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 inte