tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-51936258778393639992024-03-13T06:49:12.922-07:00Just Books Onlyadminhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12171825590647836611noreply@blogger.comBlogger1090125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5193625877839363999.post-55746068360032105002015-02-26T08:01:00.000-08:002015-02-26T08:01:00.457-08:00The End of Apartheid: Diary of a Revolution by Robin Renwick, book review: Murky birth pangs of the rainbow nation It was October 1989, shortly before Namibian independence. With the ballot boxes prepared for Namibia’s first free elections, and the South African troops there confined to barracks, Renwick was urgently summoned by Pretoria’s foreign minister, Pik Botha.Namibian forces were about to launch an uprising, he was informed. Renwick refused to believe it and, with British soldiers controlling UN adminhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12171825590647836611noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5193625877839363999.post-4904973208330356982015-02-25T08:01:00.000-08:002015-02-25T08:01:00.195-08:00Fifty Shades of Grey book now a turn-off for library users The first instalment of the best-selling “mummy porn” trilogy by EL James has dropped out of the top 100 most-borrowed library books, plummeting from third place the previous year.Judith Watts, senior lecturer of publishing at Kingston University and author of Writing Erotic Fiction, said the book had become so ubiquitous that it was no longer enticing to readers. “I think it’s to do with adminhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12171825590647836611noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5193625877839363999.post-50013923957874443512015-02-24T08:01:00.000-08:002015-02-24T08:01:00.370-08:00The Lovers of Amherst by William Nicholson, book review: Parallel passion and poetry in New England, then and now The afterlife of the secretive recluse still ripples across academic circles and the popular imagination, but it is surprising nonetheless to learn that it was only as recently as 1984 that details about the illicit love affair between Emily Dickinson’s brother and their Amherst neighbour was first brought to public attention in Polly Longsworth’s sympathetic study, Austin and Mabel. More adminhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12171825590647836611noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5193625877839363999.post-64883982436694683512015-02-23T08:01:00.000-08:002015-02-23T08:01:00.122-08:00What Nature Does for Britain by Tony Juniper, book review: The compelling economic argument for going green In essence, this encapsulates the message of Tony Juniper’s campaigning book, timed for the run-up to the 2015 election: that it is only by putting a financial value on nature that politicians and businessmen will be persuaded to protect it. This is a direction many leading green activists are deeply sceptical about. We cannot devolve our responsibility to defend the rural landscape to those adminhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12171825590647836611noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5193625877839363999.post-40757414648717632642015-02-22T08:01:00.000-08:002015-02-22T08:01:00.100-08:00Not Forgetting the Whale by John Ironmonger, book review: Now, that’s a proper crash Joe Haak, an analyst at city traders Lane Kaufmann, has developed a piece of software that can see into the future. By combing through every piece of financial journalism, every scrap of knowledge of every last supply chain, and every piece of economic activity in recorded history, Cassie (the Computer Aided Share Selection and Investment Engine) can, apparently, look ahead by a few hours and adminhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12171825590647836611noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5193625877839363999.post-42918020554548670702015-02-21T08:01:00.000-08:002015-02-21T08:01:00.085-08:00The First Bad Man by Miranda July, book review: Bitter, twisted ... and surprising Written from the first-person perspective, July carefully lets us see just what a lonely, oddball loser her middle-aged protagonist, Cheryl, is. She lives alone; she only uses one set of dishes and has perfected a “smoother living” system of housekeeping: “after days and days alone it gets silky to the point where I can’t even feel myself anymore”. Cheryl has a globus hystericus, a hard lump in adminhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12171825590647836611noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5193625877839363999.post-39201670215755617002015-02-20T08:01:00.000-08:002015-02-20T08:01:00.155-08:00Invisible ink no 263: The strange case of solar pons The nation went into mourning when it heard that Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was not planning to write any more Holmes adventures, so the young American August Derleth wrote to Conan Doyle and rather cheekily asked if he could take over the series. Holmes’s creator declined the offer, but the undeterred Derleth set about writing his own version, and assonantly christened him Solar Pons.Derleth had adminhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12171825590647836611noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5193625877839363999.post-9445352703667570482015-02-19T08:01:00.000-08:002015-02-19T08:01:00.062-08:00Between the covers: What’s really going on in the world of books The novel is set in San Francisco in the 1890s, where “great fortunes are being made and family dynasties established as new money erases the often unsavoury pasts and shady dealings of their founders”. Its publisher, Simon & Schuster, describes it as having “the dark bits of Tim Burton and the shiny bits of Wes Anderson”, while the Pulitzer Prize-winning American author Michael Chabon said thatadminhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12171825590647836611noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5193625877839363999.post-17342619679868842592015-02-18T08:01:00.000-08:002015-02-18T08:01:00.486-08:00Like a Bomb Going Off: Leonid Yakobson and Ballet as Resistance in Soviet Russia by Janice Ross, book review In Soviet Russia, daring and controversy were dangerous, with choreographers among the artists who were sidelined and silenced. Yakobson was unique in the way he managed to keep going, fighting to get his risky works on stage.That fight is the subject of Janice Ross's Like a Bomb Going Off. Though it's roughly chronological, her book is a study rather than a biography, with the focus always on adminhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12171825590647836611noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5193625877839363999.post-63761685454748691912015-02-17T08:01:00.000-08:002015-02-17T08:01:00.141-08:00Paperback reviews: Beneath the Heart of the Sea, Malice, White Beech, The Rise of Islamic State, The Poetry of Sex Owen Chase was first mate on the Essex, a Nantucket whaling ship that was sunk by an enraged sperm whale in the middle of the Pacific Ocean in 1820. Cast adrift in tiny lifeboats, Chase and his fellow survivors considered their options. To the west lay the Marquesas Islands, which they feared were inhabited by cannibal tribes; to the east, much farther away, the coast of Chile. The sailors choseadminhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12171825590647836611noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5193625877839363999.post-41420979308553021722015-02-16T08:01:00.000-08:002015-02-16T08:01:00.126-08:00Girl in a Band: A memoir by Kim Gordon, book review: Notes from the bass line Nevertheless, it’s a question that she answers at length in her frank and bittersweet memoir. Along with chronicling her early life in the California suburbs, her art school days and her parallel careers as a visual artist, Gordon addresses head-on the demands foisted upon female musicians working in a largely male domain.These demands came as much from Gordon herself as from others. What did adminhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12171825590647836611noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5193625877839363999.post-13228421938168835072015-02-15T08:01:00.000-08:002015-02-15T08:04:18.002-08:00'The Girl on the Train' roars to No. 1A look at what's new on USA TODAY's Best-Selling Books list...
Speeding 'Train': The book everybody is calling the next Gone Girl has powered its way to No. 1 on USA TODAY's list much more quickly than Gillian Flynn's hit did. The Girl on the Train, Paula Hawkins' debut psychological thriller about bad marriages and murder, hits the top spot in its fourth week on the list, after three straight adminhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12171825590647836611noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5193625877839363999.post-91327301735020383602014-08-04T08:15:00.000-07:002014-08-04T08:15:00.696-07:00James Dawson is Queen of Teen books James Dawson has fought hard to win the title Queen of Teen 2014. And now he has been crowned. All rise for his majesty the queen as James Dawson, the author of Hollow Pike and Say Her Name, becomes the first male winner of the Queen of Teen award for his latest book, Cruel Summer.After a vigorous social media campaign, Dawson topped a shortlist entirely nominated by teens (Cathy Cassidy, Beth adminhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12171825590647836611noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5193625877839363999.post-36134815507532162972014-08-03T08:15:00.000-07:002014-08-03T08:15:00.151-07:00The literary World Cup: readers' best all-time teams Albert Camus (at the front, wearing a flat cap), the best real-life literary goalie – here, with the University of Algiers football team. Photograph: Roger-Viollet/Rex Features Back when the World Cup was in those exciting and unpredictable first rounds, we were playing away at Penguin's imaginary books World Cup, where an England with JK Rowling, George Orwell and Agatha Christie in attack andadminhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12171825590647836611noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5193625877839363999.post-51949473016473905992014-08-02T08:15:00.000-07:002014-08-02T08:15:00.304-07:00A Treacherous Paradise by Henning Mankell review Henning Mankell in Mozambique. Photograph: Björn LindgrenHenning "Wallander" Mankell takes a fascinating historical fragment as the basis for this tale of Portuguese Africa. In the early 20th century, one of the biggest brothels in Lourenço Marques (now Mozambique's capital, Maputo) was owned by a white Swedish woman.She crops up in tax records, but we know nothing else about her. Mankell namesadminhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12171825590647836611noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5193625877839363999.post-23330629390836437322014-08-01T08:15:00.000-07:002014-08-01T08:15:00.608-07:00A Questionable Shape by Bennett Sims review Zombies in Louisiana 'It’s a buffet out there' … Zombies from the TV series The Walking Dead. Photograph: APBaton Rouge, Louisiana, is at the centre of a zombie outbreak. For now the authorities are coping – just – rounding up the undead and quarantining them. But the imminent hurricane season threatens to unleash mayhem.As the narrator, Michael, tells his girlfriend: "It's a buffet out there." Still, he risks adminhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12171825590647836611noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5193625877839363999.post-23635110121965492492014-07-31T08:15:00.000-07:002014-07-31T08:15:00.281-07:00Book reviews roundup: How to Build a Girl, Village of Secrets and A Broken World 'She writes with breathtaking brio' … Caitlin Moran. Photograph: Murdo Macleod for