Dear Book Case customer or friend,
"No sun - no moon - no morn - no noon .... November!" (Thomas
Hood). But at the Book Case, we have plenty to cheer you up with:
- some excellent value BBC CD packs of classics of
literature at £4.99,
- new chunky mugs based on the
old Ladybird Bicycle and Motorcar books, in sturdy red
boxes,
- Beano & Dandy wrapping paper and
notebooks,
- Beano & Dandy mugs expected in next week,
- attractive poster-style lunar calendars, as well
as the posh black Moonwise ones -
and now Hallowe'en is past, we're discreetly putting out a
selection of our wide range of Christmas cards and
mini Advent Calendars for customers who like to get
them early. Ness has indicated where they are with
tasteful strands of tinsel.
Another cheering new arrival is a CD from Todmorden
Orchestra of two new suites celebrating Ted Hughes and his
work - see below! The weasels movement is apparently very
lively.
We have in the latest big beautiful Landscape Photographer
of the Year book, including Nigel Hillier's stunning
view of Hebden Bridge in winter, which was one of the winners.
And our top ten selection did appear in the Independent on
Sunday, although they took out the jokes and local colour, and rearranged
the titles ...
We're hoping to announce our redesigned website
this month, and will keep you informed
We regret that we will remain closed on Tuesdays
until the end of the month. We will then open on Tuesdays in the run up to
Christmas.
A reminder that you can find our Facebook page
here!
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: The Lacuna - Barbara
Kingsolver (£16.99 at The Book Case). A man's search for safety,
torn between the warm heart of Mexico and the cold embrace of 1950s McCarthyite
America. The first novel in ten years from the author of The Poisonwood
Bible.
Adult non-fiction: Letters of Ted Hughes
(£14.99). Now in paperback, the highly-praised and
wide-ranging selection of the late Poet Laureate's correspondence. See
below.
Children: Crocodile Tears -
Anthony Horowitz (£12.99 at The Book Case). Alex Ryder's eighth
adventure sees him reluctantly turning to MI6 for help when he is targeted by a
hitman, and his past is threatened to be exposed. But MI6 has a price - Alex
must spy on the activities of a GM crop plant, but he's soon in danger. Ages 9+
Remains: The Elmet Suite by John Reeman & the Ted
Hughes Suite by Lawrence Killian, performed by the Todmorden Orchestra
(CD: £8.00). The Elmet Suite is inspired by five Ted
Hughes poems ("Remains of Elmet", "Football at Slack", "In April", "The Weasels
We Smoked Out of the Bank" and "There Come Days to the Hills". The Ted
Hughes Suite is a descriptive piece celebrating the poet’s life: "His
Youth", "Affairs of the Heart", "The Poet Laureate". Attractively
presented CD commissioned by the Elmet Trust, with explanatory notes.
NEWS
Local Authors
Letters of
Ted Hughes, ed. Christopher Reid (£14.99)
At the outset of
his career Ted Hughes described letter writing as 'excellent training for
conversation with the world', and he was to become a prolific master of this
art which combines writing and talking. This selection begins when Hughes was
seventeen, and documents the course of a life at once resolutely private but
intensely attuned to other lives (including both adults and children): a life
pared down to essentials and yet eventful, peripatetic, at times publicly
controversial. Now in paperback at 784 pages.
The Celtic
Revolution: in search of 2000 forgotten years that changed our World - Simon
Young (£14.99)
Shows how the Celtic Empire ruled the world
from Spain to Egypt for two thousand years in a way that drew the blue print
for today's Europe. The author grew up in Hebden Bridge so it gets a mention,
as does Mankinholes.
Almost a Lifetime - Vikki Egerton
(£9.99)
Vikki Egerton is based in Luddenden, and this is her
autobiography, covering her Royal Artillery service in the war, and her work as
a librarian, teacher and author. She is now in her 90s.
Shirley
Craven and Hull Traders: Revolutionary Fabrics and Furniture 1957-1980 - Lesley
Jackson.
