I’m lucky enough to get review copies from publishers. Tucked between the pages will be a press release which normally explains a little bit about the book and the author, but often boasts about the fierce auction that took place in order to gain the rights to sell the book. I must admit that I’m [...]
Posts under ‘Everything Else’
April Summary and Plans for May
April has been a fairly average reading month for me. The star ratings below suggest that I haven’t read anything outstanding, but luckily that isn’t the case. I’ve actually read The Girl Who Fell From The Sky by Simon Mawer (my book of the year so far) and Heft by Liz Moore (an entertaining and touching book [...]
Two Gripping Reads
A Land More Kind Than Home by Wiley Cash Five words from the blurb: autistic, violence, tragic, religion, family A Land More Kind Than Home is set in North Carolina and follows the family of Christopher, an autistic boy who is murdered during a church service. The book is based on real events and reveals the shocking [...]
The 2012 Commonwealth Writers’ Prize Shortlist
Yesterday the 2012 Commonwealth Writers’ Prize shortlist was announced. The prize is Awarded for best first book and is open to writers from the Commonwealth who have had their first novel (full length work of fiction) published between 1 January and 31 December 2011. The shortlisted books are: Asia Rebirth by Jahnavi Barua (India) The Wandering Falcon [...]
The 2012 Orange Prize Shortlist
The shortlist for the 2012 Orange Prize has just been announced as: My thoughts on the shortlist The 2012 Orange shortlist contains an eclectic mix of books. All are well written and none look out of place on a prize shortlist; but whilst I’m not surprised by the inclusion of any single book, the shortlist as a whole [...]
Who will be shortlisted for the 2012 Orange Prize?
The shortlist for the 2012 Orange Prize will be announced at 9.30am GMT tomorrow. I have tried all the books on the longlist and so, as usual, I will try to predict the judge’s choices. A Year of Happy Books This year the judges seem to favour happy books. Darker subject matters were occasionally approached, but when done so [...]
