NEWSLETTERS 2005

 

This month is the fifth anniversary of our Literary Quiz which we began in December 2000. We celebrate with a special Hebden Bridge Christmas 3-quotation quiz with a £20 Book Token prize - but you'll have to come to the shop to collect your copy! A link to the current quiz ("Cakes and Biscuits") is below, and mid-December's will as usual be on "Stars".

 

We've got most of our Christmas stock in now, ranging from the sumptuous to the plain silly, via the fascinating, informative, exciting, involving, intriguing and useful, and that's just the books. We still have plenty of calendars and diaries but in most cases won't be reordering once they're gone, so make sure you collect the ones you want in time. 

 

Just in is a new range of verbal fridge magnets, including brightly-coloured new collections of Fridge Sudoku, the Fridge Christmas Carol challenge, Fridge Golf and Fridge Food for Thought and we're expecting a consignment of Running Press's daft or useful mini novelty kits (from Hula Dancing to Hot Stone Massage) - good unusual stocking-fillers. And we have Christmas cards on sale from the Bodleian Library, Geoff Boswell and the Rotary Club - the last two with local scenes.
 

So we'll just remind you to collect your Christmas catalogue ("More than three wise ideas for Christmas"), which illustrates just some of the stock we've got on display, and also includes a Richard & Judy book competition, an Asterix competition and the chance to vote for your local independent bookshop - and wish you early Season's Greetings.

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And for a change we're featuring a range of non-book items this month:

 

Picture of Britain DVD - David Dimbleby, £24.99
A celebration of the British landscape and the art that it has inspired, from Constable to Lowry, from Turner to Nash. [Book also in stock at £19.99)

Essential Truffaut Collection DVD, £49.99
"400 Coups", "Jules et Jim", "La Peau Douce", "Last Metro"

Essential Bergmann Collection DVD, £49.99
"Seventh Seal", "Wild Strawberries", "Persona", "Autumn Sonata"

Sadly we won't be able to get you the DVD of  "Tales from the Green Valley" (life on a 17th-century farm) in time for Christmas but should have it soon thereafter. Save your book tokens!

CDs - the Spoken Word

The Essential Shakespeare Live: The Royal Shakespeare Company in Performance (2 CDs)
Selected from a collection of recordings from the British Library Sound Archive, scenes and speeches from some of the most celebrated RSC productions - including Paul Schofield, Peggy Ashcroft, David Warner, Ian McKellen, Robert Stephens, Derek Jacobi, Mark Rylance, Alan Rickman, Judi Dench ... (£15.95)

Woman in Black by Susan Hill (2 CDs)
Unabridged version terrifyingly read by Paul Ansdell. Many will have chilled to the stage adaptation by the late Stephen Mallatratt who used to live in Hebden Bridge. (£12.99)

Stationery

Moleskine Music Pocket Notebook (£8.99)
The Moleskine Pocket Music Notebook is ideal for musicians, sound designers and song writers, for jotting down harmonies, melodies and musical ideas. 

See below under "Local Authors" for two new card games based on Lowry's paintings.

Plus all our other Moleskine stationery. For the concerned, the binding is oilskinned hardback and has nothing to do with small dead animals. 

December's book will be Cinnamon City by Miranda Innes (£7.99). What happens when you acquire - almost by accident - a seductively run-down house in the most romantic and exotic of cities, Marrakech?

 

The Book Case accepts Daily Mail National Book Tokens against one-half of the cost of this month's recommended title.

Novel Award:

A Long Way Down by Nick Hornby [Can a slice of pizza can really see you through a long, dark night of the soul?] (£15.99 at The Book Case)
Shalimar the Clown by Salman Rushdie [What appears to be a political assassination turns out to be passionately personal.] (£15.99)
The Accidental by Ali Smith [Amber turns up at a family's Norfolk holiday home and proceeds to change them all. But does she exist?](£12.99)
The Ballad of Lee Cotton by Christopher Wilson (Funny novel about survival and identity.) (£12.99)

First Novel Award:

The Harmony Silk Factory by Tash Aw [A love story set against the turmoil of mid-20th century Malaysia.](£7.99)
26a by Diana Evans [Fairytale nightmare for anyone who has had a childhood, and anyone who knows what it is like to lose one.] (£10.99)
The Short Day Dying by Peter Hobbs [Set in nineteenth century Cornwall - a blacksmith and Methodist lay-preacher devotes his weekdays to work and the Sabbath to walking great distances to preach to dwindling congregations] (£10.99)
Gem Squash Tokoloshe - Rachel Zadok [Recreates the voice of a young girl growing up during the height of apartheid unrest in South Africa.] (£6.99)

