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Includes first reviews of Carmen Maria Machado's In the Dream House, Steph Cha's Your House Will Pay and Anna Wiener's Uncanny Valley Home | Fiction | Non-Fiction | Children's | Genres | Publications | Prizes The Week in Review: 27th January 2020 Reviewers lay out the welcome mat for Machado's In the Dream House Good morning, Carmen Maria Machado's In the Dream House (Profile) has left the critics in reverie, with the memoir praised as "ravishingly beautiful", "a tour de force" and "as compelling as any thriller". Johanna Thomas-Corr in the Observer described Machado's account of her abusive relationship with her "petite, blonde, Harvard graduate" girlfriend as "horrifying but beguiling" and "a tender, incandescent memoir like no other", adding, "There’s no doubt that Machado is one of the brightest literary talents around." In the Sunday Telegraph, Lucy Scholes praised In the Dream House as "dazzling" and "exceptional", and in the New Statesman Catherine Taylor wrote that it was "just as untamed, original and brilliantly unclassifiable" as Machado's debut short story collection Her Body and Other Parties. Steph Cha's Your House Will Pay (Faber & Faber) also mortgaged out space in the critics' affections, with The Scotsman's Roger Cox describing the 1991 and 2019 Los Angeles-set novel as "a masterclass in elegant plotting" and praised Cha's "profound and apparently instinctive understanding of human nature", which "elevates this book way beyond a mere ripped-from-the-headlines potboiler". Lucy Knight in the Sunday Times praised the author as "an elegant storyteller" and the Irish Times' Sarah Gilmartin wrote that it was "an urgent portrait of a time not so long ago where civil blood made civil hands unclean". Reviewers also clicked like on Anna Wiener's Uncanny Valley (Fourth Estate), about a young woman from a "liberal-arts background" thrust into the world of tech. Julia Carrie Wong in the Guardian wrote that it "unfolds like an exquisitely curated Tumblr blog, with a scroll of beautifully juxtaposed snapshots of the young, newly wealthy and utterly absurd", and the Sunday Times' Laura Pullman praised Wiener's wry asides, saying, "She pierces the self-inflation of Silicon Valley deftly and, as she finally runs out of patience with the baby tyrants, you’re cheering on her escape from the madness." By Kiera O'Brien, charts editor, The Bookseller Book of the Week In the Dream House: A Memoir Carmen Maria Machado 4.89 out of 5 | 5 reviews "Carmen Maria Machado’s account of the abuse she suffered at the hands of her ‘petite, blond, Harvard graduate’ lover is horrifying but beguiling" The Observer "Innovative and haunting, compelling and jarring, Machado has created what is essentially a new form of memoir" Irish Times " Machado’s approach is as compelling as any thriller, playful in its self-discovery, and intriguing in its references" New Statesman "Carmen Maria Machado’s book is a tour de force. " The Guardian Latest Reviews Orwell: A Man of Our Times Richard Bradford 2.8 out of 5 3 reviews "...He could “step outside himself”, as Bradford writes in this fascinating book" The Times A Place For Everything: The Curious History of Alphabetical Order Judith Flanders TBC out of 5 2 reviews "...It took a long time for the alphabet to rule our lives, shows a delightfully quirky study" The Sunday Times Square Haunting Francesca Wade 4.1 out of 5 11 reviews "......endlessly interesting, unshowy, tightly argued and large-hearted" The Guardian Motherwell Deborah Orr 4.4 out of 5 14 reviews "...This is what this utterly riveting, often darkly comic, and astonishingly honest debut memoir " The Bookseller The Shadow King Maaza Mengiste 3.1 out of 5 3 reviews "...I suspect I won’t read anything more moving this year." The Times A Curious History of Sex Kate Lister TBC out of 5 2 reviews "...This wonderfully irreverent chronicle of sex explores centuries of kinks, quirks and hang-ups" The Times Djinn Patrol on the Purple Line Deepa Anappara 4 out of 5 4 reviews "...An outstanding debut—Vintage's lead for 2020—and not to be missed." The Bookseller A World Without Work Daniel Susskind 3.5 out of 5 7 reviews "...