The UK is set to go crazy for Cezanne
this autumn, when the major exhibition of his portraits that is
currently on in the Musée d'Orsay in Paris transfers to London’s National
Portrait Gallery from 26 October to 11 February 2018 before it moves to the
National Gallery of Art in Washington DC. Lorenz have an excellent book
on this artist by Suzie Hodge. Cezanne: His Life and Work in 500 Images (hb, £16.99, 978 0754823131) is a gorgeous book
exploring this fascinating artist who changed the world of art and inspired
future painters such as Picasso and Matisse, who said of Cezanne that he was
"the father of us all." See a couple of spreads below – it is
packed with interesting info and beautiful pictures. And a heads up that from 2
November 2017 to 7th May 2018, Tate Britain are running a major exhibition
entitled Impressionists in London, French artists in Exile. This focuses
a lot on Monet's paintings that he did in London, and Lorenz also have
the perfect accompanying title for this: Monet: His
Life and Work in 500 Images (hb,
£16.99, 978 0754819530) – all in the paintings in the exhibition are in the
book!
And if you want to remind yourself of the genius that was Cezanne
– then this evoactive
ten-minute trip through his work is a pretty good place to start!
There have been some terrific reviews recently for Patty Yumi Cottrell's beguiling debut Sorry to Disrupt the Peace
(pb, £10, 978 1911508007) which was published in May by And Other
Stories. “Electrifying in its freshness . . . equal parts
hilarious and heartbreaking” said The
Observer, “Blackly comic and sophisticated . . . the memorable impact of
Sorry to Disturb the Peace . . . comes from what lurks unsaid” said The
Spectator and there have also been pieces in the Irish
Times, The
Skinny Buzz
Magazine and you can read an interview with Patty
Yumi Cottrell here in the
Guardian.
As we welcome back Game of Thrones to our screens,
I wonder if you are seeing an upsurge in sales of the book? Or is Lord of
the Rings still the bookseller’s bread and butter bestseller? I found this Epic Rap Battle
between the two very funny!
A most interesting piece by Secret Bookseller,
which you can read here
about the effects of discounting on an indie bookshop like hers. She
points out that retailers are already jockeying for position as to who can sell
La Belle Sauvage (the new Philp Pullman title, out in October) at the
cheapest price possible and provides an extremely comprehensive overview of the
winners and losers of this approach. Tons of facts and figures to absorb, plus
relevant comment from the bookselling community. Very thought provoking.
Andrew Crofts is a ghost-writer and author who has published more than
eighty books, a dozen of which were Sunday Times number one bestsellers.
His new novella under his own name: Secrets of The
Italian Gardner (pb, £7.99, 978
1910453384) has just been published in paperback by Red Door, and as
part of the publicity, they set up a blog tour for Andrew – something new to
him – and maybe to some of you. Read his amusing piece entitled Confessions
of a Blog Tour Virgin here
on Book Brunch. He discusses what he perceives as “a radical
power shift” in the publishing process, meaning that both readers and
authors now have far more opportunities to talk to one another directly, speeding
up "word-of-mouth" recommendations” and “streamlining the
whole process to a fantastic degree.” Secrets of
The Italian Gardner begins when Mo, the wealthy dictator of a
volatile Middle Eastern country, enlists a ghost-writer to tell his story to
the world and enshrine him in history as a glorious ruler. Reviewers have said
“I found this book to be totally absorbing” and “like the flowers on
the cover, the story bursts from the pages and really grips you from start to
finish…an unusual story; unique and well worth reading.”
Not the Booker Prize 2017 is
back for another year of compelling contention and it’s time to get your
recommendations in! This award is run by the Guardian newspaper, and was
set up in 2009, to see if the wider reading community could do any better than
the official Booker jury, asking: Does the blogging crowd have more wisdom than
the panel? Can we come up with a more interesting shortlist than the judges?
And can we pick a better winner? You can nominate any book eligible for this year’s
Man Booker prize (that is to say basically any novel originally written in
English, by a writer of any nationality, published in the UK between 1 October
2016 and 30 September 2017). All you have to do is post on the comments section
of this
page here with the book, author, publisher and pub date. Nominations will
remain open until 23.59 BST on Sunday 30 July.
