A Spool of Blue Thread

by Gudrun Bowers | 6, Nov 2015

The Whitshanks like to think they are special, as families do. They take great pride in their handyman skills, their stories, imagine that others see a close knit clan and wish they were part of it. This may be true, but Anne Tyler’s portrait of a middle-class Baltimore family unerringly skewers its subjects with a cool, humorous yet ultimately sympathetic gaze. Abby and Red love their comfortable family home. Their children have all grown and left, but are still in regular and close contact, except Denny, the problem child, who remains unreliable and secretive. But Red is losing his hearing and Abby is starting to experience disturbing timeslips, and their children agree that they can’t continue to live alone. As family members return to the house and their stories loop back and forth through time, Tyler’s writing acutely and elegantly observes the muddle of family life, the sometimes hilarious tragedy of getting old, the misconceptions and misunderstandings that plague every family, the imitations of human consciousness.
This is Tyler’s 20th novel, and if anything, her writing is more humane, yet piercingly sharp than ever.

Liquidator

by Gudrun Bowers | 6, Nov 2015

A high-octane nitro-fuelled conspiracy thriller for the 10+ age group, from the award-winning author of ‘Trash’ and the ‘Ribblestrop’ series. ‘Liquidator’ follows teenagers Vicky, Ben, and their class-mates as they excitedly embark upon a week of work experience. On her very first day making tea at a high-ranking legal firm, Vicky stumbles upon a sinister cover-up by a global drinks company, who are preparing for the launch of their new energy drink brand, ‘Liquidator’, and who will stop at nothing to protect their brand and prevent the truth about their killer product from emerging.
What follows is a fast-paced thrill ride of ever-escalating tension, as each teenager takes turns to relate their part in the story, a nice structural touch which adds colour and depth. From a Kenyan village to a huge Wembley concert by way of the London sewers and countless brushes with death, the classmates determinedly work together to reveal the truth.
The brilliant and very believable concept of an addictive, dangerous energy drink marketed by a ruthless global brand, and the sheer fizzing energy of this story, make this a fantastic choice for your 10 to 15 year-old boy OR girl – my 12 year old son couldn’t put it down!

Some Beautiful New Hardbacks…

by Gudrun Bowers | 6, Nov 2015

There’s a new trend in beautifully and imaginatively illustrated fact books for children. Here are some of our current favourites, mostly with a natural theme. All are hardbacks.
For very young children, One Thousand Things by Anna Kӧvecses (Wide Eyed Editions, £12.99) is a lovely introduction to first words and concepts. With bold, graphic illustrations in lovely colours, it is split into sections such as First Things to Learn, Things to do With You, Things Around the World, and has a cute mouse somewhere on every page.
Creaturepedia by Adrienne Barman (Wide Eyed Editions £14.99) is for slightly older children (4-7) and has charming and often amusing illustrations of animals accompanied by facts relevant to the categories they have been divided into. The categories themselves are an interesting and imaginative way of looking at the natural world, and include The Liliputians, The Homebodies, The Masters of Camouflage, The Champion Breathholders, The Big Mouths!
Small and Tall Tales of Extinct Animals by Hélène Rajcak and Damien Laverdunt (Gecko Press £14.99) is the most thought-provoking of these titles. Moving across the world by continent, it takes a fascinating look at the enormous, tiny, and strange animals now lost,

