AMERICAN author and comicbook writer Joe Hill has added his backing to the Daily Post's online literary festival LiveRead.
The 37-year-old, who is bestselling horror writer Stephen King's son, will be taking part in a live interview with the newspaper's readers at 1.30pm today (Wed).
]]>Born Joe Hillstrom King, he decided to use an abbreviated form of his name so his work would be judged on its own merits. Hill confirmed his identity in 2007, after years of speculation by fans.
FURTHER details at www.liverpooldailypost.co.uk/liveread
]]>Log on to www.liver
pooldailypost.co.uk/
liveread from 6-7pm to join in the conversation.
You can also email questions in advance to laura.davis@liverpool.com
At 12.30pm we'll be holding the first of our book group events - live streamed on our website.
Our panel will be discussing Beryl Bainbridge's Young Adolf and it will also feature an interview with the writer of musical Once Upon a Time at the Adelphi, Phil Willmot.
Plus there will be the second installment of our organic story created through readers' votes, a daily quiz on Liverpool's literary links and a brand new ebook for you to download.
Running until Friday, LiveRead is an online celebration of Liverpool writers and writing.
Further details at www.liverpooldailypost.co.uk/liveread
The former Belvedere School pupil will be available to answer your questions from 12.30pm today.
To ask her about Liverpool, literature and life, simply visit www.liverpooldailypost.co.uk/liveread and click on the link.
The child of Russian and Polish Jewish immigrants, Grant, 59, was short-listed for the 2008 Man Booker Prize for The Clothes on Their Backs.
On the LiveRead site all this week you will also find a daily quiz testing your knowledge of Liverpool's literary history, a downloadable book-themed walk through the city centre, a writer's surgery hosted by Wirral-based literary consultants Bubblecow, a five-day story with its plot determined by a daily online vote, daily readings by published authors and much more.
At 6pm tomorrow, horror writer Ramsey Campbell will be answering your questions online and, at 11am on Friday, it will be the turn of Crosby-based 24 Hour Party People screenwriter Frank Cottrell Boyce to be put under the spotlight by Daily Post readers.
Plus, join our live book groups at 12.30pm tomorrow and Wednesday focussing on Young Adolf by Beryl Bainbridge and The Wrong Boy by Willy Russell.
FURTHER details at www.liverpooldailypost.co.uk/liveread
My colleague and I are currently commiserating with one another about the same desperate situation.
His soon-to-be-wife is making gentle noises about the amount of books he has stuffed around their home.
My boyfriend is making not-so-gentle noises about the fact our bookshelf is about to collapse...
]]> Apparently piling up your books to stop the shelves above from bowing under the weight of yet more books does not constitute a solution.
Now, I live in a small flat in the centre of Liverpool.
That means the shelves in this picture are pretty much the one shot I have of a book case.
The books are set two-deep in a traditional side-by-side manner (goodness knows what gems are lurking at the back - hopefully a first edition of Crime and Punishment)
That system reached its limit so the books were then piled on top of the rows. That also reached its limit so they are now piled in front. So far, so apparently not so good.
But we can't be the only people with this problem, so I ask - in an age when many of us are living in shoeboxes, how are you all coping?
Similarly, if you look at my books you will notice they are stored in a random fashion (absolutely no tidying was done for this pic... I definitely would have removed my collection of alcohol miniatures if that had been the case!)
Do other people group by author or genre or something equally swish?
I just like them hap-hazard (something that would definitely annoy this guy)
But come on, how do you store yours??
]]>
It's almost impossible to enter a bookshop nowadays without tripping over a freshly printed pile of vampire-based novels.
ECHO writer Gary Stewart is no stranger to such fiction.
Here he gives his verdict on Jasper Kent's novel Twelve...
]]> "I'm really going off vampires these days.What with Twilight, True Blood, The Vampire Diaries and Vlad knows who else trying to cash in on the 'Paranormal Romance' market the poor old blood suckers are rapidly becoming victims of their own success.
Which is why I cursed myself for not properly reading the back page blurb of Twelve, a historical novel by Jasper Kent. I just picked up on a whim.
