News by Julie
Brad Pitt takes AMERICANAH to the screen
Great news for fans of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s book Americanah, amongst whom I count myself.
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.
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Review by Julie
The Son
Fancy a Western? Gripping family epic from Texas
An American Wild West family epic spanning five generations from the 1850s to present day, from cattle farming to oil bonanza via the American Civil War. This is a hard-core Western complete with scalp collecting natives, corrupt sheriffs and torture of various kinds. It’s not for the fainthearted, but a riveting read if you can stomach a bit of violence.
Review by Julie
The Agony and the Ecstasy
Michelangelo up close and personal, the perfect travel companion for a trip to Italy
The Agony and the Ecstasy is a must read if you are travelling to Tuscany, Florence or Rome (your trip will be infinitely more interesting) or if you are remotely interested in art history or the Italian Renaissance. And even if you are none of the above, this is a worthwhile book. The Agony and the Ecstasy is the story of Michelangelo Buonarotti – Italian sculptor, painter, poet and architect – and a very enjoyable lesson in history. Read full Review
Review by Julie
The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet
If you read one book this year, let this be it
British author David Mitchell is one of my absolute favourite contemporary writers and The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet is a superb novel. The writing is exquisite, the setting and historical background fascinating and the story riveting. A must read. The story is set at the end of the 18th century on Dejima, a sandbank in the bay of Nagasaki, Japan. A Dutch trading post and for two hundred years Japan’s only point of contact with the outside world. Clerk Jacob de Zoet is sent to Dejima by the Dutch East Indies Company to address a serious case of corruption.
Review by Julie
Look Who’s Back
Repetitive Hitler satire disappoints
It’s 2011 and Hitler wakes up from a 66-year long coma in a park in Berlin. He befriends a newsagent who assumes he is a look-alike. Astounded by his resemblance and brilliant ‘acting’, the newsagent puts him in touch with the producer of a comedy talk show. Soon, Hitler is their most popular guest, generating an ever-increasing following. Look Who’s Back takes a stab at tackling one of Germany’s greatest taboos, but is also a satire on our obsession with the cult of celebrities.
Review by Julie
The Infatuations
Cerebral murder mystery from Spain's literary heavy weight
Javier Marías is one of Spain’s most prominent writers. Regularly tipped as a candidate for the Nobel Prize, he is also a respected translator of important English language literature, a journalist and a publisher. A literary heavy weight, in other words. His latest book, The Infatuations is the first philosophical murder mystery I’ve come across. There are no nail-biting chases through dark forests, no mutilated bodies floating in the sea, the action is almost exclusively cerebral. Or, as Boyd Tonkin of The Independent newspaper called it: ‘A thinking person’s murder mystery.’
News by Julie
Fabulous foreign fiction prize – how I travel without leaving the sofa
The Independent Foreign Fiction Prize is a literary prize worth paying attention to. It selects the best fiction from around the world and rewards the unsung heros of the publishing world – the translators – as well as the authors. The £ 10,000 prize money is shared between the author and the translator.
Review by Julie
A Death in the Family
To Knausgaard or not to Knausgaard?
I have been holding off writing about the Norwegian publishing phenomenon Karl Ove Knausgaard until the other day, when I picked up the first volume in English translation and realised how well it travels. The press are awash with, mostly raving, reviews of his autobiographical novels and interviews with the author. Zadie Smith has said she needed them ‘like crack’. Should you read them?
News by Julie
Brilliant AMERICANAH by Adichie wins National Book Critics Circle award
One of my favourite books, and indeed authors, Americanah by Nigerian writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, has just won the National Book Critics Circle’s fiction award, a prestigious American literary prize.