(a) fascinating and tightly argued book" The Sunday Telegraph A Very Stable Genius Carol D. Leonnig, Philip Rucker TBC out of 5 2 reviews "...Naked partisanship gives the game away in this White House analysis" The Sunday Times Miss Austen Gill Hornby 4.4 out of 5 3 reviews "...a novel of great kindness, often unexpectedly moving, with much to say about the status of “invisible” older women" The Observer This is Pleasure Mary Gaitskill 4.3 out of 5 3 reviews "...At the heart of this extraordinary, daring, provocative, pitch perfect story lies the idea that, sometimes, we act out a truth, only to run from it" The Observer Dear Life Rachel Clarke 4.2 out of 5 5 reviews "...She is shrewd and witty about the medical profession" The Independent The Bookseller Podcast Listen to Episode #13 - Jan 2020 The latest podcast includes author interviews with Sophie Hanna and Deepa Anappara plus the Bookseller team looks forward to the most anticipated books of 2020... Best Reviewed In the Dream House: A Memoir Carmen Maria Machado 4.9 out of 5 5 reviews The Sphinx Hugo Vickers 4.5 out of 5 3 reviews Miss Austen Gill Hornby 4.4 out of 5 3 reviews Highfire Eoin Colfer 4.3 out of 5 3 reviews Ladies Can't Climb Ladders Jane Robinson 4.2 out of 5 5 reviews The Doll Ismail Kadare, John Hodgson 4 out of 5 3 reviews Three Hours Rosamund Lupton 4 out of 5 3 reviews A Scheme of Heaven Alexander Boxer 4 out of 5 3 reviews Most Reviewed The Death of Jesus J.M. Coetzee 3.3 out of 5 11 reviews The Shapeless Unease Samantha Harvey 4 out of 5 8 reviews Providence Lost Paul Lay 4 out of 5 7 reviews A World Without Work Daniel Susskind 3.5 out of 5 7 reviews Threshold Rob Doyle 3.5 out of 5 7 reviews Agency Mr William Gibson 3.3 out of 5 6 reviews Uncanny Valley Anna Wiener 3.7 out of 5 6 reviews Essays Lydia Davis 4.2 out of 5 6 reviews Gigs of the Week An Evening with Professor Frank McDonough Liverpool, 28 Jan Eat Green with Melissa Hemsley Cambridge, 28 Jan Haven't They Grown by Sophie Hannah Leominster, 29 Jan Kimberley Chambers - The Queenie Tour Milton Keynes, 1 Feb © 2019 Bookseller Media Ltd.

Including Deborah Orr's posthumous memoir Motherwell, Rob Doyle's Threshold and Jane Robinson's Ladies Can't Climb Ladders Home | Fiction | Non-Fiction | Children's | Genres | Publications | Prizes The Week in Review: 20th January 2020 Motherwell finds home in the critics' hearts Good morning  Deborah Orr's posthumous memoir Motherwell (Weidenfeld & Nicolson) has been hailed by the reviewers as "utterly riveting", "wonderful and awful", and "a fitting legacy left by a blazing talent". The Bookseller's non-fiction previewer Caroline Sanderson praised the title for its portrayal of the "complex and tangled mixture of light and shade" in parent-child relationships, adding that Orr "succeeds so brilliantly that for me it ranks with Alexandra Fuller's Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight—one of my favourite memoirs of all time—in its understanding of how the places and people we come from make us who we are". Many critics felt the poignancy of the author's recent death in the pages, with Susie Boyt in the Financial Times writing "You forget a little as you go along but when Orr writes in the present tense or refers to her future things darken as you come up hard against the facts", and Sarah Hughes in the Observer describing Motherwell as "a deeply moving reminder of all she might still have achieved", as well as her legacy. Rob Doyle's Threshold (Bloomsbury) also got a foot through the door, with Jude Cook in the TLS describing it as "boundary-nudging fiction" and "compellingly readable". Martin Chilton in the Independent described it as "a humorous delight", Lee Langley in the Spectator wrote, "Not many books manage to expand your mind, do your head in and set you laughing out loud. This one does, and Doyle’s words sing on the page." Jane Robinson's