5 Bookish Ways You Can Support Charity and Generally Do Some Good

It is a truth universally acknowledged that giving to charity is generally a pretty good thing. When you have a bit of spare money, you can part with it safe in the knowledge that it’s going to someone who really needs it (plus, you can bask in that fuzzy feeling you get when you know you’re doing something good, so it’s not totally altruistic). “But Grace!” you say. “Books must permeate every part of my life (obviously). Is there a way that I can give to charity and stay true to my bookish ways?” I am so glad you asked. Here are 5 ways you can incorporate your love of reading into your charitable doings. I google weird shit so you don’t have to.

Donate to a bookish charity!

This is probably the most obvious way to incorporate books into your charity contributions. There are loads of book centric charities you can support, working in the UK or abroad. Two notable ones are Book Trust (http://www.booktrust.org.uk/) who promote reading and education within the UK, and Book Aid International (http://www.bookaid.org/) who send brand new books to communities in need all over the world.

Send books to prisons!

Prison libraries are often understocked and it can be hard for prisoners to access reading material or vital course books that they need to complete educational courses. Books are also a wonderful comfort and means of entertainment and escape, so their value shouldn’t be overlooked and for many they are a vital part of rehabilitation. There are rules and restrictions as to what material can and can’t be sent, and the format that books should be sent in (no hard covers, for example), so it may be worth doing some research before you send anything off. The website http://sendbookstoprisoners.co.uk/ has lots of comprehensive information on donating to prisons, or you could donate money to Haven Distribution UK, a charity working to send prisoners the educational material they need since 1996.

Adopt a book at the British Library!

For a donation of £25 you could adopt a book at the British Library. You can choose from a list of classic titles, such as Jane Eyre and Little Women, and your donation will go towards conservation at the library. Plus, you get a book-jacket gift card. Win.

Take part in the Buy Books for Syria campaign!

Now, in the interest of full disclosure I do work for Waterstones, BUT even if I didn’t this is still a campaign worth getting behind. Waterstones have teamed up with Oxfam and a selection of well known authors (including personal favourites Neil Gaiman and our BELOVED Caitlin Moran) to donate 100% of the cover price of a range of books to Oxfam’s Syria crisis fund. These books will have a Buy Books for Syria sticker on the front and neither Waterstones nor the publisher will see a penny of the money, so it’s a really good way to give money to help refugees while feeding your love of literature. Oxfam also have several charity bookshops throughout the country, so keep an eye out for those.

Volunteer at your local library!

Unfortunately, due to hideous budget cuts and the removal of vital funding, many county libraries in the UK are relying on volunteers to keep their doors open. If you have time, volunteering at your local library could help keep these vital services going, and probably give you some fascinating stories to tell along the way.

So, reader, there you have it! Five bookish ways to do some good and earn you some extra karma points. Come back next week for the result of the Grace Booker Prize. I know you’re all on on the edge of your seats.

The Grace Booker Prize Shortlist: My Top 6 Reads of 2015 (so far!)

This week the Man Booker Prize for fiction shortlist was released. For those of you who have been living under a literary rock, the prize is awarded every year to the best original novel written in the English language, and for the last two years it has been opened up to writers from all over the world, so competition is tough. A big congratulations to this year’s finalists, but I think it’s time I introduce a far more exciting award into the literary calender. I am pleased to announce the Grace Booker Prize: where I choose my best book of the year and award the writer the glory of knowing that I have enjoyed their book more than anyone else’s. If I had their address I could send chocolate, but Caitlin Moran has issued me with a restraining order so that could be awkward. Where was I? Oh yes. So without further ado, my top six books of the year (so far!) are:

The Talented Mr Ripley – Patricia Highsmith

A wonderful book from the queen of suspense, The Talented Mr Ripley is the first book of Highsmith’s famous Ripley series. A brilliant read that keeps you hooked, desperate to know what Ripley will do next, and if he will get away with it all.

Asylum – Patrick McGrath

A dark read from gothic penman Patrick McGrath, Asylum is the story of an affair that goes horribly wrong. Obsessive lovers, deception, and unreliable narrators galore, this is a fantastic read that grips and chills until the very last page.

The Little Stranger – Sarah Waters

Made famous for her titillating debut Tipping the Velvet (which I LOVE), The Little Stranger is unusual for Waters in it’s lack of any obviously lesbian characters. However, don’t let that put you off. A country doctor is called to the house of one of the oldest families in the town, only to find that what is going on there may be more sinister than mere illness and hysteria. Water’s narrative style is a joy to read, as always, and the uncertainty and suspense makes this book a truly enthralling read.

The Custom of the Country – Edith Wharton

Published in 1913, this is the oldest novel on this list, but in many ways the most interesting. Wharton paints a fascinating, if jaded, picture of interwar America, where divorce, money grabbing, and greed is the norm, old social structures are falling, and nothing is sacred. The wonderfully named Undine Spragg is the anti-heroine we love to hate in this massively entertaining piece of social commentary.

The Cloning of Joanna May – Fay Weldon

I was lucky enough to hear Fay Weldon speak at The Chester Literature Festival while I was at university, and when asked which of her books was her favourite, this was the one she chose. Divorced socialite Joanna May was cloned without her knowledge thirty years ago during what she believed to be an abortion. Now, left by her controlling husband after an affair, the past catches up with her in this fascinating examination of the place of women in society, nature vs. nurture.

How To Build A Girl – Caitlin Moran

Oh Caitlin, how I adore you, with your DM boots and your black hair flying gracefully in the wind. I won’t recap this one, as I reviewed it a few weeks back which, if you are so inclined, you can read here. When you’re done with that, go see Half Girl Half Teacup’s awesome post, The C-Word, on why Caitlin Moran is the most awesome woman ever.

