Decades: Compiling the Ultimate Library with Russell Brown

Decades on a Tuesday? What on earth is happening? Well sometimes (hardly ever) the stars align and I can get some time to do a sneaky extra guest spot. In this case the stars which aligned were: I have a few days off work, I have had some Decades guests waiting in the wings for far longer than I would have liked (a flurry of replies does this), it is pouring and the dog is already walked.

Welcome again to my Decades Library. I am trying to assemble a library which has nothing but the best books on the shelves. I invite a guest to join me and I ask them to nominate five of their favourite books which they feel I should include in my Decades Library. Why do I call it a Decades Library? Well there are two simple rules which govern the selection of books my guests can choose:

1 – Nominate Any Five Books
2 – They May Only Pick One Book Per Decade From Five Consecutive Decades

My guest this week has a day job which I would love (it involves books) and was very much put on the spot when I rocked up on his doorstep asking if he would like to take on my Decades Challenge. To my delight Russell not only agreed to make his selections but he also picked my own favourite book which FINALLY makes it into my Library.

Russell Brown is the author of three novels: The Playground, War of the Wolves (book 1 of the Demon Gatekeeper Trilogy) and Chasing the Beast. Born in Sheffield during the Dark Ages, long before there were such things as smart phones and the internet, he now lives in Scotland, spending his time writing, avoiding doing any real work and digging holes.

You can follow Russell on Twitter @brown_author and Facebook @russellbrownauthor

Copies of his books can be purchased at all good book shops (real and online) or via the publisher’s website https://www.blkdogpublishing.com/

You can find him on Goodreads too: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/16357816.Russell_Brown

DECADES

1960s
Dune – Frank Herbert

I first read Dune as part of a project while a uni. I can’t remember what the project was, but the book left a big impression. I remember getting lost in the world of Arrakis and the tale of Paul Atreides and his journey on the desert plant. Despite being written over half a century ago the book remains fresh, covering big issues we can all relate to like climate change, poverty, equality, and greed. Not to mention everyone’s favourites: love and revenge.

1970s
Falling Angel – William Hjortsberg

I’m a huge horror fan and Falling Angel is one of the best horror novels I’ve read. It’s a dark, suspense-filled roller coaster ride of a story, exposing the reader to the darkness that lives in all our souls. Harry Angel is an anti-hero, but you don’t realise this until well into the story and long after you’ve invested in his character. At the same time this book manages to be a true crime, New York detective story – based partly in the American deep south and a journey into the occult – go figure. Oh, and watch out for Louis Cyphre.

1980s
IT – Stephen King

I was given a copy of IT as a Christmas present from my brother when I was 16. I can still remember that amazing new book smell even now. I’m a big King fan and this is one of his best. Like all his novels it considers a vast swath of issues from friendship and family to bullying and racism. But it’s the undertow that gets you. Those hidden stories King loves to reveal bit by bit. Here it’s the idea of that hidden evil, often ignored and sometimes encouraged by adults, that lurks in every town. Agatha Christie’s wonderful Miss Marple, once said, ‘In an English village, you turn over a stone and have no idea what will crawl out.’ It’s the same here only this time the evil has a name – Pennywise the Clown.

1990s
Chocolat – Joanne Harris

In my opinion Joanne Harris is one of the best writers this country has ever produced and she’s from Yorkshire too, the lucky soul. I salivate every time I read Chocolat. The descriptions of food and drink and particularly chocolate, in the novel, are amazing. I swear I can smell the steaming cups of hot chocolate Vianne makes in her chocolaterie when I’m reading the book. I fully recommend reading this on a full stomach. But it’s not just a story about food, Harris’s characters are full of life and the little French town of Lansquenet sous-Tannes is as real as any you could ever visit. Like all good stories there’s a little twist or two as well. One of them is under the surface from the very beginning. Read the book and see if you notice it. I didn’t until I watched the film!

2000s
The Hunger Games – Suzanne Collins

I love books that take a well-trodden path and find a new way to walk down it. The Hunger Games is definitely one of those. At first it seems like yet another teenage dystopian fantasy story. But look closer and you’ll fine it’s much more than that. Imagine a world where we must subject our children to the possibility of a gruesome death, just to survive? And that’s the starting point! Those familiar subjects are there again, family, friendship, loyalty, and love. But they are set against a backcloth of dictatorship, cruelty, suppression, and death. Oh, let’s not forget greed, that’s there too. You’re automatically drawn to comparisons with Nazi Germany, but these issues are unfortunately alive and kicking today, as we’ve seen recently in Syria and Iraq. The central character, Katniss Everdeen, is a hard-nosed survivor who you route for from the very beginning. But there’s subtlety in her too and she slowly falls for her companion and rival Peeta Mellark. It’s one of those rare books that you can’t put down until you reach the end. Or the second book of the series in this case.

After 13 months of Decades it is hard to believe that Chocolat and The Hunger Games are only just making their debut. Five cracking selections and my sincere thanks to Russell for his patience and his wonderful choices.

DECADES WILL RETURN

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February 11

Decades: Compiling the Ultimate Library with Quentin Bates

Welcome to Decades, an ongoing quest to assemble the Ultimate Library filled with books that were recommended by booklovers.

It began back in January 2021 when I asked the question: If you had to fill a brand new library with nothing but the best books ever written, which books would you put on the shelves? I realised I could not possibly answer that question on my own so each week I am joined by a bookloving guest (authors, publishers, journalists and bloggers) and I ask them to help me put great books into my Decades Library.

Why do I call it my Decades Library? Well each guest has to follow two simple rules when nominating books to go into the Library:

Rule 1 – Pick Any Five Books
Rule 2 – You May Only Select One Book Per Decade From Any Five Consecutive Decades

The Decades Library does exist as a Bookshop.Org shop so if you fancy seeing which books have been selected in the past you can click through this handy link: https://uk.bookshop.org/lists/grab-this-book-the-decades-library

This week it is my pleasure to welcome Quentin Bates to the Decades Library. I first became aware of Quentin’s work through his association with Orenda Books and have read several of the novels he has translated for them, most recently Cold As Hell by Lilja Sigurdardottir. But I have also been picking up some of his own novels which I also highly recommend. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Quentin-Bates/e/B004JZ8EZA?ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_3&qid=1644531511&sr=1-3

Time to hand over to Quentin…

Best known as the translator of some of Iceland’s smartest and coolest authors*, Quentin Bates has also written a few books of his own, and with a bit of luck there might be a few more to come.If you really need to know more, his website is at www.graskeggur.is, and he’s on social media as gráskeggur.*Lilja Sigurðardóttir, Einar Kárason, Sólveig Pálsdóttir, Óskar Guðmundsson, Guðlaugur Arason, and more to come

DECADES

Just to be awkward, I’d like to take these in reverse order, stepping back in time a decade at a time…

2000s

Mýrin by Arnaldur Indriðason

This one was published in Icelandic in 2000, and it was a few years before it appeared in English as Jar City. This was Arnaldur’s breakout book, the one that made him an international name. I’m fairly sure I read this one in Icelandic first and was struck by how much of a leap it was compared to his previous books. It brings together a wonderful Nordic darkness with the backdrop of the seedy side of Reykjavík, and fine interplay between the very different characters of Erlendur and his colleagues Sigurður Óli and Elínborg.

