Dear Book Case customer or contact,
Christmas sales are hotting up, our window has a sprinkling of
cuddly Santas amongst the books, and our really rather nice Christmas
cards - from the Bodleian Library and the Fitzwilliam Museum as well as Geoff
Boswell - are selling briskly. We're about to reorder.
We still have copies of the new edition of
THEbookmagazine and Across the Nightingale Floor Part
1 to give away to our customers, as well as two seasonal book
catalogues to give you ideas for Christmas.
Now in stock are a good selection of magnetic fridge poetry,
Running Press's novelty kits (fun stocking-fillers) and some of Sierra
Club's environmentally-conscious packs of knowledge
cards.
The ever-popular Redstone Diary, New Internationalist's 2007
Planner, their wide One World 2007
calendar and their One World Almanac, full of colour
photos, plus Amnesty International's World in your Kitchen calendar,
are finally here, and we've got a new Moon series in - a diary,
an address book, and a single-sheet Moon Cycle calendar.
We have in again the Lowry card games from Billy
Two Teas, created by Lowry's biographer Shelley Rohde, and
LeCardo, the clever little word game for 12-adults.
New in (not Christmassy) are Michael Peace's cards of local
scenes - watercolour and black-and-white: we're expecting them to be
very popular.
The latest editions of Sagewoman (celebrating the Goddess
in Every Woman), PanGaia (a Pagan Journal for Thinking
People) and New Witch (Not Your Mother's
Broomstick) have arrived - and almost sold out already so more stock
is on the way.
And - because we also do books - look out for our selection of
quality art and cookery books coming from Flame Tree
Publishing at £4.99 each. These are chunky little volumes and nicely
produced.
If you do not wish to receive this monthly mailing, please click on
Reply and type CANCEL in the Subject
box.)
THIS MONTH'S FEATURED
BOOKS
We highlight every month books we think are of
particular interest: from adult fiction and non-fiction and a children's
book.
Adult fiction: The Last Coiner: Every Coin Has Two Sides -
Peter Kershaw (£6.00) Writer and director Peter Kershaw, whose
family come from Sowerby Bridge, has written a fictional account of the Cragg
Vale Coiners, in the form of a photographic Art Novel. Local people, wearing
historical costumes designed by a Todmorden art student, play the characters in
the story and the plan is that a film will be made next year of the story.
The story was one of only 15 selected by Katapult, a prestigius
international fund programme based in Budapest, to be adapted into a
full-length screenplay. For more background information, go to
http://www.bbc.co.uk/northyorkshire/content/articles/2006/10/24/the_last_coiner_feature.shtml
We should have the books by late afternoon on Saturday 2nd
December.
Adult non-fiction: Wall and Piece
- Banksy (£12.99) Now in paperback, the best of the work of the
anonymous political activist and notorious graffiti artist - 240 colour
pages of (often very funny) visual illusion and wry political commentary.
Children's book: Peter Pan in Scarlet by Geraldine
McCaughrean (£12.99) In August 2004, the Special Trustees of
Great Ormond Street Children's Hospital launched the search for a sequel to JM
Barrie's "Peter Pan". This title aims to capture the elusive spirit of the
original whilst offering a different creative response. Written by a respected
and award-winning children's author, it has received excellent reviews. Ages 9+
CD: New Orleans Christmas (Putumayo World
Music) (£10.99) Deck the halls with blues, jazz and swing
holiday classics from the Big Easy.
NEWS
Local
Interest
The Last Coiner - Peter Kershaw
(£6.00)
The story of the Cragg Vale Coiners in graphic novel
version - see our Fiction Book of the Month.
The Brontes at Haworth by Ann Dinsdale
(£20)
Life for the Brontes in 1840s Haworth, and their novels
and poetry in the context of their surroundings - with images from the Haworth
archives, drawings by Charlotte and Emily, and photos by Simon Warner.
The Father of the Brontes: his life and work at Dewsbury
and Hartshead - W W Yates, ed. Imelda Marsden (£14.99)
This
is a facsimile of the 1897 biography of Patrick Bronte written by a founder of
The Bronte Society and instigator of the Bronte Museum. Mrs
Marsden has included her research into the Bronte family, including details of
Patrick Bronte's niece, Rose Ann Heslip, who is buried in Cleckheaton. Proceeds
from the book go to Holly Bank School at Mirfield, for severely-disabled young
people, which was originally Roehead School attended by Charlotte Bronte.
Cassini Historical Maps: Leeds
and Bradford (104) & Blackburn & Burnley (103) (£6.49
each)
A new series -
Victorian maps printed to coincide with the modern Ordnance Survey map areas.
We also stock the Godrey Edition Old Ordnance Survey Maps of Hebden Bridge and
Mytholmroyd 1905, £2.20 each.
Heritage
Cartography - Map of Todmorden 1844 & Map of Hebden Bridge 1851
(£8.50 each)
Yorkshire Customs and
Traditions, vol. 1 (DVD) (£14.99)
Filmed this year, presents Yorkshire
customs from across the county. West Yorkshire is in particular
represented with the Bradford Race Walk, Hepworth Plague Feast, Saddleworth
Brass Band Contest and the Dock Pudding Championship in Mytholmroyd.
Organisers and participants provide the voice-over. Each custom is
presented individually (ranging between 5 and 10 mins) on this 85 mins
film.
Local Authors
Look for the Silver Lining - Stephen Lockwood
(£15)
Tells of growth from a difficult childhood into
adulthood - a book of landscapes, both internal and external, and of how nature
can preserve us in the face of the increasing contingencies of modern life.
Bitch Lit - ed. Maya Chowdhry and Mary Sharratt
(£8.99)
A smart and subversive celebration
of female anti-heroes - who take the law into their own hands
and refuse to be victims - with stories by two local authors.
Full Spectrum: inspired healing for the 21st century - Leigh
O'Regan (£20)
From a Hebden Bridge author, a powerful
synthesis of transpersonal psychology, quantum physics, eastern spirituality,
philosophy and vibrational medicine, using self-selective non-intrusive tools.
Yorkshire Lives and Landscapes by Ian
Emberson, £12.99
The county and its people exploredby the
local poet, playwright and artist in a series of gentle anecdotes such as: Life
in a small village, Asian dancing in Huddersfield, walking the Pennine Way, the
choral singing tradition, gardening and studying local history. Due in
December.
The A-Z of Christmas - Arnold Kellett
(£12.99)
Only "local" in the sense that the author is well-known for
his Yorkshire Dialect books, and lives in Knaresborough - but the content of
this cheerful red book ranges through time and place.
Local Events
Congratulations to
Gemma Roberts in Year 4 at Hebden Royd School, who was the school's winner
of the £10 book token and certificate sponsored by The Book
Case.
National Book Events
The Daily
Mail Book Club
December's Book of the Month is Running For The
Hills by Horatio Clare (£7.99) - a biographical account of
growing up on a sheep farm in Wales. Stock is on its way. The
Book Case will accept Daily Mail National Book Tokens against one-half of the
cost of this month's recommended title.
British Book Trade Awards - vote for
your local independent bookshop
Two awards - the Regional Independent Bookshop of the
Year and the National Independent Bookshop of the
Year are awarded to recognise all those aspects in which the best of
independent bokshops excel - knowledgeable and friendly service, reliable
recommendations and a selection of books that cater for everybody's interests.
Voting forms are available at The Book Case, and should be returned to us or
posted to Publishing News (address on the leaflet).
Literary Review Bad Sex
Award
First-time author Iain Hollingshead scooped a
dubious literary honour in winning the Literary Review's Bad Sex
in Fiction award for his novel Twenty Something.
The prize is awarded for "unconvincing, perfunctory, embarrassing or
redundant sex scene in an otherwise sound literary novel". Competitors this
year included Irvine Welsh, Will Self, David Mitchell, Mark Haddon and Thomas
Pynchon. Iain Hollingshead said he was delighted to become the prize's
youngest-ever winner. "I hope to win it every year," said Hollingshead, who
receives a statuette and a bottle of champagne.
Carnegie Long List
Nominations
for the favourite Carnegie winner of all time close about
now - we'll keep you informed on progress. A full list of winners since
1936 can be found here -
including many books now considered classics, and others now forgotten.
You
can see the extensive long-list for the 2007 winner of this prestigious award
at http://www.carnegiegreenaway.org.uk/press/pres_car_nom_07.html -
and Michelle Pauli's comments on it at
http://books.guardian.co.uk/news/articles/0,,1953576,00.html The
winner receives a golden medal and £500 worth of books to donate to a
library of their choice.
International Book Events
Dozens
of literary masterpieces and international bestsellers have been banned in Iran
in a dramatic rise in censorship that has plunged the country's publishing
industry into crisis. The clampdown has been headed by the hardline culture
minister, Mohammed Hossein Saffar Harandi, a former revolutionary guard and
close ally of Mr Ahmadinejad. Opening Iran's national book week festival this
week, Mr Saffar Harandi said a tougher line was needed to stop publishers from
serving a "poisoned dish to the young generation". He said some books
deliberately gave Iranians a sense of inferiority and encouraged them to be
lackeys of the west. Amongst these poisonous books are Tracy Chevalier's "Girl
with a Pearl Earring", William Faulkner's "As I Lay Dying" and "The Da Vinci
Code". See http://books.guardian.co.uk/pda/story/0,,1950280-News,00.html
Azar
Nafisi, writing for the Guardian, asked the world to distinguish between "the
genuine culture and literature of an ancient people" and "the cultural claims
of a modern theocratic state" (see end).
NEW TITLES
Publishers don't bring out a great deal in December - there's a
new novel from Rob Grant, amongst others, a version of A
Christmas Carol illustrated by Arthur Rackham, a new
biography of Beatrix Potter, advice on keeping pigs
and renovating your property, a Lakota
inspirational book, the Dalai Lama, the philosophy of friendship, Muslim women
on the price of honour - and, new to us, the nicely-produced
self-published books of Kashmiri immigrant Iqbal Ahmed,
Sorrows of the Moon (chosen as a Guardian Book of the Year)
and Empire of the Mind - giving an outsider's view of London and
England and highlighting the often lonely experience of the immigrant worker.
For the full answers to last month's quiz,
on Policemen in literature, click
here.
______________________________________________________________________________________________
What you've been
buying: NOVEMBER BESTSELLERS at The Book
Case
No fewer than five items of local interest made the
bestsellers at The Book Case in November, headed by Karen Darke’s
extraordinary story. Two books of fiction were popular, one children’s
book stayed in and Richard Dawkins’ denunciation of religion just beat the
WeMoon Diary on sales.
1. If You Fall - Karen
Darke (£9.99) The
amazing Karen Darke headed straight to the top of the bestsellers in
November with this inspiring account of how she came to terms with her
loss of movement from the chest down following a fall while climbing, and made
a new and active life for herself. Karen previously lived in Mytholmroyd and
attended Calder High School. This was our Non-Fiction Book of the
Month.
2. Winter Book - Tove Jansson (£6.99) A collection of
some of Tove Jansson’s best-loved stories, drawn from youth and older age.
"As tough as good rope, as smooth and odd and beautiful as sea-worn driftwood"
- Philip Pullman. Our Fiction Book of the Month.
3. Hebden Bridge Calendar 2007 - Geoff Boswell (£4.50)
Perennial favourite - local author and photographer Geoff Boswell’s
selection of local seasonal scenes, with room to write your notes
underneath.
4. The God Delusion - Richard Dawkins (£20.00)
Still selling well, a fierce denunciation of religion, its faulty logic and the
suffering it causes.
5. We’Moon Diary 2007 (£15.99) This
year’s edition of the popular illustrated Gaia Rhythms for Women yearbook
is on the theme "On Purpose".
6. Gone Walkabout - Anna Carlisle (£6.00) From
Hebden Bridge publishers Pennine Pens, a collection of 24 local walks. Never
far from the Top 10.
7. The End - Lemony Snicket (£6.99) Sadly, some
of you ignored our advice not to read this dismal book, the last in the Series
of Unfortunate Events.
8. Rebel Girls - Jill Liddington (£14.99) Still
in the Top 10, the story of the young campaigners who took their fight for the
vote for women across the north of England. Local author and historian Jill
Liddington is now taking a well-earned break.
9. A Short History of
Tractors in Ukrainian - Marina Lewycka (£7.99) Another familiar title
- an entertaining novel about two Ukrainian sisters, their father and his new
wife in Peterborough.
10. Discovering Calderdale Part 2 (video & DVD) - Peter
Thornton and Glyn Lee (£12.99) This addition to the series starts in
Todmorden, moves on to Cornholme, Lumbutts and Mankinholes climbs to Stoodley
Pike, then continues through Mytholmroyd, Sowerby, Warley, Ripponden and
Elland. The commentary is by Glyn Lee and photography - including aerial shots
- by Peter Thornton.
Best wishes from
your local independent 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
"[Book]
censorship in Iran reminds us of the importance of books as channels for
communication and creation of open spaces transcending the limitations of
politics, nationality, race, gender, religion or geography. Democrats around
the world ... can also show their support by rejecting the simplistic and
degrading views on Iran that do not differentiate between the cultural claims
of a modern theocratic state and the genuine culture and literature of an
ancient people."
Azar Nafisi, Saturday Guardian Review,
"Commentary", 25.11.06
NOVEMBER 2006
Dear Book Case customer or contact,
You can hardly see our counter for the free things we're giving away
this month - a new issue of THEbookmagazine, a free book,
Across the Nightingale Floor Part 1 - the first in the Otori
series, a fantasy set in feudal Japan - a Christmas books
catalogue and of course our own newsletter.
The new edition of THEbookmagazine includes Michael
Palin, Jeremy Paxman, Simon Schama, Ralph Steadman, John Humphreys, Lian Hearn
(author of the Otori series) and Claire Tomalin's biography of Hardy - plus
books on natural history, QI, Homo Britannicus, Pam Ayres, the Victorian
English middle class, Billy Bragg and Clive James, reviews, reading groups and
much more.
We've been promoting a range of classic and modern ghost stories for
Hallowe'en - Ambrose Bierce has been especially popular - but with All Souls'
Eve past, we're now concentrating on Christmas and our central table is laden
with our excellent selection of 2007 calendars and diaries and
a wide range of books for Christmas, in addition to the ongoing display of
books newly out of the window.
We have Geoff Boswell's local Christmas card with
Stoodley Pike now in stock, and are awaiting some very special Christmas cards
from the Bodleian Library and Pomegranate.
Moon calendars are always popular in Hebden Bridge,
and this year we have William Morris's striking black-and-white Moonwise
Calendar (£12.50), Freda Davis's lovely Moon Calendar with information
from the Celtic and Norse traditions (£7.99), and, new to us, a nice
little stocking-filler blue-&-silver chart of the moon's phases, supplied
in a little tube (£4.99).
We're now stocking Aesthetica Magazine - “the UK’s
fastest growing arts magazine”, described by Mslexia as
“sleek, energetic and progressive”. This issue has Benjamin
Zephaniah, urban art, reviews of books and CDs and much more.
£4.50.
The latest edition of the British Goddess Alive! magazine is
in - this one includes an article by the late Monica Sjoo on the
African goddess Tanit, "Visiting Catalhoyuk" in Anatolia and the
first of a series on the Celtic Goddess Wheel of the Year and more. New
editions of Sagewoman, PanGaia and New Witch are on their way
from California.
Those of you who have already bought the popular
Dangerous Book
for Boys, or are considering buying it, might enjoy the associated website
and quiz
here. Just
ignore the bit about Amazon - we need your support more than they do.
We were sorry to hear of the death of the distinguished travel writer
Eric Newby, best known for his Short Walk in the Hindu
Kush. He had actually called in at The Book Case fourteen years ago, with
his nephew, while he was travelling the meridian two degrees west of Greenwich
- to our pleased astonishment!
The Book Case will be one of the local outlets for the Peace Pledge
Union's white poppies this year - supplies expected
soon.
If you do not wish to receive this monthly mailing, please click on
Reply and type CANCEL in the Subject
box.)
THIS MONTH'S FEATURED
BOOKS
We highlight every month books we think are of
particular interest: from adult fiction and non-fiction and a children's
book.
Adult fiction: A
Winter Book by Tove Jansson (£6.99)
Following her Summer Book, here is
a collection of some of Tove Jansson’s best-loved stories, drawn from
youth and older age. "As tough as good rope, as smooth and odd and beautiful as
sea-worn driftwood" - Philip Pullman.
Adult non-fiction: If You Fall:
It's a New Beginning - Karen Darke (£9.99).
The
inspirational story of how Karen - who grew up in Mytholmroyd and attended
Calder High School - came to terms with her loss of movement (following her
fall while climbing Scottish sea-cliffs), regained the will to live
and transformed it to an
opportunity to learn and grow.
Children's book: Beowulf - Michael Morpurgo
(£12.99)
In fifth-century Denmark, a murderous monster stalks the
night, and only the great prince of the Geats has the strength and courage to
defeat him. This work retells and illustrates Beowulf's terrifying quest to
destroy Grendel, the foul fiend, a hideous sea-hag and a monstrous fire-dragon.
The epic Anglo-Saxon legend is brilliantly recreated by an award-winning team.
Ages: 7+.
DVD: Hannah Hauxwell's Winter Tales
(£12.99). Combines "Too Long a Winter" and "A Winter Too Many"
when Hannah was living at Low Birk Hatt Farm in North
Yorkshire.
NEWS
Local
Interest
Discovering Calderdale Part 2 (video & DVD) - Peter
Thornton and Glyn Lee, £12.99
This addition
to the series starts in Todmorden, moves on to Cornholme, Lumbutts and
Mankinholes climbs to Stoodley Pike, then continues through Mytholmroyd,
Sowerby, Warley, Ripponden and Elland. The commentary is by Glyn Lee and
photography - including aerial shots - by Peter Thornton. Due for release on 4
Nov.
Halifax Passenger Transport from 1897 to 1963: trams,
buses, trolleybuses - Geoffrey Hilditch, £27.50
Geoffrey
Hilditch remembers seeing, as a child, a series of lights climbing into
the night sky in 1931 - this was a tram or bus climbing to Southowram against
the backdrop of Beacon Hill. In 1954 he was appointed head of the Engineering
Department of Halifax Passenger Transport and when he returned as General
Manager in 1963, he decided to put together a history before it was too late.
336 pages, 220 illustrations, hardback with printed endpapers and dustjacket.
Todmorden Album 4 - Roger Birch,
£20
This long-awaited fourth album provides a
further fascinating insight into a century of life in Todmorden. The book
contains 229 black and white photographs selected from private collections,
family albums and picture archives, with detailed and informative captions.
Local Authors
If You Fall: It's a New Beginning - Karen Darke,
£9.99
A few years ago, former Mytholmroyd resident and Calder High
School pupil Karen Darke was on a rock-climbing expedition on sea cliffs in
Scotland. She fell, and was paralysed. This is Karen's story about coming to
terms with her loss of movement from the chest down and regaining the will to
live. Out of her disability comes strength to embrace, challenge and transform
it into an opportunity to learn and grow. It is also about the borderline
between body and spirit. Karen is drawn into the world of faith healing and
spirit surgeons in the Brazilian jungle. Combining wheels with wilderness,
Karen escapes the city and embarks on an evermore daring series of adventures
by hand-cycle, ski and kayak. Karen's story is inspiring and energizing; it
will help everybody who reads it to respond positively, to overcome adversity,
and to strive for their dreams.
Don't Wear It On Your Head, Don't Stick It down Your Pants -
John Siddique, £4.95
Hebden Bridge-based poet John
Siddique has worked a great deal with young people and this book of poems arose
out of those sessions without his ever meaning to write it! A celebration of
who we are: the good stuff, our amazing senses, language, love, gossip and
cheese. And a great cover.
Ted Hughes Selected Translations – ed. Daniel
Weissbort, £20
A broad selection from his numerous
translations, with unpublished material, and excerpts from essays and letters.
The present volume selects from his versions from a wide variety of ancient
texts - "The Tibetan Book of the Dead", "Aeschylus", "Euripides", "Ovid",
"Seneca", "Racine" - and equally from a range of twentieth-century European
poets and dramatists.
The Tribe - Michael Conneely
The Magic
Land - Michael Conneely
Two new novels from a local spiritual
teacher - The Tribe is the story of Liam's passage to manhood, the
development of his spiritual vision, and his people's progress to meet their
destiny; in The Magic Land, Martin leaves his loveless home, where his
father only cares about exam results and career, and goes to live on a protest
site formed to protect a Bronze Age stone circle, where he finds happiness for
the first time.
Local Events
Jill Liddington
will be talking about her book Rebel Girls in Todmorden at
10.30am on 23rd November at the Children's Centre, Todmorden Community College.
The book (a local bestseller about the fight for votes for women in the north
of England) is on sale at The Book Case.
Year 4 children from
Burnley Road J&I School, Mytholmroyd, won first prize in
the Hebden Bridge Round Table Guy Fawkes competition with a model of
Ted Hughes's Iron Man - who goes into the flames in the book,
and will do so again, with the other top three entries on Saturday at the
Hebden Bridge bonfire.
Congratulations to Megan Reed,
aged 6, of Colden School, for winning a £10 book token and
certificate for being the "most improved reader" over the summer term. Mrs
Wright at Colden School said, "She has worked very hard and deserved the
token."
