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The
Week in Review 1st September 2020
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Reviewers herald Richard Ovenden's Burning the Books
as 'careful, diligent and wise'
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Good morning Karen,
Reviewers checked out Richard Ovenden's Burning
the Books (John Murray Press) this weekend. The
Bookseller's Caroline Sanderson chose the director of Oxford's
Bodleian Library's title as her Book of the Month, calling it a
"galvanising manifesto for the importance of physical
libraries in our increasingly digital age." In the Observer,
the title was a Book of the Day, with Rachel Cooke praising the
author: "Burning the Books reveals on every page, not
only is he careful, diligent and wise, he also knows what to leave
out, and what to keep in – and it’s this quality, above all, that
makes his book so remarkable." Finally, in the Times,
Gerard DeGroot commented: "Stories about libraries do not
usually stir the blood. Burning the Books, however, is a
passionate and illuminating account of the obliteration of
knowledge that has occurred over the past three millennia."
Andrew O'Hagan's Mayflies
(Faber & Faber) fluttered into this weekend's reviews. In the Sunday
Telegraph, Sam Leith gave the book a near perfect review,
saying "This is, then, a sentimental novel. But it’s also a
novel about sentimentality itself, and the rosy glow of
nostalgia... Sentimentality is, after all, part of human
experience, and here’s a novel that’s not afraid to give it
expression." Over in the Times, John Self proclaimed
"this warm and heart-filling tale is Booker worthy."
Whilst in the Scotsman Allan Massie called the title
"life-enhancing", adding that O'Hagan explored love and
death in a "delicate, scrupulous prose."
Charlie Gilmour's Featherhood:
On Birds and Fathers (Weidenfeld & Nicolson) was
another soaring title for The Bookseller's Caroline
Sanderson, who called her Editor's Choice "a profound
exploration of grief, fragmented families and whether we are doomed
to repeat the sins of our fathers." Comparing the title to
Helen Macdonald’s recent memoir H is for Hawk, Helen
Davies said "Featherland is an equal, if not better,
work of magpie investigation that ranks among the best modern
coming-of-age memoirs," in the Sunday Times. Over in
the Sunday Telegraph, Helen Brown called the book
"excellent" and "dazzling". Finally, in the Evening
standard David Marsland said the memoir was "moving and
spiky".
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 By Tamsin Hackett, Books Co-ordinator, The
Bookseller
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Burning the Books
Richard Ovenden
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"a galvanising manifesto"
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"This splendid book reveals how, in today’s
world of fake news and alternative facts, libraries stand defiant
as guardians of truth"
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"as Burning the Books reveals on
every page, not only is he careful, diligent and wise, he also
knows what to leave out, and what to keep in"
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Magdalena: River of Dreams
Wade Davis
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"...a journey down Colombia's river of
dreams"
The Guardian
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Here is the Beehive
Sarah Crossan
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"... entirely and likably original in its
execution, quite unlike anything I’ve read before."
The Observer
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As You Were
Elaine Feeney
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"...This tragicomic tale of a thirtysomething
mother with a terrible secret serves as a keen-eyed portrait of
modern Ireland"
The Observer
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Russian Roulette
Richard Greene
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"...Greene emerges from these pages in three
dimensions, as a uniquely fascinating man"
The Sunday Telegraph
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"...Norman has written better pop biographies
than this, but Wild Thing is still an engaging memorial to a rock
revolutionary"
The Times
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The Englishman
David Gilman
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"...The Englishman is a cracking, finely
crafted thriller."
Financial Times
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The Wild Silence
Raynor Winn
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"...a touching memoir from the Salt Path
author"
The Times
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God's Shadow
Alan Mikhail (Yale University)
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"...This fascinating history makes some grand
claims for Selim the Grim"
The Times
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Brixton Hill
Lottie Moggach
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"...It is a sophisticated and unusual
book"
The Times
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Fake Law
The Secret Barrister
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"... a powerful polemic that also acts as a
primer about our legal rights"
The Sunday Times
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As You Were
Elaine Feeney
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"...This tragicomic tale of a thirtysomething
mother with a terrible secret serves as a keen-eyed portrait of
modern Ireland"
The Observer
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"...wise, funny, unsentimental and
exhilarating"
Financial Times
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Fiction
Book of the Month
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The Lying Life of
Adults
Elena Ferrante
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It opens in early 90s Naples, with 12-year-old
narrator Giovanna, an only child, becoming aware of a deep rift in
her family between her intellectual, middle-class father, and his
sister Vittoria who still lives in the poor part of the city where
they grew up. As Giovanna gets to know her wild, volatile aunt, she
starts to believe her aunt's version of events-which include an
affair with a married man-and thus begins her induction to the
murky adult world, far from the clear-cut security of childhood.
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Vesper Flights
Helen Macdonald
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"...I wanted to savour it, spinning it out it
across weeks, one chapter per evening, like a sort of lockdown
Forty and One Nights of my very own"
The Bookseller
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A Saint From Texas
Edmund White
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"...At once in thrall to the shimmering
artifice of glamour yet also incisive about the tragedy of human
existence, A Saint from Texas is a worldly-wise
delight."
The Observer
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Featherhood
Charlie Gilmour
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"...a profound exploration of grief, fragmented
families and whether we are doomed to repeat the sins of our
fathers"
The Bookseller
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Democracy for Sale
Peter Geoghegan
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"...Geoghegan’s account of the genesis and
growth of the European Research Group is absolutely riveting"
The Observer
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"...It’s an extravagant and often unnerving
marvel. I eagerly await more Mordew."
The Guardian
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Magdalena: River of Dreams
Wade Davis
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"...a journey down Colombia's river of
dreams"
The Guardian
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Diamonds at the Lost and Found
Sarah Aspinall
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"...This delicious memoir, which Fourth Estate
is justifiably comparing with Lynn Barber's An Education and Esther
Freud's Hideous Kinky"
The Bookseller
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The Gospel of the Eels
Patrik Svensson, Agnes Broome
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"...a captivating blend of memoir and nature
writing"
The Bookseller
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The Vanishing Half
Brit Bennett
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"...an indictment on race and class in
America"
Financial Times
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"...wise, funny, unsentimental and
exhilarating"
Financial Times
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Utopia Avenue
David Mitchell
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"...A master storyteller brings to life the
Swinging Sixties"
The Times
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"......by the time I reached the end of the novel
I could hardly breathe. So, so good."
The Bookseller
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Shuggie Bain
Douglas Stuart
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"...He’s lovely, Douglas Stuart, fierce and
loving and lovely. He shows us lots of monstrous behavior, but not
a single monster — only damage"
The New York Times
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Too Much and Never Enough
Mary L. Trump, Ph.D.
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"...a ghastly tale laden with profound dynastic
anguish: something like Succession crossed with Bleak House"
The Sunday Times
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Small Pleasures
Clare Chambers
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"...an absorbing mystery and a tender love
story"
The Bookseller
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Writers & Lovers
Lily King
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"...This charming story about a struggling author
and her three suitors feels tailor‑made for our troubled
times"
The Sunday Times
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Online
Book Events from BookGig
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The Wild Silence:
Raynor Winn in conversation
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Tuesday 1st
September, 2020 @ 7:30 pm
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A Live Stream with
Stephanie Yeboah
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Wednesday 2nd
September, 2020 @ 6:30 pm
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Richard Osman in
conversation with Alexander Armstrong
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Wednesday 2nd
September, 2020 @ 7:00 pm
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A Live Stream with
Margaret Atwood
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Saturday 5th
September, 2020 @ 6:30 pm
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© 2020 Bookseller Media Ltd.
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