the Guardian"Any novel that begins with its 14-year-old narrator masturbating in the same bed as her sleeping little brother can't be all bad. Indeed, Caitlin Moran's spirited coming-of-age tale romps from strength to strength. After her popular essayistic memoir How to Be a Woman, Moran's first novel for adults,adminhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12171825590647836611noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5193625877839363999.post-66927151708970817332014-07-30T08:15:00.000-07:002014-07-30T08:15:00.174-07:00The World Cup is political theatre of the highest order Germany has a football team to match its ambition and character. Photograph: Rex FeaturesIs anything more global than football? Fifa believes that the 2014 World Cup will exceed the total world audience of 3.2 billion that watched the 2010 South African tournament. The USA team's games have attracted record viewing figures at home, and, in an increasingly fragmented media world, national team'sadminhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12171825590647836611noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5193625877839363999.post-62372861330995622682014-07-29T08:15:00.000-07:002014-07-29T08:15:00.057-07:00Best holiday reads 2014 - top authors recommend their favourites I loved Akhil Sharma's novel Family Life (Faber) because it feels emotionally true. I also loved Daughters Who Walk This Path by Yejide Kilanko (Pintail), a debut novel set in western Nigeria, which on the surface is about a young woman coming of age, but is really an exploration of social taboos, gender and family. I have just started reading – and am really enjoying – Lily King's novel Father adminhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12171825590647836611noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5193625877839363999.post-55652306416904207072014-07-28T08:15:00.000-07:002014-07-28T08:15:00.157-07:00Traditional publishing is 'no longer fair or sustainable', says Society of Authors 'Authors need fair remuneration if they are to keep writing' … Society of Authors chief executive Nicola SolomonAfter figures released this week showed professional authors' median annual incomes have collapsed to to £11,000, The Society of Authors' chief executive has claimed that traditional publishers' terms "are no longer fair or sustainable".Earlier this week, the Authors' Licensing & adminhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12171825590647836611noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5193625877839363999.post-57965440345752059652014-07-27T08:15:00.000-07:002014-07-27T08:15:00.110-07:00A Series of Unfortunate Events: The Reptile Room by Lemony Snicket - review The Reptile Room really attracts the reader's attention. This book will make you confused about a bunch of things. When Stephano, who was really Count Olaf, came to Uncle Monty's house to be his assistant, it was the last thing I was expecting! Then when he murdered Uncle Monty, I knew it was him, but didn't know how or if he was going to be caught. So read this book, I highly recommend it to aadminhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12171825590647836611noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5193625877839363999.post-65980941262371265862014-07-26T08:15:00.000-07:002014-07-26T08:15:00.589-07:00Judy Blume: 'I thought, this is America: we don't ban books. But then we did' 'I don't know that you become a writer: you just are' … Judy Blume. Photograph: Linda Nylind for the GuardianJudy Blume, tiny and smiley and as warmly open as befits the author of seminal novels about growing up Forever…, and Are You There, God? It's Me, Margaret is sitting in a hotel in London and talking about the hate mail she has received. It comes, she says, every time she speaks out on adminhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12171825590647836611noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5193625877839363999.post-13235538220588864602014-07-25T08:15:00.000-07:002014-07-25T08:15:00.054-07:00The Saturday Poem: Extremophile 'White tubeworms heap in snowdrifts around hydrothermal vents' … Sheenagh Pugh's Extremophile. Photograph: Ralph White/CorbisTwo miles below the light, bacterialive without sun, thrive on sulphurin a cave of radioactive rock,and, blind in the night of the ocean floor,molluscs that feed only on woodwait for wrecks. White tubeworms heapin snowdrifts around hydrothermal vents,at home in scalding adminhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12171825590647836611noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5193625877839363999.post-62669494141910827022014-07-24T08:15:00.000-07:002014-07-24T08:15:00.290-07:00Malorie Blackman: why you should read YA novels with pride Photograph: Tom Pilston"> Malorie Blackman: I happily proclaim myself a book nerd and a read geek – and I'm proud of it! Photograph: Tom PilstonWhen Orli Vogt-Vincent confessed here on the Guardian teen's books site that she loved reading and asked "Does that make me a nerd?" – and then went onto reveal that she had kept her position as a children's books reviewer and her reading habit as a adminhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12171825590647836611noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5193625877839363999.post-30205641145303235362014-07-23T08:15:00.000-07:002014-07-23T08:15:00.620-07:00Out of Control by Sarah Alderson - review Wow, I did not expect to be hooked when I started to read Out of Control. It is fast-paced, super addictive and it feels like you've just watched a movie. I really enjoyed the mystery that was present in the book and I think Sarah Alderson did a great job keeping the reader in suspense. I literally didn't know what was going to happen in the next chapter which was what kept me going.I think theadminhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12171825590647836611noreply@blogger.com