Although 2009 hasn’t exactly started on a promising or optimistic note, we do at least now have a new President in the USA who is highly intelligent, literate and thoughtful.  Barack Obama’s two books are currently best-sellers – helping the global book trade amongst other things – and are astonishingly readable and well-written by comparison with most politicians’ outpourings.  His first book, ‘Dreams of my Father’ is a genuinely moving exploration of his journey to find and understand his father’s Kenyan roots, and to understand how his father’s absence from his life has impacted on him.  And ‘The Audacity of Hope’, effectively his political manifesto, is remarkably lucid and readable.  Relating his own experiences with frankness and humour, he describes how he has been led to his beliefs and proposes humane, sensible solutions for the problems the USA faces.  Both books are published in paperback by Canongate Books and can be bought from us at £7.99 each (rrp £8.99).

A reminder: don’t forget that  we have a number of exciting SIGNED COPIES of recent titles for your delectation. 

Both author and composer have signed copies of the libretto Ian McEwan wrote for Michael Berkeley to create a recently produced opera, ‘For You’.  The highly dramatic – operatic, even – story of a famous and egocentric conductor and composer who fatally neglects the state of his relationships, with tragic results.  Published by Vintage, 68pp, our price £16.99.

Chuck Palahniuk’s recent novel ‘Snuff’, a very dark tale indeed of the porn industry.  Published by Jonathan Cape, Hbk, 208pp, our price £25.00

Peter Ackroyd has another novel out, ‘The Casebook of Victor Frankenstein’, a new take on the Frankenstein myth that includes Byron, Mary Shelley and Percy Bysshe Shelley in the cast of fictional and non-fictional characters.  Published by Jonathan Cape, 296pp, our price £35.00

Irvine Welsh’s novel ‘Crime’, published this year by Jonathan Cape, is generally regarded as  a return to form for this author.  The protagonist is an Edinburgh-based Detective Inspector suffering burn-out following a particularly harrowing child abuse case.  But his holiday in Florida with his fiancee doesn’t quite turn out to the R&R he’d imagined……344p, our price £30.00

Toni Morrison, ‘the nearest thing America has to a national novelist’ according to the New York Times, has published ‘A Mercy’ this year.  Set in the 1680’s it follows characters whose lives lead them inextricably towards the developing slave trade – and shows the effects on all the populations of the New World, including Native American, Africans, Europeans, and the women of all races.  Published by Chatto and Windus, 165pp, Hbk, our price £25.00.  Please note, the signature is on a bookplate attached to the title page, not on the book itself.

Richard Attenborough, actor, film director and producer, campaigner and something of a national treasure, has teamed up with Diana Hawkins, Attenborough’s publicist, business partner and co-producer, to write ‘Entirely Up to You, Darling’, the story of their life and times.   The cast of characters in the book includes Steve McQueen, Mother Teresa, Charlie Chaplin, Robert Mugabe, Edward G. Robinson, Shirley MacLaine, Ronald Reagan,  David Lean, Margaret Thatcher, John Mills, Steven Spielberg, Noel Coward, Indira Gandhi, George Brown and Nelson Mandela – amongst many others.  But Attenborough writes too of politics, football, and working for UNICEF and other charities, as well as the Tsunami in 2004 that killed his daughter and  grandaughter.  OK, it’s a celebrity memoir, but a very full life!  Published by Hutchinson, hbk, 318pp, lots of colour and black and white photos, our price £40.00.

And lastly, ending with gardening, we have Jenny Uglow’s ‘A Little History of British Gardening’ (published in 2004), Chatto and Windus,  342pp, beautifully illustrated with b&w woodcuts, prints, drawing, some colour photos, our price £15.99.  Full of information, following the history of gardening in these isles from prehistoric settlements via the Romans, to how the suburbs dug for victory in World War 2, and up to the present day; tracking down the ordinary people who have worked in and created gardens – apprentice boys and weeding women, florists and nursery gardeners as well as the designers and aristocrats who commissioned their parks from them; how plants and herbs have been used down the years; and including a brief guide to particular historic or evocative gardens open to the public.  A delight. 

And last of all, Alan Titchmarsh’s tome, ‘The Kitchen Gardener: Grow Your Own Fruit and Veg’, a huge chunky compendium of good, sound advice on growing and enjoying your own produce, from vegetable plots, allotment, patio or window box.  Two sections cover the essential guidelines for any successful crop, and provide an A-Z Directory of fruit, veg and herbs.  Good for beginners and more experienced gardeners alike, and lavishly illustrated, as they say, in full-colour throughout.  Published BBC Books, 312pp, our price £25.00.

 

 

 

 

 

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In Other Words Books
  9 Rowden Street
Plymouth PL3 4NY

Tel: 01752 663889
E-mail: books@inotherwords.co.uk