Need more ideas for what to read? Here are the latest Books in the Media newsletters:
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The
Week in Review 24th May 2021
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Critics call Adshead's
The Devil You Know an 'eye-opening casebook of offenders'
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Good morning
Gwen Adshead's The
Devil You Know (Faber & Faber) was a favourite amongst
this weekend's reviewers. In her first book for general readership —
written with Eileen Horne — Adshead, a Broadmoor psychiatrist,
profiles 11 men and women and tries to understand and treat
the behaviour of offenders who are among the most vilified in our
society. A Book of the Month for The Bookseller's Caroline
Sanderson, who wrote: "What Adshead so brilliantly
demonstrates through these case histories is that society itself is
so often at the root of why such troubled people commit these
crimes." The title was also a Book of the Week in the Observer,
Kate Kellaway said: "Adshead’s warm intelligence, curiosity
and nuanced understanding of her work inspire trust in what turns
out to be an unmissable book."
Reviews were ablaze with Frances Wilson's Burning
Man: The Ascent of DH Lawrence (Bloomsbury Circus) this
weekend. Another Book of the Week in the Observer, where
Rachel Cooke called it "as magnificently flawed as its subject
— and a work of art in its own right." In the Times,
Laura Freeman called the memoir of the writer a "red-hot,
propulsive book", whilst in the Sunday Times John Carey
praised Wilson: "Her great strength is the aliveness of her
writing."
Lisa McInerney's The
Rules of Revelation (John Murray Publishers) was no secret
to critics this weekend. In the Irish Times, Sarah Gilmartin
called McInerney's third novel "engaging" whilst the Spectator's
Stephanie Sy-Quia thought that the author "does not
disappoint." The Guardian's Sarah Ditum selected the
novel as a Book of the Week, writing: "Revelation exercises
just enough restraint to avoid being overwhelming, and in doing so
brings the saga of Ryan to a satisfying completion." Finally,
the Observer's Alex Preston wrote: "There is no doubt
that McInerney is a writer of great gifts and boundless
ambition."
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 By Tamsin Hackett, Books Co-ordinator, The
Bookseller
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Books in the Media Update
This
will be the last edition of the Books in the Media weekly email.
Content from BIM will be included in a new version of The
Bookseller's website that will launch in the autumn with a
dedicated section for all the great books content we know you love.
At that point, a new weekly books email will be made available to
our readers. You don't need to do anything to get the new version,
just keep an eye on your inbox and we'll keep you posted.
We
won't be updating booksinthemedia.thebookseller.com from today, so
that we can work on The Bookseller's new home for books content.
Thank you for reading, and thank you to our freelance contributors
for working on this website for The Bookseller.
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The Devil You Know
Gwen Adshead, Eileen
Horne
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"Adshead’s warm intelligence, curiosity
and nuanced understanding of her work inspire trust in what turns
out to be an unmissable book."
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"A remarkable Broadmoor psychiatrist’s
eye-opening casebook of offenders"
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"A psychiatrist reveals what she has
learnt from treating deeply disturbed patients"
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Civilisations
Laurent Binet, Sam Taylor
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"...it’s tremendous
fun"
The Guardian
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Featherweight
Mick Kitson
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"...The rollicking
story of a female bareknuckle boxer in Victorian England makes
creative use of the novelist’s family history"
The Observer
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"...Looking into his
ancestor’s lives, this journalist uncovered a horrific story of
brutality and injustice"
The Sunday Times
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The Assistant
Kjell Ola Dahl, Don Bartlett
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"...A gripping
stand-alone thriller from a well-known Nordic-noir writer."
The Times
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"...gives a twist to
familiar myth by offering the perspective of the women
characters"
The Sunday Times
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Amazon Unbound
Brad Stone
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"...Stone has
produced a readable and comprehensive account of Amazon’s
journey."
The Times
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The Devil You Know
Gwen Adshead, Eileen Horne
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"...Adshead’s warm
intelligence, curiosity and nuanced understanding of her work
inspire trust in what turns out to be an unmissable book."
The Observer
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The Rules of Revelation
Lisa McInerney
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"...brings the saga
of Ryan to a satisfying completion"
The Guardian
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The Beauty of Impossible Things
Rachel Donohue
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"...Rachel Donohue
blends coming-of-age tale and the supernatural in a potent
cocktail"
Irish Times
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A Vision of the World
John Cheever, Julian Barnes
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"...This selection
of the gifted writer’s work is stuffed with wonders"
The Sunday Times
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Burning Man: The Ascent of DH Lawrence
Frances Wilson
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"...a red-hot,
propulsive book"
The Times
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Circus of Wonders
Elizabeth Macneal
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"...An egotistical
ringmaster gives his “monsters” a chance to shine in this
glittering follow-up to The Doll Factory"
The Guardian
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Paperback
Book of the Month
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The Thursday Murder Club
Richard Osman
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Telling the story of four unlikely friends in
a retirement village who meet every week to investigate unsolved
murders, until a real killing ends up on their doorstep, this debut
novel is "charming and genuinely funny", said Alison
Flood.
