Kamila Shamsie wins Women's Prize for Fiction 2018

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Kamila Shamsie wins the Women’s Prize for Fiction

Kamila Shamsie won the Women’s Prize for Fiction (formerly The Bailey’s Women’s Prize for Fiction) for her book Home Fire yesterday. It’s a gripping read about a passionate love story between the son of a muslim Home Secretary and the daughter of a Jihadist. Moral dilemmas and culture clashes abound. I was sucked inn by this book but a bit turned off by it’s ending. Still worth a read though. Women’s Prize For Fiction 2018. Here’s our review.

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Your chance to vote for a Booker Prize winner

The Booker Prize is 50 this year and to celebrate the organisers have launched the Golden Booker, a prize given to the best winner during it’s five decades. Five judges have picked one candidate from each decade and now it’s up to you and me to choose the overall winner.

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Would You Let Your Wife Read This Book? by Sylvia Bedford

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Would you let your wife read this book?

A book in the dock

Many of you will have read D.H. Lawrence’s Lady Chatterley’s Lover and even those who haven’t might be familiar with the controversy around the book. The story, written in 1928, is about an adulterous relationship between an upper-class woman and a gamekeeper. The description of sex was so raunchy that the book wasn’t even published.

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Red Notice by Bill Browder

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Red Notice

Unputdownable, Kafkaesque real-life thriller

At one point, Bill Browder ran the most successful investment fund in Russia. Backed by prominent financiers, Browder’s $4.5 billion fund Hermitage Capital Management achieved gobsmacking returns for its investors. Red Notice is the astonishing true story of Browder’s journey from high-flying banker to impassioned human rights activist. A journey that landed him on the very top of Vladimir Putin’s list of enemies. A frightening yet absolutely riveting read.

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Wilful Disregard

Love, in theory

Ester Nilsson, respected poet and writer, has spent too much time being an intellectual and too little being a human. Everything changes when she falls head-over-heals in love with successful artist Hugo Rask. But how will Ester reconcile her critical/analytical brain with her biological urges? And what are Hugo’s intentions? Is he looking for love or just someone to stroke his ego? I was engrossed by Andersson’s intelligent and wickedly funny portrayal of the nature of relationships. A book for anyone who has loved without being loved back.

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The Lido by Libby Page

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The Lido

A charming summer read

There’s nothing new or stand-out special here but somehow this manages to be a happy heart-warming book. Featuring stock characters and an abundance of clichés, it also encompasses some of the big themes that several books of the moment (Eleanor Oliphant I’m looking at you) favour. Loneliness, anxiety, community spirit and kindness all make an appearance with a dash of gentrification issues and activism.

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Circe by Madeline Miller

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Circe

A spellbinding retelling of the story of the witch from classical mythology

Circe. If you cast your mind back to school you may remember her as the witch on whose island Odysseus and his crew washed up on their long journey back from the Trojan War, and wasn’t there something about turning men to pigs and, um, did Odysseus have an affair with her? If you have ever wondered why she lived alone on that island, what made her a sorceress, what happened to her after Odysseus left her to go back to his wife – indeed if you have ever wondered about the reality behind the headline story of any woman who plays a bit part in the (hi)story of men – you have an absolute treat in store with this book.

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I love the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction…

But it seems I’m more in love with it than most U.K. bookshops, which strangely almost ignore this most prestigious of American literary Prizes. That’s a shame, because their choice is more often that not, excellent. Some of the best books that we’ve read other the past few years have been Pulitzer Prize winners. So I’ve decided, single-handedly, to change this. Starting today. Below you’ll find the last four winners. All books that we’ve loved and recommend warmly, books that will take you to new places and different people, and that will make you laugh or cry. Enjoy!