EMILY ROSS BOOKS
Presents and correct
The perfect books to buy this Christmas; you may even be able to bring yourself to give some of them away…
I
t’s a moral conundrum: can you legitimately buy your loved ones the books that you want as presents, with the sole intention of stealing them back later? Or can you read them delicately enough so that your recipient won’t know that you’ve read their present? At Storysmith we have no judgement about this: just make sure you wipe the mince pie crumbs off the pages before wrapping them up. Unsurprisingly, our tip for this festive season is to make some time for books. Whether it’s on the train between cross-country family dinners, following an enforced bracing walk, or under a pillow fort as Wham’s Last Christmas plays on repeat, it’s a surefire way to get some time to yourself, maybe learn something new, or become absorbed in someone else’s story. Here are some of our newly-published recommendations to get stuck into this Christmas. TALKING TO STRANGERS BY MALCOLM GLADWELL This is a fascinating and insightful look at how we interact with people, how we read and respond to people’s behaviour, and how we invariably get it wrong. Gladwell elucidates brilliantly through a series of stories from real-life news events and popular culture, ranging from police brutality in the southern states of America to a dissection of one particular scene from Friends, and even the dramatic effect of domestic gas supplies to UK suicide rates. Each self-contained chapter helps to build different aspects of Gladwell’s case with brilliantly entertaining prose and insightful extrapolations from research; it’s the perfect gift for anyone with an interest in anthropology, or who’s suffered awkward social encounters in their daily life (not just us, hopefully).
“Can you legitimately buy your loved ones the books that you want as presents, with the sole intention of stealing them back later?”
THE MAN WHO SAW EVERYTHING BY DEBORAH LEVY There’s a reason why Deborah Levy has become one of our most celebrated novelists: she’s able to make us care so deeply about her characters, but behind that is a forensic attention to plot. With The Man Who Saw Everything, she introduces us to Saul Adler, a man whose life is irrevocably changed after a car accident in North London – but not in the way you might think. Thundering along beside Saul is a plot which carries us to East Berlin in 1988 and back
to London again; and it’s actually impossible to give away any more plot details than that without spoiling anything. What I can say, though, is that there is a hugely significant event during the novel which makes you reconsider the book in its entirety: it’s absolutely thrilling and utterly heartbreaking all at the same time. Genius. CATCH AND KILL BY RONAN FARROW Here’s one for true crime nuts and pop culture addicts alike. The allegations and revelations of major sexual assaults committed by Harvey Weinstein was undoubtedly one of the most explosive news stories of recent years, but behind the headlines lurked a still more surprising and labyrinthine story of how the news eventually and spectacularly broke into the public domain. Catch and Kill is the utterly riveting account of what happened, from the journalist who made it happen: Ronan Farrow. Expect fearless reporting, double-crosses, stakeouts, Hollywood backroom intimidations, and basically everything you’d get in a brilliant spy novel, but with the added frisson that comes with a shockingly true story. GIRL, WOMAN, OTHER BY BERNADINE EVARISTO In Girl, Woman, Other, Bernadine Evaristo presents the stories of 12 black British women and the connections, albeit sometimes loose, between them. The characters that she represents are multi-generational and from very different backgrounds, but all of them feel profoundly real. Often flawed, the characters are found grappling with their roots, asking questions about their class, sexuality, heritage, ambitions and sense of self. We are swept up in their individual journeys and the celebration of acceptance and empathy that implicitly connects them all as women. The overarching message is that there is not one black British female experience, and the impact of the novel is in Evaristo’s ability to give a true, honest and compelling voice to an area of society traditionally under-represented in literature. This is a truly deserving Booker Prize winner. Happy Christmas, book lovers, and remember: no crumbs in the pages means you can re-gift it. Visit Storysmith at 49 North Street, Bedminster; www.storysmithbooks.com
www.mediaclash.co.uk I BRISTOL LIFE I 51