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Operation Pedestal
Max Hastings
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"... As ever, Hastings
gives excellent pen portraits of the personalities involved"
The Sunday Telegraph
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Great Circle
Maggie Shipstead
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"...Undoubtedly one
of my novels of the year"
The Bookseller
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China Room
Sunjeev Sahota
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"...One of Britain’s
most fêted young novelists tackles difficult themes in an
unsweetened, fresh and nourishing way"
The Times
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"...Real Estate
offers the same hard-won, lucid wisdom that made The Cost of Living
essential reading for anyone who has a mother or is one. "
The Sunday Times
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Circus of Wonders
Elizabeth Macneal
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"...An egotistical
ringmaster gives his “monsters” a chance to shine in this
glittering follow-up to The Doll Factory"
The Guardian
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Notes on Grief
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
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"...a moving account
of a daughter’s sorrow"
The Observer
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Whereabouts
Jhumpa Lahiri
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"...With her first
book of fiction in eight years, this Pulitzer prizewinning writer
is on brilliant form"
The Sunday Times
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How to Kidnap the Rich
Rahul Raina
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"... a joyous
love/hate letter to contemporary Delhi"
The Times
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My Phantoms
Gwendoline Riley
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"...... an
emotionally complex, caustic novel about the mother-daughter bond,
both lacerating and funny: what a combination."
The Bookseller
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Philip Roth: The Biography
Blake Bailey
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"...Bailey’s humane
and thorough account of Roth, delivered in a witty, wry and even
self-deprecating style "
Irish Times
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Lean Fall Stand
Jon McGregor
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"... a novel of
complex feeling and beautiful restraint from one of the finest
writers around."
The Guardian
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Unsettled Ground
Claire Fuller
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"...fierce, angry
energy"
The Guardian
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Monica Jones, Philip Larkin and Me: Her Life
and Long Loves
John Sutherland
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"...The poet’s
troubled relationship has been written about many times, but this
biography is unique in its focus on the maligned woman"
The Sunday Times
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First Person Singular
Haruki Murakami, Philip Gabriel
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"...a two-fingered
salute to Japan's literary establishment"
The Daily Telegraph
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Double Blind
Edward St Aubyn
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"...there’s
something almost insolent in the way St Aubyn glides effortlessly
from one plotline to the next"
The Spectator
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The Adventures of Miss Barbara Pym
Paula Byrne
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"...(an) excellent
cradle-to-grave biography of a much loved novelist"
The Guardian
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Online
Book Events from BookGig
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Carlo Rovelli in conversation with Philip Pullman
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Monday 24th May, 2021 @ 6:00 pm
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Just One Pan by Jane Lovett
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Tuesday 25th May, 2021 @ 7:30 pm
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Both of You: Adele Parks in conversation with Joe
Haddow
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Wednesday 26th May, 2021 @ 7:30 pm
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Diversity in Children's Literature 3: Alex Wheatle and
AM Dassu
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Thursday 27th May, 2021 @ 7:00 pm
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© 2021 The Bookseller,
The Stage Media Company Ltd.
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The
Week in Review 17th May 2021
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Critics commend
Adichie's memoir as 'fascinatingly intimate'
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Good morning
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's Notes
on Grief (Fourth Estate) was favoured by this weekend's
critics. The Sunday Times' Richard Coles commended the
conciseness of the memoir: "It will not delay you long, but
what it leaves will stay with you." Helen Rumbelow agreed in
the Times: "It is delivered in the most readable,
tender bites for any of the many of us whose attention has been
shot by the harrowing of this past year." Over in the Observer,
Nicci Gerrard called it a "moving account of a daughter’s
sorrow and it is also a love letter to the one who has
gone."
The Sunday Times' Houman Barekat dubbed
Sunjeev Sahota's China
Room (Harvill Secker) a "melodrama of honour and
shame" whilst Melissa Katsoulis called Sahota one of
Britain's "most fêted young novelists" in the Times,
adding that he "tackles difficult themes in an unsweetened,
fresh and nourishing way." The Guardian's Alex Clark
called the historical novel about Mehar, a young bride in rural
1929 Punjab, a "dramatically hushed novel".
Daniel Kahneman, Olivier Sibony and Cass R
Sunstein's Noise
(William Collins) thundered into the reviews this weekend. The Evening
Standard's Martha Gill called the exploration of why people
make bad judgments, and how to control both noise and cognitive
bias, a "satisfying journey through a big but not, the authors
suggest, unsolvable problem, with plenty of fascinating case
studies." The Times' Daniel Finkelstein praised the
authors for having a "rigorous approach to an important
topic." Over in the Sunday Times, Bryan Appleyard called
it a "monumental, gripping book" and an "outstanding
study".
