News by Julie
Now that’s what I call a bookshop!
Just spent a heavenly hour browsing in the London Review Bookshop in 14 Bury Place, London WC1, a stone’s throw away from the British Museum.
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 Julie
The New Yorker – Can reading make you happier?
I would say yes!
A friend just alerted me to this article in The New Yorker which reminded me about Alain de Botton’s (philosopher and author of The Art of Travel and The Architecture of Happiness) The School of Life and their Bibliotherapy service.
News by Julie
Write on Kew – new literary festival in Kew Gardens 24th to 28th September 2015
I’m booking my tickets to this new literary festival in Kew Gardens (24th – 28th September 2015). I can think of worse places to sit through talks by authors like Margaret Atwood, Louis de Bernieres, Bill Bryson, Neel Mukherjee, Michael Morpurgo and many more. Can’t wait!
News by Julie
This week’s most talked about book: Primates of Park Avenue by Wednesday Martin
Wednesday Martin’s book Primates of Park Avenue, an anthropological study of wealthy housewives on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, has been fiercely discussed in the media this week.
Review by Julie
The Wallcreeper
Zink's novel fails to float
Always on the lookout for something truly original, I was tempted by Nell Zink’s (just the name!) eccentric sounding book The Wallcreeper.
News by Julie
Independent Foreign Fiction Prize 2015
German author Jenny Erpenbeck has won the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize 2015 with her book The End of Days, a story about five possible alternative lives of a girl born in Austria-Hungary at the start of the 20th century.
Snap Judgements
The Girl on the Train
Airport thriller will keep you gripped on the train
Myself a Mandarin – Memoirs of a Special Magistrate
Highly amusing Hong Kong anecdotes of a local magistrate
Review by Michèle
The Girl on the Train
Airport thriller will keep you gripped on the train
Touted as this year’s Gone Girl and While you were Sleeping, The Girl on the Train accosts you on her daily commute to and from London. A dubious narrator from the start, she hangs on to you, desperately, confidential, erratically. Interlaced time frames and equally questionable narrators, build the tension and, while it is hardly high-brow, I was gripped with anxiety. Suffice it to say, it might be imperfect and disposable, but it is also thrilling entertainment and perfect for that commute to work….
Review by Michèle
Myself a Mandarin – Memoirs of a Special Magistrate
Highly amusing Hong Kong anecdotes of a local magistrate
Out of print and a cult book amongst long-term Hong Kong devotees, it will take more time to locate a copy than to read it. We follow the young Coates, a civil servant from London, who is posted to Hong Kong in 1949 and learns by trial and error how to fulfill his role as “Special Magistrate”. Recounted with great humour and humility, it is insightful, witty, and judicious. A must read for anyone with ties or interest in Hong Kong – and any modern day want-to-be Solomon. Good luck finding it though (although they seem to have a few copies on Amazon.co.uk).
News by Julie
Carol – while we wait for the film… read the book!
The Cannes Film Festival this week has been buzzing with praise for the film Carol, a lesbian love story from the 1950s starring Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara.
