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: Daphne du Maurier Title: Jamaica Inn Press: Virago Prizes: Date of publication: 1936 Date of purchase: November 2018 RRP: £8.99 Price of purchase: Free thanks to my wonderful friend Jules (check out her blog it’s much cooler than mine http://www.booksarejules.com) Reading time: 3 days Rating:  9.5 I could not stop reading this book. It …
Having just steamed through Daphne du Maurier’s Jamaica Inn I felt it was time to consider what other books have fallen into this category for me. I rabitted on and on about this book the whole time I was reading it (thank you to my patient pal). So I began to wonder, what other books have turned me into a one-woman …
Title: Life of a Banana Author: PP Wong Press: Legend Press Prizes: Longlisted for the Baileys Women's Fiction Prize Date of Publication: 2014 Date of Purchase: November 2018 RRP: £7.99 Price of Purchase: £7.99 Reading Time: 3 days Rating: 8 This novel was a bit of a departure for me for several reasons. 1. it’s commercial fiction …
So having finished the moderately traumatic Here are the Young Men by Rob Doyle I have decided it’s time to step away from manly man fiction and start reading some women for once. I’ve regarded myself as a ‘bad feminist’ before but after attending the SYP (Society for Young Publishers) conference in London last weekend …
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 …
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"
Beth's Books (and other bits and bobs) 