National Book Events
The Daily
Mail Book Club
November's Book of the Month is The Divide by
Nicholas Evans (£7.99). From the author of
"The Horse Whisperer", a novel which begins with the discovery of
a woman's body embedded in ice in the backcountry. She had been wanted for
murder and acts of terrorism - what trail of events led the once joyous, golden
child of a loving family so tragically astray? And how did she die? The
Book Case will accept Daily Mail National Book Tokens against one-half of the
cost of this month's recommended title.
December's title will be Running For The Hills by Horatio
Clare.
Man Booker
Prizewinner
Kiran Desai - The Inheritance
of Loss - In the north-eastern Himalayas, in an isolated and crumbling
house, there lives an embittered old judge, who wants nothing more than to
retire in peace. But with the arrival of his orphaned granddaughter, Sai, and
the son of his chatty cook trying to stay a step ahead of US immigration
services, this is far from easy. (£14.99 at The Book Case)
Nestle Children’s Book Prize
(aka Smarties)
The
shortlist was announced on 4th October as follows. The winners will be
announced in December.
9-11 age
category:
The Diamond of Drury Lane - Julia
Golding
The Tide Knot - Helen Dunmore
The Pig Who Saved the World - Paul
Shipton
6-8 age category:
Hugo Pepper - Paul Stewart & Chris
Riddell
Mouse Noses on Toast - Daren King,
illustrated by David Roberts
The Adventures of The Dish and The Spoon
- Mini Grey
5 and under age
category:
Wibbly Pig's Silly Big Bear - Mick
Inkpen
The Emperor of Absurdia - Chris Riddell
That Rabbit Belongs to Emily Brown -
Cressida Cowell & Neal Layton
BLUE PETER BOOK AWARD SHORTLIST
Announced in September
- I'm afraid we missed it - and haven't yet found out when it's being
judged.
Book I couldn't put
down:
The Amazing Story of Adolphus Tips -
Michael Morpurgo - highly praised
story an abandoned village, a lifelong friendship and one very adventurous cat,
against the backdrop of the Second World War. (£5.99)
Blood Fever - Charlie Higson - Young
Bond. (£6.99)
GRK and the Pelotti Gang - Joshua Doder
- exciting chase through South America. (£4.99)
:
Best book with facts:
Connor's Eco Den - Pippa Goodhart.
The Hogg family are bursting out of their small house so Mr Hogg challenges
his three sons to build an extra bedroom themselves. Barrington Stoke
book. (£4.99)
Poo - Nicola Davies & Neil Layton.
A natural history of. (£5.99)
Spud Goes Green - Giles Thaxton.
Spud's New Year resolution is to go green - and this is his diary to
prove it! (£4.99)
:
Best illustrated book to read
aloud:
Guess Who's Coming for Dinner? John
Kelly & Kathy Tinknell (£5.99)
Lost & Found - Oliver
Jeffers. A magical tale of friendship and loneliness, a boy, and a
penguin, selling well at The Book Case. (£5.99)
Traction Man is Here - Mini Grey.
Traction man is the last word in heroic fashion flair - until, that is, the
day that he is presented with an all-in-one knitted green romper suit and
matching bonnet by his owner's granny. (£5.99)
Carnegie of Carnegies - your favourite Carnegie winner since
1936!
The
public are being invited to vote for their favourite Carnegie winner of
all time - the list runs from Arthur Ransome to Philip Pullman and a
full list of winners since 1936 can be found
here -
including many books now considered classics, and others now forgotten. You can
vote
here,
closing date 1st December.
NEW TITLES
November's hardback fiction
includes Ben Elton, Alice Munro and
Cormac McCarthy. Amongst
new paperback fiction we
have Tove Janssen, Jan Stevenson, Ann Rice, DBC
Pierre, Sue Cook, Sue Grafton and Robert
Grafton plus reissues of Nina Bawden, Stella Duffy,
Alfred Duggan, some more ghost stories and a new
translation of Hans Anderson.
Non-fiction:
- chickens and dogs in Animals
- Mary Seacole, Kathleen O'Malley, Constance Briscoe, Fred
Dibnah and Karen Darke in
Biography
- Google, the Guardian, ethical
living and a world guide in Current
Affairs
- Jamie Oliver, a cook's pocket bible and
post-WWII UK food distribution in Food and Drink
- reading an English garden, organic gardening, compost,
mazes and a gardener's pocket
bible in Gardening
- a LOT of daft miniature kits, including a
wee little Christmas elf from Running Press - and a
facsimile Girl annual in Gifts and novelties
- the face of Britain, how to persecute
witches, women of the British Empire and the
Wipers Times in History
- another bumple
bunder in Humour including Have I Got News
for You, Reduced Shakespeare, peeling otters, uncertain ageing, rhyming slang,
Nativity plays, digging a well with a pointy stick, Steve Lowe, Jon Ronson
and strange English - plus some quizzes
and crosswords
- John Humphreys on words and Nick Hornby
on books in Language and
Literature
- wine, knees, PMS, magical creatures, demons,
perceptions of time and symbols in MBS
- Shirley Collins in Music
- Ted Hughes, Michael Hamburger and
Beowulf in Poetry
- the Big Bang, the night sky, zoological curiosities,
weather, Dr Who and Steve Jones in Science
- more 2007
road atlases, vegetarian Britain, Cuba, Barcelona and
amazing survival in Travel
- and a
small penguin, the Large family, trolls,
Beowulf, the Blyton Adventure series and
Garth Nix in Children's
Books
For the full answers to last month's quiz,
on Telephones in literature, click
here.
We are replacing the monthly nominal prize with an
annual
£20 Book Token to be awarded in December to the person with the
most correct answers over the year.
______________________________________________________________________________________________
What you've been
buying: OCTOBER BESTSELLERS at The Book
Case
Northern
suffragettes were still flavour of the month at The Book Case in October; there
were three high-selling novels, two children’s books and two diaries in
the top ten, and the remaining two good sellers were Richard Dawkins’
denunciation of religion and Joan Didion’s account of one terrible year in
her life.
1. Rebel Girls - Jill
Liddington (£14.99) Calder Valley customers can’t get
enough of this story of the young campaigners who took their fight for the vote
for women across the north of England - from local author and historian Jill
Liddington.
2. Wrong Boy - Willy Russell (£7.99) A
touching and hilarious novel the story of "the ‘strange’ kid at
school, the one who wore white socks and a parka and smelled faintly of TCP",
from the well-known playwright who did a benefit performance at Hebden Bridge
Trades Club in early October. We have a few signed copies at The Book Case.
3. The End - Lemony Snicket (£6.99) The
Series of Unfortunate Events reaches its conclusion with this, No. 13. We
recommend you don’t read it!
4. We’Moon Diary 2007 (£15.99) This
year’s edition of the popular illustrated Gaia Rhythms for Women yearbook
is on the theme "On Purpose".
5. Wild Nature Yearbook 2007
(£12.95) From the John Muir Trust, a spiral-bound diary full of
wonderful nature photos from Scotland.
6. The Sea - John Banville (£18.99) When art
historian Max Morden returns to the seaside village where he once spent a
childhood holiday, he is both escaping from a recent loss and confronting a
distant trauma. A local reading group choice and 2005 Booker Prize winner.
7. The God Delusion - Richard Dawkins
(£20.00) A fierce denunciation of religion, its faulty logic and
the suffering it causes, from the sex-obsessed tyrant of the Old Testament to
the more benign (but still illogical) Celestial Watchmaker favoured by some
Enlightenment thinkers.
8. The Year of Magical Thinking - Joan Didion
(£7.99) Joan Didion's daughter was hospitalised with septic shock and put
into a medically-induced coma. Shortly afterward, her husband of forty years
died from a heart attack. Daily Mail October Book of the
Month.
9. A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian - Marina
Lewycka (£7.99) Back again, an old favourite - an entertaining
novel about two Ukrainian sisters, their father and his new wife in
Peterborough.
10. Peter Pan in Scarlet - Geraldine McCaughrean
(£6.99) This is the official sequel to Peter Pan
commissioned by Great Ormond Street Children’s Hospital. The boys are now
old buffers, Neverland is leaking and Peter has been bored ...
Best wishes from
your local independent 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
"Powerful books draw children in, inspire them and give
them the space to wander in others’ worlds. They invite children to take
sensuous pleasure in words, try on other ways of using language, explore
others’ experience and sometimes come to a better understanding of their
own."
Henrietta Dombey, Books for Keeps,
September 2006, reviewing "Waiting for a Jamie Oliver: beyond bog-standard
literacy" (and arguing that limiting primary school children to short extracts
from books to illustrate grammatical points is the wrong
approach)
OCTOBER 2006
Dear Book Case customer or contact,
Autumn is now well and truly with us and we have
publishers promoting the titles they hope you will buy for Christmas - we
already have a red catalogue with a green bauble on the front for you to take
away and browse but we're trying not to make it too conspicuous. You'll
notice a lot of joke books in the New Titles section below, another
seasonal sign.
We now have the beginnings of a list of recommended
historical
novels online
here, broken
down broadly by period. (Before anyone complains, I'm following the Wikipedia
comment in the case of the Dark Ages - "When the term Dark Ages is used by
historians today, it is intended to be neutral, namely to express the idea that
the events of the period often seem 'dark' to us, due to the paucity of
historical records compared with later times. The darkness is ours, not
theirs.") Please send in corrections and additions.
Speaking of historical novels, one of our customers recommends
Barry Unsworth - "Each book is deeply researched and
different" - though sadly a number of his books are out of print. We're
stocking what there is.
If you do not wish to receive this monthly mailing, please click on
Reply and type CANCEL in the Subject
box.)
THIS MONTH'S FEATURED
BOOKS
We highlight every month books we think are of
particular interest: from adult fiction and non-fiction and a children's
book.
Adult fiction: Remainder by Tom McCarthy.
"Splendidly odd", "refreshingly brilliant"
and enthusiastically-reviewed novel from small independent publisher Alma.
Traumatised by an accident that involves something falling from the sky and
leaves him eight and a half million pounds richer, our hero spends his time and
money obsessively reconstructing and re-enacting memories and situations from
his past. (£9.99 at The Book Case.)
Adult non-fiction: An Inconvenient
Truth by Al Gore. "The planetary emergency of global warming and what
we can do about it." (£14.99) If you haven't seen the film, do. This
highly-illustrated book presents the facts. Addressing the same theme but not
pictorial is
George Monbiot's Heat: how to stop the
planet burning (£17.99) and he will be speaking at the
National Climate March in London on 4th November
(http://www.campaigncc.org/)
Children's book: Tiger - Nick
Butterworth. Tiger is an adorable new toddler character from Nick
Butterworth. This title is perfect for sharing as toddlers will love playing at
being a tiger whilst the rhythmic rhyming story encourages their language
skills. Ages: 0-3yrs. (£5.99)
NEWS
Local
Author
Straight Ahead - Clare Shaw, £7.95
First
collection from a local poet - firmly based in the social and physical
landscape of northern England, the poems capture intimacy, loss, fragmentation
and delight, and follow the trajectory of a life through childhood, breakdown
and love.
Local Events
Coming up on Monday 9th October, local author and
historian Jill Liddington talks about her bestselling book
Rebel Girls: their fight for the vote in an event titled
"When the suffragettes came to Halifax", Halifax Library, 7.30pm.
So if you missed her festival talk, here's another chance, and The
Book Case will be there selling the book.
Renowned playwright, screenwriter and novelist Willy
Russell appeared at the Trades Club in Hebden Bridge on Sunday 1st
October and read extracts from his touching and hilarious novel The Wrong
Boy as well as most effectively taking on the part of Shirley from
Shirley Valentine. The venue was packed out with an appreciative
audience and Willy Rusell answered questions and signed books. We have a few
signed copies of The Wrong Boy left at The Book Case. The event was to
raise money for an Arvon Foundation project organised by Stephen May to fund
the work of people who turn to creative writing in prison.
National Book Events
The Daily
Mail Book Club
September's choice was She May Not Leave by Fay Weldon
(£7.99). Into a difficult household comes Agnieszka,
from Poland, a domestic paragon. But is she friend or foe?
October's Book of the Month is The Year of Magical
Thinking by Joan Didion (£7.99) - Joan Didion's daughter was
hospitalised with septic shock and put into a medically-induced coma. Shortly
afterward, her husband of forty years died from a heart attack. She
tells the story of that year. The Book Case will
accept Daily Mail National Book Tokens against one-half of the cost of this
month's recommended title.
The Man Booker
Prize
The shortlist was announced on 14th September as follows. We are
stocking the first two, and will be stocking the winner,
which will be announced on 10th October. The others can usually be ordered
in overnight.
Sarah Waters - The Night Watch - Atmospheric
tale of four Londoners during the Blitz. (£14.99 at The Book
Case)
Kate Grenville - The Secret River - A convict
tries to create a new life for himself and his family in Australia, only to
find that violence is inescapable. (£7.99)
Kiran
Desai - The Inheritance of Loss - In the
north-eastern Himalayas, in an isolated and crumbling house, there lives an
embittered old judge, who wants nothing more than to retire in peace. But with
the arrival of his orphaned granddaughter, Sai, and the son of his chatty cook
trying to stay a step ahead of US immigration services, this is far from easy.
(£16.99)
MJ Hyland - Carry Me Down. John Egan
has an unusual talent: he knows when people are lying. He hopes that one day
this gift will bring him fame and guarantee his entry into the Guinness Book of
World Records, but until then, he must deal with the destructive undercurrents
of his loving but fragile family. (£9.99)
Hisham Matar - In
the Country of Men. On a white hot day in Tripoli in the summer of
1979 nine year-old Suleiman is shopping in the market square with his mother.
His father is away on business - but Suleiman is sure he has just seen him,
standing across the street in a pair of dark glasses. But why isn’t he
waving? (£12.99)
Edward St Aubyn - Mother's
Milk. A complex family portrait that examines the shifting
allegiances between mothers, sons, and husbands, written with "scathing wit and
bright perceptiveness". (£12.99)
Guardian Children's Book
Prize
The shortlist ("eight minor masterpieces") was as follows:
Jill Murphy: The Worst Witch Saves the Day,
£4.99
Frank Cottrell Boyce: Framed, £5.99
Philip Reeve: A Darkling Plain, £12.99 (paperback
expected next Feb.)
Tim Wynne-Jones: The Survival Game,
£5.99
Frances Hardinge: Fly By Night,, £5.99
Patrick Cave: Blown Away, £6.99
David Almond: Clay, £5.99
Siobhan Dowd:
A Swift Pure Cry, £12.99 (paperback expected Feb.)
Books Build
Futures
As people aware of the value of books, you might be interested in
Book Aid International -
www.bookaid.org - a charity which works
in 18 countries in sub-Saharan Africa and Palestine, providing over half a
million books and journals each year to libraries, hospitals, refugee camps and
schools, and supporting the growth of local publishing and bookselling so that
affordable books can be produced which reflect the local languages and culture.
They run a
Reverse Book Club, whereby for £5 a month
they supply four relevant books (e.g. on welding, on AIDS, novels addressing
local issues, children's storybooks) to sub-Saharan Africa. The charity is
supported by Michael Palin and Jeremy Paxman, among others.
NEW TITLES
October's hardback fiction
includes Alexander McCall Smith, John Mortimer, Paul
Auster, Ian Rankin and Frederick Forsyth,
as well as a Turkish novel about calligraphy and a "splendidly odd"
novel from Tom McCarthy. Amongst
new paperback fiction we
have Salman Rushdie, Nadine Gordimer, Rose Tremain,
Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Tariq Ali and Terry Pratchett
plus another good crop of classic ghost stories and reissues of
C S Forester, Rohinton Mistry and a J B
Priestley.
Non-fiction:
- Helen of Troy, Pliny the Younger, Hardy, Ransome, Primo Levi,
Roger McGough, Blake Morrison, Billy Bragg, Richard Whiteley, a child growing
up in fundamentalist Christian America and a New Zealand woman
married to a Petra Bedouin in Biography
- 50 years of bloodshed in the Middle East, the ethnic
cleansing of Palestine, being Arab and changing the
world in Current
Affairs
- cooking for students,
wine and Alice Thomas Ellis in Food and Drink
- biodynamics, garden villains and a
gardener's almanack in Gardening
- more daft miniature kits from Running
Press in Gifts and
novelties
- Homo Britannicus, the heirs of Mohammed, medieval personal
prayerbooks, German witches, Methodism, the last Great
Mughal and 20th-century state
secrets in History
- worst-case historical scenarios, parodies, John O'Farrell,
the Queen, the Penguin of Death, senior moments, dead cats, negative
affirmations, Colemanballs, Private Eye, Bling-blogs-and-bluetooth, Peter
Cook, Timewaster letters, McGonagall and Gervase
Phinn in Humour (Christmas is coming)
- personal coherence, changing your life, pocket prayers,
Goddesses, angels and fairies, Latin spirit, silent grandmothers
and Arthurian tarot in MBS
- the Archers, Halliwell and the Radio Times
on Film and Strictly Come Dancing in Media
- fencing
Paradise in Nature
- Seamus Heaney, John Agard, Wendy
Beckett and Mark Haddon in Poetry
- Pears, Schott, Tingo and everyday
phrases in Reference
- global warming, penguins'
feet and God in Science
- Monty Don's work with disaffected youth,
royalty and manners in Society
- nowhere, olives,
mountains, Budapest, Flanders, hiding places, barns in the Dales, Thailand,
Paris, British ghostly places and new annual guides
to pubs, food and
inns in Travel
- and a little tiger, the worst witch, Tracy Beaker, Lemony
Snicket and Tiffany Aching in Children's
For the full answers to last month's quiz,
on Picnics in literature, click
here.
We are replacing the monthly nominal prize with an
annual
£20 Book Token to be awarded in December to the person with the
most correct answers over the year.
______________________________________________________________________________________________
What you've been
buying: SEPTEMBER BESTSELLERS at The
Book Case
Books of
local interest returned to the fore for Book Case customers in September. Three
children’s books made the Top Ten, the Dangerous Book for Boys was still
popular, and Bill Bryson and trees made up the
remainder.
1. Rebel Girls - Jill Liddington (£14.99) At the top
again, the story of the young campaigners who took their fight for the vote for
women across the north of England - including Lavena Saltonstall of Hebden
Bridge.
2. Iron Man - Ted Hughes (£4.99) Iron Man is destroying
the earth - but when a terrible monster from outer space threatens to lay waste
to the planet, it is the Iron Man who finds a way to save the world. As
illustrated on Mytholmroyd Station!
3. Dangerous Book for Boys - Conn Iggulden (£18.99) Still
riding high, a chunky guide to fun, creative and exciting things to do.
"There's a whole world out there: with this book, anyone can get out and
explore it."
4. Moods of Yorkshire - John Morrison (£14.99) 140
photographs showing Yorkshire in a variety of moods throughout the seasons -
"If Yorkshire is hard to pin down, that’s because there are so many
‘Yorkshires’," says John Morrison; the first picture is of geese on
the local towpath!
5. Gone Walkabout - Anna Carlisle
(£6.00) From Hebden Bridge publishers Pennine Pens, a collection of
24 local walks.
6. Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid - Bill Bryson
(£18.99) Nostalgic and hilarious memoir from the well-loved writer of
growing up in the middle of the United States in the middle of the last
century.
7. Cliffhanger - Jacqueline Wilson (£3.99) Young Tim
isn’t one for sports but his Dad decides an adventure holiday with
abseiling and canoeing will be just the thing.
8. Pocket Pub Guide to West Yorkshire - Keith Wadd
(£4.99) From the chairman of the West Riding Ramblers' Association, 15
walks, encompassing Ilkley Moor in the north to Holme in the south, and
Lumbutts and Hebden Bridge in the west to Fairburn Ings in the east.
9. Secret Life of Trees - Colin Tudge (£8.99) How trees
work, how they communicate, how they tell the time, how they came to exist, and
much much more.
10. Point Blanc - Anthony Horowitz (£6.99)
Fourteen-year-old Alex is back at school trying to adapt to his new double
life, but MI6 have other plans for him.
Best wishes from your local
independent 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
"It has
become a tradition for students to sit outside the library building on stones
around the fences and under the shade to wait their turn to get into the
building to read."
Mr Asmelah Assefa of the Tigrai
Development Association in Ethiopia (Reverse Book Club newsletter, October
2006)
LATE SEPTEMBER 2006
Dear Book Case customer or contact,
Willy Russell, the acclaimed writer of Educating Rita, Shirley
Valentine, Blood Brothers, Our Day Out and The Wrong Boy will be
reading from his work, talking about his career and answering your questions,
at a special charity event to raise money for writers in prison, at Hebden
Bridge Trades Club, Holme Street, Sunday 1 October at 8pm. Tickets
£6/£8 available in advance and on the door. The Book Case will be
selling books there, and Willy Russell will sign them after the event.
SEPTEMBER 2006
Dear Book Case customer or contact,
The beginning of the new academic year is beginning to show in our
customer order records and more of the centre table is now given over to a
display of our wonderful selection of 2007 Diaries and Calendars
- both kinds of the ever-popular We'Moon Diary are
now in stock, plus Moleskin diaries, Elfin
diaries and a range of other pictorial diaries. More to follow.