It's 1812 and the Russian Army is fleeing before Bonaparte's half a million strong host as it advances on Moscow.
Russian soldier-come-spy Aleksei Ivanovich Danilov meets with his cabal of political officers, who decide to hurt the invading French by employing the guerrilla fighters one of them met while battling the Turks in Wallachia...
Duh duh duh! They're vampires!
I've not given anything away there, it says so right on the cover (well it says Voordolak anyway) but in scanning I missed it and thought their dark secret would be a little more mysterious.
Still I'd paid my money so I ventured on.
I like historical novels. I like war stories and I like fantastical elements but this didn't inspire me like I thought it would.
Aleksei is a thin-lipped, bloodless sort of hero, albeit good with a sword. He spends such a long time rationalising things, agonising over decisions, and making chess analogies that I grew bored with what I imagine was supposed to be a journey into his torment.
One imagines he's supposed to be a characteristically 'Russian' hero, as cold as the winter, as passionate as a bellyful of vodka, as logical as a grandmaster and as deadly as a black bear.
I just found him dull, hypocritical, and rather slow to work out just what kind of novel he's in.
The vampires, with one exception, are hardly drawn as characters at all. This appears intentional but I want my supernatural predators broad and flamboyant, not cookie cut, glass-eyed... henchmen.
The historical elements work best.
Mr Kent provides a convincing backdrop of a war torn Russian winter and I came away thinking I'd learned a bit about a side of the Napoleonic Wars I'd rarely seen.
But given such great historical material from which to ring drama: the destruction of Moscow, the ill-fated French retreat in the teeth of a Russian winter and several massive battles, I was curiously unmoved.
I thought George Macdonald Fraser explained more about the unique Russian mindset in one half of a much smaller book (Flashman at the Charge) than this did in its 500 odd pages.
There's a cool twist before the end and one really great bad guy that made me keep turning the pages to find out what he was about... but by the end I felt the blatant set up for the next novel cheated the reader of a proper resolution.
Four sequels are planned.
But don't take my word for it.
Here are the first fifty pages available from the author's website.
Let me know what you think."
]]>There's always a couple of them isn't there?
The books you think about reading for years - they've been recommended by everyone and are rapidly turning to dust on your shelves... yet you still don't find the time...
Well, I found the time and the Bookseller of Kabul was one of those books - thank goodness I finally read it...
]]> I thoroughly enjoyed The Bookseller of Kabul.Seierstad is a journalist and wrote the book after living with Kabul bookseller Rais Shah Muhammad and his family for a year.
The result is this book which attempts to document the lives and feelings of both the bookseller and members of his family.
While you always have to remember that such a book will be subjective - as much as Seierstad interviews her subject, I guess she will always attach her own interpretation to them - I had no problem with that.
The Bookseller of Kabul reads like a novel and is fantastic in the amount of detail and depth of feeling it manages to convery in post-Taliban Afghanistan.
The frustrations and the resentment felt by the women in the bookseller's family is particularly absorbing - as is the plight of his long suffering son, doomed to his bidding.
The burka plays a particular role and I think Seierstad is good at exploring that issue. The history of the garment is interesting and so are the experiences of the women who wear it every day.
I was hooked and enjoyed the book both as an entertaining novel and a piece of sociological research.
If it's gathering dust on your shelves, perhaps it's time to give it an airing.
]]>Oh no - because I'm sensible enough to realise I could go home tonight, turn over a page and find the book has descended into dire and is now destined only for the dump.
Ha, yeah right! Generally, the book I'm reading is always the one I'm aching to blog about - because the moment I've finished it is the moment I'm onto the next one...
]]> So I'm liking Her Fearful Symmetry - and I wasn't the biggest fan of the Time Traveller's Wife (I'll duck my head at this point because I know it is widely loved)Her Fearful Symmetry is set in modern London and essentially tells the story of two twins who come to live in the flat left to them by their aunt, Elspeth, upon her death.
Elspeth is their mother's twin although we quickly learn that they had fallen out.
Once in London the naive twins set about their daily life and in excellent Niffenegger fashion there is plenty left unsaid - you are constantly waiting for something to happen and not in a bad way.