This one absolutely led the way, demonstrating that this lump of volcanic North Atlantic rock could be the backdrop for outstanding crime fiction, with all of the elements adding up to something much more than the sum of their parts. It’s also a great movie and it’s a mystery why Erlendur hasn’t made more appearances on the screen.

1990s

Dead Horsemeat, by Dominique Manotti

I found one of Dominique Manotti’s books more or less by chance, devoured it almost immediately, and then did the same with all the rest that were available in English.

These are books that not only didn’t shy away from taking on tough themes before they became controversial, they positively grabbed them by the horns and were way ahead of their time.

Thirty years after they were published, this is still razor sharp stuff, some of the sharpest, smartest crime fiction with a strong political edge. These are another mystery. One of Dominique’s books won an International Dagger (Lorraine Connection, in 2008) and Dead Horsemeat (originally published in French in 1997) was shortlisted in 2006. So these books are clearly held in high regard, so why aren’t they better known?

1980s

Earthly Powers, by Anthony Burgess

I’ve just noticed that this is the only one of my five that isn’t a translation… The 1980s were when I was a seaman, and hefty books were just what was needed for long spells at sea. All the same, this vast (650 page) tale, spanning six decades, just flew past.

Anthony Burgess seems to have dropped out of fashion, but he’s very much worth discovering. The prose sparkles with wit, erudition and wordplay, deftly told, and Earthly Powers has one of the most brilliant opening paragraphs there is.

1970s

The Flounder, by Günter Grass

OK, it shouldn’t be called The Flounder, as the magical fish in question is actually a turbot, but The Flounder is a better title. This is a substantial book, and this one spans centuries rather than just a few decades, telling in terms of magic, gastronomy, politics and social upheaval the story of chunk of the Baltic coast, a part of the world that has been subject to more or less constant upheaval for as long as humans have lived there. It’s a complex and engrossing tale, or set of stories within a story, with many voices and a huge cast of characters, in addition to the those of the fisherman and his wife, and peppered with food, sex, joy and tragedy all the way through.

1960s

Asterix in Britain, by Goscinny and Uderzo

This was a birthday present when I was just starting to read. It was like a comic, but it was so much cooler and cleverer than the Beezer, and it opened up a whole new world. Of all the Asterix books, this one remains a favourite, poking gentle and affectionate Gallic fun at the Rosbifs across the Channel with their passions for boiled food and warm beer, the fact that it’s always raining (except when it’s foggy), and the ancient Britons carrying around with them portable roofs to stop the sky from falling on their heads.

Of course, I didn’t appreciate this when this arrived on my eighth birthday, but the first Asterix books were translated by Derek Hockridge and the extraordinary Anthea Bell, who brought to the translation a neatly humorous light touch that I suspect may equal (or even surpass…?) the original. The jokes and puns have to be theirs – as these are notoriously untranslatable – and the names… Calling the pub landlord Dipsomaniax is just a stroke of brilliance.

One of the things I love most about sharing the Decades selections each week is that it helps readers find new books to love. I don’t know if may of us will know all five of these selections but I have been investigating already and I am definitely going to be seeking out Jar City and getting it into my TBR.

What really made my heart sing though was seeing Asterix gain a place in the Library. My own childhood was a series of weekly trips to the village library where I would always take out an Asterix or Tintin book to include in my reading. Huge thanks to Quentin for the wonderful mix of old and new.

DECADES WILL RETURN

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February 4

Decades: Compiling the Ultimate Library with Mathew West

Welcome to Decades. For the last 12 months I have been on a mission to assemble a brand new library of wonderful books. I started this challenge in January 2021 with the question: If you had to build a new library from the ground up (and zero books) which unmissable books should I add to the library shelves?

This was a challenge I could not have undertaken alone, so each week I invite a guest to help me put books onto the shelves of my Decades Library. Why do I call it a Decades Library? That derives from the two rules which govern the selections my guests make:

Rule 1 – Choose Any Five Books
Rule 2 – You May Only Select One Book Per Decade From Five Consecutive Decades

Easy? I am told narrowing down to five books is tricky. But it’s rare someone’s first five selections fall into five consecutive publication decades and from that point the gnashing of teeth begins as my guests decide which books they need to swap out.

This week it is my absolute pleasure to welcome Mathew West to Grab This Book. Mathew is the author of the terrific chiller-thriller The House of Footsteps which published this week.

DECADES

Mathew West is an author. His debut novel The House of Footsteps is a gothic mystery-thriller set in the 1920s in a foreboding house on the English-Scottish border, and was released on 3 February 2022 by Harper North.

He lives in Edinburgh where he spends most of his time writing, listening to music that could generously be described as “eclectic”, watching bad horror films and walking around graveyards.

The House of Footsteps can be ordered here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B098M7DD71/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i0

1950s – My Cousin Rachel – Daphne du Maurier

I think that I have to start with a du Maurier, as she is such a huge influence on my own writing. I was tempted to pick Rebecca, of course, but that would have messed up my sequence of decades, so instead I have the chance to champion Rebecca’s slightly less-famous sister novel, My Cousin Rachel.

It’s a pretty straightforward setup: a young, slightly naive chap is beguiled by the widow of a beloved cousin – but does she really care for him, or is she after something else? Du Maurier does what she does best and draws her characters into ever-tightening webs while you read on, thinking that you know where it’s all going without ever quite being certain. At the centre of it all is Rachel herself – she’s constantly mysterious, enchanting and aloof, a woman born out of time who knows what she wants and isn’t afraid to go after it. The characters of Rachel and Ambrose and their mercurial relationship were never far from my mind as I created Amy and Simon in The House of Footsteps.

1960s – To Kill a Mockingbird – Harper Lee

When I was about 14 my secondary school English class were allowed to choose between reading To Kill a Mockingbird, or Nineteen Eighty-Four. Most of the boys, myself included, opted to read the sci-fi tinged, anti-authoritarian Nineteen Eighty-Four – which I absolutely adored. But over the next several weeks we could also listen in as the rest of the class read and discussed their selection. I was fascinated by the snippets I overheard about Scout, Gem and Atticus Finch, Tom Robinson and Boo Radley. Fascinated enough that I read the book myself, at home, making this I think the first ‘serious’ novel I selected from my parent’s bookshelf and read purely for my own pleasure.

What else is there to say about To Kill a Mockingbird? Superlatives can’t do it justice. It’s a gift, and essential reading for anyone.

