In a manic insomnia-fuelled reading phase at the moment. And in the interests of doing something on my blog other than drivelling about myself, I thought I'd recommend a few of the very best books I've read recently...

• Beware of Pity - Stefan Zweig. And if you love this, read another Zweig, below
• The Casual Vacancy - J.K.Rowling. No I've never read the Harry Potter series, I don't want to, and always thought JK was pants. Then I read this and realised I was wrong: she's a good novelist, and this is a page turner...
• Flight Behaviour - Barbara Kingsolver. If you love The Poisonwood Bible - and let's face it, who doesn't - then you'll enjoy this. 600 pages is excessive, but I assume with an author at this level, you daren't tell them to cut :-)
• The Post-Office Girl - Stefan Zweig. As always with Zweig, utterly bleak. But beautiful.
• Gone Girl - Gillian Flynn. Again, another one I've been resisting because of the hype. But resist no more.