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
Sales of translated fiction in the UK has sky-rocketed by an astonishing 96% over the past 15 years. Fantastic news in our opinion! We are celebrating by listing our favourite translated books from the blog. All translated novels can be found in the drop-down menu under ‘Reviews’ on the home page.
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!!
Thank you to Maria for our second poem donation! Sir Walter Raleigh’s I Wish I Loved the Human Race. We need more so please send your favourite to [email protected]. You can remain totally anonymous…
A Fool, Free is the extraordinary story (allegedly fiction, but suspiciously similar to the authors own life) of Swedish/Norwegian Eli, a filmmaker and author, as she battles the many personas inhabiting her mind, medication (too much or too little) and nurses and doctors with a varying degree of understanding of how best to treat her. Four male voices, Espen, Emil, Prince Eugen and the rebellious Erik, the instigator of Eli’s most violent outbursts, controls Eli’s life. She wants to go through a sex change but doesn’t know which sex to choose. She oscillates from being forcibly hospitalised and heavily medicated to being a productive and successful filmmaker and author. A hugely enlightening look at a mental illness shrouded in myths and fear.
A Fool, Free by Beate Grimsrud is published by Head of Zeus, 496 pages.
This is Tracy Chevalier’s eighth novel and I’ve been a huge fan of her work since reading Girl with a Pearl Earring in 1999. Sadly, At the Edge of the Orchard left me disappointed. The subject matter, as always with Chevalier, was meticulously researched and vividly portrayed, but the plot felt rather jumbled together, the ending somewhat improbable.
Set in 1838, James and Sadie Goodenough are pioneers trying to carve out a life in the inhospitable, stagnant swamplands of northwest Ohio. They and their 5 children work relentlessly planting apple trees in order to stake their claim on the land. We follow the family’s bleak journey full of horrific struggles over the next fifteen years.
The characters are sharply drawn and compelling with clear, individual voices and I loved the fact I was introduced to a subject and place I knew nothing about. Chevalier describes the sequoia trees and endless landscapes with rich intensity. But the plot seemed bumpy, rushed and overly melodramatic, the ending predictable and disappointing. However, Chevalier’s ability to evoke a period in history and take you to that very place is unsurpassed. The novel left me wanting to learn how to graft apple trees and experience the taste of a sweet Golden Pippin.
At the Edge of the Orchard is published by The Borough Press – HarperCollins, 300 pages.
Although first published in 1992, this English translation was only published 18 years later. It was worth the wait. Such a wonderfully translated piece, it zings and bounces with satisfying accuracy, which alone makes this book a ‘must read’. It centres primarily around an interview of the cantankerous and pernicious Nobel Laureate, Prétextat Tach, by the female journalist, Nina. After a slew of failed (male) attempts, Nina manages to match this obese and postulating intellectual in a war of thought and a battle of rhetoric. I found the philosophising duel of wits wonderfully unique, immensely clever, and absurdly humorous. Although I was a tad lukewarm about the ending, the first half is worth reading twice over and I would urge it on anyone looking for a light, funny, intelligent read.
Hygiene and the Assassin by Amelie Nothomb is published by Europa Editions and translated by Alison Anderson, 167 pages.
Viet Thanh Nguyen doesn’t shy away from the big issues in this Pulitzer Prize winning book about the aftermath of the Vietnam War. Rarely have American double standards, displacement, issues of identity and cultural imperialism made me laugh so much. The Sympathizer (the author’s first!) is not a novel without flaws but Nguyen’s excellent writing, original angle and biting satire make up for the shortcomings.
A light and enjoyable novel following 10 year old Grace Elizabeth through the neighbourhood’s secrets, enlightenment, an other revelations. Some nimble nuggets of insight into the prejudices and solidarity within a 70s suburban street while she perseveres on her ‘search for Jesus’. Flawed, but certainly cleverer than it seems at first glance.
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