Biography Award:

Haw-Haw by Nigel Farndale
Nature Cure by Richard Mabey [How the nature writer slowly overcame his depression when he moved from hills and chalk to watery fens and flat open spaces.] (£15.99)
Stuart: A Life Backwards by Alexander Masters [A biography of a homeless man and a complete portrait of the hidden underclass](£12.99)
Matisse the Master by Hilary Spurling

Poetry Award:

Legion by David Harsent
Cold Calls by Christopher Logue
Lucky Day by Richard Price
Marabou by Jane Yeh

Children’s Award:

Framed by Frank Cottrell Boyce [From the author of "Millions", the story of how, during WWII, the treasured contents of London's National Gallery were stored in Welsh slate mines and how this touches the life of one little boy and his big family.] (£9.99)
The White Darkness by Geraldine McCaughrean [A young girl makes a soulmate of Captain Oates] (£10.99)
Permanent Rose by Hilary McKay [It's a long hot summer - to Permanent Rose it seems never ending.] (£10.99)
The New Policeman by Kate Thompson [JJ's mother asks him to give her time for her birthday, so he heads for Tir na n'Og. Won the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize.](£10.99)

Smarties aka Nestle Book Prize

5 & Under
Lost and Found by Oliver Jeffers
Wolves by Emily Gravett
The Dancing Tiger by Malachy Doyle, illustrated by Steve Johnson and Lou Fancher

6-8 years
The Whisperer by Nick Butterworth
Michael Rosen's Sad Book by Michael Rosen, illustrated by Quentin Blake
Corby Flood by Paul Stewart and Chris Riddell

9-11 years
I, Coriander by Sally Gardner
The Scarecrow and the Servant by Philip Pullman
The Whispering Road by Livi Michael

Blue Peter Book Awards

On Friday 18th November the Blue Peter Book Awards ceremony was held at the London Eye. The winning judges - Ardell, Kishke, Tommy, Peter, Sarah, Joanna, Mouna, Benjamin and Heather - read the shortlisted books and decided the category winners and overall Blue Peter book of 2005: http://www.bbc.co.uk/cbbc/bluepeter/active/books/awards/indexshortlist2005.shtml

The Book I Couldn't Put Down:
Have you ever read a book that was so fantastic that you simply could not put it down? The books in this category have been selected because the judges believe that they have the power to grip their readers in this way.

'Millions' by Frank Cottrell Boyce
'Private Peaceful' by Michael Morpurgo *Category Winner*
'SilverFin' by Charlie Higson
'Thora' written and illustrated by Gillian Johnson

The Best Book With Facts:
These are all fascinating information books – you can't help becoming absorbed by the subjects because of the imaginative ways their authors and illustrators have presented them.

'Art Fraud Detective: Shakespeare' written by Anna Nilsen, illustrated by Andy Parker 
'Explorers Wanted! At the North Pole' by Simon Chapman*Category Winner*
'Rome in spectacular cross-section' written by Andrew Solway, illustrated by Stephen Biesty
'What's My Family Tree?' written by Mick Manning, illustrated by Brita Granström

The Best Illustrated Book to Read Aloud:
These are books in which the words and pictures work brilliantly together, each helping the other to tell the story.

'Aristotle' written by Dick King-Smith, illustrated by Bob Graham
'Biscuit Bear' written and illustrated by Mini Grey
'Rapunzel: A Groovy Fairy Tale' retold by Lynn Roberts, illustrated by David Roberts 
'The Snail and the Whale' written by Julia Donaldson, illustrated by Axel Scheffler *Category Winner*

The Blue Peter Book of the Year: 'Private Peaceful' by Michael Morpurgo *Overall Winner* 

Guardian Children's Fiction Prize

We missed the Guardian winner in early October -  it was New Policeman by Kate Thomson, £10.99: JJ's mother asks him to give her time for her birthday, so he heads for Tir na n'Og. It's for readers of 11+   and is in stock at the Book Case. For more information go to http://books.guardian.co.uk/childrensfictionprize2005/ 

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NEW TITLES

Publishers don't usually bring out many new titles in December, but we do expect a new novel from Marge Piercy and a tongue-in-cheek horror one from Colin Baker, Bob Geldof's "You're History", the best blogs of 2005, tiny tearaways, a book on the Holy Grail, another one on Bob Dylan in the '60s, Disinformation on Ancient Civilisations and Art Theory for Beginners.

