Top Five Wednesday: Short Books

This week's Top Five Wednesday challenge is to recommend five books that are short, quick reads.  Here are five that I absolutely loved.

1. Cheerful Weather for the Wedding by Julia Strachey (1932) 119 pages

This novella blew me away when I read it in 2017.  My review can be found here.

2. Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury (1953) 194 pages 

This book is simply astounding.  If you've not read it, I can't urge you strongly enough to give it a try.

3. The Diving Bell and the Butterfly: A Memoir of Life in Death by Jean-Dominique Bauby, translated by Jeremy Leggatt (1997)  132 pages

This memoir was written by a man with locked-in syndrome, who dictated it, letter by letter, by blinking his one eye when his helper reached the correct letter.  It's a quick, deeply emotional read that I recommend wholeheartedly. I loved it enough that I gave copies to everyone for Christmas the year I first read it

4.  A Room with a View by E. M. Forster (1908)  119 pages

This is one of my favorite classics and I reread it often.  It's an unforgettable coming-of-age story, novel of manners, character study, and romance that is well worth reading.

5. The Householder by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala (1960)  192 pages

This is another coming of age story, exquisitely written, insightful and perceptive, and simply fantastic.  My 2018 review can be found here.