Book after Book

My two new recommendations are books that I wouldn't have normally picked up myself but that I ended up enjoying a lot. First up is A Special Relationship - by Douglas Kennedy. It tells the story of Sally Goodchild, an American who falls in love with British fellow journalist Tony Hobbs. She gets pregnant, they marry and, taking advantage of her post-natal depression, he takes their baby away from her soon after his birth. Battle ensues. Now, I thought: how can a male author successfully narrate this story from the female point of view? I was sceptical. After reading the book I still don't know how he has done it but I do know that it is possible. My second recommendation is Save Karyn - by Karyn Bosnak. A young woman moves to New York for work and - shop after shop, beauty salon after beauty salon - ends up owing lots of money to lots of people. Not seeing a way out, she builds a website telling her story and asking people to contribute to her salvation. She does it out of ...

By Emma Donoghue Published by Picador Shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize 2010, Room is a book that, regardless of any literary prize, will be remembered for a long time. Little Jack and his Ma live in Room with Wardrobe, Rug and other various objects-cum-friends. They spend their time playing, singing, reading, exercising and watching a little television. At night, the person they named Old Nick comes to visit Ma and Jack goes to sleep in Wardrobe. Jack likes his world with the exception of those days when Ma doesn’t move from the bed, when she is “gone”. Ma has also another name but Jack doesn’t know it. He is going to find it out soon though because Ma decided that she doesn’t want to live in Room anymore. She wants to live in Outside. Jack is not sure. There is Room and then there are the people in television. Now his Ma his saying that the things they see in television are real and he doesn’t really understand that. But he will have to. Soon. Room makes you smile even when you al...

By Carlos Ruiz Zafón Translated from the Spanish by Lucia Graves Published by Orion Books Carlos Ruiz Zafón, better known as the author of The Shadow of the Wind, is the pen behind The Prince of Mist, a 1993 mystery and horror novel that earned him the Edebé literary prize in the young adult fiction category. Labelling it as a YA book only, however, would be a great mistake. The story follows Max Carver and his family to a small coastal town that, at least during the war, will be their home. Following their arrival at the station, Max, his two sisters and his parents are met by what can only be described as dark forces. A clock moves backwards, a cat coldly observes them. Is it just Max’s fervid imagination? The answer becomes more evident as more discoveries are made. The house that the Carvers moved into holds many secrets, as does the old lighthouse keeper. In Zafón’s typical style, this book grabs the reader’s attention from the very first page and never lets it go. One could compl...

By Deborah Tyler-Bennett Published by Smokestack Books Rex Whistler's allegory of H.R.H. the Prince Regent Awakening the Spirit of Brighton dons the front cover of Pavilion, Deborah Tyler-Bennett’s second collection of poems, and is a perfect pictorial representation of the self-indulgent and gaudy characters that roam the pages of the little booklet. The carefully chosen words of Tyler-Bennett’s pen kept me company many times while sitting at the beach. The West Pier, one of Brighton’s icons, stars in many of the poems. My favourites, West Pier Serenade and The Brighton Mystery, allow readers to catch a glimpse of a pier that is derelict by day and alive by night, the setting of romantic moonlit dances. Browse the pages and the “spirit of Brighton” truly comes alive, with scenes of grandeur and decadence and a city populated by holidaying tourists, thugs, homeless people and all those picturesque characters that can be found between the piers.

For a chance to win a copy of Glasshopper by Isabel Ashdown 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 August 10th 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/bikUbJ

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 ...