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12 bookstores every reader should visit in their lifetime

To add to your list of things to do before you die: 12 interesting bookshops, as chosen by The Independent. I like the look of Venice bookshop Aqua Alta and have always wanted to go to the famous Atlantis Books in Santorini, think I’ll start with those…  Extremely pleased to see one of my local book shops on the list: Lutyens & Rubinstein in Notting Hill. Their well-read and friendly manager Claire can take credit for many a recommendation on this blog.

The Independent – 12 Bookstores Every Reader Should Visit in Their Lifetime

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Read our review of The Vegetarian, International Man Booker Prize winner 2016

We are thrilled that South Korean Han Kang’s The Vegetarian, translated by Deborah Smith, has won the International Man Booker Prize 2016. It’s a truly original and wonderfully weird story of a young woman’s break down. Read our review here to see if this is for you.

The £50,000 prize is shared between the author and the 28 year old translator Deborah Smith who taught herself Korean only three years before. Extraordinary!!

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Hey you men out there!

Read this inspiring article from The New York Times about male book clubs. Wish more men would do it as it is SO MUCH FUN! Not sure about their ‘no books by women about women’ rule, though…isn’t the point of reading that you see things from a different perspective? In fact, perhaps it might even be helpful in their relationships? We certainly don’t have a ‘no books by men about men’ rule in my all female bookclub, although we did give up on Don Delillo after his looooong description of a baseball game in Underworld…

Do you have an all male bookclub? Please tell us about it!

Men Have Bookclubs, Too from The New York Times

 

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Andrew Solomon on Literature and Medicine

Wanted to share with you this thought-provoking article by Andrew Solomon (lecturer on psychology and politics and author of award winning Far From the Tree) about medicine and literature, where he rejoices the surge in interest in books discussing medicine. I couldn’t agree more. I’ve read and reviewed two of the books he discusses: Henry Marsh’s Do No Harm and Atul Gawande’s Being Mortal.  Truly life-changing reads!

Literature About Medicine May Be All That Can Save Us by Andrew Solomon

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Just out! Books for Easter 2016

We’re going away for Easter with a bunch of recently published books which we thought we would share with you. We haven’t read these yet, but they all sound pretty promising…Which one are you bringing?

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Man Booker International Prize 2016 – a treasure trove of translated novels

I have great faith in translated international book prizes, only the best make into the English language market and choosing the very best of those is inevitable going to result in a list of excellent books. I’m thrilled to see Mend the Living and A Whole Life on the list as they are both amongst my absolute favourite recent reads. I’ve also just finished the wonderfully quirky The Vegetarian, unlike anything I’ve read before. And then there is Elena Ferrante’s books, three of which I’ve reviewed on this blog (My Brilliant Friend, The Story of a New Name and Days of Abandonment.) If the quality of those I’ve read is anything to go by, all of these should be amazing reads.

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Libreria – Taking bookshops to a whole new level

Welcome Libreria! A brand new bookstore concept opening today in London’s East End – 65 Hanbury Street, London E1.

Not only does it look fabulous – artist designed colourful floor to ceiling shelves, a reflective material in the ceiling giving a sense of space, small dens to huddle up in while you read – but it also has curated selections of books according to themes and across genres, a whiskey bar (!),  24 hour opening hours at least once a month and lots and lots of events. Smart phones and tablets are prohibited inside the shop as the founders want to ‘celebrate the analogue’. Love it already!

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Elena Ferrante heading for the screen

Here’s some good new for those of us mourning the end of BBC’s adaptation of War and Peace. Elena Ferrante’s hugely popular Neapolitan novels, My Brilliant Friend, The Story of a New Name, Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay, The Story of the Lost Child, will be made into a 32 episode television series in a co-production between Italian TV production companies Wildside and Fandango, the producers behind Gomorrah. The identity of the author remains a mystery…

Fantasy casting for Elena Ferrante’s Neapolitan Novels on TV by the Guardian

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Pruning bookshelves – is it possible?

My bookshelves are overflowing. I have promised myself to fix it and as I stand before them I come to all sorts of realisations. First of all, I buy a large number of books that I never read. A trip to the book shop for me is like a trip to IKEA, you go in thinking you’re buying a lamp and a bin and two hours later find yourself in the check-out queue with a trolley full of napkins, candles, bedsheets, kitchen utensils, plants…

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The Romanovs and Simon Sebag Montefiore at 5×15

I was enthralled by historian Simon Sebag Montefiore’s (of the bestselling biography Jerusalem) talk about his his latest book The Romanovs at 5×15 in Notting Hill last night. Three-hundred years of Russian tsars, murders, betrayals, wars, romance and lots and lots of sex, and Sebag Montefiore knows how to tell a good story. Not to be missed!

The Guardian – review of The Romanovs

The Telegraph – review of The Romanovs

If you live in London, you might want to look into 5×15’s excellent program of author talks.