If it’s January, then it’s time to stop eating and
drinking – so thank goodness it’s only November. However, when the New Year
does arrive, your shop will be flooded with customers looking for help,
so please press The Easy Way for Women to Stop
Drinking by Allen Carr into
their shaking hands. Allen Carr's Easyway
is a unique method that does not require will-power and really works, and here
the method focuses on one of the fastest-growing problems of modern times:
women's drinking. Alcohol blights women's lives often in a different way to
men's: women tend to stay at home drinking alcohol; women often feel particular
shame over drinking too much; drinking around children can be a particular
burden; and women often feel that to stop drinking is an impossible task.
Luckily, Allen Carr's Easyway makes it
easy. With startling insight into why women drink and clear, simple,
step-by-step instructions, Allen Carr
shows women the way to escape from the alcohol trap in the time it takes to read
the book. (pb, £8.99, 978 1785991936) is published by Arcturus Publishing
in January and you can find out more and order it
here.
And if you’re a woman who drinks a lot, and has
absolutely no intention of stopping in January – then you’ll probably
find this very funny!
Someone who won’t be needing the above title is
Jeremy Corbyn: firstly because he isn’t a
woman, and secondly because he doesn’t drink alcohol. However, I wonder what he
will make of Comrade Jeremy by Rosa Prince which is also published in January.
This is the first comprehensive biography to be published in the wake of
Corbyn’s election to leader of the Labour Party and explains exactly how and why
this very British iconoclast managed to snatch the leadership of a party he
spent forty years rebelling against? Who is he and where did he come from? And
what exactly happened over the space of an extraordinary summer to propel an old
lefty to inspire and excite hundreds of thousands of people? From Corbyn’s cosy
rural upbringing, through three marriages – including his decision to divorce
one wife for sending their son to grammar school; Comrade Jeremy is the story of the most unexpected
leadership contest ever to take place in modern British politics. Comrade Jeremy by Rosa
Prince (pb, 978 1849549967, £14.99) is published by Biteback
and you can find out more and order it
here.
And if you can’t wait to read Rosa Prince’s books, then here are 11 unlikely and amusing facts about Labour’s
leader.
Compass Points was at the launch of the 2016 Good Food Guide this week – which has been
going for 65 years and is published by Waitrose. As you would expect,
excellent food was served at the party – including a rather marvellous cake! This edition is very handsome:
cloth-bound with gold foil and a white ribbon bookmark and there will be lots of
marketing for it through Waitrose Weekend and Waitrose Kitchen,
reaching 2.4 million readers a month. The
Good Food Guide includes in-depth,
impartial and entertaining reviews, the culinary trends for 2016 and the hotly
anticipated listings for the Top 50 Restaurants and Top 50 Pubs. It also
contains £50 worth of restaurant vouchers.
However, the books nearly didn’t
reach the UK at all as the
pallets containing the copies were searched at customs when they arrived from
Italy
As a new indie bookshop opens in Chiswick in west
London
Does what is happening in the Middle East fill you with fear? According to veteran
political journalist Gwynne Dyer, it
shouldn’t. Don’t Panic is an intelligent
and wryly articulated new book which argues that the Western tendency is to
overreact, time after time, to the threat posed by Islamist terrorists. The
dreadful spectacle of beheadings, abductions, cages, flames and triumphalist
proclamations arouses powerful emotions in many of us: disgust, rage, hatred,
grief and perhaps a yearning for vengeance. Gwynne
Dyer argues that these atrocities actually have nothing to do with
the West, and do not significantly increase the likelihood of terrorist attacks
in Western countries. Rather, they are designed to use Western overreaction as a
stepping stone to seizing power in the states they are trying to overthrow. This
is one of few books on ISIS that will not date, as it strikes a balance between
understanding the history of the group and of similar revolutions and responses
generally, and traces the evolution of events on the ground Don’t Panic: ISIS, Terror and the Making of the New Middle
East by Gwynne Dyer (hb, 978
1902932378, £12.99) is published on 25 November by Periscope and you can
find out more and order it here.
