Newsletter
January 08
A message
from The Book Monkey
I'm not an overly sentimental
monkey by nature. I don't cry at movies or books. I even remained
dry-eyed at my own Oscar acceptance speech. But I was touched by a quote written by
a young boy in our guest book this month. It said: "This is a lovely
bookshop...and I thought I didn't like books". Isn't that
great? It certainly moved this weary old Book Monkey, who never tires of hearing that his hard monkey work
has paid off (even if Mr B takes all the credit).
Anyway, back to the
newsletter - Team B has reviewed a host of new books for you - we've
come up with what we think is a very special events programme (with a
Spring focus on our best new novelists) - and of course there's the return of the Quirky Quiz!
And don't forget, it's the
Bath Literature Festival coming up (23rd Feb - 2nd March)
- watch out for Mr B's articles in Bath Life showcasing some of the
Festival highlights.
Finally, just to mention
that due to huge demand we've now added a second Mr B's book group. The
original Marvellous Monday Book Group has now been joined by the
Tremendous Tuesday Book Group, and you can find out about and join both
by
clicking here.
Happy Browsing!
Just click one of the links below, or scroll down to your section of
choice.
Events at Mr B's
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Reviews
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Quirky Quiz ~
Mr B's as Official Bookseller
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Noticeboard
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Events at Mr B's
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Thursday 6th March - 6.30pm at Mr B's
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Catherine O'Flynn
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the superb winner of the
2007 Costa First Novel Award.
Mr B's is very proud
to be hosting a brilliant new talent on the literary scene. Her novel
"What Was Lost" was one of Mr B's favourite books of 2007 and
Mr B himself was on the judging panel which chose this as the
winner!
Daringly set in the
all-too-familiar landscape of a gigantic middle-England shopping
centre, "What Was Lost" combines pathos, mystery and humour
superbly as it follows self-professed ten-year old private detective
Kate and then, twenty years on, the entertainingly depressing lives
of shop manager Lisa and security guard Kurt.
Catherine will be
giving a reading from her book and answering questions
Tickets £3 (includes wine & nibbles)
- Come and meet the
winner (and the judge)!
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Wednesday 26th March - 7pm at Mr B's
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Alastair
Sawday
introduces Go Slow England: Special Places to Stay, Slow
Travel and Slow Food
The travel expert
and master guidebook creator Alastair Sawday is coming to Mr B's
to talk about his new travel book which celebrates the "slow"
philosophy of life. He will be talking about what the "slow" way
of life means today and telling us why and how he selected the
places and recipes he chose as well the people who live in
Special Slow Places and what they do. You will meet farmers,
literary people, wine-makers and craftsmen - all with rich
stories to tell. "Go Slow England" celebrates fascinating
people, fine architecture, history, landscape and real food.
Alastair will be
talking in the shop and answering questions
Tickets £3 (includes wine & nibbles)
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End of March - Date to be confirmed shortly (at Mr B's) |
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Author
and journalist
James Meek
For many years
James has worked as a reporter for the Guardian in Russia, the
Ukraine, Iraq and Guantanamo Bay. He has drawn from this
experience in his new novel "We Are Now Beginning Our
Descent", a superb novel which tells of a journalist embarking on an
assignment in Afghanistan.
James Meek's
previous novel "The People's Act of Love" won the Ondaatje Prize
and the Scottish Arts Council Book of the Year Award.
James will be
reading from his book in the shop and answering questions.
Tickets £3 (includes wine & nibbles)
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Thursday 24th April - 6.30pm at Mr B's |
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Sri Lankan artist
and author Roma Tearne
Roma will be
visiting Mr B's to celebrate the launch of her new novel
"Bone China" and to discuss her superb Costa First Novel shortlisted novel "Mosquito" (out in paperback in April).
 Roma's
first book, "Mosquito" is a powerful love story with the
Sri Lankan civil war as a backdrop. Roma's talents as a painter
shine through in her writing with evocative descriptions of her
homeland and her vivid style won her a shortlist at this year's
Costa First Novel award.
Sri Lanka is also
the primary setting for "Bone China", a moving tale of a
family uprooted and struggling to maintain unity through
cultural clashes, shifting ambitions and heartbreak.
Roma will be
reading from her books and answering questions.
