ABC Writers Network » Book Reviews

Imagine This

Kevin — Wed, 27 May 2009 07:00:06 +0000

Imagine This is a book that does more than just tell a story; it takes the reader on a voyage of discovery.

imagine-this

Abandoned by her father and separated from her brother, Lola must adjust to living without the basic necessities, where a drink of water entails a six-mile trek to the bushes. Unable to speak the language and spurned by her relatives, Lola struggles to find her identity in a place where she doesn’t quite fit. Faced with challenges that would cow a lesser person, Lola chronicles her plight in her journal.

The backdrop maybe a turbulent Nigeria of the 70s and 80s, but the issues the book tackles are universal; the coming of age, the courage to face obstacles head-on, finding the strength to move forward in the face of overwhelming odds, the role of personal responsibility and so much more.

Although sometimes bleak and harrowing, Imagine This is told with a feistiness and humour that provokes empathy towards Lola as she moves from childhood to adulthood, searching for love and acceptance and coming to terms with the hardest thing of all, loss.

Imagine This won the Commonwealth Prize for best first book for the Africa region in 2008.

Bad Traffic

Kevin — Tue, 26 May 2009 07:00:00 +0000

Then Inspector Jian meets Ding Ming, a young intellectual, newly arrived in a smuggler’s lorry and desperate to find his wife. Together they form an uneasy alliance, criss-crossing the country towards an inevitable and blazing finale.

bad-traffic

Bad Traffic – which Simon Lewis wrote in response to the recent deaths of Chinese immigrants in Morecambe Bay and Dover – is the only British crime novel to be endorsed by the great Elmore Leonard. He called it, ‘inspired writing…a honey, suspense that never loses its grip.” It has been similarly and unanimously acclaimed in the national press, all our major crime blogs and by a range of Chinese authors such as Qiu Xiaolong and Diane Wei Liang. Hay Festival listed Simon as one of the country’s emerging authors.

Bad Traffic is a book that readers seem to want to discuss, for its gripping and original story, its social conscience, and the privilege of viewing our own landscape and culture (country ramblers, small town chippies, service stations) through Chinese eyes. Bad Traffic has yet to reach its full word-of-mouth potential. We think this powerful and compelling book could become a talking point for many years to come.

Striving For A Life Of Excellence

Kevin — Mon, 25 May 2009 11:47:02 +0000

When Academy Award-winning actor Sidney Poitier was born, he was not expected to live. He was premature and so tiny, he could fit into his father’s hand.

sidney-poitier

That was 1927, and as the family lore goes, a fortuneteller assured his mother that he would survive and one day, carry the Poitier name around the world.

Poitier’s memoir, Life Beyond Measure, now in paperback, is a series of letters to his great-granddaughter Ayele, taking her back to the moments that shaped him. His chapter on people of courage ends with his own father, Reginald Poitier.

“He was honest,” Poitier tells NPR’s Renee Montagne. “My father was the quintessential husband and dad.”

When Poitier was a teenager he left his native Bahamas for better opportunities in Miami. His father took him to the dock, gave him a lecture and then put $3 in his hand. “He said, ‘take care of yourself, son.’ And he turned me around to face the boat,” Poitier says.

On the boat, “I’m looking back at him and I knew what he was thinking,” he says. “He was thinking about whether he and my mother had given me enough before I had to go out into the world. And I think now that they did. He gave me infinitely more than the $3 he put in my hand.”

Miami was not a fit for the young Poitier. “I couldn’t adjust to the racism in Florida,” he says. “It was so blatant. … I had never been so described as Florida described me.”

But he wasn’t having it. As he says, “Florida said to me, ‘You are not who you think you are. We will determine what you are.’ ”

“And I decided, ‘No, I will determine who I am,’” and left Miami for New York City.

What drove Poitier then and now? “I always wanted to be someone better the next day than I was the day before. … Today that is my drive, still my drive.”

Obama Biography Captures U.K. Book Prize

Kevin — Sun, 05 Apr 2009 08:42:45 +0000

U.S. President Barack Obama has captured the Biography of the Year prize at the Galaxy British Book Awards for his bestseller, Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance.

The book, a memoir of his early life and African-American heritage, was one of two Obama had in the running at the annual awards – which are also partly based on sales.

The president, who is in Britain for the G20 summit but did not claim his book award at the ceremony on Saturday, was also up for Author of the Year for The Audacity Of Hope, which highlights his political and personal values.

That trophy went to Man Booker winner Aravind Adiga for his fiction novel The White Tiger.

