Welcome to Bookstoker!
We’re here to help you find that book that you can’t put down, the book you’ll push on all your friends, the book that’ll change your life.
We read literary fiction, non-fiction, classics and children’s books, all genres and styles embraced in our aim to share the love. You’ll also find fabulous Bookstagrams and literary news.
A world of bookish delights!
Kirstin and Julie
Well, that went fast! 2023 is coming to a close and we’ve had a look back at our best reads of the year. 2023 hasn’t been a year of many huge literary hits. Rather, we’ve poked around and found some smaller, perhaps less well-known books, that we’ve enjoyed at least as much as big best-sellers. You’ll find the full review by clicking on the titles. Happy reading and Merry Christmas!
What will you be reading this summer? I’ve settled on four very different books, three fiction and one non-fiction. I’ve nearly finished Barbara Kingsolver’s Demon Copperhead, a contemporary take on Charles Dickens’ David Copperfield set in a dark corner of America during the worst of the Oxycontin crisis, and one of the better books I’ve read this year. Review to come shortly.
My next book will be the universally acclaimed non-fiction book The Wager by David Grann. ‘A tale of shipwreck, mutiny and murder’ the front page alluringly tells me. It’s the true story of two different crews washing up on shore in South America with contradictory stories to tell about how they ended up there. Back in London, a court martial awaits to determine who’s telling the truth. The liars will hang.
Eco-thriller The Ministry for the Future by Kim Stanley Robinson has long been on my list. Recommended to me by several people, this book is supposedly both devastatingly honest on the realities of the climate crisis as well as hopeful.
Finally, Aleksandar Hemon’s The World and All that it Holds, promises to be an adventurous epic starring a peaceful pharmacists. It kicks off with the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo 1914, takes us through the whirlwind that was the early 20th century ending up in Shanghai.
Would love to hear what you’re planning to read! Let me know on IG, FB or Twitter.
Is there anything better than a summery read to get you into a sunny mood? Or a summery novel to read on your holiday? To get you into the spirit, we have chosen our top ten summer classics.
Here we go again! Christmas 2022 is nearly here. In a year when we all have had to tighten our pursestrings, I can’t think of a better present than a book. It’s relatively cheap, give hours and hours of pleasure (sometimes even years), can be shared and is plastic-free – what more can you ask for? 2022 has been a year of new discoveries for us. Most of the books on our list are by authors we hadn’t heard of before or debutants. We have also dug in the pile of classics – some of which we had read before and wanted to re-experience, others that were new to us. Neither have disappointed. We also have a range of children’s books suitable for different age groups and tastes and there’s loads more in our Young Readers section. So here it is, the list of Bookstoker’s best reads this year. Wishing you all a happy holiday season!
So here we are, at the end of another unusual year. I’m guessing many of you have sought solace in books as I have, although, at times I’ve found it challenging to concentrate and engage with books. The good news is that when the floodgates of publishing opened post-lockdown (take two), the quality of books published really picked up and recently we’ve enjoyed some fabulous novels which bodes well for Christmas and beyond. So here they are, our best reads this year.
We here at Bookstoker wish you all the best for a happy holiday season!
On the week Mark Zuckerberg announced his plan for a metaverse, attending the deliciously analog Letters Live at Royal Albert Hall was like balm to the soul. Letters Live, inspired by the best-selling book series Letters of Note, is a live, bi-annual (more or less) event in which famous actors read letters dealing with anything from a customer complaint to Virgin Airlines (which made it all the way to Richard Branson for its hilarity), a sublime love letter, to a heart-wrenching post-humous letter written by a 19 year-old soldier killed in Afghanistan and many more. A packed Royal Albert Hall (with an encouraging number of 20yr olds!) was treated to readings by Benedict Cumberbatch, Gillian Anderson, Toby Jones, Matt Lucas and many more, interspersed by music performances. Exquisite!
While you wait for the next one, visit the Letters Live archive.
Where to start?? New releases are queueing up to secure a place at your bedside table. It’s tough to know where to begin when you have a list of books like this. Good luck choosing!
I feel it’s time to speak up for historical fiction which, in my opinion, has an undeservedly bad reputation. True, there are some pretty trashy ones out there but there are also quite a few stunningly good ones. Besides being well-written and with an interesting storyline, a good historical novel takes you to a different time and place, perhaps one you didn’t know much about, and leaves you simultaneously entertained and a wiser person. We’ve reviewed quite a few on this blog which you now can find on the blog under ‘Reviews’ in the main menu.
Welcome to our guest reviewer Agnes who’s about to embark on her A-level studies in English. Agnes is passionate about reading and, despite her young age, has read more books than most people do in a lifetime. Her first reviews are of two modern classics, Catch-22 by Joseph Heller and The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood, incidentally two books I very much enjoyed myself.
One of the more harrowing books reviewed on this blog is Sven Lindqvist’s Exterminate All the Brutes, a history-cum-travel book which investigates the dark history of European colonialism and brutal extermination of indigenous peoples. It’s a very worthwhile read, described by the director of the TV-series as an ‘incredible explosion’. Raoul Peck’s Exterminate All the Brutes, inspired by Lindkqvist’s book, will air from 1st May on HBO in the US and Sky Documentaries and NOW in the UK. Reviews of the film are divided but the book remains good!