Tickets £3 (includes wine & nibbles)
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Reviews
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Day by A.L.Kennedy
- Winner of the Costa Book of the
Year Award 2007
The recent
winner of the Costa Book of the Year Award tells the story of
a young RAF bomber, Alfie, in the aftermath of WWII. But
rather than the plot it is the brilliant psychological
examination of Alfie's world and the linguistic/stylistic
means by which Kennedy gets into his head and makes us
identify with him that mark this novel out. Unusual in its
telling Day is nevertheless perfectly told and all the more
riveting for it.
Hardback - Vintage - £7.99 -
Click here to buy online
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The Sea Lady by
Margaret Drabble -
Bath's Big Read 2008
Margaret Drabble's
writing career spans some 45 years and The Sea Lady is her
seventeenth novel. It is therefore somewhat remiss of me to have
neglected her books before now, but on the strength of this
books, I will certainly be reading more by her. Set mostly on
the British coast, her descriptions of the natural world are
compelling. Her protagonists are a man and a woman, now getting
on in age, who first met as children by the sea. The actions and
reactions of all the characters are described with great feeling
and delicacy. A book deserving of the attention it will receive
this year as the Bath Literature Festival's "Big Read".
We have some
signed copies at Mr B's so quickly grab yours for the Big Read!
Paperback
- Penguin - £7.99 -
Click here to buy online
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Dry Store Room No. 1 - The Secret Life of the Natural History
Museum
by
Richard
Fortey
An ode to
extreme categorising! Named after one of the renowned storage
rooms in the labyrinthine Natural History Museum, this book
tells the remarkable history of the museum through its
artefacts, eccentric archivists and long-forgotten dusty rooms
stuffed to the brim with hidden treasures.
As the
museum's former senior palaentologist, Fortey is perfectly
placed to tell this history complete with all its entertaining
anecdotes, and his talk at the Bath Literature Festival is bound
to be equally entertaining so get your tickets fast!
Hardback
– HarperPress - £20 - Click here to buy online
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Runny Babbit: A Billy Sook by Shel Silverstein
This books tickles
me pink. I can't resist a peek at a new silly poem every day
when I pass the book on our Bath display. As hilarious and
clever as anything by Spike Milligan or Edward Lear. Silverstein
was a hugely popular and talented U.S. author, musician and
cartoonist who knew how to make you giggle.
His Kajesty, The Ming
Runny wanted to be
a king,
So he crot himself a gown.
He then put on a rurple pobe
And strutted up and down.
He shouted to his friends, "Dow Bown,
Dow bown and riss my king!"
But everybody laughed and said,
"Oh stop, you thilly sing."
Hardback -
Marion Boyars - £8.99 -
Click here to buy online
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The Accordionist's Son by
Bernardo Atxaga
Knowing nothing about Basque literature, I thought I'd give this new
intriguing novel a whirl, by prize-winning Basque writer Atxaga. I
have not finished it yet and don't want to spoil the ending for
myself but I'll tell you about it so far.
David, a gentle
Basque teenager in the 1960s feels more at home at his
uncle's ranch with the country boys than with his own peers in
town. Drawn to the "old" ways, he struggles to come to terms
with the realities of modern life and particularly with
revelations that his father was somehow involved with the
fascists and the killing of several local villagers during the
Spanish Civil War.
If you like Cormac McCarthy
or John Steinbeck, you'll like this. A gently brooding book about a
young man learning to understand the past and finding his own
way forward.
Hardback – Harvill Sacker - £17.99
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Click here to buy online.
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Anonymity by
John Mullan
Some of the
greatest authors were originally published anonymously
- Shakespeare, Byron, Austen, Scott, "Carroll", "Orwell" etc.
In a celebrity obsessed and politically more tolerant age the
possibility and/or motives for anonymity have largely
disappeared. Mullan's history of anonymous literature is
therefore fascinating on both a personal and a social level.
Hardback
- Faber & Faber - £17.99 -
Click here to buy online
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An English Eye: The Photographs of James Ravilious Alan
Bennett (foreward); Peter Hamilton (author)
This beautiful
collection showcases the work of James Ravilious, a British
photographer of rural life and landscape. In his foreward, Alan
Bennett comments on the non-nostalgic nature of Ravilious'
images and the way in which they don't flinch from revealing
reality - they show real country life as opposed to a glossy
recreation and will appeal to any lover of the British
countryside. Peter Hamilton's accompanying text contextualises
the images and presents them as a combination of art and social
commentary. The Devon countryside is the star of this book and
anyone flicking through will be hard-pushed to resist the urge
to jump on the nearest train to experience it for themselves.
