Staff Picks
Libraries & Collections Staff Picks
Staff Picks is a regular feature where our Library & Collections staff recommend must-read books and must-watch films from our collection, chosen to captivate your curiosity and spark your imagination.
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The Cat Who Saved Books by Sosuke Natsukawa, (review) by Lanie Tankard
Selected by Serena
A fantasy tale explores societies relationships with books the value it gives to our lives. It evokes the reader to reflect on their own reading habits, appreciation of literary works and effects of growing commercialism. The story follows a teenager dealing with loss of his grandfather. He visits his late grandfather’s bookshop where he meets a talking cat who takes on interdimensional adventures to save books and the people who own them.
The Secret River, Kate Grenville
Selected by Louise
This tells the story of the Australian colonial experience via the fictitious Briton and convict William Thornhill. Early 19th century attitudes toward Australia's indigenous population are described by the author in harrowing detail. TW: violence and derogatory racist language.
A is for arsenic : the poisons of Agatha Christie, Kathryn Harkup
Selected by Paola
Agatha Christie revelled the use of poison to kill off unfortunate victims in her books. Her choice of deadly substances was far from random as she had extensive chemistry knowledge. This book explains to the lay reader how these poisons work, presents some historical murders and links them to Christie's work.
My Friends, Hisham Matar
Selected by Danielle
A fictional novel that traces the life of the narrator and two friends; three young Libyan men exiled in London under the Gaddafi regime, leading up to the Arab Spring revolutions in 2011. The way it explores the development of their political consciousness and nuances among this is so interesting. The alienation from distrust and fear sewn by the regimes insidious surveillance is so well illustrated and insightful. And, the nostalgia for home so beautifully painful. For a heavy topic it's so easy to read and impossible to not feel connected and invested in the characters.
The Bad-Ass Librarians of Timbuktu: and Their Race to Save the World's Most Precious Manuscripts, Joshua Hammer
Selected by Arved
Black History Month: Librarians are not just old white ladies. Librarians are also heroes and this story shows that people can be awesome in the most dire of circumstances. This counts doubely so when it comes to saving the evidence of your thriving intellectual culture from those inside your society looking to erase it.
Females, Andrea Long Chu
Selected by Jack
The funniest, stupidest, funniest, saddest, funniest feminist work by a transgender woman about TERFS, Valerie Solanas, incels and sissy porn you'll read this year or like... ever. "Everyone is female, and everyone hates it". Words to live by.
Dark City, Alex Proyas
Selected by Tristan
Late-90s cult film noir/sci-fi, released a year before The Matrix in 1998, but far superior. It also didn't spawn any awful sequels, which is a bonus. I watched it in the cinema on release, pretending it would help with my undergraduate geography course, which it kind of did as I never saw urban spaces in quite the same way again. Escapism rather than educational, but a lot of fun all the same. Features Richard O'Brien of The Crystal Maze - a recommendation-clincher on his own!
Modern Nature, Derek Jarman
Selected by Lucy R
In 1986 Derek Jarman, artist, writer and film-maker, discovered he was HIV positive and decided to make a garden at his cottage on the barren coast of Dungeness. This diary moves from 1989 through to 1990 and includes glorious descriptions of colour, plants and their mythology that will inspire your green fingers. I was captured by Jarman’s ruminations on creating paintings and sculptures (lots of tar!), alongside the trials and tribulations of film-making. A joyful celebration of gay sexuality that isn’t quashed by the horror and loss of that period, instead responding with activism, community and solidarity. Plus Jarman is a King’s Alumni, so check out our Archives for some of his writing and drawings.
Never Let Me Go, Kazuo Ishiguro
Selected by Lottie
A fiction recommendation, speculative fiction/science fiction that is "a gripping mystery, a beautiful love story, and also a scathing critique of human arrogance and a moral examination of how we treat the vulnerable and different in our society."
Open borders : the science and ethics of immigration, Bryan Douglas Caplan
Selected by Arved
No feeling quite like seeing the stars in the eyes of Americans at what we have achieved; to realise how important it is to defend what we are building in Europe.
Invisible women : exposing data bias in a world designed for men
Selected by Louise
A thought-provoking and eye-opening book which exposes how the world has predominantly been designed for and by men to the detriment of women's physical and personal health and their safety. This book was also the inspiration for my recent MA LIS dissertation.
The Invitation, Karyn Kusama
Selected by Jess
Anyone who knows me knows I love horror films but few make an impression on me nowadays as I kind of feel "I've seen it all". So it was a pleasure to find something different in the shape of The Invitation, which effectively builds a powerful sense of unease and tension. Some fantastic performances take you on a wild ride through an unforgettable dinner party.
Sylvia Wynter: On Being Human as Praxis
Selected by Sheneez Sylvia Wynter, O. J., a celebrated and notable alumni of King's College London, is a Jamaican writer whose many essays invite us to rethink and challenge the ways in which we see the world. This book, editted by Canadian Professor Katherine McKittrick, is one of only two editted volumes on Wynter's work, and it sees prestigious decolonial scholars from around the world celebrate, comment upon and dialogue with Wynter's ground-breaking ideas. It opens with an epic and extensive chapter co-written by Wynter and McKittrick, that should not be missed by anyone interested in decolonial thought and/or Caribbean philosophy!
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In The Dream House
Selected by Red
Wouldn't exactly say it was a pleasurable read but it was definitely an enthralling one. This book is a memoir mostly centred around the author's experience of abuse in a queer relationship. Would describe as raw, heavy, and frightening, but really beautiful writing with an interesting structure, in the way of chapters varying from being just one sentence to written in the style of a 'Choose your own adventure', and so many lines I had to write down to hold onto.
Demon Copperhead
Selected by Louise
A modern re-telling of David Copperfield, exploring the devasting effects of poverty and the opiod crisis in 1990s/early 2000s rural America. Not an easy read in terms of its subject, but an important one.
The Gentrification of the Mind
Selected by Jack
Landlords jack up rents, ruin neighbourhoods, destroy cities and are a big part of why I can’t go watch a play in London anymore because they’re all either rubbish or £50. Read if you are interested in New York, the AIDS crisis, theatre, being gay, making art, or you have a sort of general sense of malaise and unease and you don’t know why. SPOILER: It’s probably capitalism.
Sisterhood of the Squared Circle
Selected by Charlie W
Women's wrestling isn't new, but that is rarely acknowledged or understood by wrestling fans today. The fight to be respected, to be included, to break down the systemic barriers that exist - well, it's better, but it's still ongoing. This biography does a great job in surfacing the history of women's wrestling, the changemakers and the trail blazers.
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There are career profiles of over 100 women wrestlers from throughout history, ranging from Minerva to Manami Toyota to Mae Young to Sasha Banks (or, should I say, Mercedes Moné? CEO! CEO!) There's also good international coverage (although it is US focused). Whether you like wrestling or this is all Brand New Information I'd highly recommend this informative, and easy going read.
When Nietzsche Wept
Selected by Arved
The amount of underlining I have done puts this firmly in the favourite books of all time category. Yalom is one of our most gifted living authors, with an unmatched penetrating kindness. One for all those that tend to often be proven right in hindsight and thus find it hard to let go off projects.
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Morgan and Claypool Engineering, Computer Science, Life Sciences e-book series This link opens in a new window
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Ebooks published by the Royal Society of Chemistry from 1968 - note King's does not have access to all titles
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