Are you looking for your next great read? Why not try out the books from across the pond? Despite from what governments say, books are essential and are needed now, more than ever. So if you are need of a variety and want to read diverse stories, then I suggest you try out some British and Irish titles!
We may have left 2021 behind, but the pain and struggles of last year are still being faced, especially independent bookstores. Continue to support indie bookstores by shopping on Bookshop.org and Hive.co.uk.
You can buy these titles from BookDepository.com, a subsidiary of Amazon. They provide free international delivery, although this is being affected right now due to the pandemic. You can also try with the British bookstore, Blackwell’s, also with Wordery.com. Now on with the recommendations!
Featured Books of the Month:
The Boy Lost In The Maze by Joseph Coelho and illustrated by Kate Milner
In his new verse novel, Joseph Coelho brilliantly blends Greek myth with a 21st century quest. In Ancient Greece Theseus makes a dangerous and courageous journey to find his father, finally meeting the Minotaur in the Labyrinth. While Theo, a modern-day teenage boy, finds himself on a maze-like quest to find his own father. Each story tells of a boy becoming a man and discovering what true manhood really means.
The path to self-discovery takes Theo through ‘those thin spaces where myth, magic and reality combine’. Doubts, difficulties and dangers must be faced as Theo discovers the man he will become. (Credit: Otter-Barry Books Ltd)
Once Upon A Tome: The Misadventures of a Rare Bookseller by Oliver Darkshire
Some years ago, Oliver Darkshire stepped into the hushed interior of Henry Sotheran Ltd on Sackville Street (est. 1761) to interview for their bookselling apprenticeship, a decision which has bedevilled him ever since. He’d intended to stay for a year before launching into some less dusty, better remunerated career. Unfortunately for him, the alluring smell of old books and the temptation of a management-approved afternoon nap proved irresistible. Soon he was balancing teetering stacks of first editions, fending off nonagenarian widows with a ten-foot pole and trying not to upset the store’s resident ghost (the late Mr Sotheran had unfinished business when he was hit by that tram).
For while Sotheran’s might be a treasure trove of literary delights, it sings a siren song to eccentrics. There are not only colleagues whose tastes in rare items range from the inspired to the mildly dangerous, but also zealous collectors seeking knowledge, curios, or simply someone with whom to hold a four hour conversation about books bound in human skin. By turns unhinged and earnestly dog-eared, Once Upon a Tome is the rather colourful story of life in one of the world’s oldest bookshops and a love letter to the benign, unruly world of antiquarian bookselling, where to be uncommon or strange is the best possible compliment. (Credit: Transworld Publications)
Wolf Pack: A Tuva Moodyson Mystery by Will Dean
When there’s a pack on the hunt, nobody’s safe.
A closed community
Rose Farm is home to a group of survivalists, completely cut off from the outside world. Until now.
A missing person
A young woman goes missing within the perimeter of the farm compound. Can Tuva talk her way inside the tight-knit group to find her story?
A frantic search
As Tuva attempts to unmask the culprit, she gains unique access to the residents. But soon she finds herself in danger of the pack turning against her – will she make her way back to safety so she can expose the truth? (Credit: Oneworld Publications)
The Boy Who Lost His Spark by Maggie O’Farrell and illustrated by Daniela Jaglenka Terrazzini
When Jem and his family first move to a small town, he struggles with his new life. The unhappier he grows, the stranger things become … mischief and chaos seems to bloom everywhere. His sister Verity is sure it is the work of a “nouka”, an ancient creature that lives deep down inside the hill; a creature forged from the sparks of a long-extinct volcano. Jem is adamant – there is no such thing. But it is through the magic and mayhem of this small mystical creature that Jem finally finds a sense of belonging, a sense of home. He, once more, discovers a spark of magic. (Credit: Walker Books UK)
We Are All Constellations by Amy Beashel
Seventeen-year-old Iris is happy. She’s fearless, she’s strong. She is everything but a girl who lost her mum.
But Iris’s dad and step-mum have been keeping a secret. One big enough to unravel her. Only the magnetic Orla can provide an escape, until things get…complicated. As Iris questions who she is, it becomes clear she can’t run away from grief.
What happens when someone who has never faced up to the darkness lets it in? (Credit: Oneworld Publications)
The Other Guinness Girl: A Question of Honor by Emily Hourican
Honor Guinness is rich, aristocratic, shy and awkward — nothing like her glamorous cousins Aileen, Maureen and Oonagh.
But when she marries charming and ambitious American, Henry ‘Chips’ Channon, together they make the perfect couple at the heart of the most elite social circles — including a close friendship with the Prince of Wales and Mrs Wallis Simpson. But within the marriage, all is less than perfect.