Ladies Can't Climb Ladders (Doubleday) scaled heights, with the Sunday Telegraph's Frances Wilson commending the historical title on the first professional women as "an important and crackingly good read". Melanie Reid in the Times wrote, "Modern professional women will read it with a slow burn of anger and heightened respect for those whose actions, such a relatively brief time ago, made today possible." By Kiera O'Brien, charts editor, The Bookseller Book of the Week Motherwell Deborah Orr 4.44 out of 5 | 8 reviews "This is what this utterly riveting, often darkly comic, and astonishingly honest debut memoir " The Bookseller "No one in Orr’s family, least of all the man she would marry and divorce, Will Self, comes away unscathed" Evening Standard "Deborah found a way to rise out of her sorrows and dependencies... and create a masterpiece of self-exploration" The Guardian "it is both a fitting legacy left by a blazing talent and a deeply moving reminder of all she might still have achieved" The Observer Latest Reviews Pills, Powder and Smoke Antony Loewenstein 3.4 out of 5 3 reviews "...the only thing wars against human nature ever produce, as Loewenstein shows in this lucid and well-researched book, are piles of dead bodies" The Times Threshold Rob Doyle 3.6 out of 5 6 reviews "...Eleven freewheeling pharmaceutically messy vignettes" The Observer Parisian Lives Deirdre Bair TBC out of 5 2 reviews "...(a) candid and entertaining memoir" The Bookseller Tombland C. J. Sansom 4 out of 5 8 reviews "...it’s the author’s inclusive humanity that lingers" Daily Mail Asha and the Spirit Bird Jasbinder Bilan 4.1 out of 5 3 reviews "...an exotic journey with a feelgood ending" The Sunday Times Braised Pork An Yu 3.8 out of 5 4 reviews "...A seductive, sharply observed tale of love, loss and hope" Daily Mail Providence Lost Paul Lay 4 out of 5 6 reviews "... Few guides take us so directly, or so sympathetically, into the imaginative worlds of that tumultuous decade" The Sunday Times Your House Will Pay Steph Cha 4 out of 5 3 reviews "...Steph Cha’s deftly written novel explores Los Angeles in 1991 and 2019" Irish Times A World Without Work Daniel Susskind 3.2 out of 5 5 reviews "...the voice of a clever, sensible man telling you what’s what" The Guardian Trick Mirror Jia Tolentino 3.7 out of 5 6 reviews "...A profound survival guide for an increasingly isolating world" The Independent Pine Francine Toon TBC out of 5 2 reviews "...The natural and supernatural collide in this portrait of a tiny community brimming with secrets. " The Sunday Times Uncanny Valley Anna Wiener 3.6 out of 5 5 reviews "......an artful contribution to the war on tech exceptionalism" Financial Times The Bookseller Podcast Listen to Episode #13 - Jan 2020 The latest podcast includes author interviews with Sophie Hanna and Deepa Anappara plus the Bookseller team looks forward to the most anticipated books of 2020... Best Reviewed In the Dream House: A Memoir Carmen Maria Machado 4.9 out of 5 4 reviews The Sphinx Hugo Vickers 4.5 out of 5 3 reviews Ladies Can't Climb Ladders Jane Robinson 4.2 out of 5 4 reviews The Shapeless Unease Samantha Harvey 4 out of 5 8 reviews The Doll Ismail Kadare, John Hodgson 4 out of 5 3 reviews Three Hours Rosamund Lupton 4 out of 5 3 reviews A Scheme of Heaven Alexander Boxer 4 out of 5 3 reviews Providence Lost Paul Lay 4 out of 5 6 reviews Most Reviewed The Death of Jesus J.M. Coetzee 3.2 out of 5 9 reviews The Shapeless Unease Samantha Harvey 4 out of 5 8 reviews Essays Lydia Davis 4.2 out of 5 6 reviews Providence Lost Paul Lay 4 out of 5 6 reviews Threshold Rob Doyle 3.6 out of 5 6 reviews The Captain and the Glory Dave Eggers 3.4 out of 5 5 reviews Uncanny Valley Anna Wiener 3.6 out of 5 5 reviews Agency Mr William Gibson 3.1 out of 5 5 reviews Gigs of the Week Jill Mansell & Friends Yeovil, 20 Jan Deepa Anappara, Michelle Gallen & Tomasz Jedrowski London, 30 Jan Derek Owusu: That Reminds Me Bath, 28 Jan Helen Taylor - Why Women Read Fiction Bristol, 28 Jan © 2020 Bookseller Media Ltd.