New suggestions for inspirational books include Black
Elk (on order) plus Gunther Grass and Kurt
Vonnegut Jr for Men's Milestone Fiction. The Price of Water in
Finisterre, though not a novel, is suggested as a Nice Read.
If you do not wish to receive this monthly mailing, please click on
Reply and type CANCEL in the Subject
box.)
THIS MONTH'S FEATURED
BOOKS
We highlight every month books we think are of
particular interest: from adult fiction and non-fiction, a children's book and
a CD or DVD.
Adult fiction: A Spot of Bother - Mark Haddon.
George Hall doesn't understand the modern
obsession with talking about everything. 'The secret of contentment, George
felt, lay in ignoring many things completely' – but family events
intervene. A disturbing yet very funny portrait of a dignified man trying to go
insane politely. From the author of 'The Curious Incident of the Dog in the
Night-time'. (£15.99 at The Book Case)
Adult non-fiction: Home from Home - George Alagiah. "From
Immigrant Boy to English Man." George Alagiah was born in Sri Lanka and grew up
in Ghana. His family came to Britain in the '60s. This is his story, going to
school in Portsmouth (where his friends were all white and teased him in the
shower room for not having a summer tan) and gradually discovering his
immigrant identity. The BBC ex-foreign correspondent and presenter
spoke to a packed house at Hebden Bridge Cinema about his previous book
A Passage to Africa, and his vision for breaking down the Us and Them
world divide, during the local Arts Festival. (£17.99)
Children's book: Soul Eater - Michelle Paver.
Dazzling entertainment and seamless storytelling - the third adventure
in Torak's quest to vanquish the terrifying Soul-Eaters. Torak has survived the
summer and his heart-stopping adventure in the Seal Islands. He and Wolf are
together again. But their reunion is all too short-lived. As mid winter
approaches Torak learns the worst from the White Fox clan. The Soul-Eaters have
snatched Wolf and are going to sacrifice him. Age 12+ yrs
(£9.99)
DVD of the month
is Glastonbury: Julien Temple
(The Filth and the Fury), has spent the past few years collecting footage from
every single Glastonbury Festival, interweaving images of the people, the
spectacles and the legendary music performances, and capturing the unbridled
energy of each successive generation of youthful music fans. Glastonbury
skilfully chronicles, and lets you experience, the evolution of the
longest-running music festival in the world. (Set of 2 DVDs
£19.99)
NEWSLocal
Interest
There's a new Hebden Bridge publisher, Blue Moose,
and their first two books are as follows:
Anthills and Stars - Kevin Duffy,
£7.99
A novel set back in 1968 when the
Permissive Society was arriving in a grey northern town 20 miles east of
Manchester in a multi-coloured VW camper van. The scene is set for a clash
between laid-back hippy offcomer Solomon and his neighbour, a beige-dressing
resident matriarch. Long-term Hebden Bridge residents may think this all sounds
rather familiar ...
The Bridge Between - Nathan Vanek,
£7.99
The author, a well-known Canadian yogi and
guru, muses on the lessons learnt from returning to Canada after 25 years in
India, with insights into the contrasts between the two countries.
Ghosts and Gravestones of Haworth -
Philip Lister, £8.99
Join local guide Phil Lister as he takes you
on a tour of Haworth's dark and ghostly side: meet the ghost of Room 7 at the
Old White Lion, the Grey Lady of Weavers Restaurant, and Ponden Hall's
harbinger of doom, Old Greybeard. Tour the famous graveyard, in use for over
700 years ago and believed to house over 40,000 souls! Rediscover the Haworth
of the Brontes, the blackened-stone buildings, washed by Pennine rain, the
ginnels and alleyways of a forgotten time, overcrowded candlelit cottages,
woolcombers, weavers, clogs, poverty and pride.
Sycorax - J B Aspinall,
£11.95
In the credulous squalor of Medieval
Yorkshire, a peasant girl is accused of being a sorceress and the tale is told
many years later by a flawed monk at Byland Abbey (now Ampleforth). A satire on
patriarchal prejudice and superstition.
Local Events
Coming up on Monday 9th October, local author and
historian Jill Liddington talks about her bestselling book
Rebel Girls: their fight for the vote in an event titled
"When the suffragettes came to Halifax", Halifax Library, 7.30pm.
So if you missed her festival talk, here's another chance.
Yesterday, August 31st, saw a meeting of the new Hebden Bridge
Walkers Action group in the White Lion; the group aims to make Hebden
Bridge Britain's first "Walkers Welcome" town, and as
stockists of walking books, we enthusiastically support this proposal! Click
here for more information.
National Book Events
The Daily
Mail Book Club
We don't yet have a list of the Daily Mail's next selection though
apparently there is one. The Book Case will accept
Daily Mail National Book Tokens against one-half of the cost of this month's
recommended title when they get around to printing them.
The Man Booker
Prize
The longlist of 19 was announced on 14th August and can
be seen
here or
in our window, with the Guardian's comments
here.
We have in stock the front runners -
Sarah Waters - The Night Watch - Atmospheric
tale of four Londoners during the Blitz.
David Mitchell -
Black Swan Green - A 13-year-old struggles with his stammer, school
bullies and the Game of Life in this Eighties rites-of-passage
novel.
Kate Grenville - The Secret River - A convict
tries to create a new life for himself and his family in Australia, only to
find that violence is inescapable.
Peter Carey - Theft: A Love
Story - The theft of a painting sets off a chain of events that
frazzles relations between an exiled artist, his backward brother and an
alluring art lover
- as well as James Robertson's The Testament of Gideon Mack -
A manuscript is found describing troubled Scottish priest dancing with
the Devil.
The shortlist will be announced on 14th September and the winner on
10th October.
We were going to tell you about the survey that showed books were a
big beach turn-on, but it feels a bit cold for that so you can read about it
here.
The same story was in the Courier on 7th August.
Meanwhile, our quieter customers can look forward to
Born to be
Mild by Grover Click, the Assistant Vice President of the Dull Men Club.
It will be based on the sensible website
www.dullmen.com which offers a safe
haven for dull men everywhere to share their thoughts and experiences. Current
topics include airport baggage carousels, the less eventful webcams and dull
book titles. We don't yet have a publication date for the book but
waiting can be quite a dull occupation.
NEW TITLES
There's an impressive line-up of hardback
fiction for September, including Margaret Atwood, Mark
Haddon, John le Carre, Peter Ackroyd, Philippa Gregory, William
Boyd, Robert Harris, Martin Amis and Dick
Francis. Amongst new paperback
fiction we have Julian Barnes, Paul Auster, Kate
Grenville, Caryl Phillips, P D James and Fay
Weldon, plus reissues of Willa Cather, John le Carre
- and John Gielgud & Ralph Richardson playing
Holmes & Watson on a BBC compilation CD. We're also trying
the London detectives Bryant & May to see how you like
them.
Non-fiction:
- Simon Schama on Art
- Alan Bennett (paperback), Saladin,
Shakespeare, Matisse, Clarisse Cliff, Judi Dench, Fred Dibnah, John
Simpson, Bill Bryson, Frank McCourt, Joan Bakewell, Joan Didion, George
Alagiah, Torey Haydn and a woman disguised
as a man in Biography
- garden to kitchen with Monty Don in Gardening
- three potted histories, Rome, Islam, battles of
Yorkshire, London bridges, Edwardians, WWI survivors and the
Red Army 1941-45 in History
- non-news, scam baiters, zombies, Pam Ayres, a sociable
weekend book, being a man, Alan Bennett reissues, William
CDs and not having a
clue in Humour
- Coelho, werewolves, witches and English
legends in MBS
- Dylan in Music
- Trees, gemstones,
mushrooms and BB in Nature
- Simon Armitage, Carol Ann Duffy and John
Betjeman in Poetry
- climate change,
fair trade, the failings of the Bush administration, Riverbend
(the Iraqi woman blogger), Monbiot on stopping the planet burning
and changing the world while at
work in Politics
and Current
Events
- a new Chambers dictionary and the Guinness
Book of Records in Reference
- every day science and technology, cows walking downstairs
and unexplained phenomena in Science
- Accrington Stanley and Lance
Armstrong in Sport
- Venice, the
coast, treasure islands, micronations, hidden Yorkshire, Belgian towns,
Barcelona and Real Ale 2007 in Travel
- and wordy birds, Jacqueline Wilson, nasty historical jobs,
Edge, noble warriors and soul eaters in Children's
For the full answers to last month's quiz,
on Stairs in literature, click
here.
We are replacing the monthly nominal prize with an
annual
£20 Book Token to be awarded in December to the person with the
most correct answers over the year.
______________________________________________________________________________________________
What you've been
buying: AUGUST BESTSELLERS at The Book
Case
There was quite a change in Book
Case customers’ buying habits in August with a big increase in
non-fiction; we kept the big red activity book for men and Colin Tudge’s
book about trees, but only one novel made the top ten. There was a lot of
interest in a history book about the Greeks vs the Persians, two spiritual
books and two reference books for writers - and the remaining two were a
collection of Betjeman’s radio talks and a book for children on
bereavement.
1. Dangerous Book for Boys - Conn
Iggulden (£18.99)
The author
of the Emperor series got together with his brother to write this chunky guide
to celebrate the great time they had making, exploring and inventing things:
this book tells how to do it all.
2. Persian Fire - Tom Holland (£9.99)
When the Greeks
held out against the conquering army of most powerful man on the planet, King
Xerxes of Persia, in 480 BC, they enabled the existence the West in its present
form.(£9.99)
3. Secret Life of Trees - Colin Tudge (£8.99)
Explores
the way trees work and what they are, finding out how they communicate, how
they tell the time, how they came to exist, and much much more. Our Non-fiction
Book of the Month for August.
4. New Earth: awakening to your life’s purpose - Eckhart Tolle
(£12.99)
From the author of "The Power of Now", this new book
provides the spiritual framework for people to move beyond themselves in order
to make this world a better, more spiritually evolved place to live.
5. Gentlemen and Players - Joanne Harris (£6.99)
At an
old-established boys' grammar school in the north of England the eccentric
Latin master is reluctantly contemplating retirement. Daily Mail Book of the
Month.
6. Children’s Writers’ and Artists’ Yearbook
(£12.99)
A comprehensive guide to markets in all areas of children's
media.
7. Writers’ and Artists’ Yearbook (£14.99)
The bestselling guide to markets in all areas of the media, this year in
its 100th edition.
8. Trains and Buttered Toast - Sir John Betjeman
(£14.99)
Selected radio talks from the popular and eccentric Poet
Laureate - "ought to be read by everyone applying for British citizenship!"
9. Michael Rosen’s Sad Book, ill. Quentin Blake
(£10.99)
What makes Michael Rosen most sad is thinking about his son,
Eddie, who died. In this book for children he writes about his sadness, how it
affects him and some of the things he does to try to cope with it.
10. Wild Love - Gill Edwards (£10.99)
"Discover the
Magical Secrets of Freedom, Joy and Unconditional Love" from the clinical
psychologist and metaphysical writer.
Best wishes from your local independent 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
"Blair has
kept no diaries, and 'books are not his thing', according to one former
official. 'He doesn't read them.'"
Michael White, Guardian, "What can he do
next?", Monday June 26, 2006
AUGUST 2006
Dear Book Case customer or contact,
Hebden Bridge Arts Festival is finished,
leaving extensive traces on our bestsellers list below, and the
centre table is now confused about its seasons, combining the last
of Richard & Judy's Summer Reads,
our Browse summer reading display, local walking
books - and the first of the incoming 2007 diaries and
calendars.
Our attempt to supply books to one of the earlier Festival events,
readings from Isaac Rosenberg's poems and letters, was thwarted by the heavy
rain on 2nd July which put Market Street and The Book Case floor under water.
Heroic work by Peter and Simon to remove the soggy carpet limited the damage
and this time the water didn't reach shelf level.
The Book Case Reading
Prize
The Book Case Reading Prize was presented at participating
schools as part of their end of term awards. The prize consists of a trophy, a
certificate, and a book voucher. All the staff at the Book Case would like to
send their congratulations to the winners: we hope they enjoy spending their
vouchers and we look forward to seeing them in the shop.
New Spiritual Magazines
We are now stocking three new mags - Pan Gaia: a
pagan journal for thinking people (£4.50), Sage Woman:
celebrating the Goddess in every woman (£5.50) and New
Witch (not your mother's broomstick) (£2.50). We have a display
of books about the Goddess in the window, and invite your suggestions of
further books.
Putumayo World Music
We've got some nice new CDs
in from Putumayo, including Brazilian Lounge, Turkish Groove and
Music from the Wine Lands (see below). We have some free samplers if
you'd like to hear before you buy.
Stocks of the current issue of
The Book Magazine are running low so collect yours if you
haven't already. We do, however, have plenty of its rival, Book
Time, which has Noel Edmonds on the cover, offering to change
your life ...
Many thanks for your helpful suggestions on inspirational
books - among those commended are Marianne Williamson, A Course in
Miracles, Larry Clapp, Alice Walker's Colour Purple, Christina
Feldman's Buddhist Path to Simplicity, Thich Nhat Hanh, Gill Edwards,
Oriah Mountain Dreamer, Dan Millman, Salvador de Madariaga's Heart of Jade
(out of print at present), Mere Christianity by C S Lewis,
Buchi Emecheta's novels and Carol Shield's Larry's Party in
addition to our original list of Gibran's The Prophet,
Fitzgerald's Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam and Hesse's Siddharta.
Keep 'em coming! The notepad's on the centre table with a display of some of
the suggestions.
You haven't been very interested in our Historical
Novels but we'll try again later.
If you do not wish to receive this monthly mailing, please click on
Reply and type CANCEL in the Subject
box.)
THIS MONTH'S FEATURED
BOOKS
We highlight every month books we think are of
particular interest: from adult fiction and non-fiction, a children's book and
a CD.
Adult fiction: Hav by Jan Morris (£14.99
at The Book Case). The well-known travel writer’s only novel - she
describes a visit to a magical city - but when she returns twenty years later,
everything has changed. Ursula le Guin, reviewing the book at
http://books.guardian.co.uk/reviews/travel/0,,1789307,00.html says:
"I read it as a brilliant description of the crossroads of the west and east in
two recent eras, viewed by a woman who has truly seen the world, and who lives
in it with twice the intensity of most of us. Its enigmas are part of its
accuracy. It is a very good guidebook, I think, to the early 21st
century."
Adult non-fiction: The Secret Life
of Trees: how they live and why they matter by Colin Tudge
(£8.99) How they live and why they matter; how they work, what they are,
how they communicate and tell the time, how they came to exist, and much
more.
Children's book: Just in Case - Meg Rosoff.
One of the most eagerly awaited events in children's publishing this
year from the author of How I Live Now. This is a story about Fate and
what you would do if you thought Fate was out to get you. Daring, powerful and
utterly compelling. Ages: 12+ (£10.99)
CD of the month is from
Putumayo - Music from the Wine Lands
(£10.99). Music from the Wine
Lands is a full-bodied selection of songs from the world's leading
wine-producing regions: France, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Germany, Australia,
Chile, Argentina, South Africa, Greece and the United States. A track from this
CD is also included on a Putumayo CD Sampler which is currently available free
in the shop (while stocks last)
NEWS
Local
Interest
Moods
of Yorkshire - John Morrison (£14.99) - now at last in stock.
The many faces of Yorkshire from moors and valleys to coast, and from great
houses built with slave-trade money to back-to-backs, all captured in John
Morrison's stunning photos.
Circular Walks along the Pennine Way by Kevin Donkin
(£12.99)
A series of fifty circular walks along and around the route.
All of them can be accomplished in a day; all of them finish where they
started. Completing the Pennine Way in one go will inevitably mean missing some
of the best views, as the weather will certainly descend sooner or later to
obscure the landscape. The walks included in this guidebook were adopted by the
Countryside Agency for its 40th anniversary celebration of the Pennine Way,
with an event entitled 'Walk the Way in a Day' held on 24 April 2005.
Hebden Bridge Treasure Hunt on Foot
(£2.99)
New edition in booklet form of this walk around town
visiting places of interest, historical and otherwise.
National Book Events
Richard and Judy's Summer
Reads
Wed 2nd August - The Historian by
Elizabeth Kostova, £6.99
Deciphering obscure signs and hidden
texts, reading codes worked into the fabric of medieval monastic traditions,
and evading terrifying adversaries, one woman comes ever closer to the secret
of her own past and a confrontation with the very definition of evil.
Wed 9th August - The Abortionist's
Daughter by Elisabeth Hyde, £6.99
Nineteen-year-old Megan
Thompson has a love-hate relationship with her mother, Diana Duprey, an
abortion doctor. One day, Diana is found dead in their pool.
The Daily Mail Book
Club
August's title is Gentlemen and
Players by Joanne Harris (£6.99). At an old-established boys'
grammar school in the north of England the eccentric Latin master is
reluctantlycontemplating retirement. The Book Case accepts Daily
Mail National Book Tokens against one-half of the cost of this month's
recommended title.
NEW TITLES
August's hardback fiction
includes John Updike, Kate Atkinson, Margaret Drabble and
Margaret Elphinstone and amongst
new paperback fiction we
have Irving, Welsh, Meek, Lively, Rawle, Diamant, Picoult,
Rendell, and many more plus reissues of
Antonia White, Robert Graves (Claudius), Vintage
East books and some classic SF.
Non-fiction:
- reissues on Steadman on Alice and
Freud in Art
- Shakespeare & Co, Bess of Hardwick,
Judge Sewall (of the Salem witch trials), Gilbert
White, a geisha, a Nazi childhood, Betjeman, a Parisian
bookseller, George Galloway, a north London sex fiend
(female) and more in Biography
- planting by the moon in Gardening
- Tribes of Britain, the Persian-Greek clash of 380BC, 18th- to
20th-century shopworkers, and RAF National
Service in History
- the cult of the Flying Spaghetti
Monster, jokes and cartoons in Humour
- the Writers' Handbook, Children's Writers' & Artists'
Yearbook, lost books, a reading diary, Greek myths retold and
Terry Eagleton in Language and
Literature
- secret societies and Shining Ones, freedom,
stories and identity, and the
Hitopadesa in MBS
- Pink Floyd, Dylan and the New
Penguin Dictionary Of Music in Music
- Trees, birds,
mushrooms and dogs in Nature &
Pets
- Sir Gawain & the Green
Knight in Poetry
- Iraq and
the food industry in Politics and Current
Events
- ideas borrowed from
nature in Science
- Bill Gardner in Sport
- Joshua Slocum,
Jan Morris, adventure travel, the Pennine Way and branch
lines in Travel
- and Hairy Maclary, nasty Mr Gum, Horrid Henry,
Redwall and a new Meg Rosoff in Children's
For the full answers to last month's quiz,
on WWII Aeroplanes in literature, click
here.
We are replacing the monthly nominal prize with an
annual
£20 Book Token to be awarded in December to the person with the
most correct answers over the year.
______________________________________________________________________________________________
What you've been
buying: JULY BESTSELLERS at The Book
Case
Hebden Bridge Arts Festival made its
mark on The Book Case’s bestseller list last month, supplying three of the
top runners; Richard & Judy contributed one novel; three books were of
local interest, including the perennial Weird Calderdale; and the other favourites were a big
red activity book for men, a book about trees, one about a Yorkshire farm, and
a children’s Dr Who activity book.
1. Passage to Africa - George Alagiah (£7.99) As a
five-year-old, George Alagiah emigrated with his family from Sri Lanka to Ghana
- the first African country to attain independence from the British Empire.
This is Alagiah's shattering catalogue of atrocities, crafted into a portrait
of Africa that is infused with hope, insight and outrage.
2. Rebel Girls - Jill Liddington (£14.99) The story of
the young campaigners who took their fight for the vote for women across the
north of England.
3. Dangerous Book for Boys - Conn Iggulden (£18.99) The
author of the Emperor series got together with his brother to write this chunky
guide to celebrate the great time they had making, exploring and inventing
things: this book tells how to do it all. Our July Non-Fiction Book of the
Month.
4. Island - Victoria Hislop (£6.99) On the brink of a
life-changing decision, Alexis Fielding longs to find out about her mother's
past. But Sofia has never spoken of it. A Richard & Judy Summer Read.
5. Sowerby Bridge: Images of England Series - David Cliff
(£12.99) A collection of over 200 archive images provides a nostalgic
insight into the changing history of Sowerby Bridge over the last 150
years.
6. Weird Calderdale - Paul Weatherhead (£7.99) This list
of strange events from the Calderdale area just won’t leave the
charts!
7. Dr. James Graham's Celestial Bed - Gaia Holmes (£7.95)
Debut poetry collection from a Luddenden-born author who launched this book at
the Festival.
8. Secret Life of Trees - Colin Tudge (£8.99) Explores
the way trees work and what they are, finding out how they communicate, how
they tell the time, how they came to exist, and much much more.
9. Farm - Richard Benson (£8.99) A true story of one
family and the English countryside - a warm, funny, moving and unsentimental
portrait of life on a fifty-acre Yorkshire smallholding at the turn of a new
century.
10. Dr Who Activity Book (£3.99) Bursting with codes to
crack and puzzles to ponder over: and with 50 press-out character cards.
