Seven celebrity book choices to keep your brain busy

Stand-up comedian Romesh Ranganathan picks Yann Martel’s enchanting bestseller Life of Pi. The novel tells the story of Pi Patel, a boy who spends months adrift at sea, trapped on a lifeboat with a tiger.

As the adventure unfolds, and Pi’s knife-edge relationship with the tiger (who’s named Richard Parker, thanks to an admin error) develops, it becomes increasingly compelling. “You want them to really get on and bond,” Ranganathan says. “It’s sort of almost like a buddy movie in a way.”

Pi faces moments of real jeopardy and danger, from a huge storm and circling sharks, to a hyena disemboweling a zebra on-board the boat. “Because it’s this fragile little boy that you’ve formed a relationship with and got to really know, it just feels all the more scary,” says Ranganathan.

There’s also a stunning twist towards the end… but you’ll have to read the book (okay, or watch the blockbuster film adaptation) to find out what it is.

TV presenter and journalist Stacey Dooley recommends The Bees by Laline Paull.

Boldly set inside a beehive, this imaginative novel follows the fortunes of Flora 717, a lowly cleaner bee who works her way up against the odds in a strictly hierarchical society. As well as touching on environmental themes, the book includes an element of political satire in the way in which it explores totalitarian systems, class and control.

Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng is stand-up comedian Sindhu Vee’s top literary pick.

Set in suburban Ohio, USA, Vee says it’s a “minutely observed” novel exploring family, motherhood, race and class. At the centre of the story are two opposing women: uptight, controlling Elena Richardson and chaotic artist Mia Warren, whose arrival in the neat, repressed neighbourhood quickly causes problems.

“There’s nothing dramatic in the premise,” says Vee. “But as you start to read, you start to understand how families operate… It’s an incredible observation on so many different things. First of all, just family. Second of all, how your love for your child is like a vice.”

Author Matt Haig’s top pick is the classic young adult novel The Outsiders by SE Hinton. Written in 1967 by a 17-year-old girl, it’s still a frequent syllabus filler in US classrooms today.

“It was the first book I read which felt for me like it wasn’t there to do me good... This was as thrilling as any piece of pop music, or cinema or anything else,” says Haig.

Set in 1960s Oklahoma, the novel tells the tale of three wayward orphaned brothers and their friends, known as ‘greasers’ because of their lower class background. The boys carry knives and get into fights with a rival gang, but also care for each other and are incredibly loyal.

The Wife by Meg Wolitzer is actress and comedian Lolly Adefope’s top book choice. The novel describes in detail the relationship between a hugely successful author and his endlessly supportive wife.

“I could totally understand the way she falls in love with him,” Adefope says. “She just describes it so perfectly and you really feel the love that these characters have for each other.”

As the couple travel to Finland for the author to collect a hallowed literary prize, the narrative flashes back to their early relationship, uncovering frustrations and disappointments, and then builds to a dramatic present-day denouement.

“It’s just a very good depiction of what it is to be a wife,” says Adefope. “And the difficulties of being a wife to a quite difficult husband.”

Stand-up comedian Phil Wang unearths an unexpected gem in Deep Sea and Foreign Going by Rose George.

In the book, George describes the journey she took on a container ship from England to Singapore, elegantly interspersing the story with insights into the global shipping industry. And, Wang says, it’s surprisingly fascinating.

We discover that shipping is in fact very perilous, and a tough life in which seafarers can be at sea for months without a break.

The Argonauts by American author Maggie Nelson is writer Scarlett Curtis’ favourite read.

The book is a memoir drawing on philosophy, psychoanalysis and theory to tell the story of Nelson’s relationship with fluidly gendered artist Harry Dodge, their journey through IVF and the birth of their son together.

Curtis explains, “What she does is she takes these huge ideas by people like Derrida and Foucault and Freud, and she brings them into her story, which is a very small love story. And I just loved it.”

The academic references may sound intimidating, but Curtis says the book is a unique and compelling read, offering important insights into motherhood and gender identity.