There are plenty of intriguing characters, including the late Elspeth's boyfriend Robert and Martin who lives upstairs - housebound due to his suffocating OCD.
I'm loving how the book meanders through these characters making it an enjoyable and peaceful read, with just enough tension to keep you absorbed.
The twins themselves are extremely fascinating - they are the mirror image of one another and almost impossibly bound. Perhaps at 21, it's finally time to break free.
Of course, I'll no doubt have to return to this blog posting when I finish the book - but I suspect that unless I turn a page tonight and find the rest of them have been left blank, I'll be recommending it.
As always, let me know your thoughts.
]]>I've started this year with a PILE of nice crisp new books to read (one of the best reasons to have Christmas methinks)
I tend to choose a new book based on either a friend's recommendation or a cursory glance at the jacket (I know this is wrong, but I don't like reading sypnoses - they always spoilt the plot)
Anyway, I'd like to know what's on your 2010 'books to read' list please - it might inspire me. Here's mine... just in case it does the same...
]]> 1. The Secret History by Donna Tartt2. The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
3. The American Wife by Curtis Sittenfeld
4. The Secret Scripture by Sebastian Barry
5. Brixton Beach by Roma Tearne
6. Love In a Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
7. A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry
8. Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel
9. Love Marriage by V V Ganeshanathan
10. Belle's Best Bits by Belle de Jour
]]>
Okay, so you might struggle to agree with me on that one - what with all the snow and ice on the ground, the belt tightening and the constant health and fitness chatter.
But this is a great month for book lovers. Turn the reasons above into an opportunity to curl up with a good book and gorge yourself on all those novels you've been longing to read...
]]> It's worth picking up a copy of The Reluctant Fundamentalist. While Islam in general and Pakistan/Afghanistan are never far from the news agenda - the book takes you back to post 911 to remind you how this episode in our nation's history began.
I really liked it. It's probably not enough to say this is a highly readable account, unusually written in the second person, of one man's experiences of life in the west and east.
It's written as one half of a conversation - you play the stranger in a cafe to whom this man's story is told - you hear it as he would, with the odd break to order food and comment upon the standard of service.
It's a clever way to write but it's the story that's absorbing here. Pakistani Muslim Changez went to Princeton, lands a great job, meets a great girl and lives the American Dream.
But his love for his life soon fades in the aftermath of the attacks on the World Trade Centre and he'll tell you why.
This book is a quick read but enjoyable and thought provoking - a great start to 2010.
]]>
It's seriously cold outside and the first credit crunch Christmas is approaching.
Now is definitely the time to start compiling your book 'wish list' and clear some space so you can curl up on the sofa and unwind.
Perhaps you fancy getting your hands on a fantasy tale like The Sad Tale of the Brothers Grossbart?
Thanks to ECHO reporter Gary Stewart for this review...
]]> "When I say I love a dark fantasy I'm not talking about snacking on a sneaky Bourneville in the bath.No, I mean a story that has fantasy elements but is uncluttered by the cliched damning of simplistic good versus evil moralities and is bereft of square jawed knights and androgynous elves.
Which is why rather liked The Sad Tale of the Brothers Grossbart by Jesse Bullington.
This first time author has crafted a genuine one-off with his tale of big bearded hoodlums legging it across the Alps in the fourteenth century, pursued by a hanging jury, a vengeful farmer and half the cast of Grimm's Fairytales.
In essence it's a road story as the illiterate brothers Grossbart, graverobbers by trade and instruments of the Lord's wrath by accident, decide to head south for the rumoured riches of 'Gyptland's' sepulchres.
Before leaving their home in Germany they decide to pay off a debt to their neighbour and in the process slit his son's throat and kill the rest of his family.
This terrible crime sets off a chain of events which gradually snowballs as Hegel and Manfried rack up enemies across southern Europe in a sort of Cannonball Run meets Dante's Inferno.
The point of view is the world as seen through the eyes of a fourteenth century peasant. So witches and devils are met with more or less little concern. Haven't they always been told such things exist?
And besides, all foes human or demonic, are swept aside by their combination of luck, ratlike cunning and getting their retaliation in first.
