Brenna

One sentence synopsis... The history of the internet - from forums, to Friendster, and eventually Facebook - from the perspective of the user.

Read it if you like... ‘Halt and Catch Fire'. Both the show and this book look at the early stages of building communities online and how the utopian dreams of the World Wide Web have failed to play out in reality.

Further reading... for another personal story told against the backdrop of Silicon Valley and Big Tech try Anna Wiener's ‘Uncanny Valley'.

One sentence synopsis... Completely bonkers political satire that weaves together two tales - in one the Devil and his entourage visit Soviet Moscow and in the other Pontius Pilate is tormented by his choice to sentence Jesus to death. .

Read it if you like... ‘Faust', Gabriel Gracía Márquez, The Rolling Stones song ‘Sympathy for the Devil' (Jagger referenced the book as an inspiration for the song in 1968). This is not your typical Russian novel with painful chapters of peasants doing farm work (looking at you Tolstoy), it's really funny and layered - and features a giant, murderous cat. Woland is a better fictional imagining of the devil than even the legendary classic ‘Meet Joe Black'. .

Dream casting... Baz Luhrmann just bought the rights to make it into a movie. I couldn't think of a better director to take this challenging novel on than him.

One sentence synopsis... An exploration of absurdity through the life of Meursault, a French Algerian whose apathetic responses to society's standards of behaviour lead him to his death.

Read it if you like... nothing. And dislike nothing. And have no feelings for anything at all. Perfect book for you. Far stretch comparison but at times Meursault gives off some very Patrick Bateman, dead-behind-the-eyes vibes.

Dream casting... I don't think a film version of this book makes any sense but somehow I'd trust Joaquin Phoenix to find a way to make it work.

One sentence synopsis... This book follows two half-sisters separated from birth in 18th century Ghana, alternating each chapter to tell the story of a different descendant of each sister. .

Read it If you like... short stories. Despite continuing themes of colonialism and slavery, read all together they felt like a collection of short stories rather than a wholly realized plot. Still enjoyable but about halfway through the stories lose their momentum and become a series of emotionally distressing vingnettes. .

Further reading... for a better version of the many-alternating-narrators book: try ‘There, There'. For a better version of the American-racism-shaping-families: try ‘An American Marriage'. For a better version of family-followed-across-generations: try ‘Pachinko'. It's not that ‘Homegoing' is bad, it's just not as good as other books about the same ideas.