Weekly lockdown newsletter #10
Hello lovely people, and welcome back! After a fortnight off we're ready to welcome you back into the shop (which looks rather natty, if we do say so ourselves) with open arms. Well, open arms behind a sheet of glass, a mask, and with sanitised hands, at least...
Yes, we are once more open for collections, so please send through your orders using your preferred method of correspondence -- more details on how to do that below. We've timed our return well, too, since this week has heaps of great new releases we're going to go through right now!
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New this week
With a Booker nomination under his belt, Jeet Thayil is swinging for the fences with his second novel as Names of the Women explores the unwritten stories of the women left out of the New Testament. Closer to home, Lauren Oyler's incisive and blackly comic Fake Accounts sees a young woman tripped up by the revelation that her social media-phobic boyfriend is actually an online conspiracy theory guru! Sam Byers proved his satirical bonafides with Perfidious Albion, and Come Join Our Disease continues to unpick the intersection of tech and modern society with the story of a homeless woman whose "recovery" comes with the Faustian caveat that the whole process be documented for the tech company who're footing the bill...
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Spring is icumen in for fans of folk horror, as Daniel Kehlmann's Tyll is now available in paperback. A spellbinding update of a folk tale about a devilish trickster, recommended by no less an authority than Salman Rushdie! Meanwhile, Shokoofeh Azar's brilliant and moving The Enlightenment of the Greengage Tree is set in a post-revolutionary Iran is haunted (literally) by the spirit of a 13-year-old girl, who narrates the story of her family's escape from Tehran. Last but by no means least, Eley Williams's debut novel The Liar's Dictionary is also out in paperback, a fantastically fun and witty tale of weasel words and the people who love them.
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First up in non-fiction this week, The Order of Time's Carlo Rovelli turns his scientific knowledge and storytelling gumption to explore the birth of quantum physics in Helgoland. Spring Cannot Be Cancelled is the latest collection of correspondence between David Hockney and critic Martin Gayford, with drawings and discussion inspired (but not bogged down) by lockdown. Long-standing Labour MP for Tottenham David Lammy explores social division and the need for belonging in Tribes, now out in paperback.
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Helen Green digs into the history right beneath our feet in Notes From Deep Time, which takes the reader from 3-billion-year-old fossils in the Highlands to the labs which monitor the (not always) dormant volcanoes dotted across the world. Tim Dee's Greenery is another bit of globe-trotting non-fiction, following the migration of swallows fom South Africa to Scandinavia. Musician Sam Lee takes a more lyrical approach with The Nightingale, an exploration of the bird's bewitching song, habitat, as well as its cultural influence from Greek myth to Keats.
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We're looking forward to welcoming you back to the new-look shop, complete with new carpet, lights, and some other cosmetic touches here and there! Browsing remains verboten under lockdown restrictions but we're open for collection Monday through Saturday, 10-4.
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A favourite of our children's non-fiction section is now in paperback: Jack Tite's Viking Voyagers is full of bold illustrations laying out the history of marauding Norsemen. Also big and colourful is Graham Carter's new picture book The Story Thief, about a shy girl who has to set out on an adventure when all the books in her town are stolen! For our younger readers, Snap! Stick Out Your Tongue! by Bob Barner is a silly, informative pull-the-tab book full of colourful creatures and facts about animal tongues.
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Schools are back open, and new reading books are in the offing! Zillah Bethell's The Shark Caller is a great new title for older readers, a story of revenge and friendship set on the shores of Papua New Guinea. For younger readers, Paul Coomey's Stick Boy is an imaginative, funny take on fitting in in a new town...when you're a stick figure. New in paperback is the wonderfully illustrated, completely charming fantasy story The Magic Place by Chris Wormell.
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How about a splash of colour this week? Our jigsaw pic is this 1,000 piece puzzle of a Darlene Kulig painting inspired by the artist's trip to Vienna, with a hint of Klimt in the way she renders the local flora. We have plenty in stock, so get ordering for collection!
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What we're reading
- Anya's "anticipated" staff pick this week is Agustín Fernández Mallo's The Things We've Seen, a picaresque surreal novel which takes in psychogeography and a secret fourth member of the Apollo 11 team
- Tom just finished Patricia Lockwood's No One Is Talking About This and is starting a re-read of William Gibson's cyberpunk classic Neuromancer, a recommended two-hander for getting your head around the internet and how it's reshaped our world
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Well that should keep you all going for another week, we dare say. It feels good to be back, and it'll feel even better when we can reopen properly (12th April, fingers crossed)! In the meantime you can place orders via phone or email, then collect from the shop in person; all that info can be found below. Take care of yourselves, and we'll see you again next week!
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| We are currently open for click-and-collect orders only under current lockdown restrictions. This means you can email or call (020 7249 2808) to place an order, then pick up your items from the shop Monday-Saturday, 10am-4pm. If you're unable to get to the shop for any reason, you can order books to be delivered to you through our friends at Bookshop.org (and we receive a decent commission!) |
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