Meanwhile, Honor’s best friend, the beautiful, enigmatic Doris, is set on establishing her place in London society. But, as tensions rise in 1930s Europe, Doris, born to a German-Jewish mother, hears troubling accounts from her cousins in Berlin. Will she be able to secure the right marriage to protect her family, and her future? (Credit: Hachette Books Ireland)
We Are All Witches by Mairi Kidd
From 1563 to 1736 Scotland put thousands of women to death for witchcraft. Their supposed crimes have much to tell us about attitudes to women in the past, and in the present day. This book introduces sixteen women who lost their lives or lived in the long shadow of the persecutions. ‘Witches’ who, like MARGARET AITKEN, confessed, implicated others, even aided the hunters before they were burned. Nonconforming women like MARY MACLEOD, who saw their reputations tarnished when they did not bend to society’s expectations. Creatures of the imagination, like Robert Burns’s NANNY, who embody deep-seated associations between womanhood and the occult. Weaving fiction with the facts where these are known, We Are All Witches invites the reader to explore the forces at work in one of the darkest episodes of Scotland’s history and consider their echoes in the present day.
Wild: Tales From Early Medieval Britain by Amy Jeffs
In Wild, Amy Jeffs journeys – on foot and through medieval texts – from landscapes of desolation to hope, offering the reader an insight into a world at once distant and profoundly close to home. The seven chapters, entitled Earth, Fen, Forest, Beast, Ocean, Catastrophe, Paradise, open with fiction and close with reflection. They blend reflections of travels through fen, forest and cave, with retelling of medieval texts that offer rich depictions of the natural world, from the Old English elegies, the Welsh Englynion, the Norse poetic Edda – stories that largely represent figures whose voices are not generally heard in the corpus of medieval literature: women, outcasts, animals.
Illustrated with original wood engravings, evoking an atmospheric world of whales, wolves, caves, cuckoos and reeds, Wild will leave readers feeling ‘westendream’: delight in the wilderness. (CreditL Quercus Publishing)
The Book That No One Wanted to Read by Richard Ayoade and illustrated by Tor Freeman
What is it that makes YOU want to read a book? Richard Ayoade’s children’s debut gives you all the answers in a way that’s silly, funny, and thoroughly beguiling.
Have you ever thought about how it feels to be a book? To be left under a whiffy pant pile or shelved, forever collecting dust? To have your pages bent backwards or your spine BROKEN? What if you don’t have a sparkly unicorn or dragon adorning your cover – who will pick you out of the bookshop then? This is the story of the sadly neglected Book That No One Wanted To Read – can its destiny change when it finally meets the right reader? Spoiler alert: yes.
Girls Who Slay Monsters Daring Tales of Ireland’s Forgotten Goddesses by Ellen Ryan and illustrated by Shona Shirley Macdonald
Unsung stories from ancient Irish myths re-imagined for nine to twelve-year olds
Have you heard of Eithne the supernatural scholar or Fand the shape-shifting eco-warrior?
What about Be Mannair, a gender-fluid spy who challenges an entire army, or Be Binn, a giantess who gets her own back on her bullies?
From mermaids and fashionistas to athletes and farmers, meet goddesses of all shapes and sizes from Ireland’s ancient myths. Stand by their sides as they wield magic, fight monsters, and protect the powerless – and you might discover that you, too, are a force of nature. (Credit: HarperCollins Publishers)
Listen to the Land Speak: A Journey Into The Wisdom Of What Lies Beneath Us by Manchan Magan
Our ancestors developed a uniquely nature-focused society, centred on esteemed poets, seers, monks, healers and wise women who were deeply connected to the land. They used this connection to the cycles of the natural world – from which we are increasingly dissociated – as an animating force in their lives.
In this illuminating new book, Manchan Magan sets out on a journey, through bogs, across rivers and over mountains, to trace these ancestor’s footsteps. He uncovers the ancient myths that have shaped our national identity and are embedded in the strata of land that have endured through millennia – from ice ages through to famines and floods.
Here, the River Shannon is a goddess, and trees and their life-sustaining root systems are hallowed. See the world in a new light in this magical exploration into the life-sustaining wisdom of what lies beneath us. (Credit: Gill)
Activist by Louisa Reid
Expected Publication Date: October 13
Cassie goes to a prestigious academic school where girls have only just been admitted after decades of it being single-sex. When a female student from the school anonymously posts about the sexual abuse she has suffered and the school does not act properly, Cassie knows that she needs to take matters into her own hands. She and her friends prepare for battle – with a strike, an assembly, as well as outside school spending their weekends protesting to save the woodland from development. But will her activism only make things worse, or will she succeed in righting the wrongs that so many choose to ignore? And could there be a more personal reason for her behaviour?