Best wishes from your local independent 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
"What one
writer can make in the solitude of one room is something no power can easily
destroy."- Salman Rushdie
JULY 2006
Dear Book Case customer or contact,
It's Hebden Bridge Arts Festival month and all the
associated books are displayed on our centre table - see below for details. And
Richard & Judy have launched their Summer
Reads, so we've a lot to tell you this month.
The Book Case's plan to sponsor
reading prizes in local primary schools as part of our
twenty-first anniversary celebrations is gathering steam and several schools
have expressed interest. Each school will have a trophy, a
certificate and a book token to award to the child they judge to have done best
in reading, whether that's in achievement, effort or progress made. See our
website for details.
The second issue of The Book Magazine is now in
and contains the results of the vote on the "greatest living British writer"
(Rowling); the second greatest is Terry Pratchett. H'm. But apart from that, it
has Francesco da Mosto, interviews with Jodi Picoult, Kate Long and Jacqueline
Wilson, Professor Stanley Wells on Shakespeare, Conn Iggulden on fathers (see
our quote below) and much more - including local author Tom Palmer on football
books. Free to customers.
Festival Eye magazine has
at last turned up - £4.95, including a free CD of top new festival
bands.
We're now stocking the alternative magazine
Ctrl.;
it's "based on environmental and socialist principles, provides
info about current affairs, up coming events, contemporary politics and
the arts and attempts to promote the values of honesty, integrity and quality
throughout its content." It costs £1.50 including two posters and you can
find out more about it at
http://www.takectrl.org/page12.htm
And also new in is the magazine Ecologist: this
month's issue has "Diet Coke - what's not on the can but should be", "Getting
teenagers off crack and into farming", "Last days of the Inuit" and
"Nuclear power - why not?" (£3.50)
It's been put to us that
men's literary
milestones tend to be
non-fiction - suggestions
gratefully received. The official list of Milestone fiction and customers'
additions (
The Unbearable Lightness of Being -
Kundera, The Kindness of Women - Ballard, The Man in my
Basement - Mosley, The God of Small Things - Roy; plus recommends
of Alice Munro and Rose Tremain) can be found
here.
We'd also like to hear any additions from women to the
Watershed
fiction list (
here) - so
far we have Joan Barfoot's
Gaining Ground and Agnes Smedley's
Daughter of Earth.
New lists for which we are asking for suggestions are
Inspirational books which have meant a lot to you (so far we
have Gibran's The Prophet, Fitzgerald's Rubaiyat of Omar
Khayyam and Hesse's Siddharta)
- and prompted by this month's featured fiction about Vikings, we'd
also like to hear about historical fiction you rate. As Kate
commented, it can range from inspiring to dreadful. The notebook on
our centre table is waiting for you, or just e-mail us.
Music in the shop - customer opinion is divided
between some, to break the silence, and none at all, so we are sticking to
quietish classical or relaxing music. Please let us know if it's getting on
your nerves!
Bookmarks - we always keep a supply of free card
bookmarks by the till, but new in from Pomegranate we now have some unusual
ones featuring ideographs from Bantu symbol language.
£1.20 each. And for the really organised amongst you, Geoff
Boswell's 2007 Hebden Bridge calendar is now in stock at
£4.50.
If you do not wish to receive this monthly mailing, please click on
Reply and type CANCEL in the Subject
box.)
THIS MONTH'S FEATURED
BOOKS
We highlight every month books we think are of
particular interest: from adult fiction and non-fiction, a children's book and
a CD.
Adult fiction: Tim Severin's Viking Trilogy - Odinn's
Child, Sworn Brother, and King's Man (£6.99
each). In this trilogy telling the saga of an Icelandic
Viking, the author takes a different and compelling view of an area of history
often stereotyped or misinterpreted. The hero is not the usual barbarian, but
holds deep spiritual beliefs in the Old Norse religion, in spite of having
lived lived as a monk. The stories range along the old Viking trade routes
across Europe to Vinland and on to the Byzantine Empire, bringing to life a
world long past. Severin has the knack of making the Viking's experiences seem
like first hand - aided by vivid battle-scene descriptions, stories of loves
won and lost and much authentic and little-known detail. An experienced
explorer and traveller, Tim Severin speaks knowledgeably about his subject.
Adult non-fiction: Dangerous Book
for Boys - Conn Iggulden (£18.99)
Switch
off your TV and thrash someone at conkers,
race your own go-cart,
identify the best quotations from Shakespeare, swot up on the solar system,
learn about famous battles and read inspiring stories of incredible courage and
bravery. Teach your old dog new tricks. Make a pinhole camera. Understand the
laws of cricket. Nicely presented must-have book for boys from eight to eighty.
Children's book: Framed - Frank Cottrell Boyce
(£5.99). The sequel to Millions, now in paperback, is the
story of a boy who plays detective in an artwork scandal involving a major
masterpiece. The story was inspired by a press cutting that described how
during the Second World War the treasured contents of London's National Gallery
were stored in Welsh slate mines. Ages: 9-11 years
CDs of the month: From Byzantium to Andalusia:
Medieval Music and Poetry - Peter Rabanser, Belinda Sykes, Jeremy Avis, Oni
Wytars Ensemble (£5.99). This recording brings together the
music and poetry of the three great Mediterranean cultures of the 13th and 14th
centuries, Judaism, Christendom and Islam. These faiths and their cultures
coexisted in the West in Moorish Andalusia (where the King had a court chapel
with musicians and poets from all three faiths) and in the East in Christian
Byzantium. From Lebanon, Turkey, Cortona and Montserrat, this is the devotional
music of ordinary people who prayed, danced and sang in praise of the divine as
an integral part of their daily lives.
NEWS
Local
Interest
Moods
of Yorkshire - John Morrison (£14.99)
The many faces of
Yorkshire from moors and valleys to coast, and from great houses built with
slave-trade money to back-to-backs, all captured in John Morrison's stunning
photos.
Textile Voices: A Century of Mill
Life - Olive Howarth & Tim Smith (£12.95)
An updated edition of this acclaimed
collection of oral history and over 100 photographs of mill life in
twentieth-century Bradford. Click
here for a
selection of photographs.
CalderCask Real Ale Guide – CAMRA
(£2.99)
Covers all the pubs, clubs and hotels in Halifax and Calderdale that
sell real ale.
Deliciously Dales - Sally
Scantlebury and Rebecca Roberts (£6.99)
Colour-illustrated book of local food trails
around the Dales, introducing some of the finest producers and outlets from the
region.
Your Life in Your Hands:
Understanding, Preventing and Overcoming Breast Cancer - Jane Plant
(£9.99)
The new updated edition includes two local
success stories; the women involved praise the accessibility of organic food in
the Upper Calder Valley.
Local authors
Agincourt by Juliet
Barker, paperback, £8.99
Now in paperback, this brilliant narrative by
a local prize-winning author commemorates and analyses a canonical battle in
British history. Agincourt took place on 25th October 1415 and was a turning
point not only in the Hundred Years War between England and France, but also in
the history of weaponry. Azincourt (as it is now) is in the Pas-de-Calais, and
the French were famously defeated by an army led by Henry V. His stunning
victory revived England's military prestige and greatly strengthened his
territorial claims in France. "Agincourt" was serialised on Radio 4.
Local
Events
Hebden Bridge Arts
Festival
The first bookish event of the celebrated local arts festival is on
2nd July, with "Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus", 16.30 at The
Little Theatre. The irresistible book, by Mo Willems, costs
£5.99. (Bookstall) We apologise for a failure of communication here -
the performing company had not told us we were not allowed to sell the book at
the event. We do however have the paperback version in stock at the
shop.
The evening of the same day at 8pm at Artsmill, Linden Road,
will be readings from the work of WWI poet Isaac
Rosenberg by his editor and biographer Jean Liddiard,
and actor Sam Dastor. (Bookstall)
Monday 3 July at 4.30pm children's author
Nigel Gray will be at Hebden Bridge
Library, currently at Hebden Vale Centre, Bridge Lanes at the end
of Market Street (past the Co-op and the Methodist Church) reading his
stories ("I'll Take You to Mrs Cole and "A Balloon for
Grandpa") and talking about his life. (Bookstall)
Peter J Murray will be at the Picture
House, 10am and 1pm on Wednesday July 5th, talking to
schools about his Mokee Joe books and
"Bonebreaker", his new book about a Viking ghost. (In stock at
The Book Case)
The same day, a play by Alessandro Baricco,
"Novocento", about the best piano player in the world,
will be performed at the Little Theatre at 8pm. We
have his books "Silk" and "Without
Blood" in stock, £5.99 each.
On 7th July, Jill Liddington will talk about her
new book "Rebel Girls" at Artsmill, 7pm. The book is a current
bestseller at The Book Case, and tracks the story of forgotten suffragettes of
the north of England (including Hebden Bridge). (Bookstall.)
On 8th July, 3.30pm, local author
Jill Robinson will talk about her comic series
Berringden Brow, at The Good Shepherd Church, Mytholmroyd.
Book in stock at The Book Case.
John Billingsley leads a walk around Mytholmroyd
exploring the early years of Ted Hughes,
starting 10am at Mytholmroyd station (Leeds-bound side, i.e.
town side) on Sunday 9th July. Six miles, about four hours,
steep and muddy! Bring a packed lunch and waterproofs. There will be a shorter
walk beginning 7.30pm on Monday 10th, same place, exploring
the Mytholmroyd of Ted Hughes. (Three miles, about two hours;
some mud ...). Lots of Ted Hughes in stock at The Book Case, including
"Elmet" (£15.00),
"Collected Poems" (£15.99) and "New Selected
Poems" (£12.99).
Also Monday 10th July
well-known author Joan Lingard will be talking to children at
Beech Hill Primary School. We have in stock several of her books, including her
new adult novel, set in Spain, "Encarnita’s Journey"
(£7.99) and the well-known "Across the Barricades" Kevin and Sadie books
for teenagers.
That evening Luddenden-born poet
Gaia Holmes will read from her debut collection, Dr.
James Graham's Celestial Bed (£7.95) at Artsmill, at
8pm. (Bookstall)
On 11th July at the Little Theatre, 8pm, "Heavy Water: a
film for Chernobyl" will be shown; it's based on Mario
Petrucci's award-winning book-length poem "Heavy Water",
which is read in the film by Juliet Stevenson, David Trelfall and
Samuel West. We have the book in stock, £8.95.
M I McAllister, author of the children's
Mistmantle series, "Urchin of the Riding Stars",
£6.99 and "Urchin and the Heartstone", £10.99,
will be talking about her work on Wed. 12th July -
phone 01422 842684 for details. We have a few signed copies of her books
in stock.
The same evening 8pm at Little
Theatre, there will be an illustrated lecture on Samuel
Beckett: The Man and His Work by John Calder and the Godot Company.
(Bookstall)
Next day, Thursday 13th July,
at Little Theatre, 8pm, David Benson will be performing his famous
impersonation of Kenneth Williams, in "Think No Evil of Us".
We have Kenneth Williams' Diaries (£14.99) and
several audio versions ("Private World of Kenneth Williams",
"Julian & Sandy", "Horne of Plenty"
...) (Bookstall)
And on Saturday 15th July,
4pm, BBC ex-foreign correspondent and presenter George
Alagiah will be at The Picture House, talking about
his experiences in Africa. We have in stock his book "Passage to
Africa", £7.99, and will be taking orders for his forthcoming
book "Home from Home". (Bookstall)
You can find out about the Hebden Bridge Arts Festival
here and see the
books and CDs on our centre table and in the window.
National Book Events
RICHARD AND JUDY’S SUMMER READS
Wed 5th July -
Highest Tide by Jim Lynch, £7.99
One night, Miles goes to the
flats near his home in search of shellfish, only to discover a giant squid.
Wed 12th July - Righteous Men by Sam Bourne,
£6.99
Will Monroe follows a trail that leads to a mysterious sect
right on his own doorstep - fervent followers of one of mankind's oldest
faiths?
Wed 19th July - The Island by Victoria Hislop,
£6.99
On the brink of a life-changing decision, Alexis Fielding longs
to find out about her mother's past. But Sofia has never spoken of it.
Wed 26th July - My Best
Friends Girl by Dorothy Koomson, £6.99
Best friends Kamryn
Matika and Adele Brannon thought nothing could come between them - until Adele
did the unthinkable and slept with Kamryn's fiance.
Wed 9th
August - The Abortionist's Daughter by Elisabeth Hyde,
£6.99
Nineteen-year-old Megan Thompson has a love-hate relationship
with her mother, Diana Duprey, an abortion doctor. One day, Diana is
found dead in their pool.
Wed 2nd August - The Historian
by Elizabeth Kostova, £6.99
Deciphering obscure signs and
hidden texts, reading codes worked into the fabric of medieval monastic
traditions, and evading terrifying adversaries, one woman comes ever closer to
the secret of her own past and a confrontation with the very definition of
evil.
The Daily Mail Book Club
July's title is Bertie, May and Mrs
Fish by Xandra Bingle - an
evocative and original wartime memoir about life on a farm in the Cotswolds,
seen through the eyes of a child. (£6.99). The Book Case
accepts Daily Mail National Book Tokens against one-half of the cost of this
month's recommended title.
August's title will be Gentlemen and
Players by Joanne Harris.
Orange Prize
The winner was Zadie Smith, On Beauty, now available
in paperback. Howard Belsey's three teenage children seek the passions, ideals
and commitments that will form their lives.
Samuel Johnson Prize Winner
1599: A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare by James
Shapiro, £8.99.
NEW TITLES
July's hardback fiction
includes Alexander McCall Smith, and
amongst new paperback
fiction we have Faulks, Smith (Zadie), Auster, Toksvig,
Tan, Houellebecq, McCarthy
(Cormac), Murakami and many
more.
Non-fiction:
- Sheila Hicks in Art and Design
- Cobbett, Mrs Beeton, Timothy Leary, John Peel, a model Aryan
toddler, a Japanese computer geek, a woman redeemed by
a rescued horse and more in Biography
- the Classical world, Alfred the Great, WWI memorials,
in History
- a spoof history of modern Britain, silly American laws, If,
Boogie, Joyce's Grenfell's George and more in Humour
- new Oxford dictionaries
and Companion to English Literature, learning
French and Sylvia Plath in Language and
Literature
- witches, Druids, King Arthur and
fairies in MBS
- Dylan in Music
- Trees
and the earth in Nature
- Virgil in Poetry
- Writers' & Artists' Yearbook and
Scrabble in Reference
- planets and believing what you can't
prove in Science
- Wayne Rooney in Sport (see, we're trying!)
- Country picture
CD-roms, China today, a long long pub crawl, three people being shocked and
annoyed about England, Siberia and the legacy of the Spanish
Civil war in Travel
- and more about Russell, the need to pee, prayers, more about
Quint, an art scandal and Alex
Rider in Children's
For the full answers to last month's quiz,
on Demonstrations and Riots in literature, click
here
We are replacing the monthly nominal prize with an annual
£20 Book Token to be awarded in December to the person with the
most correct answers over the year.
______________________________________________________________________________________________
What you've been
buying: JUNE BESTSELLERS at The Book
Case
Forgotten Northern suffragettes still led the field at The Book Case in June, and weird Calderdale
happenings plus two well-known Calder Valley fathers brought the "local
interest" bestsellers to three. Also popular were two light-hearted travel
books, a big history book, two novels, an original economics book and a classic
MBS book about the healing power of love.
1. Rebel Girls - Jill Liddington (£14.99) Local
historian, author and "suffrage detective" Jill Liddington tracks the story of
the campaigners who took their message across the north of England to the
remotest Yorkshire dales and fishing harbours, and offers us an utterly
original history of suffrage, praised by A S Byatt, and including Lavena
Saltonstall of Hebden Bridge.
2. Narrow Dog to Carcassonne - Terry Darlington
(£6.99) Two pensioners sail their canal narrowboat across the
channel and down to the Mediterranean, along with their whippet Jim. Our
Non-fiction Book of the Month for June.
3. Weird Calderdale - Paul Weatherhead (£7.99)
Strange and incredible events from the Calderdale area: the Halifax slasher,
the exploding outlaw Tom Bell, invasion of the bobby snatchers - it’s all
here!
4. Freakonomics - Steven D Levitt (£8.99) A
rogue economist explores the hidden side of everything.
5. A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian - Marina
Lewycka (£7.99) This entertaining novel about two Ukrainian
sisters in Peterborough, their father and his new wife completes its first half
year in the charts.
6. Battle for Spain - Anthony Beevor (£25.00)
Marking the seventieth anniversary of the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War,
this account narrates its origins, its violent and dramatic course from the
coup d'etat in July 1936 through the savage fighting of the next three years
and the catastrophic defeat of the Republicans in 1939. The book also unravels
the complex political and regional forces that played such an important part in
the war’s origins and history.
7. Four Fathers - Tom Palmer (ed.), John Siddique, Ray French
and James Nash (£8.99) Two well-known local authors contributed
to this look at the bonds that exist between the writers and their very
different fathers; the book was a popular Father’s Day gift.
8. Love, Medicine and Miracles - Bernie S
Siegel (£7.99) None of us knows when illness will strike us or
those we love, but we can do something about it. The message of this book is
that love heals, showing how this knowledge can be used for self-healing.
9. Kite Runner - K Hosseini (£7.99) Still in
the charts, the story of the friendship between two boys growing up in Kabul in
the same household but in different worlds.
10. The Almond Blossom Appreciation Society - Chris Stewart
(£6.99) The one-time Genesis drummer turned sheepshearer, and
author of 'Driving Over Lemons' is still at El Valero with his family, and life
there continues in decidedly oddball fashion.
.Best wishes from your local independent 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
"If the idea of masculinity is limited to
the Saturday night punch-up, the whole da Vinci, Shakespeare, Kipling legacy is
wasted."
Conn Iggulden, "The Boy is Father to the
Man", The Book Magazine 2, Summer 2006.
JUNE 2006
Dear Book Case customer or contact,
The highlights of a cold wet May on the Hebden Bridge book front have
been Jill Liddington's "Rebel Girls" and a
lot of interest in Penguin's nicely packaged Epics.
We were hoping to bring you news of an appearance by author
Matt Haig, presenting his new book (our novel of the month,
see below) but are still sorting dates - watch this space!
As part of our celebration of 21 years as Hebden Bridge's only
independent bookshop, we are planning to sponsor reading prizes in
local primary schools to encourage young people to enjoy
reading.
Member of staff Steve Hill is leaving us this month and we welcome
Anna Siemaszko, whom some of you will know from Valley
Organics. She has been a librarian and has an interest in history.
The second issue of The Book Magazine is due in
shortly - free to our customers! Call in at the shop to collect your copy. And
we also now have copies of Book Time, a monthly magazine for
you to take away; it has short reviews of new titles and a page on
Francesco's Italy.
Thanks for your many suggestions of
Nice Novels which
can be seen on the website
here. We
intend to keep a section of our centre table for
benevolent books and
genial reads (not just novels).
Some male customers have expressed an
interest in our appeal for local Men's Milestone Fiction and
taken the leaflet away but we've not had any feedback as yet.
We were pleased to get your comments on the music
playing in the shop - the general preference seems to be for relaxing jazz
or classical, and not too loud.
If you do not wish to receive this monthly mailing, please click on
Reply and type CANCEL in the Subject
box.)
THIS MONTH'S FEATURED
BOOKS
We highlight every month books we think are of
particular interest: from adult fiction and non-fiction, a children's book and
a CD.
Adult fiction: Dead Fathers’
Club - Matt Haig. A new take on Hamlet: 11-year-old Philip
Noble’s deceased dad appears as a bloodstained ghost and introduces Philip
to the Dead Fathers Club - the ghosts of dads in Newark who gather near the
bottle banks outside the Nobles' pub. Philip has to get revenge by killing the
murderer, his dad's brother, Uncle Alan. From the Leeds-based author of The
Last Family in England. (£11.99)
Adult non-fiction: Narrow Dog
to Carcassone - Terry Darlington. Two pensioners sail their canal
narrowboat across the channel and down to the Mediterranean, along with their
whippet Jim. (£6.99).
Children's book:
Spiritwalker by Michel Paver. (£5.99) The
sequel to Wolf Brother, now in paperback. Michelle Paver's sheer passion
for her story set in a world of myth and natural magic, shines through in this
skilfully woven, exciting and brilliantly satisfying second instalment of the
Chronicles of Ancient Darkness. Ages: 12+
CDs of the month are Code
of the Woosters and Stiff Upper Lip, Jeeves - P G Wodehouse:
Each comprises three CDs, running time 3 hours, with
full cast dramatisation starring Michael Hordern as Jeeves with Richard Briers
as Bertie Wooster. (£15.99 each)
NEWS
Local
Interest
Brass
Castles: West Yorkshire New Rich and Their Houses 1800-1914 - George
Sheeran
(£14.99)
The West Yorkshire families who grew rich through commerce
and industry during the Industrial Revolution used their newly acquired wealth
to build houses and gardens that were markedly different from those of older
landed and commercial families. "Brass Castles" is the first book to explore
these nineteenth-century mansions as a group in their own right and examines
the urban as well as the rural homes of ninety-two of the wealthiest "New Rich"
families.
