Jo Franks works in RNIB's products and publications department where she edits many of RNIB's leisure magazines. We are lucky enough to have her on the Read On editorial board. Jo also reviews books for the Peterborough Evening Telegraph, so we couldn't let all that expertise go to waste. Here she shares some of her recent reads.
I've been re-reading Good omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman (braille 5v), a wonderfully tongue-in-cheek Apocalypse story. It contains witches, demons (including Crowley - an angel who did not so much Fall as Saunter Vaguely Downwards), angels, chattering nuns and some of the funniest lines my favourite fantasy writers have ever produced, not to mention some stinging observations on humans and belief.
Newly besotted with Jason Isaacs, I've just finished Case histories by Kate Atkinson (braille 4v, giant print 4v, TB 14091, DAISY audio Order no. 800051, £6.99). Former policeman Jackson Brodie is a private detective who finds himself investigating three cold cases - the disappearance of a small girl and two murders. Despite the dark nature of the mysteries, there's a balancing vein of humour to lighten the proceedings, and you cannot fail to take Jackson to your heart.
I've just started One day by David Nicholls (braille 8v, giant print 4v, TB 16957) - a funny and (so far) bitter-sweet story about Emma and Dexter, who meet for the first time on their last night at university. In the morning they go their separate ways, but we catch up with them on each anniversary of that day and chart their lives and loves over twenty years. It's easy to see why it's achieved best-seller-made-into-a-film status.
After that I'm planning to re-read A prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving (braille 14v, TB 8247). It's a masterful piece of storytelling that keeps you hooked through its many, many pages. In the summer of 1953, two 11-year-old boys - best friends - are playing in a Little League baseball game in Gravesend, New Hampshire. One of the boys hits a foul ball that kills the other boy's mother. The boy who hits the ball doesn't believe in accidents; Owen Meany believes he is God's instrument. What happens to Owen, after that 1953 foul ball, is extraordinary and terrifying.