Lost Horizon by James Hilton

Following a plane crash, Conway, a British consul; his deputy; a missionary; and an American financier find themselves in the enigmatic snow-capped mountains of uncharted Tibet. Here they discover a seemingly perfect hidden community where they are welcomed with gracious hospitality. Intrigued by its mystery, the travellers set about discovering the secret hidden at the shimmering heart of Shangri-La.

When a Crocodile Eats the Sun by Peter Godwin

Peter Godwin, an award-winning writer, is on assignment in Zululand when he is summoned by his mother to Zimbabwe, his birthplace. His father is seriously ill; she fears he is dying. Godwin finds his country, once a post-colonial success story, descending into a vortex of violence and racial hatred.

The Golden Notebook by Doris Lessing

Anna Wulf is a young novelist with writer's block. Divorced, with a young child, and disillusioned by unsatisfactory relationships, she feels her life is falling apart. Fearing the onset of madness, she records her experiences in four coloured notebooks. The black notebook addresses her problems as a writer; the red her political life; the yellow her relationships and emotions; and the blue becomes a diary of everyday events. But it is the fifth notebook -- the Golden Notebook -- which is the key to her recovery and renaissance. A wry and perceptive portrait of the intellectual and moral climate of the 1950s -- a society on the brink of feminism -- and a powerful and revealing account of a woman searching for her own personal and political identity.

For One More Day by Mitch Albom

As a child, Charley Benetto was told by his father, 'You can be a mama's boy or a daddy's boy, but you can't be both.' So he chooses his father, only to see him disappear when Charley is on the verge of adolescence. Decades later, Charley is a broken man. His life has been destroyed by alcohol and regret and decides to take his own life. Charley makes a midnight ride to his small hometown: his final journey. But as he staggers into his old house, he makes an astonishing discovery. His mother - who died eight years earlier - is there, and welcomes Charley home as if nothing had ever happened.

Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress by Dai Sijie

In 1971 Mao's campaign against the intellectuals is at its height. Our narrator and his best friend, Luo, distinctly unintellectual but guilty of being the sons of doctors, have been sent to a remote mountain village to be 'reeducated'. Distraction for the two 17 year olds is provided by the attractive daughter of the local tailor. Their true re-education starts, however, when they discover a comrade's hidden stash of forbidden classics of great 19th century Western literature. And after listening to their dangerously seductive retellings of Balzac, the Little Seamstress will never be the same again.

A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini

Mariam is only fifteen when she is sent to Kabul to marry Rasheed. Nearly two decades later, a friendship grows between Mariam and a local teenager, Laila, as strong as the ties between mother and daughter. When the Taliban take over, life becomes a desperate struggle against starvation, brutality and fear. Yet love can move a person to act in unexpected ways, and lead them to overcome the most daunting obstacles with a startling heroism.

Repeat After Me by Rachel DeWoskin

Aysha, a twenty-two-year-old New Yorker, is beginning to put the pieces of her life back in place after a nervous breakdown. Teaching an adult education class, she meets a young Chinese student named Da Ge - tortured, charismatic and just as unstable as she is - who flips her world upside-down once again. In a love story that spans decades and continents, from the Tiananmen Square massacre to 9/11, New York City's Upper West Side to the terraced mountains of South China, 'Repeat After Me' is a perceptive, funny and tragic tale of clashing cultures and troubled histories.

Love in the Time of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez

It was inevitable: the scent of bitter almonds always reminded him of the fate of unrequited love. Fifty-one years, nine months and four days have passed since Fermina Daza rebuffed hopeless romantic Florentino Arizo’s impassioned advances and married Dr. Juvenal Urbino instead. During that half century, Florentino has fallen into the arms of many delighted women, but has loved none but Fermina. Having sworn his eternal love to her, he lives for the day when he can court her again. When Fermina’s husband is killed trying to retrieve his pet parrot from a mango tree, Florentino seizes his chance to declare his enduring love. But can young love find new life in the twilight of their lives?

The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga

Born in a village in the heartland of India, the son of a rickshaw puller, Balram is taken out of school by his family and put to work in a teashop. As he crushes coals and wipes tables, he nurses a dream of escape.  A tale of two Indias, Balram’s journey from the darkness of village life to the light of entrepreneurial success is utterly amoral, brilliantly irreverent, deeply endearing and altogether unforgettable.

Mr China by Tim Clissold

In the early nineties, China finally opened for business and Wall Street wanted to get in on the act. When the investment bankers arrived from New York with their Harvard MBA's, pinstripes and tassly shoes, ready to negotiate with the Old Cadres, the stage was set for a collision between Wall Street's billions and the world's oldest culture. This book tells the true story of a Wall Street banker and an Englishman looking for glory and learning the hard way that China plays by its own rules.

The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho

A magical fable about learning to listen to your heart, read the omens strewn along life's path and, above, all follow your dreams. This is the magical story of Santiago, an Andalusian shepherd boy who dreams of travelling the world in search of a worldly treasure as fabulous as any ever found. From his home in Spain he journeys to the markets of Tangiers, and from there into the Egyptian desert, where a fateful encounter with the alchemist awaits him.

Girls of Riyadh by Rajaa Alsanea

Gamrah’s faith in her new husband is not exactly returned; Sadeem is a little too willing to please her fiance; Michelle is half-American and the wrong class for her boyfriend’s family; While Lamees works hard with little time for love. The girls of Riyadh are young, attractive and living by Saudi Arabia’s strict cultural traditions. Well, not quite. In-between sneaking out behind their parents’ backs, dating, shopping, watching American TV and having fun, they’re still trying to be good little Muslim girls. That is, pleasing their families and their men. But can you be a twenty-first century girl and a Saudi girl?

Inspired by a true story‚ A Most Immoral Woman is a surprising‚ witty and erotic tale of sexual and other obsessions set in the 'floating world′ of Westerners in China and Japan at the turn of the twentieth century. At its heart stands an original and devastatingly honest woman‚ as seen from the perspective of the extraordinary man who was drawn to love her.