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 By Tamsin Hackett, Books Co-ordinator, The
Bookseller
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Notes on Grief
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
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"a moving account of a daughter’s
sorrow"
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"The author reflects on the loss of her
father, mourned at a distance during the pandemic, in an
exquisitely written tribute"
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"It will not delay you long, but what it
leaves will stay with you"
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"For fans of the famously private Adichie
— she deferred news that she had become a mother until well after
the birth — this is fascinatingly intimate. It is also delivered in
the most readable, tender bites for any of the many of us whose
attention has be"
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Civilisations
Laurent Binet, Sam Taylor
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"...it’s tremendous
fun"
The Guardian
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The Chief Witness
Sayragul Sauytbay, Alexandra Cavelius, Caroline
Waight
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"...A nightmarish
account of repression "
The Times
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Empire of Pain
Patrick Radden Keefe
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"...... (a)
tour-de-force account"
Financial Times
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Malice in Wonderland
Hugo Vickers
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"...Vickers brings
out beautifully the charm and wit of Cooper. "
The Times
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Burning Man: The Ascent of DH Lawrence
Frances Wilson
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"...Frances Wilson’s
book is as magnificently flawed as its subject – and a work of art
in its own right"
The Observer
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Malibu Rising
Taylor Jenkins Reid
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"...unapologetically
escapist beach-read fiction,"
The Sunday Times
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Notes on Grief
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
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"...a moving account
of a daughter’s sorrow"
The Observer
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China Room
Sunjeev Sahota
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"...One of Britain’s
most fêted young novelists tackles difficult themes in an
unsweetened, fresh and nourishing way"
The Times
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Noise
Daniel Kahneman, Olivier Sibony, Cass R.
Sunstein
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"...The most banal
things cloud even the best expert’s judgment, shows this
outstanding study"
The Sunday Times
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Napoleon’s Plunder and the Theft of Veronese’s
Feast
Cynthia Saltzman
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"...Saltzman’s
forensic narrative"
The Sunday Times
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Barbarossa
Jonathan Dimbleby
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"... To call his
grasp of detail thorough is the faintest of compliments – obsessively
attentive would not be out of place"
The Daily Telegraph
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"...an acclaimed
portrait of a city"
The Sunday Times
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Children's
Book of the Month
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The Swallows' Flight
Hilary McKay
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The Skylarks' War was published to rapturous reviews and won
the 2018 Costa Children's Book of the Year. Now, the next
generation of characters move from childhood to the threshold of
adulthood amid the chaos of the Second World War.
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Operation Pedestal
Max Hastings
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"... As ever,
Hastings gives excellent pen portraits of the personalities
involved"
The Sunday Telegraph
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Field Work
Bella Bathurst
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"...Bathurst has a
seemingly supernatural facility for getting people to speak to her
honestly and movingly about the land and their place within
it"
The Observer
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Empire of Pain
Patrick Radden Keefe
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"...... (a)
tour-de-force account"
Financial Times
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Great Circle
Maggie Shipstead
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"...Undoubtedly one
of my novels of the year"
The Bookseller
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Philip: The Final Portrait
Gyles Brandreth
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"...this intimate
biography is a sparkling celebration"
The Daily Telegraph
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"...Real Estate
offers the same hard-won, lucid wisdom that made The Cost of Living
essential reading for anyone who has a mother or is one. "
The Sunday Times
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Notes on Grief
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
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"...a moving account
of a daughter’s sorrow"
The Observer
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China Room
Sunjeev Sahota
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"...One of Britain’s
most fêted young novelists tackles difficult themes in an
unsweetened, fresh and nourishing way"
The Times
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My Phantoms
Gwendoline Riley
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"...... an
emotionally complex, caustic novel about the mother-daughter bond,
both lacerating and funny: what a combination."
The Bookseller
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Philip Roth: The Biography
Blake Bailey
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"...Blake Bailey’s
long-awaited biography does not shy away from the more
controversial aspects of the writer’s career"
Financial Times
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"...Mozley’s
achievement is to create room for nuance, even when the book’s
world is drawn with such cartoonish vigour"
The Guardian
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Beyond Order
Jordan B. Peterson
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"...a self-help book
that is not here to hug you better"
The Daily Telegraph
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Unsettled Ground
Claire Fuller
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"...I was fascinated
and horrified"
Prima
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Lean Fall Stand
Jon McGregor
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"... a novel of
complex feeling and beautiful restraint from one of the finest
writers around."
The Guardian
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Monica Jones, Philip Larkin and Me: Her Life
and Long Loves
John Sutherland
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"...The poet’s
troubled relationship has been written about many times, but this
biography is unique in its focus on the maligned woman"
The Sunday Times
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First Person Singular
Haruki Murakami, Philip Gabriel
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"...a two-fingered
salute to Japan's literary establishment"
The Daily Telegraph
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Online
Book Events from BookGig
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Pandora's Jar with Natalie Haynes
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Tuesday 18th May, 2021 @ 7:00 pm
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The Vanishing Half: Brit Bennett in conversation
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Tuesday 18th May, 2021 @ 7:30 pm
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Careless: Kirsty Capes in conversation with Pandora
Sykes
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Wednesday 19th May, 2021 @ 7:30 pm
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Elizabeth Macneal: Circus of Wonders
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Wednesday 19th May, 2021 @ 8:00 pm
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© The Bookseller, The Stage Media
Company Ltd.
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