Book after Book

Not your usual love stories... Random Acs of Heroic Love by Danny Scheinmann Leo and Moritz are the heros of this book. In 1992, Leo is separated from Eleni, his love, by death. In 1917, Moritz is separated from Lotte, his childhood sweetheart, by thousands of miles. How will these two men deal with their situation? The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger The love story between Henry and Clare is confusing to say the least. They first meet when Clare is 6 and Henry is 36. They meet several other times at different ages and, at last, they meet in the "present" - if such a concept can exist in this book - when Clare is 20 and Henry is 28! A beautiful relationship both created and hindered by time travel...

By Isabel Ashdown Pubished by Myriad Editions In 2009, Brighton-based Myriad Editions published Isabel Ashdown’s début novel, Glasshopper, an extract of which had won the 2008 Mail on Sunday Novel Competition. I can only agree with the competition judges who described the author’s writing as “magnificent”! Set in Portsmouth in 1984, Glasshopper is the story of a troubled family. Thirteen-year-old Jake is an endearing main character, trying his best to live as normally as possible for the sake of his little brother, while his mother goes in and out of alcohol-induced depression bouts and his father, who moved out of the family home, makes an appearance only at weekends. Initially, Mary, Jake’s mother, is easy to despise for letting herself go and not thinking of her two children. However, not wanting her to be merely considered as a “hopeless alcoholic”, Ashdown decided to give her a voice. Hence the brilliantly balanced book structure of alternating chapters written from the points of ...

For a chance to win a copy of A Kind of Vanishing by Lesley Thomson simply follow me on Twitter and RT my competition-related message. www.twitter.com/BrightonBlogger For one extra entry become a follower of this blog too! Two copies available. The competition ends on May 17th at 14:00 GMT. Winners will be chosen at random and contacted on the same day. If you missed my review of the book, please click here: http://bit.ly/b9v8xl

By Lesley Thomson Published by Myriad Editions It is the summer of 1968. The Ramsays are spending the holidays in their majestic country house in Sussex and their youngest child, Eleanor, is introduced to Alice, the daughter of the village postman. Their parents believe that the two girls will enjoy playing together, despite the evident clash of personalities. Eleanor is as adventure-seeking and unruly as Alice is quiet and obedient. Always polite, Alice shocks herself when she starts taunting Eleanor with a secret that she discovered about Mrs Ramsay. That’s why, despite having been told not to go to there, she follows her companion to the Tide Mills. The ruins of a deserted village, they are Eleanor’s favourite playground and - with all their nooks and intricate vegetation - a perfect place to play hide and seek. When it is Eleanor’s turn to hide, Alice vanishes without trace. Lesley Thomson’s engaging writing style skilfully explores the obsession and the sense of guilt, hope and de...

By Marc Johns Published by teNeues When life gets too serious, this is a great book to have at hand. All you need to do is randomly open a page and you will find a smile spreading across your lips! If the title could be misleading, the picture on the cover will reassure you that the adjective associated to these drawings is not to be taken literally. The men and the strange creatures that populate the world of Canadian artist Marc Johns might never be found smiling but they actually help us not to take life too seriously. Fashion, consumerism, religion… nothing is off-limits for Marc Johns and his drawing tools! Divided between ink and watercolour drawings on paper and drawings on yellow sticky notes, we find two-headed men, pipes that are trying to quit smoking, advice on how to wear antlers, hovering people and oddly-shaped creatures with their own dreams and fears. Not to mention flying moustaches and beards that grow pretty much anywhere! Simple and terribly communicative, you will...

For a chance to win a copy of This is Where I Leave You by Jonathan Tropper simply follow me on Twitter and RT my competition-related message. www.twitter.com/BrightonBlogger For one extra entry become a follower of this blog too! Three copies available. The competition ends on March 18th at 14:00 GMT. Winners will be chosen at random and contacted on the same day. If you missed my review of the book, please click here: http://bit.ly/9B0teN

By Jonathan Tropper Published by Orion Books Jonathan Tropper, bestselling author of How to Talk to a Widower , returns with a book that explores all the facets of family life – marriage, divorce, love and compromises being only a few of them. A death in the family is the starting point of the narration, the reality that the reader is plunged into from the opening line. Although bringing with itself sadness for the loss of a loved one and, possibly, regrets for things done - or not done - in the past, death in this book is not a dark event looming over the living. It is rather an opportunity to come together. Siblings Judd, Paul, Wendy and Phillip are informed by their exuberant mother that the unexpected last wish of their non-religious father was for them to sit Shiva. That means that, rather than leaving the house as soon as possible after the funeral - which was certainly what each of them was planning - they will have to spend seven days together in the same house, behaving like a...