From the locally-based writer, curator and design
historian, a big colourful book about the gifted textile designer who specialised in bold
abstracts. Hull Traders were based at Trawden, and the accompanying exhibition
will be visiting Bankfield Museum in Halifax. More info at
http://www.hulltraders.co.uk/
Deadly Focus - Bob and Carol Bridgestock
(£10.99)
From a retired Calderdale detective and his wife, an exciting
first novel about the abduction of a young girl and the hunt for a serial
killer, set in "Harrowfield" ("definitely Yorkshire but could be Halifax or
Huddersfield") and investigating officer Jack Dylan.
Cracking On: poems on ageing by older women - ed. Joy
Howard (£10.00)
This new anthology explores all aspects of
ageing, from losing parents to confronting the inevitability of our own deaths.
Here are poets facing up to life, with a recognition of its transience,
absurdities, triumphs and disasters, in the spirit of taking it on the chin.
Keighley-based editor, whose previous work includes "A Twist of Malice" and
"Exit Moonshine".
Local
Interest
Landscape Photographer of the Year, Collection
03 (£25.00)
A big beautiful book of colour photos,
including Nigel Hillier's stunning view of Hebden Bridge in winter, which was
one of the winners.
Austin Mitchell's Grand Book of Yorkshire Humour
(£7.99)
Hundreds of "guaranteed fully organic" Yorkshire jokes and
sayings from the Sowerby-based popular politician.
Owt, Nowt
& Summat: a toast to all Tykes – Len Markham
(£6.99)
Following Ee Up Lad!, a further romp through the lush
gardens of Yorkshire dialect and character.
Jimmy Mac, Prince of Inside Forwards - Dave Thomas
(£17.95) Now in stock.
The story of Burnley and Northern Ireland icon
Jimmy McIlroy. Profusely illustrated book telling the story of this "magic"
footballer. Launched on 23rd October at Burnley's Turf Moor Ground.
Book Trust
For National Bookstart Day (9 October), the theme was "My Favourite
Rhyme". A survey of 2,500 people showed that knowledge of traditional rhymes is
fading, 33% of young parents saying they were too old-fashioned to interest
their children, and 20% saying they weren't educational enough. The most
popular rhyme was "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star". You can download a report at
http://www.booktrust.org.uk/show/feature/News%20and%20press/Booktrust-news
But at The Book Case, the Orchard Book
of Nursery Rhymes and Oxford's Lavender's Blue, which
both have a good range of traditional rhymes and are nicely illustrated, are
good steady sellers: our customers clearly have proper
values! We've just started stocking the Chester Book of Nursery
Rhymes and Children's Songs, which has the music too, and for adults
who like a challenge, we have Luis D'Antin Van Rooten's glorious Mots
D'Heures: Gousses Rames.
Book Time
Depressing Books
Earlier this year Abebooks asked readers to identify their most
depressing books. The results are now in, and the Top Ten Bleak Books were
voted as follows:
1. The Road - Cormac McCarthy - "crushingly
bleak"
2. The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath -
"If you are already depressed, avoid this like the plague"
3. Jude the Obsure - Thomas Hardy - "Seriously,
what can touch it?"
4. 1984 - George Orwell - "I threw it across the
room when I read the last line."
5. Atlas Shrugged - Ayn Rand - "This book breeds
hate for mankind in the mind of the reader."
6. Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck - "Everything
is grey, sad, and hardship. Nobody ever smiles, everyone is so grim."
7. Night - Elie Wiesel - "This numbness
I feel toward human suffering"
8. On the Beach - Neville Shute - "The book
literally gave me nightmares"
9. The Bluest Eye - Toni Morrison - "no way out, no
solutions given, no hope"
10. Lord of the Flies - William Golding - "I sobbed
at the awful doomed picture of mankind"
Find all the gloomy details
here or
to cheer yourself up, find the Ten Funniest Books according to the British
here.
NEW
TITLES
It's not so busy in November, but amongst
the month's
hardback fiction are
Barbara
Kingsolver and
Paul
Auster. Paperback fiction includes
Tove Jansson, Prue Leith,
David Baldacci and
Marcia Muller, with
reissues
including
John le Carre, John Fowles, an occult book from 1904
and
Martin Jarvis reading
A Christmas
Carol. Click
here for the full
list.
