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‘A book is a gift you can open again and again…’ – Bookstoker’s Christmas present ideas

As much as I love Christmas, I’m not so sure about the shopping part of it. My heart sinks when I look at the number of Christmas presents I need to buy over the next few weeks. I do enjoy buying books for people though, and there’s nothing quite as satisfying as finding the perfect book for someone you love. We’ve been trawling the bookshops and the newspapers to find the most interesting or beautiful (or both) books out there, and hopefully help you find the perfect book for someone.  Here’s what we found.

Merry Christmas!

Michele, Meg, Jane and Julie

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Costa Book Awards 2016 – Short-list

Twenty books to choose from, four in each of the five categories: Novel, First Novel, Biography, Poetry and Children’s Books – there’s is definitely something for everybody on the Costa Book Awards short-list. And it’s a great place to start you Christmas shopping.

In the Novel category we have Sebastian Barry’s Days Without End, Maggie O’Farrell’s This Must Be the Place, Sarah Perry’s The Essex Serpent, which we loved, and Rose Tremain’s The Gustav Sonata which we weren’t so keen on (full reviews are in the links).

There are also some interesting debut novels to look out for: Susan Beale’s The Good Guy, Kit de Waal’s My Name is Leon, Guinevere Glasfurd’s The Words in My Hand and Francis Suppford’s Golden Hill. 

Winners in each category will be announced 3 January and the overall winner of Costa Book of the Year on the 31 January.

Costa Book Awards 2016 – Short-list

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New on Bookstoker – Index search

You can now search for reviews by Author, Book Title or Reviewer. Go to Index on our main menu bar and choose from the drop-down menu. Search and enjoy!

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In praise of the loo book

World Toilet Day 2016

The parlor may have its charms, but the Japanese toilet truly is a place of spiritual repose.

In the Praise of Shadows, Junichiro Tanizaki

It seems every country has a sort of skewed and hallowed reverence for the quietest room in the house. I’ve recently discovered, however, that the ‘library in the loo’ is primarily an English occupation (sorry I can’t speak for the rest of Britain), but my Scandinavian and European friends looked at me in puzzled amusement when I recommended a book for the loo.

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From book to film – without disappointment

Often we despair when a film version is made of our favourite book.  The images we’ve created in our heads don’t match up with what the film director had in mind. The locations look wrong, the casting doesn’t work. BUT occasionally, they do get it right. And what a thrill that is! Here is a list of some fabulous films that will inspire you to read these equally great books on which they were based. Do you have any to add? Let us know.

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Best audiobooks 2016

As many of will know, we here at Bookstoker are big consumers of audiobooks and we know that many of our followers are as well. There’s nothing like a good audiobook for killing time stuck in traffic, while out walking or doing housework. And with Amazon’s great invention Whispersync for Voice, you can switch seamlessly between reading on your Kindle and listening on Audible. Your Kindle or Audible will automatically pick up where you left off. Genius!

From old classics to popular new publications we’ve enjoyed these audiobooks for being brilliant books, perfectly narrated.

Our top 10 this year are…

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David Szalay – one to watch

Now here’s an author we think you should know about. English/Canadian David Szalay’s name keeps coming up these days, and for good reasons. Forty-two year old Szalay has four novels to his name, the last of which, All That Man Is, won him a place on this year’s Man Booker Prize short-list. He won the Betty Trask Award in 2008 for his curiously named novel London and the South-East and in 2013 he made it onto Granta magazine’s list of Best of Young British novelists. But most importantly, Szalay writes really, really well.

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I want this!

I know I won’t be able to resist Taschen’s fabulously illustrated cookbook Les Diners de Gala by artist Salvador Dali and his wife, Gala. Reissued for the first time in 40 years, the book comes with suitably wacky recipes, and a stark warning to its readers…

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