Pocket
Pub Walks in West Yorkshire - Keith Wadd (£4.99)
From the chairman of the West Riding Ramblers' Association, 15 walks, max
7-8 miles, encompassing Ilkley Moor in the north to Holme in the south, and
Lumbutts and Hebden Bridge in the west to Fairburn Ings in the east.
Instructions, sketch maps, photos, recommended pubs, convenient size.
The
Brontes' Haworth - S R Whitehead (£6.95)
The
place and the people the Brontes knew. Drawing on previously unpublished
material, this book explores the physical and social fabric of Haworth at the
time the Brontes lived there. With over eighty early photographs, portraits and
diagrams.
Odsal
Odysseys: the history of Bradford Rugby League - Phil Hodgson
(£19.99)
The
glory years and dramatic transformations in fortunes since the original
Bradford club was formed in 1863, becoming in turn Bradford, Bradford Northern
and Bradford Bulls, the reigning Rugby League world champions.
Local authors
Four
Fathers - Tom Palmer (ed.), John Siddique, Ray French and James
Nash
(£8.99)
Four sons reveal the bonds that exist between themselves and
their very different fathers; then turn the tables and consider their own roles
as fathers and father figures. Mixes memoir with fiction. Tom Palmer is
Todmorden-based, and the poet John Siddique lives in Hebden
Bridge.
Millstone Grit by Glyn Hughes
(£3.95)
We're delighted to have back in stock some copies of
the 1985 Pan edition of this local classic.
Local
Events
Walking with Suffrage
Jill Liddington's town trail "Walking
with Suffrage - Votes for Women Comes to Hebden Bridge" on 25th May attracted a
good crowd, and in addition to the living and working places of Hebden Bridge
suffragette Lavena Saltonstall and the steps of Bridge Mill
from which Emmeline Pankhurst addressed the crowds in January
1907, featured such excitements as the Tin Tabernacle on Unity Street where the
striking weavers started their march to the strains of "Beautiful Zion"
and Mr Thomas's house on Birchcliffe Road (groaned at in heavy snow by an angry
throng of the same weavers. Mounted police soon put a stop to that sort of
carry-on.)
Hebden Bridge Arts
Festival
The celebrated local arts festival begins on 30th June, and you
can find out about it
here,
but the first bookish event is on 2nd July, with "Don't Let the Pigeon Drive
the Bus". Thereafter there will be events centred on WWI poet Isaac Rosenberg,
children's authors Nigel Gray, Peter J Murray, Joan Lingard and M W McAllister,
Alessandro Baricco, Rebel Girls, Ted Hughes, poets Gaia Holmes, Milner Place
and Mario Petrucci, Samuel Beckett, Kenneth Williams and BBC foreign
correspondent and presenter George Alagiah. More details next time!
National Book
Events
The Daily Mail Book Club
June's title is The Wonder
Spot by Melissa Bank (£6.99).
Sophie is an outsider and an inventor of rules, simply because she
does not fit into any neat description of who she might be: she's Jewish, but
lacks religious feeling; a book-lover but a mediocre student; a loyal friend
often unpleasantly surprised and a less-than-devoted employee.
The Book Case accepts Daily Mail National Book Tokens against
one-half of the cost of this month's recommended title.
Future titles will include
Bertie, May and Mrs
Fish by Xandra Bingley (July) and
Gentlemen and
Players by Joanne Harris (August).
Orange Prize
Shortlist
The winner will be announced on 6th June: in the meantime, you
can see the shortlist on our centre table.
Nicole Krauss, The History of Love
Alma's little
brother Bird thinks he may be the Messiah, and Leo remembers a love 60 years
ago. (£7.99)
Hilary Mantel, Beyond Black
Alison
Hart is the spiritualist of the M25, a medium whose spirits plague the life out
of her. (£7.99)
Zadie Smith, On Beauty
Howard
Belsey's three teenage children seek the passions, ideals and commitments that
will form their lives. (£14.99)
Ali Smith, The Accidental
Eve and
her unhappy family do their separate things on holiday - until an intruder
messily unites them. (£7.99)
Sarah Waters, The Night Watch
Kay
and her colleagues on ambulances in the worst of the Blitz in wartime London.
(£9.99)
Carrie Tiffany, Everyman's Rules for Scientific
Living
In 1930s Australia an unlikely love affair develops on a
train carrying cattle, pigs and wheat. The author was born in
Halifax. (£10.99)
NEW
TITLES
June's hardback fiction will include
Jan Morris, Monica Ali, Peter Carey, Will Self, Jacky Kay
and Kate Long. There's a lot of
new paperback fiction, including Doris
Lessing, Umberto Eco, Alexander McCall Smith, Joanne Harris, John Irving,
Douglas Coupland, Susan Hill, Michael Cunningham, Anita
Shreve and many more, including Picador Shots at
£1 each for "people who are time-poor but
expect rich reading". The short story seems to be having something of a
renaissance - Alice Munro's Runaway has been selling like hot
cakes.
Non-fiction:
- Turner, Francesco's Italy and fabrics in
fashion in Art and
Design
- Mao, Whicker, Kate Adie, Gloria Hunniford, Julian Clary,
Jack Rosenthal and a woman redeemed by
a good pig amongst others in Biography
- Monty Don in Gardening
- Anglo-Saxons, English Catholics, Victorian London,
generals, 20th-century France, a WWI soldier's diary,
pirates and watermills in History
- British eccentricity, puns, dating according to Jane
Austen, more pirates, cats and
dogs in Humour
- new Oxford dictionaries
and Companion to English Literature, learning
French and Sylvia Plath in Language and
Literature
- 50 signs of mental illness, babies, food addiction
and magic mushrooms in MBS
- Anglo-Saxons and
women in Poetry
- Chomsky, Pilger, Patten, spin,
ecology and populism in Politics and current
affairs
- birdsong and the universe's hidden
dimensions in Science
- bikes, climbing and
camping in Sport and Outdoor
Activities
- Geldof in
Africa, Rebus and wildlife viewing in Scotland, almond blossom
in Spain, Eric Idle in the US and where not to
go in Travel
- and Mog, a not-so-quiet night in, Wally, Redwall,
chronicles of ancient darkness and magic meets 17th-century
London in Children's
For the full answers to last month's quiz,
on Blood in literature, click
here
We are replacing the monthly nominal prize with an annual
£20 Book Token to be awarded in December to the person with the
most correct answers over the year.
______________________________________________________________________________________________
What you've been
buying: MAY BESTSELLERS at The Book
Case
Four high-selling books of local interest at The Book Case
in May were led by the story of the local fight for votes for women.
Novels were still popular, and a very original economics book, a book of poetry
and a lovely picture book made up the remainder.
1. Rebel Girls - Jill
Liddington (£14.99) This new book by a local historian and
author about forgotten suffragettes of the north of England has been selling
briskly. One of the suffragettes, Lavena Saltonstall, lived in Hebden Bridge
and was imprisoned for her campaign for the vote. Jill led an interesting town
walk visiting places significant in the campaign and Lavena’s
life.
2. A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian - Marina
Lewycka (£7.99) Fifth month in the charts for this entertaining
novel about two Ukrainian sisters in Peterborough, their father and his new
wife. The author spoke at Halifax Library last year.
3. 180 Not Out - A pictorial history of cricket in Halifax,
Huddersfield and District: Vol.1: Calderdale - Dr Peter Davies & Rob
Light (£10) Celebrates the rich cricketing heritage of
Calderdale and Kirklees and provides a fascinating insight into the history of
local cricket in West Yorkshire.
4. Runaway - Alice Munro (£7.99) A set of
short stories about women facing pivotal moments in their lives, and choosing
paths that vary from society's expectations from "perhaps the most accomplished
short story writer today". The Book Case’s novel of the month.
5. Extended Family - Linda Chase
(£9.95) A book of poetry celebrating the varied relationships that make
up lives richly lived. The author appeared at an Artsmill event in April.
6. Freakonomics - Steven D Levitt (£8.99) A
rogue economist explores the hidden side of everything.
7. Kite Runner - K Hosseini (£7.99) Still in
the charts, the story of the friendship between two boys growing up in Kabul in
the same household but in different worlds.
8. Seen on the Packhorse Tracks - Titus Thornber
(£15) The history of the local packhorse tracks and how they
coped with different kinds of terrain, and the features still visible today -
bridges, causeways, guidestoops and marker posts.
9. Weird Calderdale - Paul
Weatherhead (£7.99) Again in the charts, strange and incredible
events from the Calderdale area.
10. I’m Special, I’m Me - Ann Meek
(£5.99) A gentle inspiring tale about a little boy who turns rejection
into triumph - the author won the "Search for a Story" new author
prize.
Best wishes from your local independent 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
"When you can read, you cannot not
read." - Oyvind Palshaugen
MAY 2006
Dear Book Case customer or contact,
The highlights of a cold wet May on the Hebden Bridge book front have
been Jill Liddington's "Rebel Girls" and a
lot of interest in Penguin's nicely packaged Epics.
We were hoping to bring you news of an appearance by author
Matt Haig, presenting his new book (our novel of the month,
see below) but are still sorting dates - watch this space!
As part of our celebration of 21 years as Hebden Bridge's only
independent bookshop, we are planning to sponsor reading prizes in
local primary schools to encourage young people to enjoy
reading.
Member of staff Steve Hill is leaving us this month and we welcome
Anna Siemaszko, whom some of you will know from Valley
Organics. She has been a librarian and has an interest in history.
The second issue of The Book Magazine is due in
shortly - free to our customers! Call in at the shop to collect your copy. And
we also now have copies of Book Time, a monthly magazine for
you to take away; it has short reviews of new titles and a page on
Francesco's Italy.
Thanks for your many suggestions of
Nice Novels which
can be seen on the website
here. We
intend to keep a section of our centre table for
benevolent books and
genial reads (not just novels).
Some male customers have expressed an
interest in our appeal for local Men's Milestone Fiction and
taken the leaflet away but we've not had any feedback as yet.
We were pleased to get your comments on the music
playing in the shop - the general preference seems to be for relaxing jazz
or classical, and not too loud.
If you do not wish to receive this monthly mailing, please click on
Reply and type CANCEL in the Subject
box.)
THIS MONTH'S FEATURED
BOOKS
We highlight every month books we think are of
particular interest: from adult fiction and non-fiction, a children's book and
a CD.
Adult fiction: Dead Fathers’
Club - Matt Haig. A new take on Hamlet: 11-year-old Philip
Noble’s deceased dad appears as a bloodstained ghost and introduces Philip
to the Dead Fathers Club - the ghosts of dads in Newark who gather near the
bottle banks outside the Nobles' pub. Philip has to get revenge by killing the
murderer, his dad's brother, Uncle Alan. From the Leeds-based author of The
Last Family in England. (£11.99)
Adult non-fiction: Narrow Dog
to Carcassone - Terry Darlington. Two pensioners sail their canal
narrowboat across the channel and down to the Mediterranean, along with their
whippet Jim. (£6.99).
Children's book:
Spiritwalker by Michel Paver. (£5.99) The
sequel to Wolf Brother, now in paperback. Michelle Paver's sheer passion
for her story set in a world of myth and natural magic, shines through in this
skilfully woven, exciting and brilliantly satisfying second instalment of the
Chronicles of Ancient Darkness. Ages: 12+
CDs of the month are Code
of the Woosters and Stiff Upper Lip, Jeeves - P G Wodehouse:
Each comprises three CDs, running time 3 hours, with
full cast dramatisation starring Michael Hordern as Jeeves with Richard Briers
as Bertie Wooster. (£15.99 each)
NEWS
Local
Interest
Brass
Castles: West Yorkshire New Rich and Their Houses 1800-1914 - George
Sheeran
(£14.99)
The West Yorkshire families who grew rich through commerce
and industry during the Industrial Revolution used their newly acquired wealth
to build houses and gardens that were markedly different from those of older
landed and commercial families. "Brass Castles" is the first book to explore
these nineteenth-century mansions as a group in their own right and examines
the urban as well as the rural homes of ninety-two of the wealthiest "New Rich"
families.
Pocket
Pub Walks in West Yorkshire - Keith Wadd (£4.99)
From the chairman of the West Riding Ramblers' Association, 15 walks, max
7-8 miles, encompassing Ilkley Moor in the north to Holme in the south, and
Lumbutts and Hebden Bridge in the west to Fairburn Ings in the east.
Instructions, sketch maps, photos, recommended pubs, convenient size.
The
Brontes' Haworth - S R Whitehead (£6.95)
The
place and the people the Brontes knew. Drawing on previously unpublished
material, this book explores the physical and social fabric of Haworth at the
time the Brontes lived there. With over eighty early photographs, portraits and
diagrams.
Odsal
Odysseys: the history of Bradford Rugby League - Phil Hodgson
The
glory years and dramatic transformations in fortunes since the original
Bradford club was formed in 1863, becoming in turn Bradford, Bradford Northern
and Bradford Bulls, the reigning Rugby League world champions.
Local authors
Four Fathers - Tom Palmer (ed.), John Siddique, Ray French
and James Nash
(£8.99)
Four sons reveal the bonds that exist between themselves and
their very different fathers; then turn the tables and consider their own roles
as fathers and father figures. Mixes memoir with fiction. Tom Palmer is
Todmorden-based, and the poet John Siddique lives in Hebden
Bridge.
Millstone Grit by Glyn Hughes
(£3.95)
We're delighted to have back in stock some copies of
the 1985 Pan edition of this local classic.
Local
Events
Walking with Suffrage
Jill Liddington's town trail "Walking
with Suffrage - Votes for Women Comes to Hebden Bridge" on 25th May attracted a
good crowd, and in addition to the living and working places of Hebden Bridge
suffragette Lavena Saltonstall and the steps of Bridge Mill
from which Emmeline Pankhurst addressed the crowds in January
1907, featured such excitements as the Tin Tabernacle on Unity Street where the
striking weavers started their march to the strains of "Beautiful Zion" and Mr
Thomas's house on Birchcliffe Road (groaned at in heavy snow by an angry throng
of the same weavers. Mounted police soon put a stop to that sort of
carry-on.)
Hebden Bridge Arts
Festival
The celebrated local arts festival begins on 30th June, and you
can find out about it
here,
but the first bookish event is on 2nd July, with "Don't Let the Pigeon Drive
the Bus". Thereafter there will be events centred on WWI poet Isaac Rosenberg,
children's authors Nigel Gray, Peter J Murray, Joan Lingard and M W McAllister,
Alessandro Baricco, Rebel Girls, Ted Hughes, poets Gaia Holmes, Milner Place
and Mario Petrucci, Samuel Beckett, Kenneth Williams and BBC foreign
correspondent and presenter George Alagiah. More details next time!
National Book
Events
The Daily Mail Book Club
June's title is The Wonder
Spot by Melissa Bank (£6.99).
Sophie is an outsider and an inventor of rules, simply because she
does not fit into any neat description of who she might be: she's Jewish, but
lacks religious feeling; a book-lover but a mediocre student; a loyal friend
often unpleasantly surprised and a less-than-devoted employee.
The Book Case accepts Daily Mail National Book Tokens against
one-half of the cost of this month's recommended title.
Future titles will include
Bertie, May and Mrs
Fish by Xandra Bingley (July) and
Gentlemen and
Players by Joanne Harris (August).
Orange Prize
Shortlist
The winner will be announced on 6th June: in the meantime, you
can see the shortlist on our centre table.
Nicole Krauss, The History of Love
Alma's little
brother Bird thinks he may be the Messiah, and Leo remembers a love 60 years
ago. (£7.99)
Hilary Mantel, Beyond Black
Alison
Hart is the spiritualist of the M25, a medium whose spirits plague the life out
of her. (£7.99)
Zadie Smith, On Beauty
Howard
Belsey's three teenage children seek the passions, ideals and commitments that
will form their lives. (£14.99)
Ali Smith, The Accidental
Eve and
her unhappy family do their separate things on holiday - until an intruder
messily unites them. (£7.99)
Sarah Waters, The Night Watch
Kay
and her colleagues on ambulances in the worst of the Blitz in wartime London.
(£9.99)
Carrie Tiffany, Everyman's Rules for Scientific
Living
In 1930s Australia an unlikely love affair develops on a
train carrying cattle, pigs and wheat. The author was born in
Halifax. (£10.99)
NEW
TITLES
June's hardback fiction will include
Jan Morris, Monica Ali, Peter Carey, Will Self, Jacky Kay
and Kate Long. There's a lot of
new paperback fiction, including Doris
Lessing, Umberto Eco, Alexander McCall Smith, Joanne Harris, John Irving,
Douglas Coupland, Susan Hill, Michael Cunningham, Anita
Shreve and many more, including Picador Shots at
£1 each for "people who are time-poor but
expect rich reading". The short story seems to be having something of a
renaissance - Alice Munro's Runaway has been selling like hot
cakes.
Non-fiction:
- Turner, Francesco's Italy and fabrics in
fashion in Art and
Design
- Mao, Whicker, Kate Adie, Gloria Hunniford, Julian Clary,
Jack Rosenthal and a woman redeemed by
a good pig amongst others in Biography
- Monty Don in Gardening
- Anglo-Saxons, English Catholics, Victorian London,
generals, 20th-century France, a WWI soldier's diary,
pirates and watermills in History
- British eccentricity, puns, dating according to Jane
Austen, more pirates, cats and
dogs in Humour
- new Oxford dictionaries
and Companion to English Literature, learning
French and Sylvia Plath in Language and
Literature
- 50 signs of mental illness, babies, food addiction
and magic mushrooms in MBS
- Anglo-Saxons and
women in Poetry
- Chomsky, Pilger, Patten, spin,
ecology and populism in Politics and current
affairs
- birdsong and the universe's hidden
dimensions in Science
- bikes, climbing and
camping in Sport and Outdoor
Activities
- Geldof in
Africa, Rebus and wildlife viewing in Scotland, almond blossom
in Spain, Eric Idle in the US and where not to
go in Travel
- and Mog, a not-so-quiet night in, Wally, Redwall,
chronicles of ancient darkness and magic meets 17th-century
London in Children's
For the full answers to last month's quiz,
on Blood in literature, click
here
We are replacing the monthly nominal prize with an annual
£20 Book Token to be awarded in December to the person with the
most correct answers over the year.
______________________________________________________________________________________________
What you've been
buying: MAY BESTSELLERS at The Book
Case
Four high-selling books of local interest at The Book Case
in May were led by the story of the local fight for votes for women.
Novels were still popular, and a very original economics book, a book of poetry
and a lovely picture book made up the remainder.
1. Rebel Girls - Jill
Liddington (£14.99) This new book by a local historian and
author about forgotten suffragettes of the north of England has been selling
briskly. One of the suffragettes, Lavena Saltonstall, lived in Hebden Bridge
and was imprisoned for her campaign for the vote. Jill led an interesting town
walk visiting places significant in the campaign and Lavena’s
life.
2. A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian - Marina
Lewycka (£7.99) Fifth month in the charts for this entertaining
novel about two Ukrainian sisters in Peterborough, their father and his new
wife. The author spoke at Halifax Library last year.
3. 180 Not Out - A pictorial history of cricket in Halifax,
Huddersfield and District: Vol.1: Calderdale - Dr Peter Davies & Rob
Light (£10) Celebrates the rich cricketing heritage of
Calderdale and Kirklees and provides a fascinating insight into the history of
local cricket in West Yorkshire.
4. Runaway - Alice Munro (£7.99) A set of
short stories about women facing pivotal moments in their lives, and choosing
paths that vary from society's expectations from "perhaps the most accomplished
short story writer today". The Book Case’s novel of the month.
5. Extended Family - Linda Chase
(£9.95) A book of poetry celebrating the varied relationships that make
up lives richly lived. The author appeared at an Artsmill event in April.
6. Freakonomics - Steven D Levitt (£8.99) A
rogue economist explores the hidden side of everything.
7. Kite Runner - K Hosseini (£7.99) Still in
the charts, the story of the friendship between two boys growing up in Kabul in
the same household but in different worlds.
8. Seen on the Packhorse Tracks - Titus Thornber
(£15) The history of the local packhorse tracks and how they
coped with different kinds of terrain, and the features still visible today -
bridges, causeways, guidestoops and marker posts.
9. Weird Calderdale - Paul
Weatherhead (£7.99) Again in the charts, strange and incredible
events from the Calderdale area.
10. I’m Special, I’m Me - Ann Meek
(£5.99) A gentle inspiring tale about a little boy who turns rejection
into triumph - the author won the "Search for a Story" new author
prize.
Best wishes from your local independent 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
"When you can read, you cannot not
read." - Oyvind Palshaugen
MAY 2006
Dear Book Case customer or contact,
We hope you had a good Easter and have been enjoying the occasional
spell of sunshine.
Featured now in the shop is the Orange Prize
shortlist (see below) and the Guardian's hunt for
the best ever film adaptation of a book. You will soon be able
to pick up a copy of the supplement listing fifty selected titles and a
voting form at The Book Case.
To help those in a hurry, we're keeping on display a selection of
current national bestsellers (which aren't necessarily the
same as the local ones).
And free at The Book Case now you can pick up a copy of a
127-page book featuring a selection of Great Books to Read Aloud
edited by the Children's Laureate, Jacqueline
Wilson: over 70 tried and tested favourites with colour
illustrations of the jackets and a short description of each: age ranges 0-5,
5-8 and 8-11. There's a list of tips at the front, and an article by Julia
Eccleshare explaining the benefits.