Now, none of these books were published this year, I know. Turns out, it’s September and I have yet to read one (ONE!) book published in 2015. Better get a move on! I will announce my winner the week of 13^th of October, same as the actual prize, so check back then to see my top read of the year so far. I know you are all on the edge of your seats.

We Aim to Misbehave: A Reading List for my Fourteen-Year-Old Self

It is a truth universally acknowledged that being a teenager is hard. There is no denying it. Hormones mean you cry at least fifteen times a day, your hair won’t do what you tell it to, and your dad really does not understand how important it is that you go out on Tuesday because literally EVERYONE IN THE WORLD is going, and Laura’s mum doesn’t care that it’s a school night. But these turbulent few years change the way you view the world and, most importantly, yourself. In a world where the media is constantly bombarding teenagers with unrealistic beauty standards, and social media means that school follows you home, the media that you choose to consume has taken on unprecedented significance. Books can educate. Books can change you. So here is a reading list for my tear stained, heavily eye-linered, fourteen-year-old self, or any teenage girl, in fact. Because who wants to read about the new fad diet when you can have feminism, lesbianism, and angst instead?

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Girls to the Front: The True Story of the Riot Grrrl Revolution – Sara Marcus

Every teenage girl needs Riot Grrrl. It was a movement that revolutionised the US punk scene in the late ’80s and early ’90s, a rad fem uprising reclaiming space from the boys who had dominated the scene of the time, banishing women to the sidelines. Marcus’s book is an exploration of the women behind the movement and the impact that it had, a must read for any angry, creative teenager who’s ever felt that rock was an all boy club.

The Magic Toyshop – Angela Carter

Although not for the faint of heart, Angela Carter is one of my favourite writers, and this coming of age story is a must read for any teenage girl. When Melanie’s parents are killed in a plane accident, she and her siblings are sent to live with their tyrannical Uncle Philip in his toy shop in South London. Although the magical realist elements are strong here, the novel is really about Melanie’s process of self-discovery, finding herself capable of a strength and sexuality that she didn’t know she had.

Sugar Rush – Julie Birchill

Okay, okay, I admit, this is not the best written book in the universe but when tween Grace read this, it was revolutionary. Utterly. Mindblowing.

As a (now out and proud, then very closeted) lesbian who had a nasty habit of falling in love with school friends, this was what I needed to read. I wasn’t weird, I wasn’t sick. Hell, I wasn’t even the only one. I remember sitting on my bedroom floor, almost ten years ago now, devouring nearly the whole book in one sitting. Queer or not, this fun book captures something about being fifteen, and it has always stuck in my mind as something every teenager should read.

Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit – Jeanette Winterson

Sugar Rush’s far, far better written and at times utterly heart breaking older sister, Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit is one of my favourite books of all time. This semi-autobiographical account of a young lesbian discovering who she is in a strictly Christian town is described in gorgeous prose by Winterson, and is necessary reading for any teenager who feels like they don’t fit in.

How to Be A Woman – Caitlin Moran

Words cannot describe how much I love this book. Part memoir, part feminist rant, this book is a collection of witty and at times laugh-out-loud funny musings on what it takes to be a woman in the 21^st Century. From body hair to abortion no topic is off limits, and Moran gets her point across without seeming preachy or condescending. Debunking a lot of the pressure put on young women with the simple question ‘do the boys have to do it? No? Then don’t worry’, this book is a must read for teenage girls everywhere.

The Life and Loves of A She-Devil – Fay Weldon

A personal favourite, this ludicrously fun book is the story of a well-behaved woman who gets screwed over despite doing everything society told her and subsequently decides to thoroughly, thoroughly misbehave. Take note, teenage me. Take very detailed notes.

Little Women – Louisa May Alcott

Little Women seems a strange choice next to many of the others on this list. For one, the girls all seem relatively well-behaved, there is no big exposé of how removing your body hair is part of a patriarchal plot, and none of the characters are actually lesbians. Not even Jo. But, when it comes to sisterhood and female solidarity, this book has it down. The March women could teach the Corleone’s a thing about family. None of them ever tell a sister that she cannot do something: from Jo’s writing to Amy’s art, they are all extremely supportive. Also, and this is a biggie, Mrs March is determined that her girls marry for love, and not for money: their happiness as humans is more important to her than their economic value. And Jo is just amazing. I refuse to be told otherwise.

Pride and Prejudice – Jane Austen

Aside from being one of the most famous books in English literature, every teenage girl should read Pride and Prejudice because, actually, Elizabeth and her sister Jane are pretty kick ass. SURE, she marries the guy at the end, but that’s because she actually loves him: our Lizzie was more than willing to give up his £10,000 a year when she thought Darcy was a dick. We could all do with more witty and intelligent women in our literary lives, quite aside from the fact that the love and loyalty between Jane and Elizabeth is a lesson in sisterhood every young woman should remember.

The Bell Jar – Sylvia Plath

I know, I know, hear me out. Who in their right mind would give a probably totally self-absorbed, introspective, and emotionally volatile teenager a copy of The Bell Jar? Answer: me. Esther Greenwood is every intelligent, creative young woman who is told by society that she can’t be these things and be attractive, something that’s just as prevalent now as it was in the 1950s. So what does she do? Shake her fist at the patriarchy and tell them all to go to hell while writing a fabulous novel? No. Unfortunately she has a breakdown. But in the process she calls out a lot of patriarchal bullshit, and does not compromise or dumb herself down to get society (a.k.a. boys) to like her. So yeah, I would give this (beautiful, gorgeous, devastating) novel to teenage me. You can do this, teenage me. But don’t touch those sleeping pills. They’re not good.