On display in the shop is a wide range of titles, many of which won't have reached our monthly listings - including international climbing escapades, Mozart's women, antiques, living with wolves, "From Our Own Correspondent", Simon Schama,100 Great Books in Haiku, the Beatles and Dylan, Rock & Pop Quizzes, the big Map Book, an even bigger one on Coronation Street, Joanne Harris on French Markets - and we expect the whopping "Silver Spoon" classic Italian cookbook back in time for Christmas.

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"When you read a novel or a play, it enlarges your psychological repertoire. You see more choices that can be made. So it seems to me that by reading when you're young, you sophisticate yourself."

- Hilary Mantel, Guardian Saturday Review, 19 November 2005, "Escape from the Margins" (arguing that her love of reading in difficult home circumstances in her teens was not merely an "escape").

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It seems a bit soggy to have the Three Wise Men around, but there they are, reading books beneath a starry sky on the cover of our Christmas catalogue, under the caption "More than three wise ideas for Christmas". Inside, apart from lots of ideas for your Christmas presents, is an invitation from Richard & Judy to submit a list of the three books published in the last year that you most enjoyed, for a chance to win a complete set of their final Book Club selection and £100-worth of Book Tokens. There's also an Asterix competition, and inside the back cover, a chance to vote for your local independent bookshop.

 

Ness has made a nice display of featured books on the centre table and around the shop, so come and collect a copy of the catalogue and make your selection! If you'd like the catalogue posting to you, just e-mail us at bookcase@btinternet.com with your address.

 

Mark's been busy on our website (www.bookcase.co.uk) and apart from having a more professional look on our Local History and Local (walking) Guides pages, we now highlight three locally-based celebrities, all of them attracting national interest at the moment:

 

Juliet Barker is internationally recognized for her ability to combine ground-breaking scholarly research with a highly readable and accessible style. Following her definitive biographies of the Brontes and Wordsworth, she has now gone back to her original medieval interests with a major book on Agincourt: "engrossing" - Guardian; "Full of both serious research and entertaining gems" - The Times;  "Agincourt, like Henry’s achievement, is a triumph. If you buy just one book of history this year, choose this one . . . " - Bernard Cornwall, Mail on Sunday. If you'd like Juliet to sign a book to someone special, let us know - but allow a bit of time, please.

 

Glyn Hughes, two of whose local novels were nominated by Guardian readers to represent great nature writing from Yorkshire, has two new books coming out this year, one of poetry after a break of over twenty years - Dancing Out of the Dark Side - to be launched at Artsmill Gallery on 12 November (see below) and one of short stories: The Summer the Dictators Fell. We'll keep you informed.

 

Hebden Bridge textile artist Sue Lawty, is Artist in Residence at the V&A. Her locally published book rock - raphia - linen - lead with colour photographs of her work is available at The Book Case and you can read about her work at the V&A at http://www.vam.ac.uk/collections/fashion/lawty/ and her weblog at http://www.vam.ac.uk/vastatic/microsites/1395_lawty/wordpress/

 

Celebrating Children's Books 2006 Calendar, £7.99

From Carousel Magazine (http://www.carouselguide.co.uk) a lovely calendar to raise money for Lupus. Twelve well-known children's artists, including Nick Butterworth, Judith Kerr, Anthony Browne and Lynley Dodd, have contributed pictures featuring a butterfly, which is the symbol of Lupus UK. Available at The Book Case.

(If you do not wish to receive this monthly mailing, please click on Reply and type CANCEL in the Subject box.)

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THIS MONTH'S FEATURED BOOKS

We highlight every month books we think are of particular interest: from adult fiction, adult non-fiction and a children's title, plus new CDs.

 

November's book will be Old Filth by Jane Gardam (£6.99). The story of a Raj orphan ("Failed in London Try Hong Kong"), his rise to be an international lawyer, and his old age, encapsulating a whole period from the glory days of the British Empire through the Second World War to the present day. The Book Case accepts Daily Mail National Book Tokens against one-half of the cost of this month's recommended title.

 

December's choice will be Cinnamon City by Miranda Innes. 

