Tuesday, February 26, 2019

Books in the Media


 

 
The Week in Review 25th February 2019
The Week in Review - 25 Feb 2019
 
The Uninhabitable Earth finds itself at home among reviewers
 
Good morning Graham,
 
It seems fitting that over a February weekend where the mercury hit 17 degrees, David Wallace-Wells' The Uninhabitable Earth struck fear into the hearts of critics. Simon Ings in the Daily Telegraph stated, "This book may come to be regarded as the last truly great climate assessment ever made. (Is there even time left to pen another?)" In the Sunday Times, Bryan Appleyard declared it "relentless, angry journalism of the highest order. Read it and, for the lack of any more useful response, weep."
 
Though the title was feted by reviewers for its importance, few of them seemed to enjoy the "bracing" title (which is, of course, the point)—David George Haskell in the Guardian wrote that it was "designed to startle and shake us" and Julian Glover in the Evening Standard stated it was "by turns alarming, terrifying, and just downright bleak". 
 
Tana French's The Wych Elm, the crime author's first standalone title, drew widespread praise from reviewers, with Anna Carey in the Irish Times declaring French "one of this country's very best novelists" and Stephen King (yes, that Stephen King) in the New York Times compared her to Thomas Hardy, adding, "Her work—never dull to begin with—has gained a certain lively freshness," in stepping away from her Dublin Murder Squad series. In the Guardian, Stephanie Merritt wrote that while "the narrative is slower" than in French's procedural novels, "the rewards are greater; the big questions linger in the mind long after the superficial ones are resolved". 
 
The Bookseller's non-fiction previewer Caroline Sanderson crowned David Nott's War Doctor as her Book of the Month for February, and the rest of the critics have jumped on the bandwagon—with Christopher Hart in the Sunday Times describing it as "one of the most brutally vivid evocations of modern warfare that you will read" and Fiona Sturges in the Guardian praised it as "breathtaking", adding, "If a film about his life isn't already in developement, someone's missing a trick." Oscars 2020, anyone?
Kiera O'Brien, charts editor, The BooksellerBy Kiera O'Brien, charts editor, The Bookseller
 
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Book of the Week
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The Uninhabitable Earth: A Story of the Future
David Wallace-Wells
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3.42 out of 5 | 7 reviews
"This bracing account of the many predictions and uncertainties around climate change is designed to startle and shake us"
 
The Guardian
"There’s little to be optimistic about in this account of the effects of climate change"
 
Evening Standard
"This book may come to be regarded as the last truly great climate assessment ever made. "
 
The Daily Telegraph
"Wallace-Wells is an extremely adept storyteller, simultaneously urgent and humane despite the technical difficulty of his subject"
 
 
 
 
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Latest Reviews
 
Sleeping with Strangers
 
 
Sleeping with Strangers
David Thomson
0.00 stars
 
TBC out of 5 | 2 reviews
"Thomson’s criticism (is) the most ingenious and imaginative writing about film "
The Guardian
 
 
The Lost Man
 
 
The Lost Man
Jane Harper
4.67 stars
 
4.67 out of 5 | 5 reviews
"opens with an image so disturbing it lingers for days"
The Observer
 
 
Moneyland
 
 
Moneyland
Oliver Bullough
4.00 stars
 
4.00 out of 5 | 6 reviews
"(an) impassioned but at times specious book"
London Review of Books
 
 
 
The Letters of Oliver Goldsmith
 
 
The Letters of Oliver Goldsmith
Michael Griffin, David O'Shaughnessy
3.50 stars
 
3.50 out of 5 | 3 reviews
"The editors hope to ‘reorient’ discussion of his life and works with this volume"
London Review of Books
 
 
Dangerous Hero
 
 
Dangerous Hero
Tom Bower
2.42 stars
 
2.42 out of 5 | 5 reviews
"Bower never really unpicks precisely why so many people, despite everything, continue to support such a joyless, limited and dogmatic man."
The Sunday Times
 
 
In the Closet of the Vatican
 
 
In the Closet of the Vatican
Frederic Martel, Shaun Whiteside
2.75 stars
 
2.75 out of 5 | 4 reviews
"Sexual hypocrisy is rife in the church and inside the Vatican, claims this new book"
The Sunday Times
 
