Havana is a
city which many believe is poised at a watershed in its history, about to
change forever. The Book of Havana,
(which is part of the Reading the City series) is published on 22 February and brings
together ten stories by Havana-based authors, offering different perspectives
on a city that has stood in defiance of much of the rest of the world for
decades. Covering everything from the hardships of the ‘Special Period’, to the
frustrations of the city’s schizophrenic currency system, and the dispossession
felt by so many of its young people (especially among the LGBT community) these
stories take us beyond the intoxicating colours of the tourist-friendly Malecon
and Old Town, and into a far more complex and contradictory place. The Book of Havana (978
1910974018, pb, £9.99) is edited by Orsola
Casagrande and published by Comma.
Let’s get
ourselves into a Cuban mood by listening here to the super-catchy
song by Camila Cabello. Or would you prefer the Donald Trump version here?!
Caroline Bird’s In These Days of Prohibition published by Carcanet has just had a great
review in the Sunday Times which said it “achieves serious funniness
by filtering mental illness and addiction through the prism of pop-surrealism.”
It was also much praised in the Telegraph which said “Since she
published her debut aged 15 in 2002, Bird's witty writing has been wrongly
dismissed in some quarters as lightweight. This brave eighth collection (a
slant account of her year in rehab) proves those critics wrong from its first
page.” You can read the whole piece here.
And you can watch Caroline reading her work along with the other TS Eliot
shortlisted poets here.
I really
love the look of these three children’s titles out from Arcturus this
month, they are paperbacks at £4.99 with a great funky retro-style cover design
– what’s not to love! The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
by Mark Twain (978
1788282567), What Katy Did by Susan Coolidge
(978 1788282581) and The Railway Children by Edith Nesbit
(978 1788282574) all feature the original, unabridged text and classic
illustrations. These tales of adventure, bravery, curiosity, ambition, and
triumph over adversity are loved the world over – and there are three more
coming in February: A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett (978 1788282536) Heidi
by Johanna Spyri (978
178828-254-3 and The Call of the Wild by Jack London (978 1788282550).
If you are
not familiar with the three January titles – I can tell you they all contain
famous (and frequently tear-jerking) scenes; Compass Points will now bring you
a five-minute résumé! Firstly, here is the most famous
moment from Tom Sawyer; then here is a précis of What Katy Did –
which as you can see is something of a weep-fest, and finally here are the closing
moments of The Railway Children – hankies at the ready please!
Mridula Baljekar, author of the Complete Indian Regional
Cookbook: 300 Classic Recipes from the Great Regions of India (978
0754833598, £28.50, hb) appeared on Channel 4's Food Unwrapped last week
creating a low-fat chicken korma; the programme told her it was hugely popular
and got a lot of follow-up asking for the recipe. She's also talking to the
channel about doing a series on healthy Indian cooking, so watch this
space! In the meantime, her vibrant award-winning cookbook came out last
summer from Lorenz, and really is one of the most comprehensive around
with an enormous (512 pages) variety of dishes, an authentic sub-continental
taste, and almost fool-proof step-by-step instructions. Recipes are grouped by
region, taking you on a regional tour of India, and a real culinary adventure
awaits anyone who buys this sumptuously illustrated book.
And if you
would like to see Mridula Baljekar cooking some of her healthy and tasty recipes, you
can watch them here on
her YouTube channel.
How many of
us judge other people? All the time? As journalist Catherine Gray says in Stella
“I realised judgemental comments were constantly flying out of my mouth. I
judged people for drinking too much (I drank way too much myself); I judged
them for calling in sick to work (and did it myself); I judged colleagues for
leaving uptight notes about washing-up in the staff kitchen …” The list
goes on and I’m sure this is sounding all too familiar to most of us! Gabrielle Bernstein is
clearly onto something by suggesting we all do a Judgment
Detox (978 1788170734, £12.99, pb)
with our lives, as her new book showing us how to Release
the Beliefs That Hold You Back from Living a Better Life from Hay
House has had LOADS of coverage – as well the big article in the Sunday
Telegraph’s Stella magazine there are features in The Times,
Marie Clare, Red Magazine, Woman and Home and lots more. I think this book
is going to sell and sell – in these tricky times it’s nicer to be nice.
Sidelines: Selected Prose 1962–2015 by Michael
Longley published by Enitharmon.
(978 1911253297 hb, £30) had a good review in the TLS this week; a nice
feature on the prose writings of this tender, wise and much-loved poet.
A BIG
feature in last weekend's Mail on Sunday for the shocking, hilarious and
brutally honest Biteback memoir Confessions
of a Recovering MP (978 1785903359)
by veteran Tory backbencher Nick de Bois.