1970s – The Shining – Stephen King

To be totally honest I’m picking this as much for the film as the novel. They’re quite different, and having loved the film for many years I was amazed to finally read the book and discover that many of the most iconic scenes on screen don’t appear in the original text at all. Not that King’s book is lacking terrifying set pieces, of course.

There’s something so compelling about the chilling locale of the Overlook Hotel, its grisly and perverse past, and the inevitable slide towards history repeating itself when the Torrence family stay there alone over a long winter. Some of the best bits in the novel are where Jack battles the inner demons of his past, even more dangerous and irresistible than the very real spirits of the Overlook – it’s an internal torment that the film can’t quite do justice to.

1980s – Blood Meridian – Cormac McCarthy

The Shining may have been (arguably) improved by its big screen adaptation, but this is a book I hope no one ever tries to put on film. It’s a shocking, appallingly violent ‘anti-western’ that not only deconstructs but destroys the Hollywood myth of the Old West. The murders and mutilations begin almost from the first page – seriously, it’s not for everyone.

It’s brutal, bleak and harrowing, and made all the worse given it’s partly based on real events. But there’s also a strange beauty to the whole thing. McCarthy’s writing is almost shamanistic, in the landscapes he describes and the mystical, savage characters that inhabit them – most of all the enigmatic and terrifying Judge Holden. It’s not an easy novel, but immerse yourself in it and it will stick with you, like blood on the sole of your shoe.

1990s – Alias Grace – Margaret Atwood

Another novel based loosely on real events, in this case the sensationalised 19^th century murders of a young landowner and his housekeeper. But this isn’t a whodunnit: the Grace of the title has already been convicted for the killings. In telling Grace’s story Atwood has a huge amount to say about class, gender and the immigrant experience. Like My Cousin Rachel, in many ways this is the tale of what happens to a woman who tries to find her own path in a world weighted against her. But what I love most is the fluid, uneasy storytelling. The perspective shifts from Grace – the quintessential unreliable narrator, either mad or lying through her teeth to save her skin – and the doctor listening to her unbelievable story, who is sympathetic but too clouded by his own privilege to really understand. The ambiguity and unanswered questions might leave some a little frustrated, but (as I think this list shows!) I absolutely love a mystery that keeps you guessing, and my favourite evils are the ones which can never truly be understood.

And that’s my selection! I’ve had a lot of fun choosing, and it’s been an interesting challenge to spread my picks across the decades. I was surprised at how many of my absolute ‘must-have’ choices were published in the 1950s, as well as how few books from the 1970s I’ve actually read! I hope you’ve enjoyed reading this, and I’m really grateful for the chance to enthuse about some of my favourite books of all time – without which, it’s fair to say, The House of Footsteps would never have been written.

Decades can share some familiar names but unexpected books and Mathew has introduced me to two titles I had not previously heard of from authors I instantly recognise. It’s the dream combination of recognition and discovery and a perfect illustration of why I love sharing these posts.

Thank you to Mathew for taking time to make his selections. I would urge everyone to seek out his book, The House of Footsteps, which published yesterday from Harper North.

DECADES WILL RETURN

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January 21

Decades: Compiling the Ultimate Library with Reshma Ruia

On 20 January 2021 the very first Decades selections were shared here at Grab This Book. I would like to welcome everyone to the Decades Year Two – I can hardly believe it. My heartfelt thanks to all the readers and contributors who have made this weekly reading temptation such a joy to be part of.

A very quick recap. The Decades Library is intended to be a collection of the very best books which a reader may wish to browse. Every week a new guest curator joins me and they add new books to the shelves of the Decades Library. When making their selections I ask they follow two simple rules:

1- Pick Any Five Books
2 – You May Only Select One Book Per Decade From Five Consecutive Decades.

Taking us into year two is Reshma Ruia who kindly volunteered to take on challenge of selecting five favourite books and didn’t grumble about my rules being too difficult or randomly flex the rules….Hello to certain Year One curators – you know who you are!

Reshma Ruia is an award winning author and poet. The Sunday Times described her first novel, Something Black in the Lentil Soup, as ‘a gem of straight-faced comedy.’ Her second novel manuscript, A Mouthful of Silence, was shortlisted for the SI Leeds Literary Prize. It will be published as Still Lives in June 2022. Still Lives is a novel about betrayal, belonging and love and is set in Manchester.

Her short stories and poems have appeared in British and International anthologies and magazines and commissioned for BBC Radio 4. Her poetry collection, A Dinner Party in the Home Counties, won the 2019 Debut Word Masala Award. A poem from the collection, Mrs Basu leaves town, will feature in the Edexcel A Level syllabus. Her short story collection, Mrs Pinto Drives to Happiness came out in October 2021. The collection has received praise from Colm Toibin, Irenson Okojie and Catherine Menon among others.

Reshma has a PhD and Masters in Creative Writing from Manchester University (Distinction) as well as a Bachelor, and Masters’ Degree with Distinction from the London School of Economics. She is the co-founder of The Whole Kahani-a writers’ collective of British South Asian writers, fiction editor of Jaggery magazine and book reviewer for Words of Colour. Born in India, brought up in Italy and now living in England, her writing explores the preoccupations of those who possess a multiple sense of belonging.

Website: www.reshmaruia.com

Twitter: @RESHMARUIA

Her books are available on her website, on Amazon, Waterstones, Foyles and Daunt bookshops. Better still, you can order them directly from the publisher.

A Dinner Party in the Home Counties can be ordered on https://www.amazon.co.uk/Dinner-Party-Home-Counties/dp/0956084060/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2E2Y2LM695OBU&keywords=A+Dinner+party+in+the+Home+Counties&qid=1641667365&sprefix=a+dinner+party+in+the+home+counties%2Caps%2C78&sr=8-

Mrs Pinto Drives to Happiness can be ordered from: http://dahlia-books.kong365.com/en-gb/collections/our-books/products/mrs-pinto-drives-to-happiness

Still Lives will be out in June 2022. It can be pre-ordered on: https://renardpress.com/books/still-lives/

DECADES

I was born in a small town in India on the border with Nepal called Motihari; incidentally, George Orwell’s birthplace. I spent my early years in Bihar, then Delhi and moved to Rome, Italy when I was eleven. I have lived, studied and worked in London, Paris and now Manchester. My book choices reflect my peripatetic and multicultural upbringing.

1950s: Mrs Bridge, the debut novel by American author Evan S. Connell, published in 1959. The novel, set between the two world wars is a searing exploration of suburban domesticity and marriage. Written in pared back language with brief chapters that seem like contemporary vignettes, Connell explores the prejudices and strait-laced morals of a middle class Kentucky housewife. Mrs Bridge’s failure to connect with her husband or her children, and her private anguish at not fulfilling her potential are described without judgement. Ten years later Connell published Mr. Bridge (1969), which relates the same story from the point of view of the husband.