A powerful, timely verse novel about the need to act and stand up for what’s right. (Credit: Guppy Publishing Ltd)
The Other Ones by Fran Hart
Expected Publication Date: October 13
Sal hates standing out. But he lives in a haunted house – and everybody knows it. His oldest friend, Dirk, tries to help… but he wants to stay popular, and Sal isn’t helping. Elsie was popular – until recently. Now she’s on the outcast’s table too… and she doesn’t want to talk about it.
Then there’s the new boy, Pax, who won’t leave Sal alone. His idea of a good time is hanging out in graveyards. And, for some reason, Sal just can’t stay away. Meet The Other Ones. Can they banish their ghosts together? (Credit: Chicken House)
The Choice by Lucy Martin
Expected Publication Date: October 13
A distressed young woman arrives at Halesworth police station in fear for her life, then vanishes.
Meanwhile, a local boy is snatched from his school playground.
But the answer to one lies with the other, and soon DS Ronnie Delmar is submerged deep in a world she could never have imagined.
Because to those who have created their own moral code, the truth is worth killing for…(Credit: Welbeck Publishing Group)
The Whistling by Rebecca Netley
Expected Publication Date: October 13
When Elspeth arrives on a remote Scottish island to become nanny to a young child, she hopes to bond with her. Until she learns that, for reasons no one will explain, Mary has not spoken for months. And the girl’s silence is not the only mystery.
Hypnotic lullabies drift down empty corridors. Strange dolls appear in abandoned rooms. And as the nights draw in, darker questions arise…
What happened to Mary’s late twin, William? Why did their previous nanny disappear so suddenly? And is the whistling Elspeth hears at night just the storm outside? Or is something else out there…? Credit: Penguin Books UK)
The Heartstopper Yearbook by Alice Oseman
Expected Publication Date: October 13
Boy meets boy. Boys become friends. Boys fall in love.
This joyful trip into the LGBTQ+ world of Heartstopper is the perfect gift for anyone who loves the graphic novels or Netflix TV series – from Alice Oseman, bestselling author and winner of the YA Book Prize.
Now in full colour for the first time!
The full-colour Heartstopper Yearbook is packed full of exclusive content from the Heartstopper universe – including never-before-seen illustrations, an exclusive mini-comic, a look back at Alice’s Heartstopper artwork over the years, character profiles, trivia, and insights into her creative process – all narrated by a cartoon version of Alice herself.
By the winner of the YA Book Prize, Heartstopper is about love, friendship, loyalty and mental illness. It encompasses all the small stories of Nick and Charlie’s lives that together make up something larger, which speaks to all of us. (Credit: Hachette Children’s Group)
Just Sayin’: My Life in Words by Malorie Blackman
Expected Publication Date: October 20
Before her BAFTA award wins, her OBE and appointment as Children’s Laureate in 2013, Malorie was a young girl from South London who fell in love with books and found a home in her local library and a world of words at her fingertips. From embracing her alternative way of seeing the world and all its fascinating differences and possibilities; to her desire to share that passion with others by becoming an English teacher but being told no by her careers advisor because of her race; to the doctor who told her she would be dead by thirty when she was diagnosed with sickle cell, and the eighty plus rejection letters she received from publishers before her first ever children’s book was published. Her life’s journey – has been an eventful one – marked by trauma, trials, and triumph, yet in spite of all the many setbacks in her life, she held fastidiously on to her dream of becoming a writer.
Malorie charts her life not in a succinct order of events, but against the principles which have motivated her journey and reasons for becoming a writer – wonder, loss, anger, perseverance, representation, and love. Each tenet has played a unique role in inspiring her writing, her deep resolve and infectious zest for life.
Through this lens of extraordinary experiences Malorie offers insight into the nature of growing up in post-war Britain, why we must protect the arts, the fraught navigation of our healthcare system, and surviving structural and societal racism.
Malorie Blackman’s life story is a testament to hope, humour and honesty. Funny, frank, and full of life lessons, Just Sayin’ is the deeply personal and vividly compelling story of a natural storyteller, her incredible life which defied expectations and inspired a generation. (Credit: Conerstone)
Darling by India Knight
Expected Publication Date: October 20
Marooned in a sprawling farmhouse in Norfolk, teenage Linda Radlett feels herself destined for greater things. She longs for love, but how will she ever find it? She can’t even get a signal on her mobile phone. Linda’s strict, former rock star father terrifies any potential suitors away, while her bohemian mother, wafting around in silver jewellery, answers Linda’s urgent questions about love with upsettingly vivid allusions to animal husbandry.
