Beth's Books (and other bits and bobs)
Feel free to judge this book by its cover, it does what it says on the tin
Author: Rob Doyle Title: Here are the Young Men Press: Bloomsbury Prizes: Date of publication: 2014 Date of purchase: September 2018 RRP: £7.99 Price of purchase: £1.95 Reading time: 2 Weeks Rating:  4 Well heck. This was deeply disturbing from start to finish. A stark glance into an alternative Dublin populated with disillusioned youths and …
Author: Irvine Welsh Title: Filth Press: Vintage Prizes: Date of publication: 1998 Date of purchase: September 2018 RRP: £5.99 Price of purchase: £2.50 Reading time: 2 Week Rating:  6 As a Scot currently playing at contributing to the diaspora in the sunny South of England it seemed appropriate to return to my roots, read a …
The Mysterious Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde: Robert Louis Stephenson What’s scarier than a deep look at social ills and inherently corrupt humanity? Literally nothing, this is one of my favourite books and the sp00ky atmosphere of the whole thing is worthy of commendation on any day of the year but especially today. …
Continue reading "My All Time Top 4 Favourite Spooky Titles"
Chamamanda Adichie’s TED Talk on ‘the danger of the single story’ is incredibly powerful and was an excellent introduction for me into the issue of ethnic diversity in publishing. The point: how important it is for people to read themselves in stories but also the power of publishing to reinforce narratives and the moral imperative …
Title: Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine Press: HarperCollins Prizes: Costa First Novel Award (2017) Book of the Year at The British Book Awards (2018) Date of publication: 2017 Date of purchase: August 2018 RRP: £8.99 Price of purchase: Free as part of the KU Big Read Reading time: 1 Week Rating:  8 This book came …
Continue reading "Gail Honeyman: Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine"
The author of the runaway success Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine gave an audience at Kingston University on Wednesday 24th October and it was lovely. Ostensibly this is a book about loneliness, so how has it become a genre defining novel in the category of ‘up-lit’? Part of the answer to this question must lie in …
Continue reading "An audience with Gail Honeyman @ Kingston Univeristy"
Author: Harriet Tyce Title: Blood Orange Press: Headline Prizes: Date of publication: 2019 Date of purchase: October 2018 RRP: £ -- Price of purchase: £-- Reading time: ½ Week Rating:  6 This novel starts quick and just keeps building. I genuinely could not put it down, ignoring friends on the train and staying up well …
Just back from a lovely afternoon at the Southbank Centre. Cannot wait to get my hands on a copy of Cassara’s debut novel The House of Impossible Beauties. Both he and Andrew McMillan spoke eloquently on their own struggles coming to terms with their male-ness and the contradictions of masculinity in the twenty first century. …
Beth's Books (and other bits and bobs) 