Booker Prize

The surprise winner was John Banville's "The Sea", which I noticed I left off last month's shortlist. Apologies! When Max Morden returns to the coastal town where he spent a holiday in his youth he is both escaping from a recent loss and confronting a distant trauma. £14.99 at The Book Case.

Books are the New Snobbery

Books are the new snobbery, according to a recent survey. "Social competitiveness about which titles we read has become one of the new mass forces of the era and only middle-aged people are relatively free of it. ... The latest literary pressure is keeping up with the rest of your fellow travellers and commuters. Bookshelf contents are fast becoming as studied and planned as outfits as a way to impress others." The survey was carried out in London and the South-East ...

http://books.guardian.co.uk/news/articles/0,6109,1599060,00.html?gusrc=rss

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NEW TITLES

Another good collection of hardback fiction this month, with books from Nadine Gordimer, Cormac McCarthy, Anne Rice, Ben Elton, Rose Tremain and Philippa Gregory amongst others. No literary giants in the paperback fiction but we are trying a novel by Jimmy Carter and a Norwegian collection, Japanese and Brazilian detectives, John Grisham, a new Jennifer Johnston and some feel-good novels.

and Children's books include:

 

a Dr Seuss pop-up book, the Princess & the Pea, C S Lewis, encouragement to young authors, unicorns, a live scarecrow and for the older age group a scary future and a major new book from David Almond..

 

For a fuller listing, click here: http://www.btinternet.com/~bookcase/Forthcoming.htm#Forthcoming

E-mail, phone or fax us to reserve any of these new titles. A colour leaflet is available at the shop.

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For the full answers to last time's quiz, on Bulls in literature, click here: http://www.btinternet.com/~bookcase/PastQuizzes.htm#Quizzes

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What you've been buying: OCTOBER BESTSELLERS at The Book Case

There were several books of local interest amongst The Book Case’s October bestsellers, including a return for local author Glyn Hughes and John Morrison in his photographer’s hat. Three major biographies - from Alan Bennett, Bob Dylan and John Peel - were also popular, and also selling well were a debut novel, an attractively presented book of poetry and instructions to British servicemen on how to behave in wartime France.

1. Untold Stories - Alan Bennett (£20.00) Alan Bennett's first major collection since 'Writing Home', a collection of some of his finest and funniest writing from the last nine years. Also in double CD form, Parts 1 & 2, at £12.99 each, cassette version £10.99 each.

2. Yorkshire in a Crombie - Craig Bradley (£6.95) When the author inherited his Uncle Jim’s coat, it smelt of the past, full of flat caps, muck and brass. This book asks what Yorkshire is today. Craig is Reader in Residence for Calderdale Libraries.

3. Chronicles - Bob Dylan (£7.99) Now in paperback the first volume of the three-volume memoir of one of the greatest musical legends of all time. In volume 1, Bob Dylan takes us back to the early 1960s when he arrived in New York to launch his phenomenal career. (£7.99)

4. Instructions for British Servicemen in France 1944 (£4.99) Along similar lines to "Instructions for American Servicemen in Britain 1942", this handbook was issued by the British War Office in 1944 to British soldiers telling them what to expect and how to behave in a newly-liberated France. 'There is a fairly widespread belief among people in Britain that the French are a particularly gay, frivolous people with no morals and few convictions.' (£4.99)

5. Margrave of the Marshes - John Peel (£18.99) Not many people achieve the status of legend in their own lifetime. The first half of the book, by John, is about his early life. The second section by his wife is an intimate portrait of the man and his music, and everyday life at Peel Acres. (£18.99)

6. South Pennine Walks - Jack Keighley (£5.99) Spiral-bound handwritten and illustrated with the authors’s distinctive hand-drawn maps, 30 circular walks, from 4 to 8.5 miles.

7. The Rape of the Rose - Glyn Hughes (£4.99) The second of this important local author’s novels set in the Pennines. It evokes the tempestuous world of the Luddites, the brutality of industrial life and the landscape of the Pennine hills.

8. Moods of the Bronte Moors - John Morrison (£12.95) This book of atmospheric local photographs is now joined by a collection of stunning pictures of Bradford.

9. About Grace - Anthony Doerr (£7.99) Striking debut novel about a man cursed with premonitory dreams. Escaping Alaska for Ohio, he finds himself dreaming of his little daughter’s death and flees.

10. Rapture - Carol Ann Duffy (£12.99) Carol Ann Duffy's new collection is about the loss and rediscovery of love in all its aspects. A Poetry Book Society Choice, with a striking red and silver cover and marker ribbon.

