Stefan Zweig – Diaries by Stefan Zweig

One for Zweig aficionados

Stefan Zweig – Diaries by Stefan Zweig, covering the period from 1931 to 1940, has just been published in English for the first time. Die-hard fans, like me, will want to read this but if you’re new to Zweig’s writing, I’d start with his books or short-stories instead (The World of Yesterday, Twenty-Four Hours in the Life of a Woman or short-story collections). As a companion to his other works, I found this an interesting peek into the author’s mind; as much for the things he doesn’t say as for what he says.

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The Fortnight in September by RC Sherriff

News by Julie

A Fortnight in September – BBC Radio 4’s Book of the Week

Whether you want to read or listen to (BBC Radio 4 Book of the Week) RC Sheriff’s A Fortnight in September, I’ll leave up to you just don’t miss this undiscovered little gem of a novel. Meg read it last year and fell in love. Read her review here.

Beautiful World Where Are You by Sally Rooney

Review by Kirstin

12th Sep 21

Beautiful World Where Are You by Sally Rooney

Sex and friendship, what else is there to live for?

In an early chapter of Beautiful World Where Are You by Sally Rooney, acclaimed novelist Alice considers the burden of life under public scrutiny, the vampiric nature of contemporary media sparking loathing both inward and out. It looks very much like an auto-fictional interlude for the stratospherically successful Rooney, under pressure to deliver the goods with her third novel.

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Review by Julie

6th Sep 21

Great Circle by Maggie Shipstead

A bumpy ride

Having just finished Great Circle by Maggie Shipstead, there’s no doubt in my mind that she’s a talented writer. Her metaphors are spot on, her ambitions high and she’s an accomplished storyteller – at times. This Booker Prize long-listed novel about Marian Graves, a female pilot in the early 20^th century, takes off with a roar, but seems to stall before it picks up again at the very end. Whether or not you’re willing to go on that 600 page journey I’ll leave up to you. I certainly haven’t given up on Shipstead as an author although this book was a bit of a schlep.

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Bookstoker Young Readers

Good News by Rashmi Sirdeshpande

8-11 years

A ray of sunshine

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Be Resilient by Nicola Morgan

Teen/Young Adult

Learning to roll with it

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News by Julie

Books to look forward to this autumn

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!

News by Julie

How to dupe Silicone Valley

The court case of Elizabeth Holmes of health-care start-up Theranos is in the news these days. If you’re curious about the whole story, I highly recommend Bad Blood by John Carreyrou, investigative journalist at The Wall Street, who exposed Holmes’ fraud. Addictive reading! Read our review here.

Review by Julie

30th Aug 21

The Yellow Birds by Kevin Powers

Timely, tough and beautifully written

The desperately sad situation in Afghanistan brought back memories of The Yellow Birds by Kevin Powers. Powers is something as contradictory as a machine gunner and a poet, as well as an extremely talented author. A Michener Fellow of Poetry from the University of Texas at Austin, Powers served as a machine gunner in the Iraqi cities of Mosul and Tal Afar in 2004 and 2005. His novel The Yellow Birds, inspired by his own experiences of war, is a superb book, heart wrenching, moving and beautifully written. Read full Review

Review by Julie

27th Aug 21

The World of Yesterday by Stefan Zweig

The Highs and Lows of Humanity

The World of Yesterday by Stephan Zweig is his autobiography, finished two days before his and his second wife’s joint suicide. It’s a lament for a lost world, a love letter to creativity and artists and an eloquent analysis of events that led up to both the first and the second world wars. The parallels with aspects of our own turbulent times are hard to ignore. Zweig, an Austrian Jew whose wonderful novellas (The Royal Game, Amok, Letter from an Unknown Woman, Twenty-four Hours in the Life of a Woman) many of you will know, was the world’s most popular author in the 1920s and 30s, until Hitler banned his books. Highly recommended.

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