Large Paperback
- The Bardwell Press - £15 -
Click here to buy online
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How to Talk About Books You Haven't Read by
Pierre Bayard
As a bookseller I
have naturally read all 10,000 titles in our shop. Most twice
but some three or four times. Bayard's book is a fascinating
analysis of the cultural function and value of reading in
society and the ways in which books, read or un-read, influence
our lives and thoughts, our self-esteem and our interaction with
each other. Bayard is a Parisian professor of literature - so
this book is a lovely mix of sophisticated intellectual analysis
and tongue in cheek post-modern bullshit.
Hardback
- Granta - £12.00 -
Click here to buy online
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Utopian Dreams by
Tobias Jones
Jones takes a year to discover five very different modern "utopias" -
from new age communes to Italian brotherhoods to Quaker communities. He
and his family give each a try to find out the real benefits of such
close-knit communities and whether they do indeed offer the idealist
solutions to the happiness their inhabitants are seeking. Exploring the
community and the individual, it's a book to get you thinking.
Paperback
- Faber and Faber - £7.99 -
Click here to buy online
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Flashman by
George Macdonald Fraser
Flashman is the unpleasant bully
who gets expelled in "Tom Brown's School Days". The antithesis
of the Victorian ideal, he is a coward, a traitor and an
egotist. He also has considerable charm, a voracious sex drive,
no morals at all, and the ability to think on his feet. His
military misadventures and amorous exploits throughout the
mid-19th century British Empire are superb fun, and extremely
un-PC.
There are a dozen
or so in the "Flashman" series - just ask for more details.
George MacDonald Fraser RIP and
may your wonderfully over-the-top anti-hero never go out of
fashion.
Paperback
- HarperCollins - £7.99 -
Click here to buy online |
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You see him
here.....you see him there...
Mr B's as Official Bookseller
Here are some
of the great local literary events coming up where Mr
B's will be the official bookseller.
For tickets to
these events, click on the links provided below.
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Theatre Royal Special Events
Every few
weeks Bath’s Theatre Royal invites a prominent author to speak
about their book in the Theatre prior to a sit-down lunch in
The Vaults restaurant. |
Coming up
22nd
Feb: Anne Sebba talks about her biography of Winston
Churchill’s fascinating American mother, “Jennie
Churchill”.
Tickets
and further information–
www.theatreroyal.co.uk. |
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Calcot Manor Hotel Meet-the-Author
Lunches
Monthly
lunches followed by author talk and book-signing in this
beautiful Cotswold hotel and spa near Tetbury, Gloucs.
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Coming
up
3rd
March: Justine Picardie talks about her new novel
“Daphne”, the lead character being a Daphne Du Maurier
haunted by her own character, Rebecca.
7th
April: Fay Weldon discusses her latest novel
“The Spa Decameron”
Tickets
and further information –
www.calcotmanor.co.uk. |
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Bath Spa Poetry Society
Monthly
poetry readings by renowned poets, generally held at the Bath
Royal Literary and Scientific Institute at 16-18 Queen Square,
Bath.
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Coming up
14th
February: Kate Clanchy and further guest poet (to be
announced)
Tickets
on the door (from 7.30pm)
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The Book Monkey's Quirky Quiz
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QUIRKY QUIZ QUESTION
Email us on
books@mrbsemporium.com:
Not a question really, but a creative task....
Write a four-line silly love poem.
The one that makes us laugh the most will win!
Email us on
books@mrbsemporium.com or pop into the shop with your
silly love poem.
The lucky winner will be announced in next month’s newsletter
and will get £5 off their next purchase at Mr B’s shop in
Bath
or off an email book order.
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Noticeboard
Don’t miss out on some of the great things our friends and neighbours
are getting up to …
Bath Literature Festival
Saturday 23rd Feb -
Sunday 2nd March 2008 -
see
www.bathlitfest.org.uk
Kumbu Kumbu - A Portrait of the students and staff of The Crane
Academy, Kenya photographed by David Partner
Chapel Row
Gallery - 15th - 21st February 10am - 5pm
For the last three years, the Royal High School Bath has been
supporting the Crane Academy in NW Kenya
Bath Choral Society - St John Passion
Wednesday 19th
March: Bath Abbey - 7:30 See
www.bath-choral-society.org.uk
See what's on at the Little Theatre Cinema in Bath -
Click here to go to website.
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