Ooh, we do love a literary quiz. And it doesn’t get
much more literary than … Twilight. WTF? Sorry, sorry, meant to write
Pride and Prejudice. No hang on a minute, Stephanie Meyer actually
wrote Twilight as an adaptation of Jane Austen’s novel, transforming
Darcy into Edward and Elizabeth into Bella. But can you tell the difference
between Fitzwilliam Darcy and Edward Cullen? Are you sure? Take this quiz on Buzzfeed
to prove your literary credentials!
The clocks have gone back, the nights are drawing in
– so many readers are ready to settle down with a cup of hot chocolate and a
good book. They could do a lot worse than to choose a title from Hot Choc
Lit which has slightly raised heat levels from the usual Choc-Lit
books – this is romance that sizzles! The first title for this imprint is
Take a Chance on Me by Debbie Flint who is a super-popular presenter on
QVC – so will be well known to the 12 million women in the UK who regularly tune
in! As you know, Choc-Lit always
road-test their book with the online reading community before they are
published, and Take a Chance on Me has
had particularly good reviews, with bloggers writing “There are some
particularly steamy scenes in Take A Chance on
Me but they are exceptionally well written” and “This is fast
paced, suspenseful … new and fresh with a magnificent ending. A marvellous
heartfelt novel” and “Loved this book! Quick witted and full of funny
banter ... five stars, an awesome read.” Take a
Chance on Me (snappy title, zappy cover) (978 1781892671, pb, £7.99)
is published in December by Hot Choc Lit and you can find out more and order it here
So what do we think about this year’s Christmas ad
from John Lewis? Have a watch here
if you haven’t already seen
it and fancy a bit of a blub – and join in the debate on #manonthemoon on
Twitter. Personally, I think anything that encourages more support for the
elderly at this time of year must be a good thing – and you can find out more at
www.ageuk.org.uk.
There are three popular titles from Hudson
Self Catering
& Camping 2016 (978 0851015705, £7.99) features self-catering
units, serviced apartments, approved caravan holiday homes, narrow boats and
cruisers as well as holiday parks and villages. Both titles are official UK
Tourist Board Guides, and are published by Hudson’s with Visit Britain
Publishing.
Hudson’s Historic Houses and
Gardens (pb, 978 0851015699,
£16.99) is your bang-up-to-date guide to Britain’s unrivalled wealth of historic
buildings open to the public; including National Trusts, English Heritage, Cadw
and Historic Royal Palaces as well as privately owned houses. More people visit
historic houses every year - three quarters of all adults in 2015 – it is more
popular as a day out than football! 2016 is both the Year of the English
Garden and Scotland
A new title from Aardvark is always exciting,
and The Life and Loves of Lena Gaunt by
Tracy Farr sounds very promising.
Tracy Farr is a first-time novelist who
has been shortlisted for many top literary prizes in her homeland Australia Lena Gaunt (pb, £8.99, 978
1910709054) is published in January and you can order copies here
The instrument that features heavily in the Life and Loves of Lena Gaunt is a theremin. Hands
up who knows what that is? Nope, me neither. The novel tells us “music from a
theremin can sound like a human voice, or an electronic scream; like an alien
spaceship, or the low moan of a cello. The best players can tease all of these
sounds from the wood and wire and electricity that is a theremin” which I’m
sure you’ll agree makes you want to hear one right now! Here is
one played by its inventor, Louis Theremin, and here
is another lovely example. All a bit too old fashioned for you? How
about this theremin remix of Gnarls
Berkley!
Compass is on
Twitter! Follow us @CompassIPS. Here are some of our favourite tweets from this
week...
The 'hard edge' of Christmas has started on the 2nd
Floor. Our Christmas tree has gone up (after a struggle).
"Jellyfish is a reminder that Janice Galloway is one
of the finest writers around." http://scotswhayhae.com/2015/11/short-sweet-a-review-of-janice-galloways-jellyfish/ …
An early mention but if you're buying books for Xmas
this year, please do support your local bookshop. They give great service &
experience.
"Gossipy and full of fizz... a pacy, readable and
politically salacious account." @ScotRevBks review #ProjectFear by @joepike
Compass@CompassIPS
Nothing gives that #fridayfeeling better than a new indie bookshop opening
- so welcome #chiswickbookshop and @ECBCrane
from all at Compass!
The Unusual Possession of Alastair Stubb will be part
of the 3 for 2 promotion at Blackwells - marvellous!
That’s all for now
folks! More next week!
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