In an intriguing twist the thoroughly amoral brothers believe themselves divine instrument's of The Virgin Mary's will so while everyone else they meet falls to death and corruption they are blissfully unchanging even as they head to an inevitable but unpredictable end.
While the novel begins with a bang and accelerates at breakneck speed around the two thirds mark I found it sagged and struggled to the finish.
But I'd still recommend giving it a read for its unique authorial voice, genuinely medieval mindset and often laugh out loud funny so-stupid-they're-clever theological debates.
]]>Apologies for imposing an asterisk - but, the Daily Post and Echo is a family newspaper and we don't condone swearing - you could say bad language smacks of a lack of imagination and we're above all that!
Still, life is about freedom of speech and Frankie Boyle can call his book what he likes.
Now being an innocent and entirely virtuous 'young' woman, I couldn't possibly review this book myself...
]]> .. so I called upon Crime Reporter Ben Rossington, to whom the above descriptions could never apply.I should probably say those of an equally sensitive disposition to my fair self should probably avoid reading on...
"FRANKIE Boyle is available for interviews" it says in bold letters at the bottom of the press release that accompanies this autobiography when it drops through the ECHO letter box.
Anyone who reads My Sh*t Life So Far will quickly realise that while Boyle may be "available" for interviews, he certainly doesn't want to do them.
And you wouldn't want to be the one asking him the question he's already been asked 500 times.
Interviews are on the acid-tongued Boyle's hit list. As is the Edinburgh Fringe, living in London, the English, the Daily Mail, reality TV, house shares and pretty much everything else he has encountered.
On his 'like' list are drugs and masturbation.
And that pretty much sums up the 291 pages that will have you laughing your head off and completely unable to read any of it out-loud because people will think you are sick and twisted.
Boyle's tome is very much like his stage and screen act.
The former Mock The Week regular is incredibly dark and funny but you'll always be laughing, even as the little voice in your head tells you 'you shouldn't be laughing at that, you sick freak'.
The pace is fast and frantic. It whisks you through his childhood, student years, long lonely days as a trainee teacher, through the haze of the booze and into the screaming world of TV.
The only bits that labour are the scripts that never got published. Mostly written while high as a kite, they just amplify Boyle's bizarre outlook at the time.
But hopefully now he's famous publishers will take up the option on the first book he worked on - a pornographic version of the Bible.
Not one for people who don't like gratuitous use of the word '****'.
I do and loved it.
Frankie Boyle - My Sh*t Life So Far (HarperCollins ã18.99)
]]>I always read the comments people make about books.
India Knight (Sunday Times) said the A-Z Guide to Perfumes was "dazzling" and one of the best books she had ever read.
John Lanchester (of the New Yorker, one of my many weaknesses) said it was "ravishingly entertaining"
Did we read the same book?
]]> The A-Z Guide to Perfumes is certainly weighty - at 620 pages, it will set you back a fairly average ã12.99.Authors Luca Turin and Tania Sanchez seem to know their stuff - Luca is a biophysicist who has reasearched a new theory about the way we smell.
Tania is a perfume collector and an expert who owns more than 2,000 bottles.
Together, they sniffed their way through 1,500 perfumes to come up with this - an A-Z guide to all those pretty and not-so-pretty bottles of scent out there.
The perfumes are all listed alphabetically, given a star rating (up to five stars) and then a brief description, such as "woody citrus" followed by a more detailed review and price guide.
The reviews are interesting if you wear the scent - but honestly, I think there is far too much hype over this book. It is essentially as interesting as a telephone directory.
It reminds me of one of those stands in gift shops - selling key rings with names on them and their origins. You scrabble your way through until you find your own name - taking no interest in any of the others. It keeps you entertained for approximately two minutes.
Same with this. I went through the book and found my own favourite perfume (I knew the authors would be harsh about it, because it's extremely mainstream - I know this and therefore don't hold it against them).
The book gave my perfume two stars and then described it as 'pink floral'.
It said: "A reprehensibly dull and not even pleasant soapy floral with sugary gestures, for the kind of young women who get their hair cut precisely the same as their friends and shop from the same catalogues, so even their boyfriends can't tell them apart at 10 paces."