As always with a Mail article there was a big spike in sales on Amazon
following its publication – don’t let them get all the benefit of this great
publicity! Full of indiscreet anecdotes, this great read lifts the lid on David
Cameron’s turbulent time as Prime Minister and the rise of Theresa May; and
reveals what really goes on behind the scenes at Westminster. You can read the
whole piece here.
And the Mail
on Sunday will be running another extensive feature on 28 January –
this time for Behind Diplomatic Lines by Patrick R. H. Wright (978
1785903380, hb, £25) which is published by Biteback on the same day. Do
make sure you have it on display – there have also been recent diary mentions
of this title in the Times. Patrick Wright was a diplomats at the forefront of some of the late
twentieth century's most important global events. His five years at the Foreign
Office found him dealing with the backlash from the Falklands War, the collapse
of the Soviet Union, strained relations with the EU, the First Gulf War and,
perhaps most challenging of all, the `fire and glares’ of Margaret Thatcher.
Lord Wright's account is not only an essential documentation of a significant
historical period, but is entertaining throughout, painting lurid pictures of
‘Britain versus the Rest' and recalling numerous amusing scenarios. He is also
brutal in his assessment of various high- profile political figures – sure to
make headlines!
Congratulations
to debut novelist Sheena Kalayil who has won the Best
First Novel in the Writers’ Guild
Awards in a winners list dominated by women. The Bureau of Second Chances is a quiet but
compelling story, based on a widower returning to his native India. Bookbag
gave it five stars saying “There is plenty of light, with passages that will
make you smile, but it has its share of darkness, touching on caste and social
expectations in India, as well as reflections on marriage, illness and
parenting ... I raced through the last third of the book on the edge of my
seat, desperate to know how it turned out” while Scotland on Sunday
wrote: “A bittersweet, uplifting tone makes it impossible to put down …
Kalayil writes beautifully, painting colourful portraits of her characters and
managing her story's unexpected twists with aplomb.” It’s published by Polygon.
Waterstones has reported an 80% jump in annual
profits, with the bookseller predicting an even brighter future just six years
after the rise of the ebook threatened its existence. James Daunt, said
the chain had transformed its fortunes since he took over in 2011. “When I
took over Waterstones was bust, it was losing horrendous amounts of money and
the Kindle was eating away at sales,” he said. “It did look very bleak.
Now it doesn’t, it’s nice and sensibly run, with every prospect of doing better
still.” Read more on that story in the Guardian here.
That Ann Quin renaissance?
It's happening said Jonathan Coe in the Spectator. The Guardian
Review agreed, and you can read Jennifer Hodgson's
fascinating piece about “the free-wheeling life and wild, weird fiction of
the cult 1960s author” in the New Statesman here.
Unmapped Country: Stories and Fragments (978 1911508144, £10, pb) was published yesterday by And
Other Stories. As Jennifer writes: “The stories collected in The
Unmapped Country for the first time distil Quin at her wildest and often her
most virtuosic. And collectively they demonstrate, in rare and unexpected ways,
an imagination committed to pushing British fiction into weirder, dirtier and
more anarchic places.” Please do read it if you haven’t done already!
Here's
a fab piece in the Irish Times where independent publishers
tell us about their top reads for 2018 by selecting two of their books they’re
most excited about this year. Lots of good publicity for our publishers
including And Other Stories, New Island, Parthian and Comma who
all forecast exciting times ahead. Hurrah! 2018 will certainly be a great year
for Welsh publishing, as it’s Parthian's 25th anniversary! “So, we’re
looking back and seeing if it’s all been worth it with the best of our Carnival of Voices series”
says one of its founding partners, Richard Lewis Davies.
Sinéad Morrissey will be
on Radio 4’s Poetry Please on Sunday 4th February at 4.30pm. Her many awards include first prize in the UK National Poetry Competition, the Irish Times
Poetry Prize (2009, 2013), and the TS
Eliot Prize (2013). In 2017 On Balance won the Forward Prize for Best Collection, a Poetry Book
Society Choice Award, and was also
shortlisted for the Costa Poetry Award. She’s published by Carcanet.
So, let’s
finish with some of that stonking Memphis 60s sound! Firstly, how about some Elvis. And how about a bit of Aretha? But we have to end with where the book
starts; with the city's most famous recording
artist, Otis Redding, who died in a plane crash in the final days of 1967.
Frankly, we could probably all try a little more tenderness. Music doesn’t get
much better than this.
That’s all for now folks! More next week!
This
newsletter is sent weekly to over 700 booksellers as 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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