Newsletter
January 07
A message from The
Book Monkey (the editor)
Frost-ridden, and
not a little cold, I breeze into your inbox this month, laden with literary treats and delightful events, not to mention
the Quirky Quiz (where it's a rollover month!)
Just scroll down or click
on these links to go to a section directly
Events
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What's New at Mr B's
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Reviews
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Quirky Quiz
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Noticeboard
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Events - What's Mr B got in store?
We've
managed to set up two fabulous thought-provoking and entertaining
evenings to kick off our 2007 events programme in February and get
you in the mood for the Bath Literature Festival.
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Author and columnist
Bryan Appleyard discusses his new book
"How to Live Forever or Die Trying"
*Limited Availability so book now!*
Thursday 8th
February - 6.30 p.m. at Mr B's
Inspired by the
possibility of human life extension, Bryan Appleyard takes a close look at
our historical obsession with immortality. "There are ??already?? those who
believe that the first person to live to be 1,000 years old has already
been born. If they are right, what would it mean for us as human beings?
If death became negotiable, would we still fall in love, create art, have
children? Would we still, in fact, be human?" Not only an entertaining
history of the search for immortality, it also provides a revealing snapshot
of how it is currently being pursued.
Big issues and
thought-provoking but very accessible. We love it!
Click here to buy the book online
Tickets in
advance £3 (includes a glass of wine and nibbles)
To buy
tickets - call 01225 331155, email
books@mrbsemporium.com
or pop into the shop!
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Author Tom Hodgkinson discusses his new book
"How to be Free"
(as featured on BBC Radio 4)
*Limited Availability so book now!*
Thursday 15th February - 6.30 p.m. at Mr B's
Having reminded us all how to be idle in his previous, hugely
successful book, Hodgkinson turns his attention to freeing us from the
bonds of an overly consumer-focused bureaucratic existence. Drawing on
French existentialists, British punks, US beats, hippies, anarchists and
medieval thinkers he shows that our consumer society has led not to a
widening of freedoms but to their restriction.
No
better time than the New Year to look for inspiration on how to throw off
the shackles of anxiety, debt, government forms, and housework and to start
being free!
Click here to buy the book online
Tickets in
advance £3 (includes a glass of wine and nibbles)
To buy
tickets - call 01225 331155, email
books@mrbsemporium.com
or pop into the shop!
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What's New at Mr B's?
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Mr B's
- The new bookseller at Bath's Theatre Royal
Mr B's is proud to announce
that it has taken over from Waterstone's as the bookseller for all the Theatre Royal's
Special Events for 2007. For more information on these
events visit the Theatre Royal's website at
www.theatreroyal.org.uk.
The line up for
Feb/March:
Fri
2nd Feb - Miles Kington "Someone Like Me"
Fri
16th Feb - Michael Dobbs "First Lady"
Fri
23rd March - Jane Austen Double Bill ("Rhyme & Reason", Kim Hicks -
"Jane Austen's Guide to Good Manners", Josephine Ross)
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New Country of the Month
SWEDEN
As we go all chilly and
Scandinavian with our new country of the month, we are
featuring the delightful children's author Astrid Lindgren with her
classic character Pippi Longstocking, the addictive and incredibly popular
crime novels of Henning Mankell and by the incredible husband and wife
writing team of Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö, the beautiful poetry by Tranströmer, classic
novels such as Söderberg's "Doctor Glas" and many other great
Swedish books and films.
See "Reviews" below for more
details on some of the titles being featured in-store
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Reviews
Some fresh ideas for January
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New in Paperback from one of our Favourites
Restless
by William Boyd
We're big fans of William Boyd here at Mr B's. We admit this is
not quite a match for his "Any Human Heart" but we really enjoyed it
nonetheless. A tense drama based on the confession by a mother,
Eva, to her daughter that she was a Russian emigré and one-time
spy. Recruited by the secret service in France she learns to
become the perfect spy but one by one others in her "team"
are betrayed and begin to disappear. Having rebuilt her life
after the war, Eva reluctantly embroils her daughter into one
final mission. Another imaginative and carefully constructed
story by Boyd.
Oh and Richard & Judy have at long last spotted the William Boyd
bandwagon and jumped on board, so read it now before everyone
else!
Paperback, 2007. £7.99.
Click here to buy online
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Mr B's Country of the
Month - Sweden
Faceless
Killers by Henning Mankell
Part of the crime craze sweeping Europe, Mankell is a master of
crime-fiction. His character in this, the first of a series of 8
books, is Kurt Wallander - a detective who has plenty of
his own troubles, and who is really a bit crap; if Marlowe or
Holmes are the ace-detectives you would like to be, Wallander is
the out of touch, occasionally useless, slob of an ace-detective
you suspect you actually would be. As with all good detective
stories, Faceless Killers is not just a compelling page-turner;
it transcends its genre through the subtlety of the
characterisation and the underlying issues, social and
individual, that are addressed.
We've had so many customers come running back for more Mankell,
that we had to feature him for you.
Paperback, 2002.
£6.99.
Click here to buy online
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Mr B's Country of
the Month - Sweden
Doctor Glas by
Hjalmar Söderberg
A sensitive doctor falls in love with a young patient married to
a repulsive old hypocrite. Morality, rationality,
abortion, euthanasia, murder - which ones are you for and which
against...or does it all depend on the context, or perhaps on
the outcome, or just who you fancy?