“some people go skimming over the years of existence to sink gently into a placid grave, ignorant of life to the last, without ever having been made to see all it may contain..’’

― Evan S. Connell, Mrs. Bridge

1960s: Stoner, written by another American writer, John Williams, sank into relative obscurity before being re-discovered some years back. The novel is set in a small campus town where Stoner, the eponymous main protagonist of the novel, overcomes his rural, impoverished roots to carve an academic career in a mid-league University. Stoner is quietly dignified in the pursuit of his love of literature and rises above the petty squabbling and rivalries of his colleagues. He marries badly, is estranged from his daughter, experiences love briefly in an extra marital affair and dies, unrecognised and yet his life feels like a Greek tragedy. It is a deeply melancholic novel.

“You must remember what you are and what you have chosen to become, and the significance of what you are doing. There are wars and defeats and victories of the human race that are not military and that are not recorded in the annals of history.’’

_ John Williams, Stoner

1970s: One Hundred Years of Solitude published in English in 1970. Written by the Colombian writer Gabriel García Márquez, it is a multi-generational novel about the Buendía family whose trials and tribulations echo the turbulent history of Latin America. The book is set in the mythical town of Macondo. Over the course of a century, Macondo is the scene of natural catastrophes, civil wars, and magical events; it is ultimately destroyed after the last Buendía is born with a pig’s tail, as prophesied by a manuscript that generations of Buendías tried to decipher. The book is an exciting blend of political satire with magic realism, fantasy and comic interludes.

“…time was not passing…it was turning in a circle…”

― Gabriel García Márquez, One Hundred Years of Solitude

1980S: Midnight’s Children written by Salman Rushdie and published in 1981. The book is an allegorical novel set in post-colonial India centring on the inextricably linked fates of those who were born in 1947 within the first hour of independence from Great Britain. Saleem Sinai, the central protagonist, is a character with many unusual powers, especially a psychic connection to all the other children born as he was, at the very moment of modern India’s birth. Saleem’s life is a whirlwind of disasters and triumphs that mirror the course of modern India. The novel experiments with the English language, using Indian idioms and vernacular and combining socio-political critique of India with flashes of absurdist magic realism. It went on to win the Booker Prize in 1981 and the Booker of the Booker subsequently.

“I learned: the first lesson of my life: nobody can face the world with his eyes open all the time.”

― Salman Rushdie, Midnight’s Children

1990s: Interpreter of Maladies is a collection of nine short stories by the Indian/America author of Jhumpa Lahiri published in 1999. Awarded the Pulitzer Prize for fiction, these short stories explore the diasporic life of the Indian immigrant in America as they negotiate ways to assimilate and belong without letting go of the past. Lahiri writes eloquently about the immigrant experience and about the divide between cultures, examining both the difficulties and joys of assimilation. The title story describes an unlikely rapport between an Indian tour guide and an American born Indian woman who is visiting India as a tourist. Each story is a sensitive exploration of loneliness, isolation and loss, set during the Seventies and Eighties- a period when India and Indians were still regarded as ‘exotic’ by mainstream America.

“Still, there are times I am bewildered by each mile I have travelled, each meal I have eaten, each person I have known, each room in which I have slept. ‘’

― Jhumpa Lahiri, Interpreter of Maladies

I love the sound of Mrs Bridge, particularly in light of the author returning to the story to revisit from a second viewpoint. I’d like to thank Reshma for these brilliant recommendations – discovering new authors, not previously on my radar, has been one of my favourite parts of the Decades Library.

The prospect of someone discovering new books to love keeps this feature running week after week. Before I even publish this post I have achieved my goal – I have made a purchase this morning.

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January 14

Decades: Compiling the Ultimate Library with Steve Cavanagh

It was around this time last year the Decades Library was first imagined. You’ve likely heard this before but to welcome new visitors I will explain my Decades Challenge and the ultimate goal.

Something happened which made me ponder the question: Where would you begin if you were asked to assemble a library but had to start with nothing but empty shelves. You have no books. None. Not one. Which books would you add to the library shelves to make sure readers would have nothing but the very best books to choose from?

I quickly realised that I could not possibly answer this question alone so I decided I would ask some guests to help me. Each week I am joined by a booklover (authors, bloggers, publishers and journalists have all lent their time to assist) and I ask them to nomimate some “unmissable” books. To make their selection process slightly more complicated I set two rules which each guest must follow:

1 – Choose Any Five Books
2 – You May Only Select One Book Per Decade From Five Consecutive Decades

And that’s the Decades Challenge. Selecting five favourite books. If you think it’s easy then try to narrow down your own five choices.

All that remains now is for me to pass the Curator’s Hat to my guest. It’s my absolute delight to welcome Steve Cavanagh to the Library.

Steve Cavanagh is a critically acclaimed, Sunday Times best-selling author of the Eddie Flynn series. All of his novels have been nominated for major awards. His third novel, The Liar, won the CWA Gold Dagger for Crime Novel of the year 2018. Thirteen won the Theakstons Old Peculier Crime novel of the year 2019. The Eddie Flynn novels have been translated into 26 languages. His latest book is The Devil’s Advocate.

You can order any of Steve’s books here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Steve-Cavanagh/e/B00OAGCA62?ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_1&qid=1642111903&sr=8-1

DECADES

The Real Cool Killers by Chester Himes (1950)

Chester Himes had an extraordinary life of hardship and adversity. I can think of few writers who experienced half of what he had to endure. I am a huge fan of Raymond Chandler, but I think enough people will have read and marveled at Chandler already, and not nearly enough people have read Chester Himes. On his best day, Himes can make words dance. He is one of the very few writers that can turn prose into music. This novel is the second outing in the Coffin Ed and Grave Digger Jones detective series. By all means start with A Rage in Harlem, but I think some of the best prose work is in this one.

The Chill by Ross MacDonald (1964)

Ross MacDonald had his own personal troubles. He poured his heart and his empathy for his fellow human beings into his work, and specifically, his fictional hero PI Lew Archer. Writing a long-running detective series is an incredibly difficult undertaking. I remember Dennis Lehane remarking that writing a series can yield diminishing returns when it comes to the quality of each book, “how many people say the twelfth book in a series is their favourite?” This is a fair point, but some writers beat those odds. The Chill is the eleventh Lew Archer novel, and many people say it’s the best.

Ripley’s Game by Patricia Highsmith (1974)

Few authors have had such an impact on the genre as Patricia Highsmith. She was perhaps one of the finest proponents of the psychological thriller. In Strangers On A Train, she used a high concept hook as the engine for the novel and wrote many more standalones. She also wrote a brilliant short series about the killer and conman Tom Ripley. In Ripley’s game, she combines the two elements of her craft. What if you had a terminal illness? What if someone, perhaps with dark motives, came to you and offered a vast sum of money if you killed someone? You family will need that money when you’re gone. What if what began as a psychological game turned into something much more terrifying? A brilliant book, and one that I return to again and again.