The category was crammed with notable authors, including Orange Prize winner Rose Tremain (The Road Home ) and award-winning books: Somewhere Towards The End by Diana Athill and The Secret Scripture by Sebastian Barry.

Meanwhile, another American author was victorious at the awards.

Stephanie Meyer’s Breaking Dawn – the fourth novel in the top-selling series about the trials of a teenage girl who falls for a vampire – was named Children’s Book of the Year.

She beat out J.K. Rowling, who was nominated for The Tales of Beedle the Bard - an anthology of fairy tales for wizards that was mentioned in one of her Harry Potter books.

Other winners included Sebastian Faulks for the Popular Fiction Award for his James Bond novel Devil May Care. and the late Swedish author Stieg Larsson, who captured Crime Thriller of the Year category for The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo.

Book of the Year was handed to The Suspicions Of Mr. Whicher by Kate Summerscale.

The winners are chosen by voting from both the public and the Academy of the British Book Industry, an association of publishers, booksellers and past winners. There are no cash awards connected to the prizes

Times Best Fiction List

Kevin — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 17:17:00 +0000

I think 2008 was a good year for books. At the end of the year The Times Newspapers publish a list of the top ten paperback fiction. The list is prepared by The Bookseller using data supplied by and copyright to Nielsen BookScan for the 51 weeks ending 20/12/08.

My favourite this year has to be ‘This Year It Will Be Differet’ by Maeve Binchy, if only because I enjoy short stories. In second place I’d place ‘The Kite Runner’ by Khaled Hosseini. You’ll have your own favourites I know.

Like myself you probably got some Amazon Book Tokens this year well now is a good time to cash then in what with the Amazon sale and all that!

1 No Time for Goodbye

by Linwood Barclay
Highest position 1 Weeks in top ten 19
2008 sales 636,105 Total sale 636,105
(Orion £7.99)
A woman stirs up the past, 25 years after her family’s disappearance

2 A Thousand Splendid Suns

by Khaled Hosseini
Highest position 1 Weeks in top ten 27
2008 sales 609,945 Total sale 850,690
(Bloomsbury £11.99)
Two women struggle to survive in Taliban-ruled Afghanistan

3 The Kite Runner

by Khaled Hosseini
Highest position 1 Weeks in top ten 13
2008 sales 529,450* Total sale 1,359,910*
(Bloomsbury £7.99)
A tale of friendship, betrayal and redemption set in Afghanistan

4 The Book Thief

by Markus Zuzak
Highest position 4 Weeks in top ten 5
2008 sales 400,135* Total sale 416,690*
(Black Swan 7.99)
The grim reaper narrates the story of a girl growing up in Nazi Germany

5 The Forgotten Garden

by Kate Morton
Highest position 1 Weeks in top ten 10
2008 sales 389,025 Total sale 389,025
(Pan £7.99)
Cottage and its buried garden hold the secret to a century-old mystery

6 On Chesil Beach

by Ian McEwan
Highest position 2 Weeks in top ten 7
2008 sales 387,855 Total sale 419,655
(Vintage £6.99)
Newlyweds confront their anxieties before their first night together

7 This Year It Will Be Different

by Maeve Binchy
Highest position 1 Weeks in top ten 16
2008 sales 361,220 Total sale 361,220
(Orion £7.99)
A Christmas short-story collection from much-loved Irish author

8 Book of the Dead

by Patricia Cornwell
Highest position 1 Weeks in top ten 7
2008 sales 354,935 Total sale 354,935
(Sphere £7.99)
Kay Scarpetta’s dreams of a quiet life in Charleston are shattered

9 PS, I Love You

by Cecelia Ahern
Highest position 1 Weeks in top ten 17
2008 sales 302,355* Total sale 402,395*
(Harper £6.99)
Young Irish widow faces life with help of late husband’s letters

10 The Outcast

by Sadie Jones
Highest position 1 Weeks in top ten 8
2008 sales 301,335 Total sale 301,355
(Vintage £7.99)
A 19 year-old, released from jail, triggers a community’s implosion

List prepared by The Bookseller using data supplied by and copyright to Nielsen BookScan for the 51 weeks ending 20/12/08. *Includes sales of more than one edition in the same format and at the same recommended retail price.

A Mercy by Toni Morrison

Kevin — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 23:04:31 +0000

Finally a novel that lives up to the publisher’s hype. So much is promised with each new book, but this is truly a fine work. I am unable to judge whether this is great literature, but it satisfied me on many levels. That is a rare occurrence for a piece of writing. I have given five stars to prior reviews, but this is the finest writing that I have yet reviewed for amazon.