Best wishes from your local bookshop,

The Book Case
29 Market Street, Hebden Bridge HX7 6EU
Telephone 01422-845353
Fax 01422-844295
email: bookcase@btinternet.com
url: www.bookcase.co.uk

Apart from noting yet again that a lot of books destined to be welcome Christmas presents are beginning to arrive on our shelves and that we have a wonderful range of calendars and diaries on our central table, we can report a very enjoyable presentation by Marina Lewycka of her acclaimed novel A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian at Halifax Central Library - reflected in our Bestseller list below.

 

This month (it was meant to be in August but never mind) we are also bringing you a Classic Thriller promotion to celebrate No Exit Press's 18th birthday. Authors include Eric Ambler, Robert B. Parker and Sparkle Hayter and unusually for us, we are doing a 3-for-2 promotion. Early callers will also receive a free copy of a sampler with the opening chapters of 18 classic No Exit Press novels at one end and Crimetime journal at the other.

 

We're now stocking BULB, a new global issues magazine aimed at and largely written by young people. Takes on trade justice, human rights and the environment to race, migration, corporate power and religion – all from a youth perspective. £2.50.

(If you do not wish to receive this monthly mailing, please click on Reply and type CANCEL in the Subject box.)

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THIS MONTH'S FEATURED BOOKS

We highlight every month books we think are of particular interest: one from adult fiction, one from adult non-fiction and a children's title, plus new CDs.

 

October's book will be Beyond Black by Hilary Mantel (£7.99),  a hilarious and deeply sinister story of dark secrets and dark forces, set around a luckless medium in an England that jumps at its own shadow, a country whose banal self-absorption is shot through by fear. The Book Case accepts Daily Mail National Book Tokens against one-half of the cost of this month's recommended title.

 

November's choice will be Old Filth by Jane Gardam and December's, Cinnamon City by Miranda Innes. 

Booker Prize Shortlist

Announced on 8th September as follows. Bold titles are in stock, others can be ordered in overnight:

Arthur & George by Julian Barnes
A Long Long Way by Sebastian Barry
Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
The Accidental by Ali Smith
On Beauty by Zadie Smith

Richard & Judy "How to Get Published" competition

The winner of the competition was Christine Aziz's "The Olive Readers". Set in a dystopian future, where corporations own the past and memories. A clandestine group is trying to preserve the past by smuggling books. (£12.99 at The Book Case) Runners up, published in paperback, were

Housewife Down by Alison Penton Harper (£6.99) Meet Bridget Jones ten years on - a hilarious novel about a married woman finding herself unexpectedly single again.

Tuesday's War by David Fiddimore (£6.99) Enthralling tale of air combat in WWII.

Gem Squash Tokoloshe - Rachel Zadok (£6.99). Set in South Africa, the story of the dissolution of a marriage seen through the eyes of a child.

Journeys in the Dead Season - Spencer Jordan (£6.99) A man in prison for an appalling crime picks up the journal of a shell-shocked soldier and begins his own confession.

Orange Prize Best of the Best

The winner, announced on 3rd October, was Andrea Levy's "Small Island", a book which sells well in its own right and is in stock at The Book Case. To be honest, this venture back into the annals of the Orange Prize doesn't seem to have sparked much interest: maybe Orange Prize winners don't last? (Discuss ...)

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We regret we are not always able to obtain recordings on other labels but we will will always check with our suppliers if you have any particular requests.

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and Children's books include:

 

Ted Hughes poems, farmyard cats, a Dad/goldfish swap, pirates, ponies, Redwall and Alex Rider, plus for the older age group Neil Gaiman and the unusual story of a bomb victim who survives as a consciousness in other people's heads.

 

For a fuller listing, click here: http://www.btinternet.com/~bookcase/Forthcoming.htm#Forthcoming

E-mail, phone or fax us to reserve any of these new titles. A colour leaflet is available at the shop.

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For the full answers to last time's quiz, on Bridges in literature, click here: http://www.btinternet.com/~bookcase/PastQuizzes.htm#Quizzes
If you'd like the printed version of the quiz (and short version of last month's answers) posted to you, please e-mail or fax us your address.
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What you've been buying: SEPTEMBER BESTSELLERS at The Book Case

Apart from We’moon Diary and those American servicemen, it was all change at The Book Case in September. Children only managed one entry apart from the exam papers, there was one book of local interest, another diary and four novels, ranging from moving statues at York Minster and poor Lucy Snowe to Ukrainian tractors and a teenage mass-killer.