Slade House

by Gudrun Bowers | 6, Nov 2015

What a treat! A Mitchell-esque take on haunted-house Gothic Horror, to be published just before Hallowe’en!
‘Slade House’ inhabits the same universe as David Mitchell’s previous novel ‘The Bone Clocks’, but works perfectly well as a stand-alone novel for those of you yet to fall under the spell of his sublimely-crafted sentences and soul-sucking atemporal time-travellers. This slender novel centres around Slade House, a decaying mansion tucked away in a tatty North London suburb, and each of its 5 chapters features a different character. The house mysteriously appears once every 9 years, and at each ‘opening’, one carefully chosen visitor is let in, beginning with teenaged Nathan, who is invited in October 1976. Like ‘Hotel California’, this is one house you may enter, but never leave, and so we romp through a succession of vividly-imagined, wonderfully nuanced narrators, taking us from 1976 through to 2015, each of whom meets a deeply unpleasant end. Each decade is lovingly and nostalgically evoked with delightfully British detail – the beauty of Mitchell’s writing for me is in the way that, like Haruki Murakami, his stories are rooted in the humdrum modern world of Pritt-stick and Shredded-Wheat, yet spiral off into quantum alternate-realities.
‘Slade House’ becomes increasingly dark as the horror of its occupants, the sinister Grayer twins, is revealed, and the reader becomes ever-more desperate for a heroic survivor to emerge – I was gulping the novel down by the end, which I will not reveal, save to say Mitchell fans will applaud the re-appearance of Dr Marinus.
A hugely enjoyable Hallowe’en read, with tricks AND treats galore!
Gudrun

Signs for Lost Children

by Gudrun Bowers | 10, Sep 2015

Dr Ally Moberley-Cavendish is a newly qualified female doctor. Which is a difficult and impressive thing in the 1880s. Recently married and living in Cornwall, she has taken a job in Truro asylum, giving medical attention to the inmates. Her husband, Tom, an engineer, is sent to Japan for work and their stories unfurl in the parallel narratives of their professional trials. As Tom becomes more and more absorbed by Japanese culture, Ally finds herself haunted by the sadness and anxiety of her upbringing, in particular, her difficult relationship with her mother, and the foundations of their brief marriage begin to slip.
Signs for Lost Children picks up from Moss’s previous novel, the excellent Bodies of Light, although it can also stand alone, and continues her beautifully written and controlled exploration into family dynamics, particularly complex mother/child relationships (Ally’s mother Elizabeth is an admirable monster) and whether there is any possibility of escaping the repeating patterns of successive generations. It is also about madness and sanity, loneliness and determination, written with great precision, clarity and emotional resonance.
Sarah Moss has long been a bookshop favourite, and is now even more so after her recent visit to the shop, when she impressed us with her wit, erudition and niceness. She has had much critical acclaim and deserves to be more widely read as she is a writer of great talent, whose powers are increasing with each book. Buy it!
Alice

And I’ve just read Night Waking, Sarah’s second novel and the book written before Bodies of Light and loosely linked to the other two. It’s set in the present day in the Hebrides where mother of two Anna wrestles with childcare and her doctoral thesis in an isolated cottage while her husband counts puffins, but it introduces us to one of the Moberley family through some old letters found in an attic. It is an interesting and satisfying read – witty, thoughtful and will strike a chord with all those who have paced the floor with a child whose body clock is obstinately out of sync with the rest of the family, but as Alice says, each of Sarah’s novels gains in strength….
Sara

Gorilla Dawn

by Gudrun Bowers | 10, Sep 2015

The latest book from vet turned children’s writer Gill Lewis, author of the best-selling animal novels ‘Sky Hawk’, ‘White Dolphin’ and ‘Moon Bear’, widens her scope with an ambitious and moving story set in the rainforests of the Congo. It follows the plight of two children, Imara and Bobo, held captive by a group of rebel soldiers who have set up an illegal mineral mine in a National Park area. The rebels have also captured a baby gorilla, who Imara nurses back to health and forms a strong bond with. When Bobo and Imara learn that the gorilla is destined to be sold into captivity, they vow to return him to the wild before it’s too late. But the consequences of betraying the rebel soldiers are grim. Will they have the courage to carry out their plan, and will Bobo find out what happened to his park-ranger father?
So far, so earnest – but this is an exciting read, with really engaging characters, which manages to be very informative about the troubles faced by African rainforests being ‘blood-mined’ for minerals like coltan (used in mobile phones), without being ‘preachy’. With sympathetic, plucky boy and girl characters and a story which is moving without being sentimental, this is a really great, consciousness-raising read for readers of both genders, aged 9-14.