Eventually Linda does find her way out from the bosom of her deeply eccentric extended family, and moves to London to become a model. She knows she doesn’t want to marry ‘a man who looks like a pudding’, as her good and dull sister Louisa has done, and marries the flashy, handsome son of a UKIP peer instead. But her new life is unromantic: darker, wilder and more complicated than she expected.
Then one day, at her lowest ebb, Linda spontaneously boards the Eurostar to Paris. There she is swept up in a feverish love affair that will upend her life completely. (Credit: Penguin Books)
Nightwalking: Four Journeys into Britain After Dark by John Lewis-Stempel
Expected Publication Date: October 20
At night, the normal rules of Nature do not apply. In the night-wood I have met a badger coming the other way, tipped my cap, said hello. The animals do not expect us humans to be abroad in the dark, which is their time, when the world still belongs to them.
That was in winter. The screaming of a tawny owl echoed off the bare trees. For all of our street-lamp civilization, you can still hear the call of the wild. If, if, you go out after the decline of the day…
As the human world settles down each evening, nocturnal animals prepare to take back the countryside. Taking readers on four walks through the four seasons, acclaimed nature writer and farmer John Lewis-Stempel reveals a world bursting with life and normally hidden from view. Out beyond the cities, it is still possible to see the night sky full of stars, or witness a moonbow, an arch of white light in the heavens.
It is time for us to leave our lairs and go tramping. To join our fellow creatures of the night. (Credit: Transworld Publishers Ltd)
You Don’t Know What War Is: The Diary of a Young Girl From Ukraine by Yeva Skalietska
Expected Publication Date: October 25
Everyone knows the word ‘war’. But very few understand what it truly means. When you find you have to face it, you feel totally lost, walled in by fright and despair. Until you’ve been there, you don’t know what war is.
This is the gripping, urgent and moving diary of young Ukrainian refugee Yeva Skalietska. It follows twelve days in Ukraine that changed 12-year-old Yeva’s life forever. She was woken in the early hours to the terrifying sounds of shelling. Russia had invaded Ukraine, and her beloved Kharkiv home was no longer the safe haven it should have been. It was while she and her granny were forced to seek shelter in a damp, cramped basement that Yeva decided to write down her story. And it is a story that the world needs to hear.
Yeva captured the nation’s heart when she was featured on Channel 4 News with her granny as they fled Ukraine for Dublin. In You Don’t Know What War Is, Yeva records what is happening hour-by-hour as she seeks safety and travels from Kharkiv to Dublin. Each eye-opening diary entry is supplemented by personal photographs, excerpts of messages between Yeva and her friends and daily headlines from around the world, while three beautifully detailed maps (by Kharkiv-native Olga Shtonda) help the reader track Yeva and her granny’s journey through Europe. You Don’t Know What War Is is a powerful insight into what conflict is like through the eyes of a child and an essential read for adults and older children alike. (Credit: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC)
The Earl and the Pharaoh by The Countess of Carnarvon
Expected Publication Date: October 27
One hundred years ago Tutankhamun’s tomb was discovered by Lord Carnarvon and Howard Carter. Discover their world of ancient secrets and priceless treasure in this revelatory new biography.
Between November 1922 and spring 1923, a door to the ancient Egyptian world was opened. The discovery of the tomb of Tutankhamun would be the most astonishing archaeological find of the century, revealing not only the boy pharaoh’s preserved remains, but thousands of finely crafted objects, from the iconic gold mask and coffins to a dagger made from meteorite, chalices, beautiful furniture and even 3000-year-old food and wine. The world’s understanding of Ancient Egyptian civilisation was immeasurably enhanced, and the quantity and richness of the objects in the tomb is still being studied today. Two men were ultimately responsible for the discovery: Lord Carnarvon and Howard Carter. It was Lord Carnarvon who held the concession to excavate and whose passion and ability to finance the project allowed the eventual discovery to take place.
The Earl and the Pharaoh tells the story of the 5th Earl of Carnarvon. Carnarvon’s life, money and sudden death became front-page news throughout the world following the discovery of the tomb, fuelling rumours that persist today of ‘the curse of the pharaohs’. His beloved home, Highclere Castle, is today best-known as the set of Downton Abbey.
Drawing on Highclere Castle’s never-before-plumbed archives, bestselling author Fiona, the Countess of Carnarvon, charts the twists of luck and tragedies that shaped Carnarvon’s life; his restless and enquiring mind that drove him to travel to escape conventional society life in Edwardian Britain. (Credit: HarperCollins UK)
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cup of tea with that book, please 