1. Secondary Selection Portfolio Practice Papers (£4.99 each) The looming 11+ exam seasonally put these practice papers in Maths, English and Reasoning to the top of our monthly sellers.

2. Milltown Memories 13 (£2.80) Celebrates 100 years of the Literary and Scientific Society, pays tribute to Lloyd Greenwood and visits Slack and Catholes Stones, Mytholmroyd Station, William Holt Greengrocers, the Little Theatre, Wadsworth Moor, Todmorden Town Hall and the steps at the bottom of Birchcliffe in 1962.

3. We’Moon Diary 2006 (£14.99) 25th anniversary edition of the popular astrological moon calendar, date book and daily guide to natural rhythms, with a theme of the spirit of love.

4. A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian - Marina Lewycka (£10.99 at The Book Case) Entertaining Orange and Booker Prize-listed novel set in Peterborough where two Ukrainian sisters are trying to defend their lecherous old dad from a bosomy young gold-digger. Meanwhile he carries on writing his history of tractors in Ukrainian. Winner of the Saga Prize and presented at Halifax Library by the author.

5. Instructions for American Servicemen in Britain 1942 (£4.99) This advice to GIs on how not to annoy the wartime Brits is now joined by a companion volume containing advice to the Brits on how not to annoy the wartime French in 1944.

6. We Need to Talk About Kevin - Lionel Shriver (£9.99) This year’s Orange Prize winner: a novel about a teenage mass-killer and ambivalence about motherhood.

7. Villette - Charlotte Bronte (£1.50) Lucy Snowe finds herself jobless and friendless and travels to Brussels/Villette to work as a teacher in a girls' school, where she tries to rebuild a life for herself.

8. Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell - Susannah Clarke (£7.99) In early nineteenth-century England, magic is thought dead until the reclusive Mr Norrell causes the statues of York Minster to speak and move. Meanwhile Napoleon is advancing. Guardian and Whitbread shortlisted

9. Spirit Walker - Michelle Paver (£8.99) The sequel to "Wolf Brother" - Torak must battle to vanquish the terrifying Soul-Eaters. A book for young people: to be filmed by Riddley Scott.

10. Moleskine Pocket Weekly Diary 2006 (£9.99)  One of the series of posh little black notebooks and diaries used by Van Gogh, Hemingway and Matisse.

Best wishes from your local bookshop,

The Book Case
29 Market Street, Hebden Bridge HX7 6EU
Telephone 01422-845353
Fax 01422-844295
email: bookcase@btinternet.com
url: www.bookcase.co.uk

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THIS MONTH'S FEATURED BOOKS

We highlight every month books we think are of particular interest: one from adult fiction, one from adult non-fiction and a children's title, plus new CDs.  

Orange Prize Best of the Best

As part of the tenth year celebrations, the Orange Prize for fiction will award a prize for ‘Best of the Best’ this autumn. Books will be reviewed on BBC Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour from 12th September – 23rd September and listeners will be invited to vote for their favourite among the 10 novels.  The results of this poll will be announced on 3rd October. All books in stock at The Book Case.

A Spell of Winter - Helen Dunmore, winner 1996 - £7.99
Fugitive Pieces - Anne Michaels, winner 1997 - £6.99
Larry’s Party - Carol Shields, winner 1998 - £6.99
A Crime in the Neighbourhood - Suzanne Berne, winner 1999 - £7.99
When I Lived in Modern Times - Linda Grant, winner 2000 - £6.99
The Idea of Perfection - Kate Grenville, winner 2001 - £6.99
Bel Canto - Ann Patchett, winner 2002 - £7.99
Property - Valerie Martin, winner 2003 - £6.99
Small Island - Andrea Levy, winner 2004 - £7.99
We Need To Talk About Kevin - Lionel Shriver, winner 2005 - £9.99

Children were to the fore amongst Book Case customers in August with three entries, followed by two adult novels , two books of poetry (one local), Kathleen Jamie’s nature writing, a reappearance of the wartime GIs and the first appearance of no doubt many for We’Moon.

1. Charlie & the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl (£5.99) Charlie Bucket wins a magical tour round Mr Willy Wonka's famous chocolate factory. It changes his life - as well as those of his co-winners. Sales lifted by the enjoyable Johnny Depp film.