We are also still in pursuit of
Nice Novels and
your suggestions and comments are being transferred to the website
here. Some of
you are suggesting what appear to be nasty novels, and in these cases
we are appending a health warning. The two or three currently available Barbara
Pym novels are now back in stock at popular request.
Below, we appeal to our male customers to tell us
what novels have meant most to them in their lives, as we're not entirely
convinced by the Orange-Guardian's findings.
We apologise for our Non-fiction Book of the Month, Seamus
Heaney's "District and Circle", being unavailable for most of April.
You'd think Faber would know to print a reasonable number first time round.
It's now back in stock.
(If you do not wish to receive this monthly mailing, please click on
Reply and type CANCEL in the Subject
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THIS MONTH'S FEATURED
BOOKS
We highlight every month books we think are of
particular interest: from adult fiction and non-fiction, a children's book and
a CD.
Adult fiction: Runaway by Alice Munro
(£7.99). A set of short stories about women facing pivotal
moments in their lives, and choosing paths that vary from society's
expectations - from "perhaps the most accomplished short story writer today".
This collection has an entertaining introduction by Jonathan Franzen giving
eight guesses "why her excellence so dismayingly exceeds her fame".
Adult non-fiction: Rebel Girls
by Jill Liddington (£14.99). Rejecting the deadening conventions
of their Victorian elders, the rebel girls demanded new freedoms and new
rights. They took their suffrage message out to the remotest Yorkshire dales
and fishing harbours, to win Edwardian hearts and minds. 16-year-old
Huddersfield weaver Dora Thewlis on arrest was catapulted onto the tabloid
front-pages as Baby Suffragette. Her life was transformed. Dancer Lilian Lenton
waited till her twenty-first birthday - then determined to burn two buildings a
week until the Liberal government granted women the vote. Rebel Girls shows how
this daring campaigning shifted from community suffragettes to militant
mavericks. And includes Hebden Bridge's very own Lavena Saltonstall of
Unity Street!
Children's book: The Giant under the Snow - John
Gordon (£9.99) New edition of an atmospheric classic from 1968:
three children find an ornate Celtic buckle, and awaken a sleeping giant,
triggering a battle between good and ancient evil.
CD of the
month is Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot on
Naxos. Samuel Beckett was born in 1906 and the centenary is being celebrated by
performances of most of his major plays of which Waiting for Godot is one of
the best known and the one which first made his name.
(£10.99)
Rebel Girls by Jill
Liddington (£14.99).
From respected local historian and
author a ground-breaking book about "forgotten suffragettes across the north of
England" - see our Non-Fiction Book of the Month. Includes a campaigning Hebden
Bridge tailoress.
A History of the Lord Nelson
(Luddenden) - J. A. Heginbottom (£3.00)
Published in 1991,
this little booklet, illustrated by Abigail Edgar, gives the history of the
Luddenden pub and its local connections.
Green Networks of the Dales -
Colin Speakman (£10.99)
From the originator of the Dales
Way, twenty linear walks of 12-25 miles designed to appeal to the serious
walker who wants to leave the car behind - they all tie in with public
transport. With photos and maps. OK, not terribly local.
Local Routes: touring England
by Bus, Boat and Train: the North Country - Jean Morris
(£7.95)
Six flexible tours, each about a week
long, around the North of England, by bus, boat and train, with public
transport and accommodation info as well as activities and history. Even less
"local" to us here (covers Northumbria, North Yorkshire, the Eden Valley,
Hadrian's Wall, the Lake District and the Cumbrian coast) but a good idea:
well-researched practical little guides. "You relax and enjoy the scenery while
someone else copes with over-crowded and unfamiliar roads."
Local authors
The Summer the Dictators Fell - Glyn Hughes
(£10)
Short stories set in Greece in 1974-5, from the prize-winning
local author, and illustrated by Christopher P Wood. Glyn Hughes will be
reading from this book on Friday 5th May from 7pm at the Goldmark Gallery, 14
Orange Street, Rutland: places are limited, so if you plan to go, phone 01572
821424.
L S Lowry - Shelley Rohde (£18)
A new
illustrated biography of the artist. The author, who lives in Cragg Vale, met
Lowry several times, and collections of his letters were made available to
her.
Homer's Odyssey - Simon
Armitage (£14.99)
"The Odyssey" is a book of changes, and
Simon Armitage's retelling of Homer's epic quickens and revitalizes our sense
of it as oral poetry: as indeed one of the greatest of tall tales. His version
bristles with the economy, wit and guile that we have come to expect from one
of the most individual voices of his generation.
Magical Cross Stitch - Carol
Thornton, et al (£18.99)
Local textile designer and Book Case
member of staff Carol Thornton is one of the contributors to a forthcoming book
on cross-stitch - Magical Cross Stitch from David & Charles
publishers, due May, £18.99. The front cover features one of Carol's
designs, "Phoenix Rising" and you can see it on our
webpage.
Her Husband - Diane
Middlebrook (£7.99)
Portrait of Hughes as a man, as a poet
and as a husband, haunted - and nourished - his entire life by the aftermath of
his first marriage. Middlebrook presents Hughes as a complicated, conflicted
figure: sexually magnetic, fiercely ambitious, immensely caring and shrewd in
business. New paperback edition.
Moortown Diary - Ted Hughes
(£8.99)
Updated version of Ted Hughes's acclaimed Devon
farming sequence, 1979 and 1989.
Local Events
The three Poetry Readings
at Artsmill during April were all well attended and very successful -
it's hoped to continue this sort of event.
Rebel Girls launched in HuddersfieldJill
Liddington launches her new book
Rebel Girls at Huddersfield Town Hall
on Wednesday, 10th May, 7.30-9pm, in the company of descendants of local
suffragettes and with a suffrage banner on display. Ottakars are doing the
books, but you could of course get yours here before you go ...
45 Years
of Amnesty International
Local celebrity, video star and
annual St George Ray Riches will be speaking on
Highlights of the Pacific Crest Trail, on 28th
May at Stubbing Wharf at 7.30pm to
celebrate the 45th birthday of the international human rights organisation.
Entry free with invites, and please bring nibbles!
National Book
Events
The Daily Mail Book Club
May's title is Hide and Seek by Clare Sambrook,
£6.99. Meet Harry Pickles, aged nine and
a bit. Harry is the fastest boy runner in the world, first son of Mo and Pa,
and big brother to Daniel. His life is good. He's premier league. At least,
that's the way it was before the school trip... This novel captures the
perspective of a confused nine-year-old. The Book Case accepts Daily Mail
National Book Tokens against one-half of the cost of this month's recommended
title.
Future titles will include The Wonder
Spot by Melissa Bank (June), Bertie, May and Mrs
Fish by Xandra Bingley (July) and
Gentlemen and
Players by Joanne Harris (August).
Orange Prize
Shortlist
The winner will be announced on 6th June. There will be a
further Orange shortlist, for new writers, announced on 3rd May.
Nicole Krauss, The History of Love
Alma's little
brother Bird thinks he may be the Messiah, and Leo remembers a love 60 years
ago. (£7.99)
Hilary Mantel, Beyond Black
Alison
Hart is the spiritualist of the M25, a medium whose spirits plague the life out
of her. (£7.99)
Zadie Smith, On Beauty
Howard
Belsey's three teenage children seek the passions, ideals and commitments that
will form their lives. (£14.99)
Ali Smith, The Accidental
Eve and
her unhappy family do their separate things on holiday - until an intruder
messily unites them. (£7.99)
Sarah Waters, The Night Watch
Kay
and her colleagues on ambulances in the worst of the Blitz in wartime London.
(£9.99)
Carrie Tiffany, Everyman's Rules for Scientific
Living
In 1930s Australia an unlikely love affair develops on a
train carrying cattle, pigs and wheat. The author was born in
Halifax. (£10.99)
Men's Milestone
Fiction
A recent Orange/Guardian survey carried out by Professor Lisa
Jardine and Annie Watkins of Queen Mary College into what books had most
changed men's lives (
Milestone Fiction) found that
books about
"indifference, alienation and lack of emotional
responses" were preferred, whereas 2004's survey into women's
Watershed Fiction (some undertones going on here?) showed a preference
for books with "a struggle to overcome circumstances, and passion". The
complete men's list is below, and a report can be found at
http://books.guardian.co.uk/news/articles/0,,1747821,00.html.
However, the report also says that men don't read fiction between the ages of
20 and 50, which doesn't appear to be true of our customers, so I suspect the
survey was a bit slanted and the men they asked were remembering books they
liked in their teens. Should we run a Hebden Bridge male fiction-readers'
survey? If you're a
male reader of novels, please let us know
"
the novels that have most inspired you over the decades or played
a part in making you the men you are today" and/or
"which have spoken to you on a personal level (and) ... may
have changed the way you look at yourself " - they can be by men
or women and can include those below or not. We'll publish the results in our
next newsletter.
The Outsider by Albert Camus
Heart of Darkness by
Joseph Conrad
Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky
The
Great Gatsby by F Scott Fitzgerald
Brighton Rock by Graham
Greene
Catch 22 by Joseph Heller
High Fidelity by Nick
Hornby
Ulysses by James Joyce
Metamorphosis by Franz
Kafka
The Book of Laughter and Forgetting by Milan Kundera
To
Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
One Hundred Years of Solitude by
Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
1984 by
George Orwell
The Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger
The Grapes
of Wrath by John Steinbeck
You can find the women's list at
http://www.orangeprize.co.uk/news/wwfll.html They
were asked for a novel "which has spoken to you on a personal level. It may
have changed the way you look at yourself or simply made you happy to be a
woman. Your selection can be written by a man or a woman, in this country or
abroad, as long as it touched your life in some way." Different
phraseology ...
Nice
Novels
A Guardian reader asked in "Notes and
Queries" if there were
"any novels worth reading in which
people are generally nice to each other and nobody
dies". Our ongoing list can be found
here and
is open to addition and correction. Suggestions range from Victorian jovial
reads such as
JKJ and
Surtees to
Elizabeth Goudge and
Barbara Pym and the
present-day
McCall Smith and
Kingsolver.
There's been an enthusiastic parallel response with
uplifting novels,
in which characters have a bad time (and people die) but there's a happy ending
(
Shantaram, Eidson, and quite a lot of detective novels. As
well of course as many of the classics.). Please keep the suggestions
coming.
NEW
TITLES
May's hardback fiction will include
David Mitchell, Simon Armitage, Ann Tyler, Philip
Roth, Christopher Brookmyre - and two different fictional
takes on young Muslim men. In paperback fiction we
expect Isobel Allende, Paulo Coelho, Philippa Gregory, Jonathan Foer,
Alan Warner, Lionel Shriver, Marie Darrieuzzecq, John Mortimer, Ben Elton,
Andrew Martin, Michael Dibdin and many more, plus a celebration of the
60th birthday of Penguin Classics with a selection of
epics at £4.99 each, reissues of Coelho, Patrick
O'Brian, Surtees (for those looking for a jovial read) and to really
cheer everyone up, a forgotten Jerome K Jerome.
Non-fiction:
- Lowry in Art
- Ellen McArthur, Ted Hughes, Allen Lane, Frank
Gardner and some young Muslim
women in
Biography
- Pompeii, Northern suffragettes, the 20th
century and the
Blitz in History
- internet dating and cats
in Humour
- ghosts and myths in MBS
- Ted Hughes, Alice Oswald, Alice
Chase and Alan Bennett in Poetry and Plays
- Europe, toxic childhood and Opus
Dei in Politics and
current affairs
- human biology in Science
- Lance
Armstrong in Sport
- England including its good and
bad food, two pensioners boating to Carcassonne with a whippet, a pianos
and a castle in the Pyrenees and three
entertaining travel accounts based around classical music,
beer and odd postings in Travel
- and a seahorse, a tickly book, Horrid Henry, garden birds,
the Queen of the Icemark and a Victorian artist's model
in Children's
For the full answers to last month's quiz,
on Battles in literature, click
here
We are replacing the monthly nominal prize with an annual
£20 Book Token to be awarded in December to the person with the
most correct answers over the year.
______________________________________________________________________________________________
What you've been
buying: APRIL BESTSELLERS at The Book
Case
It was another good month at The Book Case
for novels which made up half of the top ten. There were also two local
interest titles, a poetry book, a political book and a joke book.
1. A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian - Marina Lewycka
(£7.99) Another month in the charts for this entertaining novel about
two Ukrainian sisters in Peterborough, their father and his new wife. The
author spoke at Halifax Library last year.
2. Kite Runner - K Hosseini (£7.99) Taking us from
Afghanistan in the final days of the monarchy to the present, "The Kite Runner"
is the story of the friendship between two boys growing up in Kabul in the same
household but in different worlds.
3. District and Circle - Seamus Heaney (£12.99)
Despite being in reprint for most of the month, Seamus Heaney’s new
collection of poetry made the top three.
4. Luck - Joan Barfoot (£6.99) What happens to three
women - an ex-beauty-queen, a recovering addict to virtue and an artist when
the man of the big old house on the hill is suddenly dead? (£6.99)
5. Weird Calderdale - Paul Weatherhead (£7.99)
Strange and incredible events from the Calderdale area, ranging from UFOs in
Todmorden to a vampire infesting Robin Hood's grave near Brighouse. Second
edition.
6. Not One More Death - John le Carre, Harold Pinter, Richard
Dawkins, et al (£5.00) An attack by leading authors on the occupation
of Iraq.
7. Never Let Me Go - Kazuo Ishiguro (£7.99)
Booker-shortlisted novel about the lives of a group of students growing up in a
darkly skewed version of contemporary England.
8. Disappointing Ruins - Dave Askwith & Alex Normanton
(£4.99) One man's hilarious crusade against a world of senseless
public notices and warnings, with hundreds of spoof road signs, warning
stickers, and council order notices being stuck up around the country.
9. South Pennines Explorer Map OL21 (£7.49) The
double-sided local walking map, 1:25000. The laminated version has also been
popular, for obvious reasons.
10. May Contain Nuts - John O’Farrell (£6.99) A
satirical novel from the popular Guardian columnist about competitive
over-protective parents driving their children to tutors, to ballet, to
insanity.
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
"Books - the best weapons in the world"
- Dr. Who, 22nd April 2006
April 2006
Dear Book Case customer or contact,
It's been a cold wet month with a flurry of books-related activity,
and more in prospect. The launch of Andrew Bibby's new
"Freedom to Roam" walking books was a crowded and convivial event at Mooch's,
and The Book Case pretty well sold out of the new books.
World Book Day 2006 saw the yellow-balloon-decked
shop full of children choosing books to use their £1 vouchers on, and the
results can be seen the bestseller list below! We would like to take this
opportunity to remind customers of the terms of the special tokens: they are
subsidised by the local bookshop with the intention of giving children
individually the opportunity to choose their own books. "The WBD Book Token
cannot be exchanged for cash or any other merchandise, nor used for school
purchases, nor for the payment of school accounts. Only one WBD Book Token can
be used per person." Many thanks to those of you who entered into the spirit of
the thing and the teachers who made such efforts to get the children to the
books or where necessary vice versa.
Our centre table currently has three separate themes: books and a
video on the Pace Egg Play, due in a couple of weeks, the
British Book Award Winners 2006 (see below for a list) and our
ongoing quest to find Nice Novels. Your participation is
invited! (See below.)
Free Book Magazine
The first issue of The Book Magazine is now in stock, with
reviews, articles, a search for the greatest living British writer, discussion
of reading groups, Alain de Botton on architecture, confessions of a debut
novelist, a feature on Dylan - and an interview with Andrew Martin,
who appeared at last year's Arts Festival: in his next book Jim
Stringer has moved from the Calder Valley to York. Come to the shop to collect
your free magazine! It will be a quarterly publication for independent
bookshops.
And new in, the ninth edition of Browse with
illustrated suggestions on new cookery, gardening, travel and DIY books.
(If you do not wish to receive this monthly mailing, please click
on Reply and type CANCEL in the Subject
box.)
THIS MONTH'S FEATURED
BOOKS
We highlight every month books we think are of
particular interest: from adult fiction and non-fiction, a children's book and
a CD.
Adult fiction: Kafka in Bronteland - Tamar Yellin.
Thirteen stories on themes of family and its loss and the private
worlds people make for themselves. The Haworth-area author's website says:
"Born in the north of England, her mother was the daughter of a Polish
immigrant and her father a third generation Jerusalemite. The creative tension
between her Jewish heritage and her Yorkshire roots has informed much of her
work." (£9.99)
Adult non-fiction: District and
Circle - Seamus Heaney. Seamus Heaney's new collection starts 'in an
age of bare hands and cast iron' and ends 'as the automatic lock / clunks shut'
in the eerie new conditions of a menaced twenty-first century.
(£12.99)
Children's book: Hellbent - Anthony
McGowan. A brilliantly funny and occasionally tender story about a
16-year-old boy in Hell. Forced to spend eternity in a room of ancient books
and a radio that only plays classical music he realises that his personal Hell
would be someone else's Heaven and so sets off on a dangerous journey through
Hell to find his after-life opposite. Age: 12+ yrs (£6.99)
CD: The Easter Album - a timeless selection of Easter
classics: two CDs featuring music by Bach, Handel, Haydn, Faure,
Stainer, Tavener and Rutter. (£10.99)
Northern
Earth 105 (£1.95)
Of particular local interest this month,
this issue has an illustrated article by Dr Eddie Cass on the Pace Egg
Play.
Local authors
Shaking Hands with Michael Rooney - Tom Palmer
(£2.99)
“It’s a book aimed at reluctant readers
between eight and 11, as well as older children who haven’t learnt to
enjoy reading. I called him Michael Rooney as a composite of Michael Owen and
Wayne Rooney. I couldn’t get permission to use a real footballer’s
name and it sounds better than Wayne Owen. It’s the story of a boy with a
hand tremor who overcomes his fear of collecting the Golden Boot prize for
scoring the most goals in his league.” From the Todmorden-based
Coordinator for the Reading Partners Project.
The Laughter of Foxes: A Study of Ted Hughes - Keith Sagar
(£18.50)
Second revised edition of the first study to survey
the whole of Hughes's achievement. Includes extracts from Hughes's letters to
the author, a detailed chronology of his life and work by Anna Skea, and the
first publication of the background story of "Crow".
Kafka in Bronteland - Tamar
Yellin (£9.99)
Thirteen stories from a Haworth area
author, giving voice to a rich mix of characters living outside traditional
patterns of identity, in a world of complex migrations and tumultuous change.
In the title story, a Jew and a Muslim cast adrift in a Yorkshire landscape
find momentary sisterhood over a copy of the Koran. (Our Fiction Book of the
Month - see above.)
Peter Pegnall: Foul Papers
(£5.95)
A new collection from the local poet - "a poetry of
pain and loss, decay in the secretive lives of fearful souls who must put on a
bold face, tell a joke and blank out their hidden terrors". Also back in stock,
Through the Rock (£7.00) and Broken Eggs
(£5.95)
Dr. James Graham's Celestial Bed -
Gaia Holmes (£7.95)
From a Luddenden-born poet a debut
collection which digs beneath the surface of mundane urban life
to reveal a remarkable seam of exoticism. Her carnival of characters -
bingo callers, burger sellers, critical theorists - are all cast from the
least expected places but, rejuvenated by Gaia's verse, find a new voice and a
new ability to captivate. Gaia will be appearing at this year's Hebden Bridge
Festival.
Sue Lawty
Hebden
Bridge textile artist Sue Lawty is Artist in Residence at the
V&A, and her locally-published book rock - raphia - linen - lead
continues to sell to customers all over the world. Her work is currently
set as part of an Edexcel GCE Art & Design Advanced course. We hope to have
in stock soon packs of postcards of her work.
Local
Events
Poetry Readings at
Artsmill
To accompany an exhibition of photographs
of authors by Claire McNamee ("Portraits") at
Artsmill Gallery, Linden Mill, poetry readings by featured
writers will be happening:
Sunday 9th April: Amanda Dalton
& Ian Duhig, 4-5pm
Sunday 23rd April: Liz Almond
& Linda Chase, 4-5pm
Tickets available from 01422 843413, and
books supplied by The Book Case will be on sale.
The exhibition runs from 29th March - 7th
May, and is open Wednesday-Sunday, 11am-4pm.
National Book
Events
The Daily Mail Book Club
April's title is The Accidental by Ali Smith,
£7.99. A beguiling stranger turns up at a
Norfolk holiday home. Whitbread winner and Booker shortlisted. The Book Case
accepts Daily Mail National Book Tokens against one-half of the cost of this
month's recommended title.
