We enjoyed our extra long weekends in May, now we have to wait until August until we get another! We hope the extra time off gave you the opportunity to finally read that book you’ve been meaning to get round to all year. Here’s what our booksellers enjoyed last month.
A Woman of Opinion by Sean Lusk
Lady Mary Wortley Montagu longs for adventure, freedom and love, believing that only by truly living can she ever escape the stalking crow of Death…
An aristocratic woman in 18th century England is expected to act in certain ways. But Mary has never let society’s expectations stifle her: she writes celebrated poetry and articles advocating for equality, as well as endless, often scandalous, letters to her many powerful friends.
However, Mary wants more from the world. Using her charm and connections, she engineers a job offer for her husband as ambassador to the Ottoman Empire. Travelling to Constantinople, Mary finally discovers the autonomous life she dreams of. And when she observes Turkish women ‘engrafting’ children against smallpox, she resolves to bring the miracle cure back to England.
Despite this, Mary’s reputation becomes increasingly tainted. Her inability to abide by the rules, her outspoken opinions on women’s rights, and her search for love and desire at all costs gains her powerful enemies. While Mary tries to ensure her name will live on by arranging the publication of her diaries after her death, her own daughter works against her, afraid of what they might contain…
An illuminating and beautiful novel which gives a voice to the tragically unremembered yet extraordinary life of pioneering poet and feminist, Mary Wortley Montagu.
The House of Doors by Tan Twan Eng
It is 1921 and at Cassowary House in the Straits Settlements of Penang, Robert Hamlyn is a well-to-do lawyer and his steely wife Lesley a society hostess. Their lives are invigorated when Willie, an old friend of Robert’s, comes to stay.
Willie Somerset Maugham is one of the greatest writers of his day. But he is beleaguered by an unhappy marriage, ill-health and business interests that have gone badly awry. He is also struggling to write. The more Lesley’s friendship with Willie grows, the more clearly she see him as he is – a man who has no choice but to mask his true self.
As Willie prepares to leave and face his demons, Lesley confides secrets of her own, including how she came to know the charismatic Dr Sun Yat Sen, a revolutionary fighting to overthrow the imperial dynasty of China. And more scandalous still, she reveals her connection to the case of an Englishwoman charged with murder in the Kuala Lumpur courts – a tragedy drawn from fact, and worthy of fiction.
From Man Booker Prize-shortlisted Tan Twan Eng, The House of Doors is a masterful novel of public morality and private truth a century ago. Based on real events it is a drama of love and betrayal under the shadow of Empire.
The Mississippi River, 1861. When the enslaved Jim overhears that he is about to be sold to a new owner in New Orleans and separated from his wife and daughter forever, he decides to hide on nearby Jackson’s Island until he can formulate a plan.
Meanwhile, Huck Finn has faked his own death to escape his violent father who recently returned to town.
Thus begins a dangerous and transcendent journey by raft along the Mississippi River, towards the elusive promise of the free states and beyond.
As James and Huck begin to navigate the treacherous waters, each bend in the river holds the promise of both salvation and demise.
With rumours of a brewing war, James must face the burden he carries: the family he is desperate to protect and the constant lie he must live. And together, the unlikely pair must face the most dangerous odyssey of them all . . .
At the age of 17, after a childhood in a fostered family followed by six years in care homes, Norman Greenwood was given his birth certificate.
He learned that his real name was not Norman.
It was Lemn Sissay.
He was British and Ethiopian. And he learned that his mother had been pleading for his safe return to her since his birth.
This is Lemn’s story; a story of neglect and determination, misfortune and hope, cruelty and triumph.
Sissay reflects on a childhood in care, self-expression, and Britishness, and in doing so explores the institutional care system, race, family, and the meaning of home.
July 1346. The Hundred Years’ War has begun, and King Edward and his lords are on the march through France. But this war belongs to the men on the ground.
Swept up in the bloody chaos, a tight-knit company from Essex must stay alive long enough to see their home again. With sword, axe and longbow, the Essex Dogs will fight, from the landing beaches of Normandy to the bloodsoaked field of Crécy.
There’s Pismire, small enough to infiltrate enemy camps. Scotsman, strong enough to tear down a wall. Millstone, a stonemason who’ll do anything to protect his men. Father, a priest turned devilish by the horrors of war.
Romford, a talented young archer on the run from his past. And Loveday FitzTalbot, their battle-scarred captain, who just wants to get his boys home safe.
Some men fight for glory. Others fight for coin. The Essex Dogs? They fight for each other.
A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas
Feyre is a huntress, but when she kills what she thinks is a wolf in the woods, a terrifying creature arrives to demand retribution.
Dragged to a treacherous magical land she knows about only from legends, Feyre discovers that her captor, Tamlin, is not truly a beast, but one of the lethal, immortal Fae.
And there’s more to the Fae than the legends suggest.
As Feyre adapts to her new home, her feelings for Tamlin begin to change.
Icy hostility turns to fiery passion that burns through every lie she’s been told about the beautiful, dangerous world of the Fae.
But shadows are creeping in, and Tamlin has a dark secret that he cannot share. Fate brought Feyre to Tamlin for a reason, but saving him from the darkness that threatens his world will lead her down a path that she can never return from.
Abroad in Japan by Chris Broad
When Englishman Chris Broad landed in a rural village in northern Japan he wondered if he’d made a huge mistake.
With no knowledge of the language and zero teaching experience, was he about to be the most quickly fired English teacher in Japan’s history? Abroad in Japan charts a decade of living in a foreign land and the chaos and culture clash that came with it.
Packed with hilarious and fascinating stories, this book seeks out to unravel one the world’s most complex cultures. Spanning ten years and all forty-seven prefectures, Chris takes us from the lush rice fields of the countryside to the frenetic neon-lit streets of Tokyo.
With blockbuster moments such as a terrifying North Korean missile incident, a mortifying experience at a love hotel and a week spent with Japan’s biggest movie star, Abroad in Japan is an extraordinary and informative journey through the Land of the Rising Sun.
Isaac Asimov’s Robot series – from the iconic collection I, Robot to four classic novels – contains some of the most influential works in the history of science fiction. Establishing and testing the Three Laws of Robotics, they continue to shape the understanding and design of artificial intelligence to this day.
What happens when a robot begins to question its creators? What would be the consequences of creating a robot with a sense of humour? Or the ability to lie? How do we truly tell the difference between man and machine?
In I, Robot, Asimov sets out the Three Laws of Robotics – designed to protect humans from their robotic creations – and pushes them to their limits and beyond.
Following genius robopsychologist Dr. Susan Calvin and engineers Powell and Donovan, these short stories helped to transform artificial intelligence from a dream into a science and changed perceptions of robots for ever.
Ordinary Human Failings by Megan Nolan
It’s 1990 in London and, after the death of a young girl on an estate, the finger of suspicion is pointing at one reclusive Irish family: the Greens.
At their heart sits Carmel: beautiful, other-worldly, and once destined for a future beyond her circumstances until life – and love – got in her way.
Now, as the scandal unfolds and the tabloids hunt their monster, she must confront the secrets and silences that have trapped her family for so many generations.