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
Hot on the heels of Madeline Miller’s fabulous novel Circe comes another stunning book based on Greek myths and the Trojan War. The Silence of the Girls by Pat Barker is a recount of Homer’s testosterone fuelled Greek epic poem The Iliad. This time, from the perspective of the other half, the long suffering women. An absolutely riveting read. Go get it!
Welcome to our occasional series of bookish delights. In Part One, we’d like to introduce you to a couple of our favourite BookTubers that we’ve been following lately. BookTube often seems like such a YA phenomenon, teeming with enthusiastic young vloggers, and we wondered what was out there for inquisitive readers over the age of 21.
Yesterday saw the announcement of the 2018 Man Booker Prize short-list, a huge event in the literary calendar, particularly for those who made it from the long-list. A short-list nomination usually means a significant jump in sales and the opportunity to emerge out of the shadows and into the literary limelight. So which books made it to the short-list and what did we make of them?
Sally Rooney’s much acclaimed debut Conversation With Friends just didn’t appeal to me. It felt like a book aimed at someone half my age, which it probably was (Rooney is 27). Her latest book, Normal People, on the other hand, had me utterly hooked. It’s a wonderful old-fashioned love story but with a modern twist that shows you what it’s like to be young today. It also somehow transported my back to my own fumbling first experiences with love. Highly recommended.
There’s only one thing that can rescue me from end-of-summer blues: the promise of some great new books for autumn. And this year’s list of has some real gems. Just have a look.
I can’t think of a more glamorous literary festival than the Cliveden Literary Festival (29-30th September) taking place at Cliveden House just outside London. Seeped in a cocktail of royalty, aristocracy, sex and political scandals, most famously the Profumo affair, Cliveden has a history few authors could dream up. And it comes with a price to match. At £105 a day, it’s probably also the most expensive. But, hey, you don’t often get a chance to be in a room with Hanif Kureishi, Sir Anthony Beevor, Alain de Botton, HRH Princess Michael of Kent (uhm…), Sarah Waters, Edmund de Waal, Norman Foster, Naomi Wolf, I could go on and on. They really have a fabulous programme. Cancel that Christmas holiday and sign up today!
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck somehow slipped through the cracks for me. I’ve spent the summer rectifying this and I can see why this novel has become such an enduring classic and a favoured choice amongst English teachers. The story of the Joad family, uprooting from their arid Oklahoma farm, fleeing poverty and industrialisation of farming in search of the American Dream is beautifully told, incredibly moving and a highly effective piece of political propaganda. If you haven’t read it yet, do. If you have, perhaps it’s time for a re-read?
One of the extraordinary things about Édouard Louis’ debut novel, The End of Eddy, was the complete absence of judgment and bitterness on behalf of the protagonist. Louis’ second novel, History of Violence, shares this quality and, again, it’s a story from Louis’ own life. On the way home from Christmas dinner, Louis meets a stranger whom he invites home for a drink. They share their life stories and have passionate sex. But as the stranger prepares to leave the next morning, things turn ugly. Louis’ skill as a storyteller, intelligent observation of his own and other people’s reactions and ability to draw connections between the personal and the collective proves what an extraordinary talent he is.