British Book
Awards
From a strong but lengthy shortlist, the following
award-winners emerged on 29th March:
Richard & Judy Best Read of the Year -
Labyrinth by Kate Mosse (£7.99)
Book of the Year - Harry Potter & the
Half-Blood Prince by J K Rowling (£14.99)
Author of the Year - Untold Stories by Alan
Bennett (£20)
Children's Book of the Year - Ark Angel by
Anthony Horowitz (£6.99)
Popular Fiction Award -
Time Traveller’s Wife
by Audrey Niffenegger
Newcomer of the Year -
A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian
by Marina Lewycka (£7.99)
TV & Film Book of the Year -
Constant Gardener by
John le Carre (£6.99)
History Book of the Year -
Auschwitz by Lawrence
Rees (£8.99)
Writer of the Year - 26A by Diana Evans (£6.99)
Samuel Johnson Award
2006 Longlist
Too long to include but you can find it
here It
includes Alan Bennett's Untold Stories and Riverbend's Baghdad
Burning - the weblog of a young university-educated Iraqi woman under
American occupation, published in book form, Mozart's Women by Jane
Glover, Ongoing Moment by Geoff Dyer and 1599: a year in the life
of William Shakespeare by James Shapiro. We have most of the front runners
in stock.
Nice Novels
A Guardian reader asked in "Notes and Queries" if there were
"any novels worth reading in which people are generally nice to each
other and nobody dies". Book Case staff, customers, friends and
relations have been on the case and at present we are compiling a very
tentative list, which can be found
here. But we
are constantly being surprised to find that some novel fondly remembered as the
height of tranquillity actually has a gruesome death in the first chapter, so
we aren't making any claims to accuracy. We need more suggestions, and if
you've read any of the suggested books recently, we need you to correct us! The
list includes
Three Men in a Boat and
Lake Wobegon
Days.
NEW TITLES
This month we have Alison Weir and Henning
Mankell in new ventures in hardback
fiction and in paperback fiction we expect
Ali Smith, Nick Hornby, Alexander McCall Smith, John Banville,
Christopher Brookmyre, P D James and reissues of the splendid
Elizabeth Taylor and Fanny Trollope as well
as a Dumas with some swashbuckling female leads - and many
more. Remember Eric Ambler and Anya
Seton?
Non-fiction:
- Andy Goldsworthy in Art
- Boudica, Shakespeare, Mozart, Phiz, Hitler, Akhmatova, Che
Guevara, Don Whillans, Orhan Pamuk, Richard Mabey, a French
gardener, a West Bank mother-in-law and some Leeds
glue-sniffers in
Biography
- plant and garden finders, ecology and
allotments in Gardening
- the Crusades, the Wars of the Roses, the Medicis,
Shakespeare's Rat Pack, Witchfinders, British soldiers in India, English
trades, the San Francisco earthquake and
WWII in History
- eighteenth-century nagging and senior
moments in Humour
- world-changing books and the Guardian
on film in Literature and
Media
- Gnostics, the da Vinci code, Philip
Pullman's cosmology and St George in MBS
- Elgar in Music
- birds and flowers in Nature
- Seamus Heaney, Alice Oswald, Bei Dao and
Julian Turner in Poetry
- authors against the Iraq War, doing the right thing, Human
Rights and Conspiracy Theories in Politics and current
affairs
- colours in Science
- Zatopek in Sport
- a year in
Casablanca, grumpy old men hiking, Danny Wallace saying yes, doing yoga around
India and one-man Shakespeare shows around Africa, trips
that don't cost the earth plus new Lonely Planet guides
to Scotland and Greece and a Rough Guide to
Andalucia in Travel
- 18th-month Moleskine Diaries and
Moleskine Watercolour Notebooks in Stationery and
- a special little boy, new approaches to nature,
Minnie the Minx, Artemis Fowl, a wooden boy, a teenage boy in a
personal hell of classical music and books and some 98% human
youngsters in Children's
For the full answers to last month's quiz,
on Moons in literature, click
here
We are replacing the monthly nominal prize with an annual
£20 Book Token to be awarded in December to the person with the
most correct answers over the year.
______________________________________________________________________________________________
What you've been buying: MARCH BESTSELLERS at The Book
Case
March’s
sales at The Book Case were led by the World Book Day Specials, with two new
Freedom to Roam guides and the very last "Milltown Memories" hot on their
heels. All the other titles were novels - a first for The Book Case. Must have
been too wet to do anything but curl up with a good
book.
1. Here Comes Harry with his Bucketful of Dinosaurs - Ian Whybrow
(£1.00) This catchy singsong story about a little boy putting his
dinosaurs to bed was the favourite amongst the World Book Day specials, with
Hannah the Happy Ever After Fairy and Stone Pilot (Edge
Chronicles) close behind.
2. Wensleydale & Swaledale - Andrew Bibby
(£8.99) One of new "Freedom to Roam" guides by a well-known local
author, closely followed by Wharfedale and Nidderdale. The new
books had a lively and crowded launch at Mooch’s on 6th March.
3. Milltown Memories 15, Spring 2006 (£2.80)
This final issue includes Calderdale floods, Sir Bernard Ingham and a
Todmorden bus crash.
4. A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian - Marina Lewycka
(£7.99) Two Ukrainian sisters are trying to defend their lecherous old
dad (who is writing a history of tractors) from a bosomy young gold-digger.
Winner of the BBA Newcomer of the Year Award.
5. Brokeback Mountain - Annie Proulx (£7.99) The
companionship of two drop-out country-boy ranch hands becomes something more.
Now a popular film.
6. Labyrinth - Kate Mosse (£7.99) A gripping Holy Grail
quest, stretching from Ancient Egypt through 13th-century Carcassonne, to the
present day, with a strong central female character. Richard & Judy BBA
Best Read of the Year.
7. Never Let Me Go - Kazuo Ishiguro (£7.99)
Booker-shortlisted novel. about the lives of a group of students growing up in
a darkly skewed version of contemporary England. March’s Daily Mail
Book of the Month.
8. Boudica: Dreaming the Serpent Spear (£12.99) Set against
Rome's attempted destruction of the Celtic civilisation, the final novel in the
Boudica quartet focuses on the action of the Boudica revolt and its devastating
consequences.
9. Kite Runner - K Hosseini (£7.99) Taking us from
Afghanistan in the final days of the monarchy to the present, "The Kite Runner"
is the story of the friendship between two boys growing up in Kabul in the same
household but in different worlds.
10. Small Island - Andrea Levy (£7.99) It is 1948 and in
war-bruised England, Queenie Bligh who takes in Jamaican lodgers and ex-RAF
Gilbert work out their differences.
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
"We know one thing: schools are now places
where less and less time is spent reading and listening for pleasure. For those
children who have parents who give them that enjoyment, it matters, but not
terribly. For the rest, books are that thing you do where you have to answer
boring questions about adjectives and character."
Mike Rosen, letter to the Guardian, Fri. 24
March 2006: "Why children find reading boring"
March 2006
Dear Book Case customer or contact,
World Book Day 2006 takes place on 2nd
March with an emphasis on celebration. This year the special books for
children (who get a £1 voucher through their schools) are joined by
Quick Reads for adults, with a choice of new books
for people wishing to regain the reading habit or for those who experience
difficulty reading. See below for details.
Mark has redesigned the shop
website to make it more
interactive and colourful. You can find it at
www.bookcase.co.uk
And a reminder about the launch of the new
walking books by Andrew Bibby (see below) at
Mooch Wine Bar on Market
Street, 6.00-7.00pm on Monday
March 6th. See you there!
(If you do not wish to receive this monthly mailing, please click
on Reply and type CANCEL in the Subject
box.)
THIS MONTH'S FEATURED
BOOKS
We highlight every month books we think are of
particular interest: from adult fiction and non-fiction, a children's
book plus a new CD.
Adult fiction: May Contain Nuts - John
O’Farrell (£6.99) From the ever-popular Guardian
columnist, a satire about competitive over-protective parents driving
their children to tutors, to ballet, to insanity.
Adult non-fiction: Enemy Combatant -
Moazzam Begg (£18.99) "A British Muslim's Journey to Guantanamo
and Back." The extraordinary account of one of nine Britons held without trial
or charge at Guantanamo Bay - what he endured there and elsewhere, why he was
arrested in the first place, and what it means to be an intelligent Muslim man
in a world where to be so places you under suspicion. For
an informative article about this British Pakistani Muslim bookseller with
a Jewish education, see
http://books.guardian.co.uk/departments/biography/story/0,,1717387,00.html?gusrc=rss
Children's book:A Darkling Plain - Philip
Reeve. Philip Reeve brings us the final adventure in this critically
acclaimed award-winning quartet. The fate of Tom Hester and Wren will be
decided as the future of the entire human race also hangs in the balance. Will
the Green Storm emerge victorious, or the ancient moving cities? Age: 9+ yrs
(£12.99)
CD: In 2005 Naxos AudioBooks launched a new
series - The Complete Classics. This month we feature The General
Prologue and The Physician's Tale by Geoffrey Chaucer which are read
in Middle English by Richard Bebb, under the direction of a leading Chaucerian
scholar, Professor Derek Brewer. It is an authoritative performance that
brilliantly evokes the fourteenth-century world, both for the general reader
and the student alike. This is followed by a witty modern verse translation,
and provides a fascinating contrast with the original. (2 CDs
£10.99)
NEWS
Local Interest
Milltown
Memories No 15 - Spring 2006 (£2.80)
Sadly this is the last
issue but the publishers will continue as part of the Pennine Heritage
organisation to which the Alice Longstaff Gallery Collection has been gifted.
This issue focuses on floods in the Calder Valley - with some splendid photos,
Sir Bernard Ingham looking back on his early days in journalism, a Todmorden
bus crash in 1921, events of 1896, and an index to issues. The website address
is www.milltownmemories.org.uk
and e-mails should be sent to info@milltownmemories.org.uk
All-Terrain Pushchair Walks:
Yorkshire Dales - Rebecca Terry (£7.95)
30 tried and tested
pushchair walks – including routes by river sides, high-level moorland
rambles, and strolls around the many country estates, castles and abbeys. All
the walks are graded – from simple low-level strolls to more ambitious
moorland stomps. Each comes with a simple at-a-glance key making walk selection
easy; there’s a map and route description for each walk and information on
refreshments and changing facilities.
Nicholson Guide to Waterways 5: North-West & the
Pennines (£12.99)
New edition.
Todmorden Travellers - E. M. Savage
(£2)
"A snapshot of what life was like for some of the intrepid
travellers to the New World" - including Canada, Australia, American and New
Zealand. I'd been wondering why when I typed "Todmorden" into Google Earth it
took me to Ontario - blame the Helliwells!
180 Not Out - A
pictorial history of cricket in Halifax, Huddersfield and District: Vol.1:
Calderdale - Dr Peter Davies & Rob Light (£10)
A product of a two-year project
designed to preserve and celebrate the rich cricketing heritage of Calderdale
and Kirklees and provides a fascinating insight into the history of local
cricket in West Yorkshire. The other two volumes are on North and South
Kirklees. (Due end March.)
Local authors
New "Freedom to Roam Guides" from Andrew
Bibby, £8.99 each:
Wharfedale and Nidderdale: The Southern Yorkshire
Dales
Wensleydale and Swaledale: Northern Yorkshire Dales
Three Peaks and the Howgill Fells by Sheila Bowker, ed.
Andrew Bibby
North York Moors by Judy Armstrong, ed.
Andrew Bibby
See above for launch details.
Oxford Companion to the Brontes - Christine
Alexander
Comprehensive and detailed information about the lives,
works, and reputations of the Brontes, aiming to evoke the milieu in which they
lived and worked and revealing the complex interrelation between their lives,
writings and times. (£14.99)
Local
Publishers
A Kink of a Life - Paul Goodchild,
£8
Autobiography of a child of the '40s from a dysfunctional
family who went from an orphanage to the Sex, Drugs and Rock 'n' Roll of the
'60s, travelled widely and met all sorts of famous people, from Chuck Berry to
the Dalai Lama.
National Book
Events
World Book Day 2006, 2nd
March
Children will be able to exchange their WBD voucher for a
£1 special - or they can put it towards any other
children's book from £1.99. This year the titles are:
Here Comes Harry and his Bucketful of Dinosaurs
(3+)
Hannah the Happy Ever After Fairy
(5-7)
How to Train Your Viking
(8-11)
The Mum Surprise (8+)
The Stone
Pilot (Edge Chronicles) (10+)
Koyasan (Darren
Shan)(11+)
They'll all be piled on our centre table for our
younger customers to choose - with lots of colourful postcards.
Meanwhile adult unwilling readers get a look in with the
Get Hooked on Books campaign featuring some
specially-written books by popular authors at £2.99 each. In March there
are books from Patrick Augustus, Maeve Binchy, John Bird, Richard
Branson, Rowan Coleman, Mick Dennis and the Premier League, Tom Holt, Conn
Iggulden, Matthew Reilly, Ruth Rendell, Joanna Trollope and
Minette Walters with more to follow in May, and The Book Case
will be accepting the special £1 Quick Reads Book Tokens.
These promotions are funded by the booksellers.
The Daily Mail Book Club
March's title is Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro,
£7.99. Booker-shortlisted novel. about the
lives of a group of students growing up in a darkly skewed version of
contemporary England. The Book Case accepts Daily Mail National Book Tokens
against one-half of the cost of this month's recommended title. April's book
will be The Accidental by Ali Smith.
Richard and Judy Book Club
Titles
Wednesday, 1st March 2006 - Moondust by Andrew
Smith, £8.99
Wednesday, 8th March 2006 - March by Geraldine
Brooks, £7.99
Wednesday, 15th March 2006 - Empress Orchid by
Anchee Min, £7.99
Wednesday, 22nd March 2006 - The Lincoln Lawyer by
Michael Connelly, £10.99
The Book Case is stocking all these books.
Nice Novels
A Guardian reader asked in "Notes and Queries" if
there were "any novels worth reading in which people are generally nice to
each other and nobody dies". From Australia, New Zealand and New York came the
following responses:
The Darling Buds of May by H E Bates,
The
Inimitable Jeeves by P G Wodehouse,
The Kalahari Typing School for Men
by Alexander McCall Smith; Hardy's
Under the Greenwood Tree;
Margery Sharp's
Cluny Brown (out of print)
; Dodie
Smith's
I Capture the Castle; Framed and
Millions by Frank
Cottrell Boyce. We invite customers to submit their own suggestions for
publication in the next newsletter.
NEW TITLES
This month we have Margaret Atwood and D B C
Pierre in hardback fiction and lots
in paperback fiction including Ishiguro,
Faulks, Atwood, Berger, Helen Cross,
Marina Lewycka, John O'Farrell, Alice Hoffman, Sandy
Toksvig, Barbara Vine and many more.
Non-fiction:
- Goya, Catlett and National Gallery
DVDs in Art
- Attila the Hun, Pepys, Nina Bawden, Billy Holliday, Feynman,
a young Swiss woman who married a Masai warrior, and more
in Biography
- wildlife and a new "specialist"
series in Gardening
- the Grail, Northern Mythology, Barbarians & Rome, night
time, textiles, British waterways, the Easter Rising and everyday life
in WWII in History
- consciousness and positive attitudes in
children in MBS
- cats and dogs in Pets
- le Guin, the Brontes, the
Arvon Foundation and Elizabeth & Jacobean
Drama in Poetry and
Literature
- Guantanamo Bay from the inside, MSF, the Ukraine, Baghdad,
British yobs, modern Celts and the new
globalism in Politics and
current affairs
- infinity, Neanderthals, the brain
and the selfish gene in Science
- climbing (books and
DVD) in Sport
- British buses,
ghosts & unusual days out, a young traveller in search of a high, New
York's mankier side, Ireland, plus new Rough Guide maps
and miniguides and a new series on the former
Yugoslavia in Travel and
- playful fruit images, the Trimoni twins & shrunken
treasure, the conclusion of the exciting Traction Cities
quartet (Philip Reeve - see above), a girl who joins her dad in
a travelling fair (Jacqueline Wilson) and the Plague
and Great Fire of London in Children's
For the full answers to last month's quiz,
on Rivers in literature, click
here:
______________________________________________________________________________________________
What you've been
buying: FEBRUARY BESTSELLERS at The Book
Case
February’s bestsellers at The Book Case were led by
two locally-based national celebrities; Richard & Judy were in evidence
again, three books from the January list remained popular, and new to the list
were the original novel of a successful film, stories from "the matchless
Munro" and a spiritual book last in the bestsellers in 2004.
1. Agincourt - Juliet Barker (£20.00) Highly-praised landmark
study giving a compelling account of the logistics and personalities behind the
legendary battle. It was recently Radio 4’s Book of the Week.
2. Rock - Raphia - Linen - Lead - Sue Lawty (£12.50)
Hebden Bridge textile artist Sue Lawty is Artist in Residence at the
V&A, and this is a locally published book of fantastic colour photographs
of her work with textures, which has been selling internationally.
3. Labyrinth - Kate Mosse (£7.99) A gripping Holy Grail
quest, stretching from Ancient Egypt through 13th-century Carcassonne, to the
present day, with a strong central female character. Richard & Judy title
and national bestseller.
4. Brokeback Mountain - Annie Proulx (£7.99) The
companionship of two drop-out country-boy ranch hands becomes something more.
Now a popular film.
5. Farm - Richard Benson (£8.99) Richard Benson was never
cut out for the family farm, but he returned from London when his dad had to
sell up and found that their shared loss was part of a profound change in rural
life. Richard and Judy title.
6. Rapture - Carol Ann Duffy (£12.99) A highly personal
collection of love poems which move from first encounters to rows, adultery,
parting and recrimination. Winner of the T S Eliot award.
7. Saturday - Ian McEwan (£7.99) One single day in February
2003 changes the life of a successful neurosurgeon. "While he frets
about the larger tragedies of life that might affect his family, it's those
smaller tragedies of life that will hit close to home."
8. Power of Now - Eckhart Tolle (£7.99) Back in the charts,
this guide to spiritual enlightenment.
9. Runaway - Alice Munro (£7.99) Three interconnected
stories - Carla, a congenital 'bolter', a stagestruck girl who finds life is
more Shakespearean than even she imagines; and Tessa, a young country woman
with strange powers. (£7.99)
10. A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian - Marina Lewycka
(£10.99) Two Ukrainian sisters are trying to defend their lecherous old
dad (who is writing a history of tractors) from a bosomy young gold-digger.
Mass-market paperback edition now in.
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
"In this age of ideological inertia, people really
like to have something to argue about. There is a hunger for debate without
rancour, and, oddly, literature turns out to be a way to satisfy
that."
Boyd Tonkin, literary editor of The
Independent, quoted in "Reading Richard and Judy", Prospect,
March 2006
February 2006 Stop Press
Launch of new Freedom to Roam Guides by Andrew Bibby,
6th March
Dear Book Case customer or contact,
Freedom to Roam
Guides
Wensleydale
and Swaledale : The Northern Yorkshire Dales
Wharfdale and Nidderdale : The Southern Yorkshire
Dales
Local author
Andrew Bibby will launch the latest two titles in the series
“Freedom to Roam Guides”
from Francis Lincoln at
Mooch Wine
Bar, Hebden Bridge
6.00-7.00pm
on Monday March 6th.
For the Freedom to Roam Guides, the publisher Frances Lincoln has
teamed up with the Ramblers' Association - ardent campaigner for greater public
access to open land. Each guide includes: an introduction to the area: its
landscape, history and natural history; 12 or more walks, graded for
difficulty, where walkers choose their own route; a full 4-colour OS map for
each walk; special features on points of interest; practical information for
visitors; and a guide to public rights of access.
Andrew
Bibby who lives in Hebden Bridge was responsible for three titles in the series
which were published last year: Forest of Bowland : With Pendle Hill and
The West Pennine Moors; The
Pennine Divide : Walking the Moors Between Greater Manchester and
Yorkshire; and
South
Pennines and The Bronte Moors : Including Ilkley Moor.
He is also the editor of Three Peaks and
the Howgill Fells by Sheila Bowker; and North York Moors by Judy
Armstrong. The two new titles in
this successful series are: Northern Yorkshire Dales: Wensleydale and
Swaledale and Southern Yorkshire Dales: Wharfedale and
Nidderdale.
Andrew
Bibby is an experienced author and freelance journalist whose outdoor writing
has appeared in The Rambler, Rambling Today, and The Great
Outdoors.
The
launch is being supported by The Book Case, Hebden Bridge, which this year
celebrates 20 years at 29 Market Street and 22 years in Hebden Bridge. All are
welcome to Mooch Wine Bar for the launch at 6.00pm on Monday 6th March.
For
more information contact The Book Case, telephone 01422-845353.
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
FEBRUARY 2006
Dear Book Case customer or contact,
It's been a very quiet January since the Council started digging up
roads and blocking town centre pavements. Many thanks to those of you who
battled through and kept in touch by phone. We're relieved to see that
fellow-traders William Holt greengrocers now have their front-door access back,
interesting as it might have been for customers to come in via the backdoor
through a yard in the next street. The Council says that pedestrian
situation will be sorted by the 6th and traffic by 13th February. (Then it all
starts again in late March.)
(If you do not wish to receive this monthly mailing, please click
on Reply and type CANCEL in the Subject
box.)
THIS MONTH'S FEATURED
BOOKS
We highlight every month books we think are of
particular interest: from adult fiction and non-fiction, a children's
book plus a new CD.
Adult fiction suggestion: Cold Comfort - Susannah Waters
(£11.99). Tammy is a highly strung teenager convinced that
global disaster is looming. She lives on a sinking island in the far
North but the quirky community around her are in denial. They eat their
breakfast on slanted tables; they sleep in tilted beds, but as long as the
money from the oil companies allows them a modern lifestyle, they ignore all
symptoms of coming disaster. An unusual cinematic drama played out on a snowy
and perilous landscape.