It's a rare novel that makes you question the fundamental moral
and social tenets you think you live by. Söderberg's
masterpiece caused a major scandal on publication in 1905; both
its modern style and the issues it addresses make it read like
it was written yesterday.
Slim
Hardback, 2002.
£11.99.
Click here to buy online.
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Mr B's Lit Fest Specials
Kalooki Nights by Howard
Jacobson
When A.C. Grayling uses words like "genius", "profound" and
"brilliance" you have to pay attention, and Kalooki Nights
doesn't disappoint. Set in the North Manchester Jewish
community, the plot - the narrator's investigation into why his
friend gassed his parents - provides a counterpoint in miniature
to the central theme of the relationship between Jew and Gentile
over the last 5,000 years.
Along the way Jacobson's wit, characterisation, and
psychological insight make this, in Grayling's words, a "powerful,
troubling, moving, profound novel" that "steals one’s breath
away " and "the most intelligent and important novel to appear
in this country in years". Praise indeed!
Hardback, 2006. £17.99.
But 10% off if
bought/ordered before 3 March
(Part of Mr B's Lit Fest Specials).
Click here to buy online.
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Mr B's Lit Fest Specials
Consuming
Passions by Judith Flanders
The fascinating story of how the Victorians kicked off
democratic consumerism is told and analysed amid a cornucopia of
colourful detail. It's a story of technology, shopping,
transport, media, production, culture and consumption on a
grand, and increasingly frenetic, scale.
Fresh from Judith Flanders’ engaging literary talk at Bath’s
Theatre Royal on 19 January where we learned that the Victorians
were such entertainment-addicts that 20,000 of them paid to
visit the charred remains of a burned out London building. Bet
that makes you feel better about watching Jade's eviction. We have some signed copies
available too!
Hardback, 2006. £20. But
10% off if bought/ordered before 3 March (Part of Mr B's Lit
Fest Specials).
Click here to buy online.
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Poetic Lurrrve
for your Perfect Valentine Gift
No Bliss Like
This: Five Centuries of love poems by women compiled by Jill
Hollis
A brand new book collecting together poetry from women across
the ages - on love, fickleness, jealousy, sex and romance. A
lively blend of some classics and some lesser known works, it's
not a saccharine mix but but rather a moving blend of
heartfelt wit, happiness, pain and wisdom, with intriguing
titles such as "He fumbles at your soul", "To my rival" and
"Story of a hotel room". It also has a little potted summary
about
each of the poets at the end.
Paperback, 2007.
£7.99. Click here to buy online
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Something topical
Perfume
- by Patrick Süskind (with translation by John E Woods)
A
brilliantly written book full of Gothic imagination and twisted
eroticism, where smells putrid and divine wash around you with every
page. Starting on the stinking streets of 18th century Paris, a wretched, strange
orphan with an almost magical sense of smell, but with no personal odour
of his own, travels South in search of the most exquisite smell of all -
that of young virgins. And so the murders begin.
To
say it's disturbing is to understate things, but far from the
traditional gory murder story, this is so beautifully written, so off
the wall and so overpoweringly evocative that it's a joy to read,
whether or not you like the new film adaptation now showing at The
Little Theatre Cinema in Bath.
Paperback, 1986.
£7.99.
Click here to buy online
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The Book Monkey's Quirky Quiz
So...who
won December's quirky quiz?!
Well the answer, in
short, is no-one! Well, no-one got it right in any case! Which means
that Vlashka had zero treats (tee hee) and this month, in true
lottery-style fashion, we have our first ever ROLLOVER! Yes, that means
that the winner of this month's quiz gets a whopping £10 off their next
purchase at Mr B's. It's almost too exciting to bear.
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Answer me this, book-lovers, and you could
get
£10 off your next purchase from Mr B’s
QUIRKY QUIZ ROLLOVER QUESTION
In Rose Tremain's "Music & Silence", what instrument does
Peter Claire play?
If
you know the answer, email us on
books@mrbsemporium.com or pop into the shop.
The first ten people to answer correctly will be allocated a dog
biscuit in Vlashka’s dinner bowl. The first person’s biscuit to
be eaten will be the winner!
The lucky winner will be announced in next month’s newsletter
and will get £10 off their next purchase at Mr B’s shop in
Bath
or off an email book order.
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Answers to December's Quirky Quiz
Question: Who was Black Beauty's smallest equine friend? Answer:
Merrylegs
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Noticeboard
Don’t miss out on some of the great things our neighbours
are getting up to …
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Bath Literature
Festival 2007: 3 - 11 March
A fantastic line-up of
authors at various venues around Bath. See
www.bathlitfest.org.uk
for more details.
Other Lectures,
Readings,
Recitals
The Bath Science Cafe
Informal talk & audience discussion on science & technology -
Upstairs in the Raven Pub, 7 Queen Street, Bath - on the 2nd Monday
of every month
12 February "Solar System discoveries - water but no
life?" with Philippe Blondel, Centre for Space, Atmospheric and
Oceanic Sciences, University of Bath
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Cinema
See what's on at the Little Theatre Cinema in Bath -
Click here to go to website.
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