Books Editor (673 KP) shared own list
Sep 29, 2017
Nonfiction recommendations this week will set you off on a journey, whether retracing the steps of the “Odyssey” with the memoirist Daniel Mendelsohn, or the senior-citizen workampers of “Nomadland.”
An Odyssey: A Father, a Son and an Epic
Book
From the best-selling author of 'The Lost', a deeply moving tale of a father, a son and the lessons...
Bones: Brothers, Horses, Cartels, and the Borderland Dream
Book
The dramatic true story of two brothers living parallel lives on either side of the U.S.-Mexico...
Politics social issues
The Misfortune of Marion Palm: A Novel
Book
A wildly entertaining debut about a Brooklyn Heights wife and mother who has embezzled a small...
Fiction
Reset: My Fight for Inclusion and Lasting Change
Book
SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2017 FINANCIAL TIMES AND MCKINSEY BUSINESS BOOK OF THE YEAR | NAMED A BEST FALL...
Business biography technology
The Internationalists: How a Radical Plan to Outlaw War Remade the World
Oona Hathaway and Scott J. Shapiro
Book
A bold and provocative history of the men who fought to outlaw war and how an often overlooked...
History politics
and 6 other items
Books Editor (673 KP) shared own list
Sep 29, 2017
The votes for the 2017 Not the Booker prize have been counted and The Guardian have six books are going through to the shortlist stage of the competition.
Anything is Possible
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Book
An unforgettable cast of small-town characters copes with love and loss from the No. 1 New York...
Man with a Seagull on His Head
Book
Under the intense summer sun on the Essex coast a gull falls from the sky and strikes an unassuming...
The Threat Level Remains Severe
9.0
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Book
A new colleague and a mysterious admirer make life infinitely more interesting for House of Commons...
Mystery fiction
The Ludlow Ladies’ Society
Book
Connie Carter has lost everybody and everything dear to her. To help nurse her grieving heart and to...
Fiction
Dark Chapter
Book
'Deftly written, pacey and unflinching, I could not put it down. Winnie Li is a rare talent with an...
and 1 other item
Set on Pepys Road, a street in London, that has become expensive to live in purely due to its locality, we meet quite a cast of characters, some who live on the road and some who have connections in other ways.
We have Roger & Arabella Yount, a couple who are well off but still live well beyond their means; Petunia, an elderly lady who has lived on Pepys Road the longest and is dying of a brain tumour; a Pakistani family who own the corner shop on the end of the street and Freddy, a Premiership football star from Senegal. All receive an anonymous postcard with the message "We Want What You Have". The story follows a year in the life of these and many other characters. I really enjoyed it - the people were a real mix including many different cultures and I thought it was a good social character study. Not a great deal happened but I didn't mind this (but I do wonder if it needed to be almost 700 pages long). I hadn't heard of this author before but I'd be interested to read other books he has written.
I love the medium of verse as a writing tool – Crossan is able to convey emotions and tell a story in far less words than a conventional novel. The topic of the death penalty is interesting and thought provoking and its perfectly pitched for the young adult audience it is aimed at (but is also of interest to adults too).
If you fancy something a bit different, I would recommend this or any of Crossan’s books wholeheartedly.