Ha ha ha.. oh well, nevermind. I've just got a whole new bottle so my boyfriend's confusion will have to last a little longer!
This is the problem - my own perfume was the only interesting part of the book for me. I handed the guide to a few colleagues. They politely flicked through to find their own scent and then discarded the book, no longer interested.
I'm taking it to a friend's flat tonight. She loves perfumes and maybe this is the book she always wanted. I'm just not sure I can see her flicking through to find her next purchase... why would she, when she can just go out and sample a few?
I've nothing against reference guides, nothing at all - and why shouldn't perfume be represented in this market? But comments like "best book I've ever read" and "unfailingly entertaining" oh honestly, you just wanted your name on a book jacket didn't you?
With all these - apparently quite sensible - journalists lining up to praise this book, I'm left wondering... forget new clothes, was the emperor wearing new perfume instead?
]]>There is no doubt the people who read this blog read books - otherwise it wouldn't make a whole lot of sense.
But I wonder how many of you have a half finished novel, short story or scratched out feature languishing at home?
With that in mind, I thought help should be at hand - perhaps to give you the motivation to carry on and complete what you've started...
]]> I decided to review a guide designed to help you get your work out of the draw and into print.
As a journalist it was quite fun for me to read the newspaper sections of Chriss McCallum's The Beginner's Guide to Getting Published.
I've no experience in the world of book publishing (I don't seem to have the stamina to complete anything above 800 words - hence why I work in newspapers)
But I do see the other side of things - namely the pitches and letters sent to newspapers - and I have to say, the author's advice is spot on.
I particularly liked this advice for letters to editors:
"Don't embarrass the editor with emotional blackmail.
"His heart will sink and his hackles will rise if you tell him you need the money to feed your childen, or you're 99 and might not survive beyond his next issue, or your doctor has prescribed creative writing as therapy after your breakdown and a rejection could tip you over the edge.
"Yes, people do these things."
Even if an editor's hackles don't rise - they'll probably just laugh and bin your letter so this is definitely advice to follow.
It's the light-hearted elements like this, that make what is essential an advice-dispensing guide a little easier to read and digest.
The book is well laid out and the tone avoids being patronising without hesitating to point out every mistake you could possibly make.
McCallum manages to cover pretty much every way you could get work published, including areas you might not have previously considered.
Where the author has gaps in her own knowledge (she has worked as an editor, journalist, ghost writer etc.) she calls on advice from her contacts.
For example, in the section about poetry, songwriting and greetings' cards (told you the book covered everything!) some of the advice comes from a prize-winning poet.
On balance, I think the book is a worthwhile investment - even if you use just one of these hints and tips it could make a difference... so why not?
A quick browse at the glossary alone will help you with the ridiculous jargon of the publishing world - from 'on spec' (when you send your work to an editor without being invited) to 'pull quote' (quotation extracted from an article)
Disappointingly, the word 'grout' is missing from the glossary - I wonder if the Liverpool Daily Post and ECHO newsroom is the only place where you'll find the word used for the little news stories (also known as briefs and fillers) that complete a page.
The book is extremely thorough and doesn't assume you would know how to write a covering letter or design an invoice. Personally, I wouldn't know where to start and in times of recession, when competition is so fierce, it's the little things that make a difference.
The author tells you: "The writers who get their work published are not necessarily the most brilliant. They are writers who provide what editors and publishers want.
"Being a successful writer means balancing your individuality and enthusiasm with your writing and selling skills."
While it might be irritating to acknowledge that raw writing talent isn't enough to succeed, there is no reason not to improve your chances in a highly competitive field.
I'd be interested to know readers' experiences.
]]>The implementation was controversial - but the majority ruled in the end.
Those of you who are in book clubs will understand the problem we faced.
When it comes to selecting next month's book, there is so much debate, discussion and compromise - you end up veering to the middle of the road...
]]> If only one person wants to read the book, it is inevitably discarded.
But that's not the point of a book club. The point of a book club is to embrace one another's choices and perhaps be surprised by something you wouldn't usually read.
So, at a recent meeting our host E proposed a new rule - our Book Club host would choose the next month's book without any debate. It is now on a six-month trial.
