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
Sick of those huge tomes that take up months of your life, weigh down your bag and often end up being badly edited? Try some short novels instead, they’re often better. Short is harder, as we all know. Try one, several or perhaps all (!?) of these….
Welcome Libreria! A brand new bookstore concept opening today in London’s East End – 65 Hanbury Street, London E1.
Not only does it look fabulous – artist designed colourful floor to ceiling shelves, a reflective material in the ceiling giving a sense of space, small dens to huddle up in while you read – but it also has curated selections of books according to themes and across genres, a whiskey bar (!), 24 hour opening hours at least once a month and lots and lots of events. Smart phones and tablets are prohibited inside the shop as the founders want to ‘celebrate the analogue’. Love it already!
I was left speechless by this astounding novel, the story of a young man’s death and the dilemmas around organ donation. It reads like a thriller and had me pinned to the chair. Maylis de Kerangal fast-paced prose is intense and unusual, and, admittedly, took a few pages getting used to, but once you find the rhythm of her writing you’ll be unable to stop. An absolute must-read!
If you’re at all disgusted by bodily fluids, don’t even think about reading this book. If you’re not, prepare yourself for a firework of a novel by a master storyteller set in a part of the world which I’m willing to bet you’ve never read anything about before. Kim Leine’s novel The Prophets of Eternal Fjord, set in Greenland during Danish colonial rule, won the Nordic Council Literature Prize in 2013 and is finally out in English.
Here’s some good new for those of us mourning the end of BBC’s adaptation of War and Peace. Elena Ferrante’s hugely popular Neapolitan novels, My Brilliant Friend, The Story of a New Name, Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay, The Story of the Lost Child, will be made into a 32 episode television series in a co-production between Italian TV production companies Wildside and Fandango, the producers behind Gomorrah. The identity of the author remains a mystery…
Fantasy casting for Elena Ferrante’s Neapolitan Novels on TV by the Guardian
My bookshelves are overflowing. I have promised myself to fix it and as I stand before them I come to all sorts of realisations. First of all, I buy a large number of books that I never read. A trip to the book shop for me is like a trip to IKEA, you go in thinking you’re buying a lamp and a bin and two hours later find yourself in the check-out queue with a trolley full of napkins, candles, bedsheets, kitchen utensils, plants…
I was enthralled by historian Simon Sebag Montefiore’s (of the bestselling biography Jerusalem) talk about his his latest book The Romanovs at 5×15 in Notting Hill last night. Three-hundred years of Russian tsars, murders, betrayals, wars, romance and lots and lots of sex, and Sebag Montefiore knows how to tell a good story. Not to be missed!
The Guardian – review of The Romanovs
The Telegraph – review of The Romanovs
If you live in London, you might want to look into 5×15’s excellent program of author talks.
For the second time in it’s 45 year history the Costa Book of the Year Award (chosen from the five category winners announced a few weeks ago) goes to a children’s book. Part detective story, part mystery and part historical fiction, The Lie Tree written by Frances Hardinge follows Faith, a bright 14 year old girl with an interest in science, unearthing the truth about her father’s mysterious death. Plenty of Victorian girl power, perfect for teenage girls and, I’m sure, boys too. Philip Pullman is the only other children’s author to win this prize, so maybe that says something.
This bestselling thriller sucks you in from the first moment with an original, exciting premise and a clever build up. Paradoxically, when the crime is revealed the story becomes strangely anti-climactic and fizzles out. Good idea, disappointing execution.
For those of you that have access to BBC One, don’t miss its War and Peace series that started last Sunday. I watched it last night on the Iplayer and enjoyed every second of this lavish costume drama. BBC at its absolute best! Can’t wait for tomorrow’s second episode. For those without access to BBC One, don’t despair, the series has been sold widely and is bound to show up in your country too. Now I’m building up courage to tackle the book itself…