The novel reads quickly. You could finish it in a few hours if you were so inclined. I preferred to slow down and savor the contents. I will return this book again, after giving it a season on my shelf. It will never go to the library donation pile in my lifetime! Although I may be a bibliophile, in the extreme I would preserve only a few (hundred) books. This will be one of them.

Morrison uses shifting points of view to bring this short novel to life. The story unfolds through the eyes of each major character, although only one, Florens, speaks in the first person. Her voice is entirely in a vernacular, lacking conventional punctuation and sentence structure. The first few pages are moderately difficult to understand, but it becomes steadily more intelligible as you progress. The varied points of view remind me of The Sound and the Fury, especially in the opening chapter. But Florens is no Benjy, and Morrison’s narrative bears only a superficial resemblance to Faulkner’s. Although there is plenty of sorrow, and broken relationships all around, there is not a tone of hopeless cynicism.

I went back to read the first chapter several times, discovering more each time. You cannot understand some things at first. For example: “If a pea hen refuses to brood I read it quickly and sure enough that night I see a minha mae standing hand in hand with her little boy, my shoes jamming the pocket of her apron.” This is a pivotal moment, but I did not recognize it as such on a first read. Sometimes I don’t care for writers who show things early, and explain them later. Morrison is such a good writer that I didn’t mind at all. I don’t think that you will mind either.

I do not call Morrison a feminist or black writer. I believe those words will put unreasonable limits on how I might think about her work. Her writing reaches beyond the narrow concerns of our present day, to universal truths. She does not gloss over the brutalities and prejudices of slavery, or the lot of women in the 17th century. Far from it. But there are even larger things at stake here. In A Mercy I met myself where I least expected. I recognized myself in Florens, in Lina, in Jacob and even in Sorrow. To see yourself in another is the beginning of love. To give that gift to a reader is a great achievement.

Howard Shapiro’s Success in Publishing Books for Children

Kevin — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 15:15:35 +0000

Life for independent author Howard Shapiro just keeps getting better with his fourth children’s book. After finding success with his first three children’s books, author Howard Shapiro seems to have nowhere to go but up. Having accomplished his goal of writing characters that adults and kids would be able to relate to in his stories and also achieving self-publishing victory with Hockey Days, Shapiro continues to pursue his love for the written word and the sport of hockey in his new book.

Hockey Player for Life, which was released in October, has garnered positive responses not only from critics but also from people who have read Hockey Player for Life. Shapiro relates: “The feedback I have received from folks at the signings, from the hockey blogging community and from the many pro hockey teams who I have had the privilege to work with has been phenomenal and I couldn’t be more appreciative and thankful for their collective time and support.”

Reviews for Hockey Player for Life from The Hockey News, New York Sportscene and Pittsburgh Magazine are nothing short of supportive, with critics calling it “a delightful ode to the love of the game”, an “instant classic”, and a “must-read for all soon-to-be hockey stars.”

Shapiro’s success has also reached the Amazon.com Sales Charts for Children’s Books (People & Places Fiction) and Teens Books (School & Sports Fiction), with Hockey Player for Life ranking top 50. The book has also been nominated in the category of Middle Grade Fiction of the Cybils Award, which is selected by a talented panel of children’s and young adult book bloggers.

All these indicate not only the quality of Shapiro’s latest work of sports fiction but also his success as a writer and independent author.

The Audacity of Hope by Barack Obama

Kevin — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 14:43:38 +0000

I bought this when Obama was on the brink of his historic victory over McCain, anxious to see what kind of a person would be the next leader of the free world. Admittedly, compared to Obama, my views are probably a little more conservative, so I wasn’t sure what to expect.

I was pleasantly surprised.

Obama takes certain themes- eg. family, virtues, Republicans and Democrats- as headers for his chapters, and writes on this issues with clarity and honesty, including his personal thoughts and experiences regarding each of them. His chapter on the US Constitution is a particular gem, and will restore your faith in democracy.

The author paints a picture of himself as a family man above all- his wife and children will always prove more important than the Senate, baseball, or law. He is humorous, and yet at times pensive and melancholy, but always trusting of human nature and his faith in God.

I still don’t agree with some of what Obama says, but I now know why he has arrived at the conclusions he has, and can appreciate his reasoning. Furthermore, his hope in the future for America and its role in the world is laudable, and by the end of this book, I certainly felt I had a deeper understanding of where he intends to push the USA over the next four years.

Beautifully written.

Danny Smith, WATERSTONE’S ORPINGTON