My latest Golden Oldie is a book every person should have in their library, right next to Jack Kerouac’s On the Road. In fact Kerouac is said to have inspired Thompson’s road trip and novel.

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream is a novel by Hunter S. Thompson, illustrated by Ralph Steadman. The book is a roman à clef, rooted in autobiographical incidents. The story follows its protagonist, Raoul Duke, and his attorney, Dr. Gonzo, as they descend on Las Vegas to chase the American Dream through a drug-induced haze.

Get in touch with your inner hedonist.

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What a wonderful, sinister, eerie, involving read this novel is. Go get yourself a copy, if you haven’t read it. Some say it is better that Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre.

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I read this book in my late teens and was so entranced by it, it launched me into a long period of reading historical fiction and non fiction. It follows the story of Katherine de Roet, in love with John of Gaunt but married to Hugh Swynford. Read this lovely review of it here.

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My new Recommended Read is a bit of a cheat because I haven’t read it yet. But I’ve read all the other Mercy Thompson novels and the one thing Patricia Briggs is, is consistently good. It’s one of the few urban fantasy series that I can stand to read which contains vamps and werewolves. She’s DAMN good. This one is out this month.

And my Golden Oldie won the author a Nobel prize. Kristen Lavransdatter is a sweeping nordic family saga full of violence and heartbreak. Wiki says that her nobel prize was ”principally for her powerful descriptions of Northern life during the Middle Ages; her work is much admired for its historical and ethnological accuracy.”

At the time I read it (my 20’s) I was totally engrossed and transported. Cried buckets in places. Loved it.

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