There will be a big review of Seasonal
Disturbances (£9.99, pb, 978
1784103361) Karen McCarthy Woolf’s
highly-anticipated follow-up collection to her Forward Prize-shortlisted debut An Aviary of Small Birds in
the Sunday Times this weekend. This compelling collection explores
climate change, immigration, racism and the British class system; very much
tapping into the post-Brexit current political climate. Warsan Shire (whose
poetry featured prominently in Beyoncé’s 2016 feature-length film Lemonade)
called it “a strange and stunning collection from a true writer. Vulnerable,
hilarious and wise, Seasonal Disturbances is a darkly humorous exploration of
the human condition.” Warsan Shire is the first Young Poet Laureate of
London and has over 87k Twitter followers, so this is a great endorsement to
have. Seasonal Disturbances is published next week by Carcanet, and you
can see Karen reading some of the poems from her first collection here.
As a Guardian columnist, award-winning teacher,
award-winning broadcaster, author, editor, singer, songwriter, producer and
public speaker; Phil Beadle knows a bit about leading a life that is both
creative and successful. In Rules for Mavericks: A
Manifesto for Dissident Creatives (pb, £9.99. 978 1785831133) he
glides and riffs around the idea of being nonconformist, examining the
processes of producing good work in creative fields and examining how
orthodoxies can silence dissident voices. It is a 'how to dream' book, a 'how
to create' book, a 'how to work' book and a 'how to fail productively' book. In
this elegant guidebook to leading an imaginative and inventive life, Phil
writes that “If you make any stand against power, then power will stand
against and on you. And it will do so with centuries of experience and
techniques in how to do so effectively: you will be painted as barbaric,
dismissed as stupid and insane, be told to know your place. Most of all, you
will be termed maverick.” Rules for Mavericks was published this spring by Crown House and
you can listen to a short podcast of Phil talking about his inspiring book here.
There has been lots of publicity already for this title – which you can
view here.
In 2012, The Recovery Letters website was launched to host a series of letters
online written by people recovering from depression. It now has around 3,500
page views a month, and you can view it at www.therecoveryletters.com
. The inspirational and heartfelt letters provided hope and support to those
experiencing from this terrible condition, and were testament that recovery was
possible. Now these letters have been compiled into an anthology and are
interspersed with motivating quotes and additional resources as well as new
material written specifically for the book. The
Recovery Letters: Addressed to People Experiencing Depression (pb,
£9.99, 978 1785921834) edited by James Withey and Olivia Sagan has
been much praised as “a message of hope from the dark side, an antidote of
rational belief to fight the lack of faith all depressives feel” and this
powerful collection of personal letters from people with first-hand experiences
of depression will serve as a comforting resource for anyone on the journey.
There will be a piece in the Telegraph next week on this title,
including an interview with James discussing his own experiences of depression
and talking about why he started the project. Two of the letters are published
in the current issue of Marie Clare with an introduction to the book
from the authors, two more are extracted with a summary of the book in Women’s
Health magazine and there’s a piece on Female First entitled Five
Reasons Why You Won’t Understand Depression if You’ve Never Had It which
you can read here.
Gwyneth Lewis, author of Sunbathing in the Rain said “This book
will save lives, which can't be said of many. Writing or reading a letter
strikes at the sense of isolation which is at the root of despair. Read this
book, buy it for others, it's rare and powerful medication.”
What a fabulous summer many of us are enjoying this year.
Naturally, no sooner have I written this than it’s just started raining.
Nevertheless, if you have customers looking for something to take with them as
they stride enthusiastically into the Great British Countryside; then an ideal
recommendation would be William and Dorothy
Wordsworth: A Miscellany by Gavin Herbertson (pb, £9.99, 978
1903385593). The selection has been made with lovers of nature and in
particular mountains, in mind and contains many of William's most well-known
poems juxtaposed these poems with extracts from Dorothy Wordsworth's Recollections
of a Tour Made in Scotland. It has just received a five-star review on BookBag
saying: “This is a great edition, displaying some of Wordsworth's best
shorter works from across his literary career. It is a good taster if you're
unfamiliar with the poet and what to read a broad range of his work… It’s worth
mentioning the size and design of the edition here; it is compact, but hardy
and strong … has been designed specifically to be taken out in nature; it is
the kind of book that would accompany you on a long summer walk, to be taken
out and read when surrounded by greenery and lakes. This is the perfect thing
to take on a trip to the Lake District.” You can read the whole piece here.
