Becoming – Michelle Obama
The Handmaid’s Tale – Margaret Atwood
To Kill a Mockingbird – Harper Lee
So Lucky – Nicola Griffith
Love In a Fallen City – Eileen Chang
Suffragette: The Autobiography of Emmeline Pankhurst – Emmeline Pankhurst
Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls: 100 Tales of Extraordinary Women – Elena Favilli
Jane Austen at Home – Lucy Worsley
Men Explain Things To Me – Rebecca Solnit
Bloody Brilliant Women – Cathy Newman
Love Medicine – Louise Erdrich
Stay With Me – Ayobami Adebayo
I am Malala: The Girl Who Stood up for Education and was Shot by the Taliban – Malala Yousafzai
The Gender Games: The problem with men and women, from someone who has been both – Juno Dawson
Do it Like a Woman – Caroline Criado-Perez
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Focusing on the Mental Health Awareness Week 2019 theme of Body Image
The Little Book of Body Confidence – Judi Craddock
Body Positive Power – Megan Jayne Crabbe
Am I Ugly? – Michelle Elman
Notes on a Nervous Planet – Matt Haig
Man Up: Surviving Modern Masculinity – Jack Urwin
The Shock of the Fall – Nathan Filer
The Key to Happiness – Meik Wiking
Goodbye, Things – Fumio Sasaki
Love for Imperfect Things – Haemin Sunim
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time – Mark Haddon
A Beautiful Mind – Silvia Nasar
The Mindful Life Journal – Justin R. Adams
Coming Back to Me – Marcus Trescothick
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest – Ken Kesey
Jane Eyre – Charlotte Bronte
Elinor Oliphant is Completely Fine – Gail Honeyman
