Ten cool books to read this spring and competition
What better way to make the most of spring than with some light reading? Here are some great books to enjoy as you bask in the sunshine. Don’t forget to take part in our exciting competition to win Francesca Cacciarru’s first poetry book, Blooms.
Lone Wolf by Jodi Picoult
The Princeton and Harvard graduate Picoult published her 21st book Lone Wolf on 28th February 2012.
This book is a heart-warming tale about a family being re-united through an accident. After a tragic car crash, Luke Warren is left in a comma. Brother and sister, Cara and Edward, have to face the moral dilemma of whether they should fight for their father’s life or let him go.
As the story develops you learn of Luke’s love for wolves and how it destroyed his family. We also get an insight into the lives of wolves and their behaviour. The sibling rivalry between Cara and Edward also comes apparent as she blames Edward’s absence for their family being torn apart.
Picoult tells the story from everyone’s perspective, giving the reader a greater insight into the working minds of all characters. Having the novel narrated by Luke, however, gave it in its entirety more breadth.
From courtroom battles and secrets being revealed, Picoult creates yet another fictional novel that will have you turning for the next page.
To buy the book, click here.
Blooms by Francesca Cacciarru
The Upcoming’s very own Cacciarru published her first poetry book Blooms on 6th March 2012.
Cacciarru has put together a selection of poems based around her trip to India. Each poem recreates her time in Delhi. Cacciarru tells her story as a traveller and the experiences she faces, as well as the companions she meets.
A fan described “Cacciarru’s writing style [as] refreshing and unconventional. She throws out of the window the old school poetic stiffness and playfully flirts with the more outspoken attitude typical of prose. The result is phenomenal. It allows the reader to actively open the door of each stanza, gaze at the surroundings and find in himself his own personal interpretation.”
Her writing style really does take you to the places she’s been. Cacciarru’s words express the magic, harsh, mystical, painful and beautiful aspects of the journey you’d want to take. For those who have been to India, the reminiscent tone would want you to return, whereas those who have yet to discover the beautiful place will yearn to go.
Whether you’ve been there or not, this selection of poems will guide you through a magical experience you can only take whilst reading poems as personal and intimate as Cacciarru’s.
This is a must-buy book!
Read our interview with the author here. Bloom is available here, for only £5.99
The Question Book by Mikael Krogerus and Roman Tschäppeler
What would be your ideal job if you didn’t have to worry about money? Would you like to have more responsibility or less? How far would you go for a promotion? When did you last stand up for what you believe in? What are you afraid of?
If these are questions you’re asking yourself, this handbook for life is a must buy. In this unique handbook for work and your personal life, there are no right or wrong answers, only honest ones.
Featuring sections on subjects everyone can relate to, from the professional (work and finance), to the personal (love, sex and relationships), The Question Book can be used like a journal, with a colleague, partner or a friend. It will explore and enlighten you on everything, including what your boss really thinks about you, whether you are in the right job, and what motivates you to get out of bed every morning.
These wide-ranging questions provoke short yes-or-no answers as well as open-ended responses that dig deeper, direct, and instinctively fun to answer. In this book, you are under the spotlight – and only you have the answer.
Published on 5th January 2012, buy this must needed guide to life book here.
The Paris Wife by Paula McLain
Four years ago, Paula McLain wouldn’t have been able to tell you the name of Ernest Hemingway’s wife. Not a big deal, right?
Well, author of The Paris Wife, McLain, tells the story of Hemingway’s struggling life through the eyes of his wife, Hadley Richardson. “My life changed because of Hadley Richardson, when in late 2008 I had never even heard her name,” McLain told the Indian River Literary Society.
This historic love story unfolds the lives of Hemingway and Richardson and their life in Paris in the 1920s.
Though in love, Ernest and Hadley are not prepared for the fast-paced life of Jazz Age Paris, described by Woody Allen as the “Literary Golden Age”. Hemingway struggles to earn his place in literary society, pouring all of life’s intensity into novel The Sun Also Rises.
As Ernest tries to make a name for himself in Paris, Hadley strives to hold on to her sense of self and the demands of the role as a wife, friend and muse become too overwhelming to deal with.
A heartbreaking portrayal of love and loyalty, The Paris Wife becomes all the more emotional and touching because, in the end, Hemingway wrote that he would rather have died than fallen in love with anyone but Hadley.
Published 5th January 2012, this historic love-story is definitely one for the books. To purchase the story by the inspiration behind some of Hemingway’s greatest work, click here.
The Angel at No. 33 by Polly Williams
From the first line of the novel, we know the protagonist, Sophie Brady, is dead.
Everybody loves Sophie: her husband Ollie, her son Freddie and her best friend Jenny. So it comes as a shock when a bus kills her. As they struggle grieving over the loss of her, Sophie doesn’t want to leave them either. She begins to hover around and provides the reader with a narrator observing the lives of those she loves.
One of the few who can say she’s attended her own funeral (she manages to find humour in it all), Sophie warms to the idea of her friends decision to help Ollie. As well as the overload of lasagne Ollie and Freddie struggle to stomach, Ollie is drop-dead gorgeous. For how long will Sophie’s friends have pure motives?
With a round set of likeable characters, Williams will have you laughing whilst you cry as the plot takes a new turn at every page.
If chick-lit is your guilty pleasure, this is right up there with some Ben and Jerry’s.
Out 2nd February 2012. Treat yourself to the authors’ sixth book here.
Monday Mornings by Sanjay Gupta
Every time surgeons operate, they’re betting their skills are better than the brain tumour, the faulty heart valve, the fractured femur and anything else they take on. Well, sometimes they’re wrong.