The Silence of the Lambs by Thomas Harris (1988)

There’s not much to say about this one other than it’s the book that made me love crime and thrillers. I’d read Sherlock Holmes, and detective comics, but it wasn’t until I was around twelve or thirteen that I read this one. My mum gave it to me. I know some people think Red Dragon is a better thriller, but for me Clarice Starling is an equally brilliant creation as Hannibal. This is the book that started it all for me. If you’ve just seen the movie, then do yourself a favour and read the book.

Bridget Jones’s Diary by Helen Fielding (1996)

Because life isn’t all detectives and murders, it’s good to have an injection of humour now and again. I think this is one of the great comic novels. Maybe the last great one. It is so brilliantly well written, laugh-out-loud funny and touching and made all the more real by the style and structure. Again, if you’ve only seen the movie – please read the book.

It’s hard to believe it has taken twelve months of Decades selections for Patricia Highsmith make her debut. Five terrific reads and this is what I consider the “perfect” mix of titles – some books I know and love but there are also a couple of new recommendations which I immediately felt I needed to read. A weekly assult on my TBR! My thanks to Steve for taking on the Decades challenge.

DECADES WILL RETURN

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January 7

Decades – Compiling the Ultimate Library with D.V. Bishop

Welcome back to my Decades Library. It’s a new year but I am asking my guests to take on the same challenge. Each week someone from the world of books will join me to help me in my quest to assemble the Ultimate Libary. I call it my Decades Library for reasons which shall shortly become clear.

For anyone joining us for the first time – Welcome! Let me explain what the Decades Library is all about. I began this challenge with the simple question: If I was to build a new library (starting with zero books) which books should I add to my library shelves to make sure I had the very best collection of titles available for people to read?

I knew I could not take on this challenge alone so each week I invite a new guest to join me and I ask them to add some of their favourite books to my Decades Library. They have to follow two rules. Got to have rules or chaos ensues.

Rule 1 – Pick Any Five Books.
Rule 2 – You May Only Select One Book Per Decade From Five Consecutive Decades.

I have finally wrestled the Curators Hat back from my last guest, Lisa Gray (thanks for looking after it over the holidays Lisa) and I am delighted to introduce D.V. Bishop who will make the first five selections of 2022.

D.V. Bishop writes the Cesare Aldo historical crime novels set in Renaissance Florence. The first in the series, City of Vengeance, was shortlisted for the 2021 Wilbur Smith Adventure Writing Prize, won the Pitch Perfect contest at the Bloody Scotland International Crime Writing festival, and earned Bishop a Robert Louis Stevenson Fellowship. It was published in paperback on January 6^th, 2022. The second Cesare Aldo novel, The Darkest Sin, comes out March 2022 in hardback, ebook and audiobook – pre-order links here: http://linktr.ee/TheDarkestSin

D.V. Bishop is the pen-name of David Bishop, an award-winning screenwriter and TV dramatist. He has authored audio dramas and tie-in novels for Doctor Who and Judge Dredd. A former editor of iconic British science fiction weekly 2000AD, Bishop has written nearly fifty issues of beloved comics character The Phantom. Bishop co-created the original graphic novel Dani’s Toys with artist Ruairi Coleman which will be launched via a Kickstarter campaign in 2022.

In his copious spare time Bishop leads the MA Creative Writing and the MA Writing Popular Fiction programmes at Edinburgh Napier University in Scotland. A glutton for punishment, he is developing a new global online MA Creative Writing programme focusing on popular genre fiction for 2022.

DECADES

I live in Scotland, but my heart belongs to where I was born and raised: Aotearoa (New Zealand). My contributions to the Ultimate Library all come from NZ, books that deserve to be better known.

1960s: The Scarecrow by Ronald Hugh Morrieson (1963)

‘The same week our fowls were stolen, Daphne Moran had her throat cut.’ That sentence opens The Scarecrow, an early Kiwi Gothic and the first novel by Ronald Hugh Morrieson. He struggled to get published in his lifetime yet all four of his novels were adapted into films. The Scarecrow is funny, creepy, insightful, thrilling, and picaresque in equal measure. It is available on Kindle in the UK.

1970s: Smith’s Dream by C. K. Stead (1971)

Smith’s Dream is a taut, speculative thriller set in a New Zealand where political apathy lets a repressive government take charge. The title character went off the grid after his marriage ended; when he re-emerges, Smith struggles to recognise what his country has become. Hard to find in print, but the 1977 film version Sleeping Dogs with a young Sam Hunt is on UK DVD & Blu-Ray.

1980s: Photo Finish by Ngaio Marsh (1980)

I could hardly make this list without including one of the Golden Age queens of mystery fiction, Ngaio Marsh, after whom NZ’s crime fiction awards are named. Photo Finish is set in a millionaire’s island mansion and features a Maria Callas-esque opera diva being stabbed through the heart with a photo of herself impaled on the dagger. Unsurprisingly, most of Marsh’s work remains in print.

1990s: Once Were Warriors by Alan Duff (1990)

This is a blistering novel about domestic violence and toxic masculinity. Once Were Warriors held a mirror up to aspects of life in New Zealand that few people discussed, forcing readers to face the brutal reality of racism and sexism in the country. There’s an acclaimed film version that won prizes world-wide, but Duff’s debut novel deserves to be read for its unflinching prose and power.

2000s: Overkill by Vanda Symon (2007)

The prologue of this debut is compelling and terrifying in equal measure, setting the stage for a brilliant first novel by Vanda Symon. UK readers discovered how gripping Overkill was when Orenda Books unleashed a new edition in 2018, and it was rightly shortlisted for the CWA New Blood Dagger. But Overkill was first published 2007 in NZ, so it sneaks into my stretch of five decades.

My thanks to David for these marvellous selections. When I invite anyone to take part in the Decades Challenge I always mention that the selections are all very personal choices so to see five New Zealand titles gracing the Library shelves just warms my heart. I have even reviewed one of them for this blog!

David kindly provided a pre-order link for his forthcoming Cesare Aldo thriller The Darkest Sin but the first book in the series, City of Vengeance, released this week in paperback and you can grab a copy here: https://www.waterstones.com/book/city-of-vengeance/d-v-bishop/9781529038798

DECADES WILL RETURN

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December 17

Decades: Compiling the Ultimate Library with Lisa Gray

It’s mid December and it has been eleven months since my first Decades guest joined me back in January. That first guest was Sharon Bairden, an author I often met while attending book launches in Glasgow. So what a happy coincidence that my final guest of the year is also an author I would frequently meet when we attended book launches in Glasgow: Lisa Gray.

Don’t panic about the “last of the year” comment, I always say “DECADES WILL RETURN.” But with the busy holiday season approaching I have decided I am not going to share any new guest selections until 7th January 2022. Decades is as much about my guests as it is about their book selections so I do not want anyone to be overlooked while there are so many other distractions at this time of year. I have been asked to make my personal Decades choices so that may happen.

