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The
Week in Review 10th May 2021
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Critics praise Shipstead's Great Circle as one of
the novels of the year
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Maggie Shipstead's Great
Circle (Doubleday), which weaves together the lives of
two women, was a Book of the Month for The Bookseller's
Alice O'Keeffe, who wrote: "This is truly exceptional
storytelling, combining a sweeping arc of history with writing
that, at sentence level, is near-flawless. Undoubtedly one of my
novels of the year." The Times' Melissa Katsoulis noted
that the author "turns phrases and observes people
beautifully" in her latest, whilst the Sunday Times'
Francesca Angelini wrote: "Great Circle still holds up
as an impressive, gripping venture." Finally, in the Sunday
Telegraph, Claire Allfree called it a "soaring masterclass
in historical fiction."
Max Hastings' Operation
Pedestal (William Collins) was elevated by this weekend's
critics. In the Sunday Telegraph, Saul David wrote: "As
ever, Hastings gives excellent pen portraits of the personalities
involved." Hastings' depiction of Second World War naval
history was called "dramatic" and "highly
readable" by the Sunday Times' Giles Milton. In the Times,
Gerard DeGroot raved: "This account of a naval operation to
save starving Malta is an outstanding piece of historical
storytelling."
Jhumpa Lahiri's Whereabouts:
A novel (Bloomsbury) found a place in the reviews this
weekend. The Spectator's Chloe Ashby commented: "Lahiri
has spun a delicately layered story of a woman reflecting on her
past, present and future." In the Observer, Anthony
Cummins had high praise for the novel: "The book’s peculiar
magnetism lies in its clash of candour and coyness." Finally,
in the Sunday Times, Lucy Atkins wrote: "With her first
book of fiction in eight years, this Pulitzer prizewinning writer
is on brilliant form."
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 By Tamsin Hackett, Books Co-ordinator, The
Bookseller
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Great Circle
Maggie Shipstead
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"holds up as an impressive, gripping
venture"
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" a soaring masterclass in historical
fiction"
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"Shipstead, who has previously written sharp,
elegant novels about dinner parties and ballet, turns phrases and
observes people beautifully."
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"Undoubtedly one of my novels of the year"
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Civilisations
Laurent Binet, Sam Taylor
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"...it’s tremendous fun"
The Guardian
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The Premonition
Michael Lewis
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"...a damning picture of America’s Covid
response"
The Sunday Times
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The Adventures of Miss Barbara Pym
Paula Byrne
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"...This, like its subject’s best books,
rewards reading and re-reading"
The Spectator
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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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"...Laing's writing is never less than bracing,
combining formidable intelligence with truly radical ways of
looking at the world"
The Bookseller
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Speak, Okinawa
Elizabeth Miki Brina
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"...Speak, Okinawa sheds light in the dark,
unspoken corners of bi-racial identity, the chasms of
misunderstanding in America today — and the wider western
world"
The Spectator
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How the Just So Stories Were Made
John Batchelor
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"...A scrupulous account of the brilliance and
family tragedy that lies behind Kipling’s joyful collection of
animal stories"
The Guardian
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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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The Twelve Lives of Alfred Hitchcock
Edward White
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"...This innovative biography of the director
is most successful when tracking his contemporary influence"
The Observer
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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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Great Circle
Maggie Shipstead
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"...Undoubtedly one of my novels of the
year"
The Bookseller
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"...This tale of a wealthy widow and her
Mayfair inheritance is a historical romp"
The Times
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Non-Fiction
Book of the Month
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The final instalment in Levy's Living Autobiography
trilogy. "Though as wide-roving as its predecessors, home is
the central theme of this volume, set between Levy's crumbling
London apartment building, the Paris flat where she lived and wrote
for a spell, and the rented Greek island house where she did the
same. Reviewing the dynamics and suitability of these settings, she
conceives a desire for some real estate of her own where she can
live, work 'and make a world at my own pace'...
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I Belong Here
Anita Sethi
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"...I Belong Here is a shining example of how
books, at their best, can be an act of resistance, and a communal
force for good."
The Bookseller
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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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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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How to Love Animals in a Human-Shaped World
Henry Mance
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"...(a) provocative, witty and sometimes brutal
consideration of the inconsistencies in how we treat other
species"
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
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Irish Times
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Early Morning Riser
Katherine Heiny
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"...Very funny and wonderfully profound, this
book makes you glad to be alive"
The Sunday 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
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Irish Times
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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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Lean Fall Stand
Jon McGregor
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"...McGregor covers new and startling territory
with each novel and this is a powerful and profound account that
manages to communicate how it might feel to lose language"
The Bookseller
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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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"...Using unpublished letters, John
Sutherland's book Monica Jones, Philip Larkin and Me reveals the
tragic squandering of a brilliant woman"
The Sunday Telegraph
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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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The Adventures of Miss Barbara Pym
Paula Byrne
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"...This, like its subject’s best books,
rewards reading and re-reading"
The Spectator
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Online
Book Events from BookGig
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Hilary Mantel in
conversation
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Tuesday 11th May,
2021 @ 7:30 pm
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A Night in with
David Mitchell
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Friday 14th May,
2021 @ 6:30 pm
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Stratford Literary
Festival: Kate Mosse, The City of Tears
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Saturday 15th
May, 2021 @ 9:00 am
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Stratford Literary
Festival: Sir Michael Morpurgo
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Sunday 16th May,
2021 @ 9:00 am
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© 2021 The Bookseller,
The Stage Media Company Ltd.
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