 
The Border
 
 
The Border
4.50 stars
 
4.50 out of 5 | 4 reviews
"The stupendous conclusion to Don Winslow’s drug-war trilogy"
The Sunday Times
 
 
Making Evil
 
 
Making Evil
Dr Julia Shaw
3.60 stars
 
3.60 out of 5 | 3 reviews
"warmly, chattily written"
The Guardian
 
 
To Kill the Truth
 
 
To Kill the Truth
Sam Bourne
3.50 stars
 
3.50 out of 5 | 3 reviews
"The Trump-inflected thriller goes out of its way to hammer its message home"
Financial Times
 
 
 
 
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Best Reviewed
 
The Lost Man
 
 
The Lost Man
Jane Harper
4.67 stars
 
4.67 out of 5 | 5 reviews
"opens with an image so disturbing it lingers for days"
The Observer
 
 
Optic Nerve
 
 
Optic Nerve
Maria Gainza, Thomas Bunstead
4.57 stars
 
4.57 out of 5 | 3 reviews
"quietly revelatory"
The Sunday Times
 
 
Late in the Day
 
 
Late in the Day
Tessa Hadley
4.51 stars
 
4.51 out of 5 | 12 reviews
"Her particular strength is to combine a deep excavation of human frailty with compassion for its effects"
The Guardian
 
 
 
We Must Be Brave
 
 
We Must Be Brave
Frances Liardet
4.50 stars
 
4.50 out of 5 | 3 reviews
"creates a rich portrait of country life before and during the war"
The Times
 
 
When I Had A Little Sister
 
 
When I Had A Little Sister
Catherine Simpson
4.50 stars
 
4.50 out of 5 | 4 reviews
"a considerable achievement"
The Times
 
 
Nicholas Hilliard: Life of an Artist
 
 
Nicholas Hilliard: Life of an Artist
Elizabeth Goldring
4.50 stars
 
4.50 out of 5 | 4 reviews
"A superb new biography of Nicholas Hilliard vividly recounts the life and times of Elizabeth I’s favourite portrait painter"
Evening Standard
 
 
The Photographer at Sixteen
 
 
The Photographer at Sixteen
George Szirtes
4.29 stars
 
4.29 out of 5 | 3 reviews
"In an unflinching memoir, George Szirtes describes his mother’s bitter despair on finding that all her family had perished"
The Spectator
 
 
The Border
 
 
The Border
Diarmaid Ferriter
4.20 stars
 
4.20 out of 5 | 5 reviews
"A timely history... richly detailed"
The Observer
 
 
Seven Signs of Life
 
 
Seven Signs of Life
Aoife Abbey
4.00 stars
 
4.00 out of 5 | 3 reviews
"Aoife Abbey gives voice to the complexity of what it means to be a human being"
Irish Times
 
 
 
 
Most Reviewed
 
Becoming
 
 
Becoming
Michelle Obama
4.31 stars
 
4.31 out of 5 | 17 reviews
"Becoming is refined and forthright, gracefully written and at times laugh-out-loud funny"
The New York Times
 
 
Normal People
 
 
Normal People
Sally Rooney
4.53 stars
 
4.53 out of 5 | 15 reviews
"Rooney’s style is pure poetry, sparse and heartbreaking, and writing this three months after I finished it I find my chest still aches"
Evening Standard
 
 
Milkman
 
 
Milkman
Anna Burns
4.45 stars
 
4.45 out of 5 | 14 reviews
"a high-voltage stream of unhinged, raconteur lyricism"
Daily Mail
 
 
 
Killing Commendatore
 
 
Killing Commendatore
Haruki Murakami
3.22 stars
 
3.22 out of 5 | 14 reviews
"The complex landscape that Murakami assembles in Killing Commendatore is a word portrait of the artist’s inner life."
The New York Times
 
 
The Wall
 
 
The Wall
John Lanchester
3.75 stars
 
3.75 out of 5 | 13 reviews
"beautifully unresolved"
The Scotsman
 
 
Black Leopard, Red Wolf
 
 
Black Leopard, Red Wolf
Marlon James
3.81 stars
 
3.81 out of 5 | 13 reviews
"A Booker winner’s radical new novel takes us to Iron Age Africa"
The Sunday Times
 
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