But back to the present (no Christmas pun indended). This week I am delighted to be joined by one of my best bookish pals, Lisa Gray. The challenge remains the same, Lisa has to nominate five of her favourite books which she thinks should be added to my Ultimate Library. She is allowed to choose any five books but can only select one book per decade from five consecutive decades.

Sometimes one of my guests will nominate a book and I will be instantly gobsmacked that the book or author has not yet featured in a previous selection. This is true of this week too…I shall let Lisa explain.

DECADES

Lisa Gray is an Amazon #1, Washington Post, and Wall Street Journal bestselling author. Her debut novel, Thin Air, was the third-bestselling Kindle book on Amazon.com in 2019. She previously worked as the chief Scottish soccer writer at the Press Association and the books editor at the Daily Record Saturday Magazine. She lives in Glasgow and writes full-time.

Lisa is the author of the Jessica Shaw books. Jessica is a troubled and tenacious private eye of no fixed abode, who investigates cases in and around Los Angeles. The latest in the series, Lonely Hearts, sees Jessica delve into the Lonely Hearts Club and the world of women who write to dangerous convicted criminals.

1970s — Carrie by Stephen King

I know, I know. Yet another Decades contributor picking a Stephen King book, but I do think it’s fascinating that we’re all choosing completely different ones! Carrie was the first King book I read, the first he had published, and it’s the one that has stayed with me the most. That heartbreaking scene in the girls’ locker room… That iconic scene with the pigs’ blood at the high school prom… It doesn’t matter if you read the book or watched the film, you’re not going to forget those images in a hurry. Carrie White is an outsider, bullied by her classmates and her own mother, before her telekinetic powers allow her to inflict a terrible, bloody revenge on the town that terrorised her. I liked that the novel was told in an epistolary style with newspaper articles and scientific reports included as part of the story. A true horror classic.

1980s — A is for Alibi by Sue Grafton

Confession time. Even though this book was published way back in the ‘80s (the best decade ever in my opinion), I only read it for the first time a couple of years ago. Like Grafton, I write a series about a plucky female private eye who doggedly investigates cases in Southern California. When people started comparing my Jessica Shaw books to the famous ‘Alphabet’ series, I knew I had to check it out. What can I say? That comparison is one hell of a compliment! I absolutely adore the twice-divorced Kinsey Millhone and her page-turning mysteries. If I can ever write a novel half as good as Sue Grafton, I’ll be happy.

1990s — The Concrete Blonde by Michael Connelly

The Concrete Blonde is one of the closest things you’ll get to a perfect police procedural in my opinion. It has everything—a complex plot, a warped killer, a dogged cop in the superb Harry Bosch, intrigue, suspense and plenty of twists. And all set against the wonderfully drawn backdrop of the City of Angels. For me, Connelly always nails the big three of character, plot and setting. He’s the best in the business. The fact that this book was only the third that he wrote kind of blows my mind.

2000s — Dark Places by Gillian Flynn

Everyone knows Gillian Flynn for Gone Girl, the book that made her a household name—but Dark Places is easily my favourite by the author. Libby Day is the sole survivor of a massacre that happened during the ‘satanic panic’ of 1980s small town America. Years later and strapped for cash, she agrees to help a group of amateur sleuths delve back into what really happened the night her mother and sisters were murdered, and her brother was jailed for the horrific crimes. Flynn is the queen of the unlikeable female narrator and just a really, really terrific writer. One of the few books I’ve read more than once.

2010s — Pretty Girls by Karin Slaughter

First of all, I should probably say that Karin Slaughter’s books aren’t for everyone. They are often brutal and unflinching, and Pretty Girls is no exception. It’s definitely not for the faint-hearted but what it is, is a masterclass in making the reader care about the characters. It’s about teenage girls who disappeared years apart and it gripped me, surprised me, and, ultimately, it broke my heart. I cried twice reading it and I don’t mean delicate tears dropping onto the page, I’m talking full-blown ugly sobbing. One twist floored me so much I actually shouted, ‘No way!’ and had to set the book aside for a few moments. Between the crying and the yelling, it’s just as well I read Pretty Girls at home and not on the morning commute to work…

Ending the year with King and Connelly and also introducing Karin Slaughter, Sue Grafton and Gillian Flynn to the Decades Library means I get to finish 2021 on a real high. My thanks to Lisa for these terrific recommendations. As this is the last Decades of the year I would like to thank all my wonderful guests who have made this feature a year-long celebration of booklove.

DECADES WILL RETURN

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December 10

Decades: Compiling the Ultimate Library with Susi Holliday

Imagine being tasked with starting a brand new library. You don’t have any books yet but know you want to fill the shelves of your new library with the very best books so that visitors know each title they select has been loved and recommended. Where would you start? Which books would you pick?

That was the challenge I set myself back in January. But I knew there was no way I could undertake this task alone so each week I invite a new guest to join me and I ask them to nominate five books they would want to see on the shelves of my Decades Library. I have had recommendations from authors, publishers, bloggers, journalists – all booklovers. Eleven months later there are around 200 books in my Library but the challenge continues.

Why is it a Decades Library? Well each guest has two simple rules to follow when choosing their books:

1- Choose Any Five Books
2 – You May Only Choose One Book Per Decade From Five Consecutive Decades

This week it is my absolute pleasure to welcome Susi Holliday back to Grab This Book. Regular readers will know I am a big fan of Susi’s books so I had a pretty good idea which authors I would see appearing in her selections – but I was totally wrong! That said there are new authors making their debut in my Library who I am astonished have not been mentioned thus far. I will let Susi take it from here:

Susi (SJI) Holliday is a Scottish writer of dark fiction. She cut her teeth on flash fiction and short stories, and was shortlisted for the inaugural CWA Margery Allingham Prize in 2014. She is the UK bestselling author of the creepy and claustrophobic Banktoun trilogy (Black Wood, Willow Walk and The Damselfly), the festive serial killer thriller The Deaths of December, the supernatural mystery The Lingering, a psychological thriller set on the Trans-Siberian Express (Violet) and a horror novella (Mr Sandman). Her latest two novels (The Last Resort and Substitute) contain a speculative science edge. Her short stories have been published in magazines, newspapers and anthologies. By day, she works as a clinical research statistician. Susi divides her time between London and Edinburgh. She loves travelling, long walks, and scaring herself with horror movies.

DECADES

1970s – Flowers in the Attic – Viginia Andrews

I think I actually read this in the 80s, but I was definitely very young and definitely slightly confused (and wrongly titillated, I suspect) by the subject matter. Given that this was one of my early reads when I was probably about 12 years old, it’s really no wonder I have so far only managed to write very dark stories. With sex bits.

