Publication date: 2008-07-01
RRP: £16.99
Price: £8.97
Review Fishing in Utopia: Sweden and the Future That Disappeared / Granta Books:
Publication date: 2008-10-02
RRP: £16.99
Price: £7.98
Review Seven Troop / Random House Audiobooks:
Edition: New edition
Publication date: 1974-03-25
RRP: £7.99
Price: £2.84
Review Rommel? Gunner Who?: A Confrontation in the Desert / Penguin:
Creator: Anne Mallinson
Edition: New Ed
Publication date: 1998-11-16
RRP: £7.95
Price: £7.48
Review Heatherley: The Lost Sequel to "Lark Rise to Candleford" / John Owen Smith:
Edition: New edition
Publication date: 2006-05-04
RRP: £7.99
Price: £3.60
Review The Glass Castle / Virago Press Ltd:
Edition: New Ed
Publication date: 2006-07-03
RRP: £7.99
Price: £2.78
Review Air Babylon / Corgi Books:
Edition: New Ed
Publication date: 2003-01-03
Dewey code: 920
RRP: £7.99
Price: £3.06
Review Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight: An African Childhood / Picador:Don't Let's go to the Dogs Tonight is a wonderfully evocative memoir of Alexandra Fuller's African childhood. Fuller regards herself "as a daughter of Africa", who spent her early life on farms in Zimbabwe, Malawi and Zambia throughout the turbulent 1970s and 80s, as her parents "fought to keep one country in Africa white-run", but "lost twice" in Kenya and Zimbabwe. This is a profoundly personal story about growing up with a pair of funny, tough, white African settlers, and living with their "sometimes breathlessly illogical decisions", as they move from war-torn Zimbabwe to disease and malnutrition in Malawi, and finally the "beautiful and fertile" land of Zambia. Central to Fuller's book is the intense relations between herself and her parents, a chain-smoking father able to turn round any farm in Africa, her glamorous older sister Vanessa, and the character who sits at the heart of the book, Fuller's "fiercely intelligent, deeply compassionate, surprisingly witty and terrifyingly mad" mother. Fuller weaves together painful family tragedy with a wider understanding of the ambivalence of being part of a separatist white farming community in the midst of Black African independence. The majority of the book focuses on Fuller's early years in war-torn Zimbabwe, with "more history stuffed into its make-believe, colonial-dream borders than one country the size of a very large teapot should be able to amass. " This is the most successful dimension of the book, as Fuller describes growing up on farm where her father is away most nights fighting "terrorists", and stripping a rifle takes precedence over school lessons. The sections on Malawi and Zambia are more prosaic, but this is a lyrical and accomplished memoir about Africa, which is "about adjusting to a new world view" and the author's "passionate love for a continent that has come to define, shape, scar and heal me and my family. " -Jerry Brotton.
Publication date: 2008-09-26
Dewey code: 610.82092
RRP: £7.99
Price: £4.16
Review In the Land of Invisible Women / Sourcebooks, Inc:
Publication date: 2008-04-04
RRP: £20.00
Price: £7.99
Review The World is What it is: The Authorized Biography of V.S. Naipaul / Picador:
Publication date: 2007-11-08
Dewey code: 796
RRP: £9.99
Price: £7.43
Review How Triathlon Ruined My Life / Upfront Publishing:
Publication date: 2008-07-01
Dewey code: 791.43028092
RRP: £17.99
Price: £9.92
Review Doris Day: Reluctant Star / JR Books Ltd:
Authors
- Barbie Probert-Wright
- Jean Ritchie
Dewey code: 940.53161
RRP: £6.99
Price: £0.78
Review Little Girl Lost (Richard & Judy's True) / Arrow Books Ltd:
Publication date: 2008-04-03
RRP: £16.99
Price: £9.33
Review Gig: The Life and Times of a Rock-star Fantasist / Viking:
Edition: New edition
Publication date: 2000-02-17
Dewey code: 920
RRP: £6.99
Price: £2.42
Review Girl, Interrupted / Virago Press Ltd:Susanna Kaysen's Girl, Interrupted is the autobiographical story of the author's time in a psychiatric award in 1967. Sylvia Plath was a patient at the same hospital in the early 1950s so inevitably comparisons have been made between Plath's The Bell Jar and Kaysen's novel-both recounting a young woman's descent into insanity. This, however, is where the similarities end-The Bell Jar is a haunting and lyrical book; Girl, Interrupted is a more hard-edged, documentary-style narrative. It has none of the beauty and poetry of Plath's prose and is more akin to Elizabeth Wurtzel's Prozac Nation , an up-to-date memoir of a young girl's struggle with depression and drugs. Both these books offer a brutal and stark image of a life of mental illness. Kaysen's account goes further and questions the standard notions of sanity and insanity. Her plausible voice allows the reader to accept a world where time is distorted, chaos reigns and questions are left unanswered, capturing perfectly the sense of helplessness and frustration felt by these women. The book's gritty realism is also heightened by copies of the author's original medical reports lodged between the chapters. However, it is her penetrating insights into those around her, from those cared for to the caretakers, that make "Girl, Interrupted" so potent. Lacing her narrative with a hard-edged, sardonic sting, she introduces us to a cast of characters from the outrageous Lisa to the chicken-hoarding Daisy to the Martian's girlfriend: Daisy was a seasonal event. [+]She came before Thanksgiving and stayed through Christmas every year. "Would anyone like to share?" the head nurse asked. "Me! Me! Somebody who was a Martian's girlfriend and also had a little penis of her own, which she was eager to show off, raised a hand; nobody wanted to share with her. "Girl, Interrupted" is a credible and creditable chronicle of the lives of women in the 1960s who, through the ignorance and narrow-mindedness of society, were contained and monitored for not fitting into the "norm", the mainstream. Nicola Perry.