Hence why we ended up reading Ian Rankin's Doors Open.
Now, I had always intended to read an Ian Rankin - since the days my old friend (another E and therefore a flaw in my use of my friends' first initials) used to rave about Rebus.
I'd always planned to read one but never quite got around to it.
So I was quite looking forward to Doors Open - a crime novel about three art lovers who embark on a daring art heist in Edinburgh.
I was so disappointed.
First, let me say I've nothing against the genre.
But for a writer so acclaimed - I was badly let down by the characterisation.
The plot was pacey enough but perhaps that was the book's downfall.
I spent the first chunk wondering why on earth the main protagonist, multi-millionaire Mike Mackenzie, would bother to conspire to steal some artwork.
The loose reason given was that he was bored - but that didn't help me make the leap from three men vaguely discussing 'what if we carried out a robbery' to the same three men enacting it a few days later.
You are meant to believe one of the trio - secretly planning to dupe the others - lead the others into it, but I didn't find him particularly persuasive either.
Then there's the 'gangster' who helps them out - a cliche if ever I've read one. He's a bit thick and a bit coarse, you see - goodness knows how he managed to run his own criminal empire. Then there's a mysterious Scandinavian called 'Hate' - oh, honestly!
Throw in a bitter, washed-up but ultimately on-the-money detective and bang, you've lost every shred of creativity and originality you were ever gifted.
If it hadn't been for Book Club, I probably wouldn't have bothered to finish this book - but then I wouldn't have had the good fortune to happen across the ridiculously cheesy scene where the 'hero' and 'heroine' are facing imminent death at the hands of said gangster and Scandinavian...
What do they do? Make clever wisecracks, of course.
And when said 'hero' is being carted off to prison, what does our 'heroine' do? Promise she'll wait for him of course, even though he's a moron with more money than sense and the couple haven't exhibited a flicker of believable affection throughout the entire book.
What drivel.
If I sound bitter, that's because I am. I expected so much better.
Can I be bothered to read my first Rebus now?
I suspect you aleady know the answer.
]]>By day I am a hard-nosed journalist, trotting the streets of Liverpool to sniff out the news the people in this city demand to read.
By night I am a 6ft chicken - frightened of horror films, the dark, roller coasters, sky diving, spiders and generally all things not wrapped in cotton wool.
In short, over cautious about fairly mundane things.
For that I am happy to blame my childhood. Or more, specifically, my childhood reading...
]]> Until I reached the grand old age of whatever it was and read my first book - Enid Blyton's The Castle of Adventure, if you must know - my mum read to me every night.She generally read fairy tales - probably because they are nice and short and perfect for a child's attention span - but looking back, how scary are they?
I vaguely remember Hans Christian Andersen's tale about the girl who couldn't stop dancing because of her red shoes. I can't remember what the little girl did (probably something deceitful) but that was her punishment - doomed to dance forever more until, I think, her feet were eventually cut off and she died.
Harsh! Enough to frighten a child for life it seems.
So it was with some trepidation I turned to The Book of Lost Things - a story about a young boy sucked into a fairytale world following the death of his mother.
The book is set at the start of the Second World War but that is spectacularly unimportant really, considering most of the book is spent in a world populated by trolls, wolves, kings, knights and the requisite terrified villagers.
In true fairy tale fashion the little boy, David, follows a well-worn path through a forest encountering and overcoming all sorts of trials and tribulations along the way.
In the end, there is a lesson - it's probably best not to be bitter and jealous because you might just end up selling the soul of the person you loathe (but actually love) and be doomed to misery forever.
So far, so typically terrifying.
Still, it's a fabulous journey through fairytales - every now and then you are treated to a familiar story - seven little men off to work (although if I'm honest, that part was mildly laboured - no pun intended) a gingerbread house and the obligatory woman locked in a tower.
I was mildly short changed though when I realised the book was drawing to a conclusion with a considerable inch of text remaining - only to realise the author had shoved in a huge appendix citing every fairy tale he had referenced. Honestly, no need.
If you're a fellow lover of grim and dark child-murdering fairytales of old you might like this one. Is there such a thing as a happy ending?
]]>