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Mark's Say, March 2015
I’ve just attended American Booksellers Association’s Winter Institute. For four days, independent booksellers and authors gather together to discuss books and the state of the industry. Now in its tenth year, the Institute was held in the small, pretty city of Asheville, North Carolina. Surrounded by the Blue Ridge Mountains, Asheville was a very considered choice by the ABA; in the mid-20th century Asheville’s downtown area had been decimated by the construction of malls on the city’s outskirts, which had…
Our March book club pick: Abigail Ulman
Each month we choose a newly released book that we feel is perfect for a book club. Then we roadtest it. We read the book (and encourage you to read along with us), and at the end of the month, we’ll share our thoughts about its potential for book clubbers.
Our pick for March is Abigail Ulman’s Hot Little Hands.
What’s the opening line? I had never bumped into a teacher before on the weekend. But there he was,…
Our top ten bestsellers of the week
Bad Behaviour: A Memoir of Bullying and Boarding School by Rebecca Starford
The First Bad Man by Miranda July
The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins
We are All Completely Beside Ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler
The Narrow Road to the Deep North by Richard Flanagan
Plenty More by Yotam Ottolenghi
The Brain’s Way of Healing: Remarkable Discoveries and Recoveries from the Frontiers of Neuroplasticity by Norman Doidge
Only the Animals by Ceridwen Dovey
March 2015 highlights
I must say I’ve been having a good run of late with the first book I read in any given year. Last year, for instance, I was gushing about Maxine Beneba Clarke’s Foreign Soil – so it’s been gratifying to see the reception it’s had since, including most recently her Stella Prize longlisting.
This year it’s a memoir that’s totally seduced me: Rebecca Starford’s Bad Behaviour: A Memoir of Bullying and Boarding School. Starford is already highly regarded…
What we're reading: Eula Biss, Stef Penney and Zadie Smith
Each week we bring you a sample of the books we’re reading, the films we’re watching, the television shows we’re hooked on or the music we’re loving.
Bronte Coates is reading Notes from No Man’s Land by Eula Biss
So I think Eula Biss is one of my new favourite authors. I read On Immunity last month and loved it so much (you can read my review here) that I immediately bought myself a copy of her earlier work…
Martin Shaw interviews Rebecca Starford
Rebecca Starford’s Bad Behaviour: A Memoir of Bullying and Boarding School is generating much excitement at Readings. After numerous sleep-deprived staff members turned up to work unable to think or speak of anything else, Martin Shaw decided to go straight to the source for the story behind this fantastic debut. Here, Martin and Rebecca discuss how this extraordinary memoir came about.
MS: I’d have to confess that I was a little stunned when I heard that this book had been…
The best new books for unicorn fans
Most imaginatively inclined people (childlike some might call us) have a favourite mythical animal. Mine is the unicorn. And I am not alone. A resurgence of books celebrating this most noble and magical of beasts has lately been filling me, and other unicorn lovers, with excitement and delight.
Award-winning Sydney author Aaron Blabey has released a hilarious new rhyming picture book about an ordinary pony called Thelma who longs to be unique, like a unicorn. When unusual circumstances make Thelma’s…
Is A Spool of Blue Thread by Anne Tyler a good pick for book clubs?
Each month we choose a newly released book that we feel is perfect for a book club. Then we roadtest it. Here are our thoughts on whether Anne Tyler’s A Spool of Blue Thread is a good pick for for book clubs.
There are no spoilers in this blog post. To read our notes from our book club discussion, click here.
The response from this month’s book clubbers was an overwhelming thumbs up! The book was considered utterly ripe…
Our thoughts on A Spool of Blue Thread by Anne Tyler
Each month we choose a newly released book that we feel is perfect for a book club. Then we roadtest it. Here are some notes from our own book club discussion of Anne Tyler’s A Spool of Blue Thread.
WARNING: This blog post contains spoilers. To read a spoiler-free discussion of the book, please click here.
On the novel’s unusual structure:
I think if this book had been traditionally structured in chronological order and begun with the relationship…
Our top ten bestsellers of the week
Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption by Bryan Stevenson
The First Bad Man by Miranda July
We are All Completely Beside Ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler
Fury: Women Write About Sex, Power and Violence edited by Samantha Trenoweth
The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins
A Spool of Blue Thread by Anne Tyler
The Brain’s Way of Healing: Remarkable Discoveries and Recoveries from the Frontiers of Neuroplasticity by Norman Doidge
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