2. Harry Potter & the Half-Blood Prince - J K Rowling (£12.99) The darkest yet as Harry moves into his late-teens and Voldemort seems ready to take control.

3. Case Histories - Kate Atkinson (£6.99) Funny, suspenseful and intricately plotted novel about a private investigator thrown into the middle of three unsolved cases in Cambridge.

4. Instructions for American Servicemen in Britain 1942 (£4.99) Advice on how to cope with the Brits from the War Department, Washington DC, to the GIs on their way to grimy but stoical wartime Britain.

5. Elmet - poems by Ted Hughes, photographs by Fay Godwin (£14.99) Poems about the local area by Ted Hughes in response to Fay Godwin's evocative black-and-white photographs.

6. Findings - Kathleen Jamie (£6.99) Third month in the top ten for this observant and beautifully-written nature writing from around Scotland from an award-winning poet.

7. Checkmate - Malorie Blackman (£12.99) For older children, the third book in the "Noughts and Crosses" series about a mixed-race girl in a society where the pale-skinned noughts are treated as inferiors.

8. Alchemist - Paulo Coelho (£7.99) "A fable about following your dream" - the magical story of Santiago, an Andalusian shepherd boy who dreams of travelling the world in search of treasure.

9. Staying Alive: Real Poems for Unreal Times - ed. Neil Astley (£10.95) "An international anthology of 500 life-affirming poems fired by belief in the human and the spiritual at a time when much in the world feels unreal, inhuman and hollow."

10. We’Moon Diary 2006 (£14.99) The theme of this year's popular astrological moon calendar, date book and daily guide to natural rhythms is the spirit of love. It’s the 25th anniversary edition.

Best wishes from your local bookshop,

The Book Case
29 Market Street, Hebden Bridge HX7 6EU
Telephone 01422-845353
Fax 01422-844295
email: bookcase@btinternet.com
url: www.bookcase.co.uk

Hebden Bridge Arts Festival again had a major effect on bestsellers at The Book Case, but these were put in the shade by staggering sales of Harry Potter! The two other books were an account of a journey around Scotland and a novel set in Afghanistan.

1. Harry Potter & the Half-Blood Prince - J K Rowling (£12.99) Latest mighty tome sees Harry in the world of late-teens and a Muggle Prime Minister who bears a strong resemblance to our current one.

2. Reasons to be Cheerful - Mark Steel (£6.99) Comedian Mark Steel rounded off the Festival with an appearance at a packed Hebden Bridge Picture House and The Book Case was present with a bookstall. "Vive la Revolution" also sold well.

3. Millions - Frank Cottrell Boyce (£5.99) The author appeared at Riverside School, won the Carnegie Medal and the film’s been showing at the Picture House. Second month in the top ten for this children’s book about two boys with a big cash dilemma.

4. Findings - Kathleen Jamie (£6.99) Second month in the top ten for last month’s recommended non-fiction title. Observant and beautifully-written nature writing from around Scotland from an award-winning poet.

5. How to Disappear - Amanda Dalton (£6.95) Hebden Bridge author presented this book of "dark, funny, wise, terrifying" poems during the Book Event at the Little Theatre during the Festival.

6. How I Live Now - Meg Rosoff (£6.99) This engrossing novel about young love in the English countryside during terrorist attack has featured as both an adult and children’s recommended read and was July’s Daily Mail book of the month.

7. Blackpool Highflyer - Andrew Martin (£10.99) Andrew Martin discussed his fascination with railways and social history at the Little Theatre. This locally-based thriller was our last month’s recommended fiction title.

8. Defying Hitler - Sebastian Haffner (£7.99) Written in 1939 but only recently published, this explanation of how the Nazis managed to exploit Germany’s psychological weaknesses was turned into a one-man play performed during the Festival at the Little Theatre.

9. Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini (£7.99) Back to the charts for this debut novel set in Afghanistan during the Russian invasion, about a young Afghani's journey to maturity.

10. Secrets She Keeps - Helen Cross (£9.99) The sequel to "My Summer of Love", a modern-day morality tale also set in Yorkshire. Helen Cross appeared at the Little Theatre during the Festival’s book weekend.

Best wishes from your local bookshop,

The Book Case
29 Market Street, Hebden Bridge HX7 6EU
Telephone 01422-845353
Fax 01422-844295
email: bookcase@btinternet.com
url: www.bookcase.co.uk