At Chelsea General, surgeons answer for bad outcomes at the Morbidity and Mortality conference. This extraordinary peek behind the curtain – into what is considered the most secretive meeting in all of medicine – is the backdrop for the entire book.
The book is about the time when surgeons reflect on their mistakes and outcomes. It follows five surgeons and uses the Morbidity and Mortality conference as a backdrop, exploring the personal and professional failings of the characters and how the learn from their mistakes.
Sanjay Gupta, CNN’s chief medical correspondent, tries his hand at fiction in Monday Mornings out 13th March 2012. Buy the CNN correspondents’ first book here.
The Wolf Gift by Anne Rice
Anne Rice is best known for The Vampire Chronicles, although in recent years her fiction has taken a different turn. Now Rice is tackling werewolves and other creatures second only to vampires in a Twilight/supernatural fiction obsessed culture. Rice’s werewolves, however, are sure to be a far cry from Jacob Black.
The werewolf change in most movies and books is usually seen as torturous. It’s as if the person is strapped to a rack and is slowly being pulled apart. But Rice’s The Wolf Gift offers a more sensual version of this supernatural morph.
“He felt it… in the millions of hair follicles covering his body. And there was the sharp contraction in his stomach, not painful…. He staggered into the bedroom and fell across the bed. Deep orgasmic spasms ran through the muscles of his thighs and calves, through his back, his arms.”
The Wolf Gift has all the quality of a good prequel: a captivating mansion in Mendocino, a superhero, his devoted, sharp-shooting love-interest and a brotherhood eager to take them in. This is the story of Reuben Golding, half-wolf, half-man, and a modern-day Superman right down to his dashing looks and good intentions.
Out 14th February 2012, purchase the book here.
I’ve Got Your Number by Sophie Kinsella
Poppy Wyatt has never felt luckier. She is about to marry the ideal man, Magnus Tavish, but in one afternoon her happy ever after begins to fall apart. Not only has she lost her engagement ring but she has now lost her phone too. As she paces around the hotel she spots an abandoned phone in a bin. Now she can leave a number for the hotel to contact her when they find her ring. Perfect!
Perfect, except the phone’s owner, Sam, doesn’t agree. He wants his phone back and doesn’t appreciate Poppy reading all his messages and dabbling into his personal life.
What results is a hilarious and unpredictable turn of events as Poppy and Sam increasingly turn over each other’s lives through emails and text messages. As Poppy juggles wedding preparations, mysterious phone calls and hiding her left hand from Magnus and his parents, she soon realises that she is in for the biggest surprise of her life.
Out 14th February 2012, buy the book here.
Can We Still Be Friends by Alexandra Shulman
After 20 years at the helm of the British edition of the world’s most famous fashion magazine, Vogue editor Alexandra Shulman is preparing to unveil her debut novel, Can We Still Be Friends.
Available 12th April 2012, the book tells the story of three friends navigating the tricky post-university years in 1980s’ London, but doesn’t draw on Shulman’s own experiences, as you would expect.
Speaking about the writing process, the author said: “It’s daunting now that it’s being published – more so than actually doing it. One motivating factor was that I work in such a collaborative way usually so I wanted to do something that was my own. However that brings with it the insecurity and loneliness of doing something alone. The gap between finishing it and being published is a strange time – it feels quite vulnerable – but you can’t get the attention I’ll get for the book without some criticism, that’s the deal.”
From just £8.99, buy the book here.
The Phone Hacking Scandal: Journalism on Trial by John Mair and Richard Lance Keeble
Not as clued up on the Leveson inquiry as you’d like to be? Fear not, this book will take you step by step into how one of the biggest journalism scandals came about, and the outcomes to be expected.
The Phone Hacking Scandal: Journalism on Trial is about exactly what the title says. It is a book about one of the biggest scandals journalism has ever seen. A scandal which has seen the people involved behind bars, a newspaper being shut down (News of the World) and an excruciatingly long inquiry into media ethics by Lord Justice Leveson, which has further led to the closure of the Press Complaints Commission (PCC).
Roy Greenslade, writer for the Guardian, has been writing about the new book on his Guardian blog and each day he looks at a different section of the book.
The book covers many angles of the scandal and some of Greenslade’s articles give a bit of a sneak preview into the chapters. The articles by Greenslade about the book look into Huw Hopkin’s opening chapter of the book, Richard Peppiatt’s chapter and another chapter written by Chris Atkins.
All the articles on the book can be found on the Guardian website in Greenslade’s blog. Published 19th January 2012, the book can also be purchased online.
For all book lovers, Monday 23rd April will be World Book Night. Willesden Green Library will be hosting an event to celebrate the evening with Actress/Comedian Angie Le Mar as a guest speaker. The event is free; book your tickets here to avoid overcrowding.
Zanib Asghar
To celebrate spring, Francesca Cacciarru is giving away 2 signed books. To be one of the lucky winners, simply answer the following question and ‘like’ Francesca Cacciarru’s Facebook page.
For a double chance to win follow her on Twitter!
Which country inspired Francesca Cacciarru to write Blooms?
1) China
2) Malaysia
3) India
4) Italy
Please forward your answer to competitions@theupcoming.co.uk
Terms & conditions:
- This promotion is open to UK residents only
- Closing date is 1st May 2012
- There is no cash or other alternative to the prize stated, the prize is not transferable and no part or parts of the prize may be substituted for other benefits, items or additions
- Winners will be picked at random and contacted by the host site. The prize will be delivered to the winner within 28 days of confirmation of delivery address
- Prize consists of 1 x Blooms signed book
- The editor’s decision is final and binding on the entrants. No correspondence will be entered into.
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