Adult non-fiction: The Price of
Water in Finistere (£6.99). Swedish poet, feminist and
journalist Bodil Malmsten abandoned her native country at the age of 55 to
settle in Finistere, where she wrote this celebratory meditation on "her bit of
paradise" interspersed with outraged and thought-provoking observations on bank
managers, racism, tulipomania, slugs, moles, Nordic socialism and French chic.
(£6.99)
Children's book: The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas - John
Boyne (£10.99). Berlin, 1942. When Bruno returns home from
school one day, he discovers that his belongings are being packed in crates.
His father has received a promotion and the family must move to a new house far
away, where there is no one to play with, and nothing to do. But Bruno longs to
be an explorer and meets another boy whose life and circumstances are very
different to his own; their meeting results in a friendship that has
devastating consequences. Age: 12+.
CDs: Look out for Exsultate
Jubilate by Mozart this month, new from
Hyperion, with Carolyn Sampson and The King's
Consort directed by Robert King. The Book Case has a
good selection of new releases from Naxos each month and now this also includes
recordings from Hyperion and Helios, Chandos and BBC Legends. As well as
recorded music, The Book Case has sheet music including ABRSM exam pieces and
tuition books for piano and violin. The Book Case accepts orders for
music
Yorkshire's Picture Post,
£16.99
Over 250 images taken from the Yorkshire Post's
photographic archives depicting Yorkshire in all its seasonal glory. It's now
in stock!
Local
authors
AD 500: a Journey through the Dark Isles of Britain and
Ireland - Simon Young, £8.99
From a former Hebden Bridge man,
and now in paperback, a novel written as a practical survival guide for the use
of civilised visitors to the barbaric islands of Britain and Ireland. The
Romans have left, and the islands are now fought over by Irish, British Celts,
Picts and Saxons. It is a dangerous world, full of tribal war and social
pitfalls. Cheviot bandits, bizarre forms of Christianity, boat burials,
peculiar haircuts, human sacrifice, poetry competitions, slave markets, the
legend of King Arthur - these are the realities of life in the sixth century
AD.
Coming in March, new "Freedom to Roam Guides"
from Andrew Bibby, £8.99 each:
Wharfdale and Nidderdale: The Southern Yorkshire
Dales
Wensleydale and Swaledale: Northern Yorkshire Dales
Three Peaks and the Howgill Fells by Sheila Bowker, ed.
Andrew Bibby
North York Moors by Judy Armstrong, ed.
Andrew Bibby
We will be announcing details of a launch soon.
National Book Events
The Daily Mail Book Club
February's book will be The Family Tree by Carole
Cadwalladr (£7.99). At a finger buffet held at 24
Beech Drive on the day of Charles and Diana's wedding, Rebecca Monroe's mother
locked herself in the bathroom and never came out. the tragicomic history of
one British family
March's title is Never Let
Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro and April's The Accidental by Ali
Smith. The Book Case accepts Daily Mail National Book Tokens
against one-half of the cost of this month's recommended title.
Richard and Judy Book Club
Titles
Wednesday, 1st February 2006 - The Farm by Richard
Benson, £7.99
Wednesday, 8th February 2006 - The Conjuror’s
Bird by Martin Davies, £10.00
Wednesday, 15th February 2006 - Arthur & George
by Julian Barnes, £10.99
Wednesday, 22nd February 2006 - The Lost Art of Keeping
Secrets by Eva Rice, £6.99
Wednesday, 1st March 2006 - Moondust by Andrew
Smith, £8.99
Wednesday, 8th March 2006 - March by Geraldine
Brooks, £7.99
Wednesday, 15th March 2006 - Empress Orchid by
Anchee Min, £7.99
Wednesday, 22nd March 2006 - The Lincoln Lawyer by
Michael Connelly, £10.99
The Book Case will be stocking all these books.
T S Eliot Prize
We're delighted that Carol Ann Duffy (who
occasionally shops at The Book Case) has won this year's prize for her book
Rapture, "a highly personal collection of love poems which
move from first encounters to rows, adultery, parting and recrimination." Go to
http://www.contemporarywriters.com/authors/?p=auth104 for
the British Council page about her work.
Whitbread Book of the
Year
Winning Biography - Matisse the Master by
Hilary Spurling: the story of his maturity as an artist and the
relationship between his life and art between 1909 and 1954, his glory years.
(£25)
Top Ten Books for School
Children
The Royal Society of Literature asked authors to nominate their
ten essential books that schoolchildren should have read before they leave
school. Several authors (Nick Hornby, Wendy Cope and Ben Okri among others)
refused to take part and there have been mixed reactions to those who
did. Poet Laureate Andrew Motion was generally thought to have set his
sights too high with Milton, Cervantes and Joyce but the following suggestions
were generally approved of:
J K Rowling: Wuthering Heights, Charlie and the
Chocolate Factory, Robinson Crusoe, David Copperfield, Hamlet, To Kill a
Mockingbird, Animal Farm, The Tale of Two Bad Mice, The Catcher in the Rye
and Catch-22.
Philip Pullman: Finn Family Moomintroll,
Emil and the Detectives, The Magic Pudding, The Rime
of the Ancient Mariner, Where the Wild Things Are, The Ballad of
Sir Patrick Spens (or other good anonymous ballads), First Book of
Samuel, Chapter 17 (the story of David and Goliath), Romeo and
Juliet, a good collection of myths and legends and a good
collection of fairytales
NEW TITLES
A stronger month coming in hardback fiction -
Joanne Trollope, Manda Scott, Val McDermid and
Susannah Waters (see Book of the Month above) plus a
physics/philosophy one translated from the French
and paperback fiction from Anita Brookner,
Margaret Forster, Russell Hoban, John Updike, James Meek, Manda Scott
and many more. January's fiction theme seemed to be the Undead in various
guises; this coming month it's the intriguing title (Colour of a Dog
Running Away, Please Don’t Come Back from the Moon, Sea Otters
Gambolling in the Wild Wild Surf ...)
Late fiction announcements for January include Richard Yates,
Ismail Kadare, Augustin Burroughs and Nelson
Algren.
Non-fiction:
- Ken Saro-Wiwa, Lauren Bacall, a homeless man and
a child in wartime Berlin in
Biography
- the Yellow Book, an RHS Encyclopaedia
and reassurance about nettles in Gardening
- AD 500, the Later Middle Ages, Wars of the Roses,
Hitler and classic reportage (the Great
Plains and James Cameron) in History
- Ladies of Letters in Humour
- the Brontes and "freeing the
writer within" (new edition) in Language and Literature
- racism and fun Zen in
MBS
- the Big Dig, the English meadow
and landscape and
dogs in Nature
& Pets
- Tony Harrison, Carol Ann Duffy and Roger
McGough in Poetry
- economic hitmen, North Korea, Unspeak, refugees, global
catastrophes and classic reportage from
Granta in Politics and
current affairs
- a Science Factfinder in Science
- an Irish
salaryman in Japan, a Swede in Finistere and new Lonely
Planet and Pocket Eyewitness Guides plus
local AA street guides in Travel and
- an unusual ark, a joke machine, fighter-jet-sized insects,
Prometheus, a sequel to Holes and
WWII Berlin in Children's
______________________________________________________________________________________________
What you've been
buying: JANUARY BESTSELLERS at The Book
Case
A straightforward list of bestsellers at The Book Case
this month - three books of local interest, three good novels, three
non-fiction books - about nature, farming and science - and two books of poetry (one local).
The influence of Richard & Judy
can be spotted.
1.
Seeing It Through - Peter Thomas (£10.00) Again at topspot, local memories and
photographs from the War years from the author of "Mill, Murder and Railway".
2. Saturday - Ian McEwan (£7.99) One single day in
February 2003 changes the life of a successful neurosurgeon.
3. A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian - Marina Lewycka
(£10.99) Two Ukrainian sisters are trying to defend their lecherous old
dad (who is writing a history of tractors) from a bosomy young gold-digger.
Daily Mail’s Book of the Month and Orange and Booker Prize-listed.
4. Findings - Kathleen Jamie (£6.99) Observant and
beautifully-written nature writing from around Scotland from an award-winning
poet. Sold steadily through 2005.
5. Dancing Out of the Dark Side - Glyn Hughes (£8.95) From
the award-winning local author, his first collection in twenty-five years,
"full of strong, thoughtful, vivid poems".
6. Milltown Memories 14: Winter 2005 (£2.80) Local history
pictorial journal with a centre-spread of a pre-clearance Bridge Lanes and a
panoramic view of Old Town, plus Christmas Past, John Travis of Todmorden, the
Heptonstall Players, the snowy winter of 1947, ghosts at Broadbottom and more.
This is the penultimate issue.
7. Does Anything Eat Wasps (and 101 Other Questions) - "New
Scientist" (£7.99) A collection of the best questions that have
appeared in "New Scientist".
8. Farm - Richard Benson (£8.99) Richard Benson was never
cut out for the family farm, but he returned from London when his dad had to
sell up and found that their shared loss was part of a profound change in rural
life. Richard and Judy title.
9. The History of Love - Nicole Krauss (£7.99) Leo Gursky
is just about surviving, tapping his radiator each evening to let his upstairs
neighbour know he's still alive. But life wasn't always like this: sixty years
ago, in the Polish village where he was born, Leo fell in love and wrote a
book. Richard and Judy title.
10. Rapture - Carol Ann Duffy (£12.99) A highly personal
collection of love poems which move from first encounters to rows, adultery,
parting and recrimination. Winner of the T S Eliot award.
Apologies for cutting off the last bestseller of 2005 last month - it
was Time Traveller’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger.
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
"A bookstore is one of the only pieces
of evidence we have that people are still thinking."
- Jerry
Seinfield
JANUARY 2006
Dear Book Case customer or contact,
We wish you all the best for the New Year, and hope you had a pleasant
Christmas. The Book Case had a very busy time with good sales of books,
calendars, music, DVDs and novelties and we thank you all for your support!
There were a number of strong titles amongst the books this year (see
bestsellers below). We also thank Alan Bennett for his support of independent
bookshops, and of course Peter Thomas's local history book topped the
list.
(If you do not wish to receive this monthly mailing, please click
on Reply and type CANCEL in the Subject
box.)
THIS MONTH'S FEATURED
BOOKS
We highlight every month books we think are of
particular interest: from adult fiction and non-fiction, plus new CDs. Kate's
away so no children's title this month.
Adult fiction suggestion: Saturday by Ian McEwan
(£7.99). One single day in February 2003 changes the life of a
successful neurosurgeon, happily married, troubled by the state of the world
and involved in a minor car accident with a small-time thug. For a range of
reviews, go to
http://www.reviewsofbooks.com/saturday/ This
year's Booker winner, John Banville, called it "dismayingly bad" and said his
own book in contrast was "a work of art" ... You are free to choose!
Adult non-fiction: Does Anything Eat
Wasps (and 101 other questions) - "New Scientist" (£7.99). A
collection of the best questions that have appeared in "New Scientist"
including: why can't we eat green potatoes? Why do airliners suddenly plummet?
Does a compass work in space? Why do all the local dogs howl at emergency
sirens? How can a tree grow out of a chimney stack? And why do bruises go
through a range of colours?
CDs: Our featured CD from Naxos this
month is the complete film score from the original 1933 movie of
King
Kong, lovingly restored by John Morgan and performed by the Moscow
Symphony Orchestra with William Stromberg.
The King Kong soundtrack is part of
Naxos
Film Music Classics, a series that includes 14 titles—with more on the
way—of complete scores from such classic movies as The Maltese
Falcon, Red River, Les Misérables, and
Objective, Burma. Composers represented include Max
Steiner, Adolph Deutsch, Franz Waxman, and Bernard Hermann as well as such
well-known classical composers as Dmitri Shostakovich and Arthur
Honegger
Yorkshire's Picture Post,
£16.99
Over 250 images taken from the Yorkshire Post's
photographic archives depicting Yorkshire in all its seasonal glory. We were
promised this for Christmas, and hope to receive it soon.
Mill, Murder and Mystery by Peter
Thomas - "The story of Gibson Mill; the Hawdon Hole Murder; and the
Hardcastle Crags Railway" - is now back in stock,
£3.50
Local
authors
Juliet Barker's praised book
Agincourt will be the Radio 4 Book of the
Week from Monday 9th January: "a fascinating account of a battle that
today has come to symbolise the triumph of the plucky British
underdog. ... brilliantly explores the realities behind its many myths."
It will be read by Jane Lapotaire.
Pilgrims from Loneliness - Ian Emberson,
£9.99
From the Bronte Society, an interpretation of "Jane
Eyre" and "Villette"
Local
publishers
From Halifax publisher Mark
Metcalf:
The Night
Shift - Ian Newton (£4.99)
Six episodes of sit-com from Ian
Newton of "Dustbingate". The world of the night shift worker is a strange place
indeed and it breeds its own crusty characters who find the darkness and the
absence of the bosses an excuse to have some real fun.
Radical and Revolting: The English
Working Class (£2.50)
Nine chapters deal with episodes of
revolt in English working class life from the Diggers to the 21st century.
From Hebden Bridge publishers Pomona:
Zone of
the Interior by Clancy Sigal, £9.99
"First UK publication of
the classic and controversial novel which defined, described, and indeed was, a
radically profound moment of madness." A fictional account of his experiences
and experiments in drug-taking and consciousness alongside R D Laing in the
1960s. Laing himself was unhappy with the book and it was banned until his
death.
Mean with Money by Hunter Davies,
£9.99
Mean With Money, inspired by Hunter Davies’
well-loved column in The Sunday Times, is wilfully short on practical advice
but offers instead good humour and much-needed empathy as we face the corporate
horror of high-handed and indifferent financial
institutions.
National Book
Events
The Daily Mail Book Club
January's book will be A Short History of Tractors in
Ukrainian by Marina
Lewicka (£10.99). Entertaining Orange,
Saga 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. The author recently presented the book at Halifax Library. A cheaper
paperback is scheduled - we'll be stocking it as soon as it comes
through.
February's title is The Family
Tree by Carole Cadwalladr, March's Never Let Me Go by Kazuo
Ishiguro and April's The Accidental by Ali Smith.
The Book Case accepts Daily Mail National Book Tokens against one-half
of the cost of this month's recommended title.
Richard and Judy Book Club
Titles
Wednesday, 18th January
2006 - The History of Love by Nicole
Krauss, £7.99
Wednesday, 25th January 2006 - Labyrinth by Kate
Mosse, £7.99
Wednesday, 1st February 2006 - The Farm by Richard
Benson, £7.99
Wednesday, 8th February 2006 - The Conjuror’s
Bird by Martin Davis, £10.00
Wednesday, 15th February 2006 - Arthur & George
by Julian Barnes, £10.99
Wednesday, 22nd February 2006 - The Lost Art of Keeping
Secrets by Eva Rice, £6.99
Wednesday, 1st March 2006 - Moondust by Andrew
Smith, £8.99
Wednesday, 8th March 2006 - March by Geraldine
Brooks, £7.99
Wednesday, 15th March 2006 - Empress Orchid by
Anchee Min, £7.99
Wednesday, 22nd March 2006 - The Lincoln Lawyer by
Michael Connelly, £10.99
The Book Case will be stocking all these books.
Whitbread Book Awards
Winning Novel
-
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)
Winning First
Novel -
The Harmony Silk Factory by Tash
Aw [A love story set against the turmoil of mid-20th century
Malaysia.](£7.99)
Winning
Biography -
Matisse the Master by Hilary
Spurling [The story of his maturity as an artist and the relationship
between his life and art between 1909 and 1954, his glory
years.](£25)
Winning Poetry:
Cold Calls by Christopher Logue
[The fifth, and penultimate, instalment of Logue's Homeric
masterpiece.]
£8.99
Winning Children's
Book:
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)
The overall winner will be announced
on 24th January. Meanwhile Whitbread say they have "transformed into the
UK’s leading hospitality company, focused on budget hotels, restaurants
and leisure clubs. Whitbread, which itself is no longer a consumer-facing
brand, operates leading brands in these three areas of the hospitality
business." In other words, will someone else please take the
sponsorship of the book prize
on?
Nestle (Smarties) Book
Prize
A children's judging panel decided the medal winners, which were
announced on December 14th, as follows:
5 & Under
Gold Medal - Lost and Found by Oliver
Jeffers. A story about the meaning of loneliness and the importance of
friendship. When a penguin arrives on a boy's doorstep, the boy decides
the penguin must be lost and tries to return him, and they set out in his
rowing boat on a journey to the South Pole. Hardback only at present, paperback
due June.
6-8 years Gold Medal - The Whisperer by Nick
Butterworth. From the creator of Percy the Park keeper, an
edgy picture book about a rat who sees things get worse, or better, between two
gangs of cats who live in a scrapyard. £5.99 and in stock.
9-11 years - I Coriander by Sally
Gardner. From a severely dyslexic writer, a fantasy tale of murder,
magic and romance set in 17th-century London. Hardback is £8.99,
paperback due June. In stock.
NEW TITLES
Not a lot spotted in hardback fiction so far for this
month - though Captain Alatriste continues to buckle his swashes - but a lot of
good paperback fiction, including Ian McEwan, Alice
Munro, Annie Proulx, Russell Hoban, Mil Millington and Michele
Roberts, as well as many less famous authors. As usual we try and keep
things international, with novels from Hungary, Albania, Japan, France-Russia,
Spain and of course the USA. Penguin is launching a new series of rejacketed
classics, entitled Penguin Reds.
Non-fiction:
- Mozart, Fergal Keane, Felice della Rovere, Mary
Wollstonecraft, Sabine Dardenne, a country matchmaker, a drunk
girl and fearless Jiexi in
Biography
- the German people, Henry VIII and the
slave trade in History
- Balderdash and Umberto
Eco in Language and
Literature
- a lot in MBS, including ghosts,
disconnected kids, living ethically, fear, fat and feel-good
items
- RSPB birdwatching in Nature
- a Plath companion, Jo Shapcott,
Betjeman and the Underground in Poetry
- Collapse, a female GI, Granta on
Africa and Amis on the US in Politics and current
affairs
- infinity and parallel
worlds in Science
and
- dates around the
world, Siberia by accident, growing up with the Inuit, Timbuktu and
Prester John in Travel
Because of the way titles reach us around
Christmas, there will probably be things we've missed, which will appear next
month.
______________________________________________________________________________________________
What you've been
buying: DECEMBER BESTSELLERS at The Book
Case
December’s bestsellers at The Book Case were topped
and tailed by books of local interest. In between were two popular biographies hanging on from last month,
We’Moon and Modern Manners likewise staying in, joined by a book
on popular science, two novels (one re-entering from last March) and a humorous
book of spoof signs.
1. Seeing It Through - Peter
Thomas (£10.00) From the
author of "Mill, Murder and Railway", a new local book bringing together local
memories and photographs from the War years.
2. 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.
3. Untold Stories - Alan Bennett (£20.00) Highly-praised
collection of some of his finest, most moving and funniest writing from the
last nine years. Thank you for heeding the author’s hope you would buy it
from an independent bookseller!
4. Does Anything Eat Wasps (and 101 Other Questions) - "New
Scientist" (£7.99) A collection of the best questions that have
appeared in "New Scientist", and a surprise bestseller. This month’s
recommended non-fiction title.
5. Saturday - Ian McEwan (£7.99) Despite arriving late on
in the month, the book that should have won the Booker Prize zoomed up the
charts. One single day in February 2003 changes the life of a successful
neurosurgeon. This month’s recommended fiction title.
6. Margrave of the Marshes - John Peel (£18.99) The first
half of the book is by the legendary music-man 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)
7. Talk to the Hand - Lynne Truss (£9.99) "Six Good Reasons
to Stay Home and Bolt the Door". The author of 'Eats, Shoots and Leaves' takes
on the sorry state of modern manners.
8. Time Traveller’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger (£7.99)
Unusual and magical story of a man with Chrono-Displacement Disorder: he
travels through time, but his wife can’t, with harrowing and funny
results.
9. Signs of Life (Disappointing Ruins) (£4.99) A hilarious
compilation portraying one man's crusade against a world of senseless public
notices and warnings.
10. Weird Calderdale - Paul Weatherhead (£7.99) Strange and
incredible events from the Calderdale area, ranging from UFOs in Todmorden to a
vampire infesting Robin Hood's grave near Brighouse. New revised edition.
BESTSELLERS OF 2005: 1. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince - J K
Rowling; 2. Alice’s Album - Issy Shannon and Frank Woolrych; 3. Weird
Calderdale - Paul Weatherhead; 4. South Pennines Ordnance Survey map; 5. My
Summer of Love - Helen Cross; 6. Small Island - Andrea Levy; 7. Gone Walkabout
- Anna Carlisle; 8. Untold Stories - Alan Bennett; 9. Da Vinci Code - Dan
Brown; 10. Time Traveller’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
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
Books to the ceiling
Books to the
sky.
My pile of books
Is a mile high.
How I love them!
How I
need them!
I'll have a long beard
By the time I read
them.
- Arnold Lobel (author of "Frog and Toad")
Links to previous Newsletters:
2004