William and Dorothy Wordsworth: A Miscellany
is published as a Rucksack Edition – which means it is both robust and
small (18 x 3.5cm) – by Galileo.
Cyril Connolly famously said that “There is no more
sombre enemy of good art than the pram in the hall” and author Sophie Jonas-Hill has
certainly found writing her debut novel Nemesister
challenging while looking after her two children – which she writes wittily
about on the ByTheLetter book blog here.
Nemesister (pb, £8.99, 978
1911129301) is an American gothic thriller of deception and obsession, slicked
in sweat and set in the swamps of Louisiana; where the female protagonist
stumbles into a deserted shack with no memory but a gun in her hand. Together
with an apparent stranger she finds herself isolated and under attack from
unseen assailants. Bloggers have loved it saying it “took me by surprise and
I loved the twists and turns … the tension is slowly but surely ramped up …
tense atmospheric feel mainly because of the location … unsettling and dark.” It’s
out this week from Urbane.
Who doesn’t love a book title with a pun in it? Have a
look here
at eighteen of the funniest from Tequila Mockingbird to Here’s
Looking at Euclid. Now Gibson Square have their own entry into the
genre, with The Swinging Detective (pb, £8,99, 978 1783341177) by Henry McDonald. The author has been a Guardian
journalist for 25 years and this novel is based on real events from when he was
based in German as correspondent. Darker than The Killing and The
Bridge, a detective (damaged by Northern Ireland) and his former
girlfriend, seek to solve an increasingly gruesome trail of murders in Berlin.
Cutting through a cast of seedy underworld figures, Russian mafia, corrupt
politicians, neo-nazis, and Israeli avengers; hero Martin Peters is at first
highly efficient, but his private swinging life soon starts to interfere with
and dangerously hamper his investigation…
I absolutely LOVED The Singing Detective – and who
wouldn’t want to hear that highly evocative theme tune again – played here
live by the band that made it a 1940’s hit – the Harmonicats.
Compass is on Twitter! Follow us
@CompassIPS. Here are some of our favourite tweets from this week …
Richard Lyle @CompassRichard So, you forget to print order forms before you
go to bed, print them at 5:00am instead of having breakfast then leave them
behind. #RepsLife
Red Lion Books @RedLionBooks 'If you're going to be crazy, you have to get
paid for it or else you're going to be locked up.' Hunter S Thompson, born
#onthisday in 1937.
Carcanet Press @Carcanet It’s been 200 years since the death of one of
Britain's best novelists, Jane Austen, check out #JaneAusten200 to see how
she's remembered
The Bookseller @thebookseller Budget airline @easyJet has launched a
children's book club with 7k classic books selected by Jacqueline Wilson: http://bit.ly/2tAMQfO
Birlinn Books @BirlinnBooks Our 25th birthday! Three cheers for our staff,
authors, readers & all the wonderful people we've worked with over the
years :)
Mark Scott @mark_jkp The Gender Agenda: is it possible to raise
children free of sexist stereotypes? http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/feminism/2017/07/gender-agenda-it-possible-raise-children-free-sexist-stereotypes
Comma Press @commapress Happy publication day Refugee Tales: Volume
II! Listen in on @BBCRadio4's Today Programme today where one of the
Refugee Tales guest walkers will be talking about his experience live!!
Richard Lyle @CompassRichard The fight for supremacy over recalcitrant
broadband continues. #RepsLife #RichardsDiary #workingfromhome
And Other Stories @ Andothertweets Hurrah! Wonderful to see Fleur Jaeggy’s I am
The Brother of XX as one of excellent @LRBbookshop bookseller Charlie's Picks!
In some very good company too...
Compass IPS North @compass_david Ok, I've resisted for so long, but now I'm
embracing Twitter.
Matt Haig @matthaig1 WRITING TIPS 1. Write some words. 2. Delete
some words. 3. Write some writing tips instead. 4. Eat a biscuit from the
mini-bar. 5. Sigh.
That’s all for now folks! More next
week!
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well as publishers and publicists. If you would like to order any of the titles
mentioned, then please talk to your Compass Sales Manager, or call the office
on 020 8326 5696.
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