1980s – Stephen King and Jackie Collins – Lucky

I know, I am cheating here by picking authors from the same decade, but they were both hugely influential at the time, for very different reasons (no details required). OK, OK – if I have to pick one book and one author, I’m going with Jackie Collins’s Lucky – for pure escapist filth and glamour. No wait, I’m choosing Stephen King’s Christine – for its underrated horror. I mean, who could be scared of a possessed car?! (Answer: me!) Also, I’m starting to see a strong pattern emerging here through the decades, where sex and horror are combined… Virginia Andrews, Stephen King, Jackie Collins… and moving on to…

1990s – Bridget Jones’s Diary – Helen Fielding

This is one of those books that is just the perfect example of right story, right decade. I was at the age where all of Bridget’s concerns with the world were my concerns with the world – such as, have I smoked/drank too much – should I really have slept with him – am I ever going to make a success of my life… it was laugh out loud funny and so relatable to my generation. I remember a friend of mine rushing home from the pub one night after being sure she’d pulled, so she could shave her legs before the bloke made it back to her flat. I think I was very much anti-Bridget when I told her that I doubt her fella would care too much about her hairy legs. Anyway, there have been many contenders since then, but no one could create a character like Bridget like Helen Fielding did. Legend. Can I just point out that this is the decade where I became a Goth so the earlier decade influences followed by Bridget’s sweetness must’ve tipped me over the edge.

2000s – The Da Vinci Code – Dan Brown

Spurious link: Could this be described as a modern gothic novel? All that religion and secrets and whatever? This may be one of the first books where I vividly remember being sucked in by ‘the hype’ and I absolutely devoured it. This would not normally have been my type of book at all, but the marketing spin/rumours about how much of it was true was what swung it. Wildly entertaining, and of course, complete baloney – but I loved it at the time but don’t think I would re-read it now. Dan Brown gets a bad press sometimes, but honestly, writing something that gets the whole world talking is hardly to be sniffed at!

2010s – Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine – Gail Honeyman

One of the big things that draws me into a book is the character’s voice, and this is where Eleanor absolutely grabbed me. Like a miserable version of Bridget, there was something relatable and compelling about her story that had me unable to put the book down… and then of course it has a very clever unpeeling of the onion that makes it 100% worthy of all the massive acclaim. Again, many have tried since to replicate this, and failed. There are some characters that can only be written once, and both Eleanor and Bridget are those for me. I also think Eleanor perfectly encapsulates my light/dark elements that have clearly been signposted heavily throughout this piece. Thanks, Gordon – I may have reached the path to enlightenment!

Huge thanks to Susi for these brilliant selections. I cannot believe it has taken 11 months of Decades before Bridgit Jones made her debut in the Decades Library and as for Flowers in the Attic – wasnt’t there a rule every house had to have a copy of this in the early 1980s? Flowers takes its place on my library shelves too.

DECADES WILL RETURN

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December 3

Decades: Compiling The Ultimate Library with Carol Wyer

It’s my absolute delight to welcome Carol Wyer to my Decades Library and to pass custody of the Decades Curator Hat into her capable hands.

Carol faces the same challenge which I set all my guests. I asked her to nominate five books which she would want to see added to my Ultimate Library – the definitive collection of wonderful reading matter. Every week I ask booklovers (authors, publishers, journalists, bloggers) to help me build up a new library of amazing books. I started this challenge back in January with zero books and now here we are in December with almost 200 books added to the shelves of my Decades Library.

THE RULES: Each guest is asked to nominate any five books but they can only select one book per decade from five consecutive decades.

Carol has elected to begin her selections in the 1960s with her final nomination being published in 2003, five decades later. I am also delighted to report Carol has not cheated or “flexed the rules” in making her choices – regular visitors will know this is rare!

Enough from me, the rest of this week’s Decades Challenge is all about Carol Wyer…

USA Today bestselling author and winner of The People’s Book Prize Award, Carol Wyer’s crime novels have sold over one million copies and been translated into nine languages.

A move from humour to the ‘dark side’ in 2017, saw the introduction of popular DI Robyn Carter in Little Girl Lost and proved that Carol had found her true niche.

In 2021, An Eye For An Eye, the first in the DI Kate Young series, was chosen as a Kindle First Reads. It became the #1 bestselling book on Amazon UK and Australia. The third, A Life For A Life, is due out March 15th, 2022, but is available to preorder.

Carol has had articles published in national magazines ‘Woman’s Weekly’, featured in ‘Take A Break’, ‘Choice’, ‘Yours’ and ‘Woman’s Own’ magazines and written for the Huffington Post. She’s also been interviewed on numerous radio shows and on BBC Breakfast television.

She currently lives on a windy hill in rural Staffordshire with her husband Mr. Grumpy who is very, very grumpy.

When not plotting devious murders, she can be found performing her comedy routine, Smile While You Still Have Teeth.

To learn more, go to www.carolwyer.co.uk, subscribe to her YouTube channel, or follow her on Twitter @carolewyer

LINKS
FACEBOOK https://www.facebook.com/pages/Carol-E-Wyer/221149241263847

TWITTER https://twitter.com/carolewyer

BLOG https://carolwyer.com

WEBSITE https://www.carolwyer.co.uk

PINTEREST http://www.pinterest.com/carolewyer/

LINKEDIN https://www.linkedin.com/in/carol-wyer-407b1032/

GOODREADS https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/14925467.Carol_Wyer

DECADES

I have enjoyed writing about my choices and it made me realise how many great books I have read over the last few decades. It was a tough choice to whittle them down, but I went with an eclectic choice and nothing heavy.

1960-1970 (1961) The Agony and the Ecstasy by Irving Stone

My mother, who was an avid reader, loaned me her copy of this book to read when I was bedbound (thanks to major spinal surgery), and had run out of library books to keep me entertained. She was very interested in Italy and art and assured me I would love the book. Being a grumpy teenager at the time, and determined that anything she liked, especially a book from the 1960s, I would hate, I begrudgingly took it. I was wrong. The book spoke to me, piqued my own interest in art and went some way to cultivate my love for foreign languages and different cultures. My mother always wanted to travel to Florence to take in Michelangelo’s sculptures and artwork but never went. When I finally made the pilgrimage to Florence and saw the statue of David, a year after my mother’s death, I shed a tear she couldn’t share the moment with me and silently thanked her for encouraging me to read this wonderful biography of Michelangelo’s life.

1970-1980 (1979) Douglas Adams The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

I was studying English and French at university at the time the television series came out. It was hugely popular among those living at my hall of residence and most of the students would crowd into the television room each week to watch it. I however, had missed that boat and, wondering what all the hype was about, read the book instead of the Shakespeare play I was meant to be studying that week, in order to catch up on the Hitchhiker craze. I’ve always loved comedy and Douglas Adam’s wit appealed instantly to me. I went on to read the entire collection and motivated by Adams and other writers like him, began my own journey as an author by writing comedy.