Edition: New edition
Publication date: 2007-05-24
RRP: £7.99
Price: £0.01
Review Mustn't Grumble / Orion:
Publication date: 2008-11
Dewey code: 791.43028092
RRP: £3.25
Price: £0.99
Review Robert Pattinson: Eternally Yours / HarperEntertainment:
Edition: New Ed
Publication date: 2005-10-03
RRP: £7.99
Price: £3.24
Review Angela's Ashes / HarperPerennial:"Worse than the ordinary miserable childhood is the miserable Irish childhood," writes Frank McCourt in Angela's Ashes. "Worse yet is the miserable Irish Catholic childhood. " Welcome, then, to the pinnacle of the miserable Irish Catholic childhood. Born in Brooklyn in 1930 to recent Irish immigrants Malachy and Angela McCourt, Frank grew up in Limerick after his parents returned to Ireland because of poor prospects in America. It turns out that prospects weren't so great back in the old country either-not with Malachy for a father. A chronically unemployed and nearly unemployable alcoholic, he appears to be the model on which many of our more insulting clichés about drunken Irish manhood are based. Mix in abject poverty, and frequent death and illness, and you have all the makings of a truly difficult early life. Fortunately, in McCourt's able hands it also has all the makings of a compelling memoir.
Creator: Christopher Reid
Publication date: 2007-11-01
RRP: £30.00
Price: £11.84
Review Letters of Ted Hughes / Faber and Faber:
Publication date: 2006-07-06
RRP: £14.99
Price: £6.90
Review Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood & The Story of a Return: v. 1 & v. 2 / Jonathan Cape Ltd:Marjane Satrapi's Persepolis is an exemplary autobiographical graphic novel, in the tradition of Art Spiegelman's classic Maus. Set in Iran during the Islamic Revolution, it follows the young Satrapi, the six-year-old daughter of two committed and well-to-do Marxists. As she grows up, she witness first-hand the effects that the revolution and the war with Iraq have on her home, family and school. The main strength of Persepolis is its ability to make the political personal. Told through the eyes of a child (as reflected in Satrapi's simplistic yet expressive black-and-white artwork), the story shows how young Marjane learns about her family history and how it is entwined with the history of Iran, and watches her liberal parents cope with a fundamentalist regime that gets increasingly rigid as it gains more power. Outspoken and intelligent, Marjane chafes at Iran's increasingly conservative interpretation of Islamic law, especially as she grows into a bright and independent teenager. Throughout she remains a hugely likeable young woman. Persepolis gives the reader a snapshot of daily life in a country struggling with an internal cultural revolution and a bloody war, but within an intensely personal context. It's a very human history, beautifully and sympathetically told. -Robert Burrow.
Publication date: 2008-07-07
RRP: £8.99
Price: £3.46
Review Cochrane the Dauntless: The Life and Adventures of Thomas Cochrane, 1775-1860 / Bloomsbury Publishing PLC:
| Models & Brands:
Fishing in Utopia: Sweden and the Future That Disappeared, Seven Troop, Rommel? Gunner Who?: A Confrontation in the Desert, Heatherley: The Lost Sequel to "Lark Rise to Candleford", The Glass Castle, Air Babylon, Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight: An African Childhood, In the Land of Invisible Women, The World is What it is: The Authorized Biography of V.S. Naipaul, How Triathlon Ruined My Life, Doris Day: Reluctant Star, Little Girl Lost (Richard & Judy's True), Gig: The Life and Times of a Rock-star Fantasist, Girl, Interrupted, Mustn't Grumble, Robert Pattinson: Eternally Yours, Angela's Ashes, Letters of Ted Hughes, Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood & The Story of a Return: v. 1 & v. 2, Cochrane the Dauntless: The Life and Adventures of Thomas Cochrane, 1775-1860 |