November's
Non-fiction includes:
- knitting tea-cosies and
gloves (back to traditional ways of life ...)
in Art and Craft
- Ted Hughes, Maya Angelou, Phyllida Law
and Diana Athill in Biography
- the Bedside Guardian, Noam Chomsky x 2 and
Rupert Murdoch in Current Affairs
- slow cooking x 2 in
Food
- ancient shelters, the Celtic empire, 17th-century women
and lost railway lines in History
- lots in Humour again including Carol
Ann Duffy and Posy Simmonds on Mrs Scrooge, funny signs, Yorkshire proverbs,
Gervase Phinn, QI, Gorey x 2, driving a tank and other gentlemanly
accomplishments and a House of Horror stained-glass
colouring book (or is that Art?)
- Alberto Manguel and John Sutherland's
curiosities in Literature
- Thich Nhat Hanh, stopping
smoking and colouring yantras in MBS
- Daniel Barenboim on the power of
Music
- British cattle
in Nature and
Animals
- Thomas A Clarke
travelling the Highlands and Islands and Death of a
Salesman on CD in Poetry
&
Drama
- house repairs and the
Trivium in Reference
- science and Islam and the
numerati controlling our lives in Science and Maths
- campsites and Australia in Travel
- and the Nativity, ponies, Alex Rider & M16
and Young Bond in Children's books
For a fuller listing, click here:
http://www.bookcase.co.uk/new_title_bc.htm
E-mail, phone or fax us
to reserve any of these new titles.
______________________________________________________________________________________________
What you've been buying: OCTOBER's bestsellers at The Book
Case
Local interest was again to the fore at the Book Case in
October, with history, walks and landscape all celebrated. Of the remainder,
two were very different novels, one was a children’s activity book and the
We’Moon is popular as usual at this time of year.
1. Summat A'Nowt - Steve Murty
(£9.95)
This well-illustrated history of the Calder Valley and
surrounding area - with special focus on the development of the ancient hamlet
of Stubb - continued to sell briskly.
2. Yorkshire Dales Textile Mills - George
Ingle, £9.99
An illustrated account of all the mills that
once stood in the Dales, with information about the firms, child labour, and
hand-loom weavers’ riots plus details of the buildings, the machinery in
them and their power sources. Royd Press.
3. Fun with
Hallowe’en Stickers - Paul E Kennedy, £1.25
One of the
excellent little Dover books, popular for obvious seasonal
reasons!
4. Wolf Hall - Hilary Mantel, £16.99 at
The Book Case
The highly-praised and chunky Booker-winning novel about
Thomas Cromwell. "Convincingly builds a world."
5. Sum: Forty
Tales from the Afterlives - David Eagleman (£9.99)
Our
October Fiction Book of the Month: a thought-provoking and entertaining series
of stories about alternative versions of the after-life.
6.
Gone Walkabout - Anna Carlisle, £6.95
The bestselling book of
local walks now out in a substantially rewritten and updated edition, with new
maps. From Hebden Bridge publishers Pennine Pens.
7. Rebel Girls
- Jill Liddington, £14.99
The forgotten suffragettes of the
North of England are back in our bestseller list, documented by well-known
locally-based author.
8. We’Moon Diary 2010: Gaia
Rhythms for Womyn, £15.99
The theme of this year’s
popular and colourful astrological moon calendar is "Reinvent the Wheel".
9. Moods of the Pennine Moors - John Morrison,
£12.95
Another past favourite - atmospheric photographs of the mills
and moors of the South Pennines, in varying lights and
seasons.
10. Hebden Bridge: a short history of the area - Peter
Thomas, £5.99
This account of our area through the ages by a
well-known local author continued to sell well. Royd Press
Research at the University of Liverpool found that
Shakespearean language excites positive brain activity, adding further drama to
the bard's plays and poetry.
Professor Philip
Davis, from the University's School of English, said: "By throwing odd words
into seemingly normal sentences, Shakespeare surprises the brain and catches it
off guard in a manner that produces a sudden burst of activity - a sense of
drama created out of the simplest of things."
Find us on Facebook!
UPDATE: JILL LIDDINGTON, HELENA WHITBREAD & ANN
LISTER