News by Julie
Books to look forward to in 2020
After a tame 2019 on the fiction front, I have high hopes for 2020. Just looking at the list of upcoming publications fills me with joy! Here are a few of the highlights.
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
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News by Kirstin
Read With Your Teen in 2020
I first came across On the Road by Jack Kerouac at the tender age of sixteen. Revisiting it recently, it felt like a somewhat different novel, my teen reading self dazzled by impressions and emotion, the older me searching for nuance and (sadly?) with a good deal more cynicism.
It occurred to us that it would be a very interesting experiment to tackle key influential novels as a team: adult reader and keen teen. What difference would there be in your final analyses? If your teen finds you jaded and you think them naive, what fiery debate may ensue!
Here’s a handful of challenging Bookstoker favourites to get you started and throughout 2020, we’ll add more titles for your family’s stimulation and delectation.
Review by David
Poems from the Edge of Extinction
An exceptional collection of translated poetry
Poems from the Edge of Extinction edited by Chris McCabe is a small cross-section of world poetry with a difference; every poem in this collection is written in a language that is endangered, at risk of extinction. It began with the idea to collect poetry written in the world’s dying languages and became an exhibition at the National Poetry Library in 2017, The Endangered Languages Project.
Review by Julie
The Five – The Untold Lives of the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper
A meticulously researched and moving piece of social history
The Five – The Untold Lives of the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper by Hallie Rubenhold won the Baille-Gifford prize for non-fiction in November. And what an incredible book this is, despite its miserable subject matter. Thankfully, there’s no revelling in the gruesome murders at all, in fact, this book is all about humanising the victims who’ve been so despicably treated by history. I was glued to the page from the start, impressed by the incredible research Rubenhold has undertaken and moved by the terrible plight of poor women in Victorian times. Highly recommended.
Review by Julie
This is Pleasure
A #MeToo Too Far?
Here’s one to set off a fiery debate around the dinner table. Now that the first storm around #MeToo has settled, This is Pleasure by Mary Gaitskill takes a step back and looks at the fallout. Quin, a successful, charming publisher, has been a huge flirt his entire adult life. While never explicitly abusing his power, Quin has always operated at the very edge of acceptable behaviour (sometimes overstepping it). It has now come back to haunt him. Many of us have had a Quin in our lives. What do we think of this one?
Bookstoker Young Readers
The Places I’ve Cried in Public
An intense portrayal of an abusive teenage relationship
Vivienne Westwood
A flamboyant addition to the brilliant Little People, Big Dreams series
Max Kowalski Didn’t Mean It
What manning up really means
Review by Julie
Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead
A Nobel Prize Winner that stays with you
To say that Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead by Olga Tokarczuk, last year’s Nobel Prize winner (awarded this year) is a murder mystery would be misleading, but there’s definitely murder – several, in fact, – of both people and animals. Our charming, eccentric, (slightly mad?) heroine Janina Duszejko is caught up in the middle. I adored the warm humanity of this novel and the Nobel Prize worthy writing – there’s a quotable sentence on every page. Expect no hair-raising thriller, but a tender book that will stay with you for a long time.
News by Nicole
Tackling Ulysses at The London Literary Salon
Happy new year to all you Bookstokers out there! How about this one for a New Year’s resolution? Find out what happened when our reviewer Nicole met Joyce at The London Literary Salon.
News by Melina
A gorgeous last minute Christmas present
Do you need to impress someone with a thoughtful gift that looks like you’ve spent ages choosing? There’s still time for a last minute dash to the bookshop to pick out a gorgeously bound book by an underestimated female author. Persephone Books is located in London’s Bloomsbury, and publishes titles mainly by women writers from the 20th century, many of whom are less known or entirely forgotten. Visit their incredibly stylish, cosy bookshop and talk to the staff who are very happy to recommend an excellent read.
Review by Jane
A Dance to the Music of Time
An extraordinary literary marathon
A Dance to the Music of Time by Anthony Powell is a 12-volume sequence of novels that has been lauded as one of the greatest works of 20th century English literature. The books start in the late 1920s and take us up to the 1960s, feature a huge cast of characters and offer a remarkable vision of changing social history, a deftly sustained narrative, some wonderfully memorable characters and a stark vision of the impact that time wreaks on our lives.