1980-1990 (1987) Misery by Stephen King

Every writer should read this book! Ill health struck me down again in my twenties when, following another spinal procedure, I found myself paralysed for a few months. Stephen King became my ‘go to’ author. I’ve since read every book Stephen King has written, but this and The Shining are the two that scare me the most. You’d think, after reading them, I wouldn’t have chosen this career path!

1990-2000 (1991) John Grisham The Firm.

The second in a long line of best-selling legal thrillers by John Grisham and to my mind, still the best. I was lucky enough to stay at the White House on Grand Cayman where some of the filming for the film took place but alas, Tom Cruise wasn’t there at the time. The strength in Grisham’s books lies in his excellent knowledge of the justice system along with a gripping plot that had me hooked from the off.

2000-2010 (2003) Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown

My husband bought me this book at the airport while we waited to board a plane to France. I was so gripped, I spent most of the holiday inside reading rather than sightseeing. I still haven’t watched the film version! I loved the intrigue, the fast pace, the breathless scenes where the characters hunt for clues, and Dan Brown clearly did substantial background research, something I didn’t fully appreciate until I actually wrote my first crime thriller and found out how little I knew about my subject. Since then, I have studied hard and have a network of experts to guide me. It certainly makes me appreciate how much effort goes into every author’s book.

I know the versions of the books Carol picked would have had different covers than those shown above but…there’s a lot of red going on there! I am delighted to see The Firm make its debut in my Library, it was my first Grisham which I remember picking up at launch – how I wish I still had my original copy.

DECADES WILL RETURN

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November 26

Decades: Compiling the Ultimate Library with Bert (AKA Alex Call)

Welcome to the last Decades selection in November 2021. This post goes live on the biggest shopping Friday of the year (y0u know the one) and I very much want to ask everyone to #ShopIndie today and also over the next few weeks as we rush towards the Holiday Season.

Through December you may well find yourself looking to purchase a book whether it is for Christmas, a birthday (don’t forget people with a December birthday) or maybe even for Jolabokaflod. It just so happens my guest this week owns a bookshop and would like nothing more than to help match you and your loved ones with new books.

Every week I invite a booklover to nominate five new books to be added to my Decades Library. When this challenge began back in January there were no books in my Library but week on week authors, publishers, journalists and bloggers have added new books to the Decades Library and their marvellous choices have had people discovering and buying the titles my guests recommend.

My guests don’t just get to pick five books as that would be too easy! They may only pick one book per decade from five consecutive decades – a fifty year publication span to select from.

This week I am delighted to welcome Bert from Bert’s Books to the blog. Bert (who, as you will see, isn’t) is making his five selections and also has details of a fantastic discount on his subscription service which you must not miss!

DECADES

Bert is my alter ego – to some I am known as Alex Call, previously the Head of Books Marketing at WHSmith and subsequently founder of Bert’s Books. Bert’s Books began in 2019 when – finding myself at a loose end – I wanted to find a way of getting all the brilliant books I was reading out into the hands of readers.

The dream is to one day own and run my own bookshop – and maybe to find the time to write my own book!

All of the books listed below and hundreds more are available to order on bertsbooks.co.uk. All the titles on the website are there because I loved them – or one of my customers did, so you’re guaranteed to find an amazing read.

I also offer monthly subscriptions full of new releases that I’ve loved – so if you like the books that I’ve picked then we probably have similar tastes! Visit bertsbooks.co.uk/build – and get 20% off your first month using code WELCOME20

Delivery in the UK is completely FREE

Matilda by Roald Dahl (1988)

As a child, every Saturday morning, my mum, sister and I would take the short walk from our house to my grandparents, stopping by the library on the way. I would leave with a huge pile of books – and invariably over the years, there were some books that accompanied me on more than one occasion.

Special shout outs to Mercedes Ice and Scribble Boy both by Philip Ridley, but it was Matilda who became the defining book of my childhood. This young girl who found magic in books resonated with me – I by no means had a neglectful family, in fact it was probably I who neglected them in favour of books!

Night of the Living Dummy by RL Stine (1993)

For a certain generation, to ask for a major book from the 90s is to be told about Harry Potter. However, I didn’t want to be predictable, so I thought about other books that had a major influence on me – and the Goosebumps series (along with the Point Horror series, and in a bizarre contrast the Sweet Valley High series) were those books.

Night of the Living Dummy is one of the few still available which is why I’ve named it, but it is the series as a whole that I want to acknowledge. These were the first books I can remember buying, proudly displaying my collection on a bookshelf and scouring my latest WHSmith for new releases.

If Matilda sparked my love of reading, then the Goosebumps series sparked my love of bookshops. Recently, I was able to share my entire (complete!) collection with my godson, who I’m proud to say loved them every bit as much as I did!

The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger (2003)

By the early noughties, I was that most horrible of things – a teenage boy. I’d more or less left reading behind as I struggled to bridge the gap between children’s books and adult books. Aged 16, I got a job in my local WHSmith (the very same one of Goosebumps fame) and soon found my home in the book department.

I was helping a customer find a third book in the 3 for 2 offer, and during the discussion, they recommended the Time Traveller’s Wife to me. I decided to take advantage of the same offer and that night went home with the Niffenegger, Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell and The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon.

These three books marked by entry into the world of reading ‘adult’ books – but it was the simple complexity of the Niffenegger’s time travel plot that spoke me to the most. To take what was a complicated time-jumping narrative and make it so accessible was inspiring to me.

A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara (2015)

This was my starting point for picking books for this piece. I’ve been reading all my life and I was quite some way into my bookselling career before I encountered A Little Life – but it is the first book I’ve had such a visceral reaction to.

It alerted me to the true power of storytelling that I’d heard others talk of. There have been many books before and after this one that I loved (a couple from this decade, that I’m heartbroken not to be able to include!)

The characters of Jude, Willem, JB and Malcolm broke my heart, moved in and rebuilt the pieces around themselves.

Still Life by Sarah Winman (2021)

I’m cheating a bit here. Still Life by Sarah Winman is a remarkable book that dragged me into its world and made me want to inhabit it completely. Winman herself admits it’s a novel where nothing happens – but the way in which nothing happens is where the magic lies.

It is however, Winman herself that I’d like to choose, specifically her 2017 novel Tin Man. After a particularly tough week I received a proof copy of Tin Man, and in the space of one evening I was able to switch off from the world around me and lose myself in the world Ellis, Annie and Michael.

Ever since then, Winman and her novels have been a huge inspiration and escape for me – to the point that publication of Still Life became THE event of 2021 for me. If I could be just a fraction of the writer Winman is, I will die a very happy man indeed.

Terrific selections from Alex – thank you! His inclusion of Still Life displaces We Begin At The End as the “newest” book (most recently published) in the Library.

All the books above can, of course, be ordered from Bert’s Books here: https://bertsbooks.co.uk/

DECADES WILL RETURN

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