So, in an effort to draw you all in, and keep myself smiling, I've added a selection of Personally Recommended authors/titles to the window display. New books at our usual 20% off (same as we do for anythign new we order for you).
I see it as a personal gift... well, okay, a MISSION! Dammit, there's so much more out there than TWILIGHT! So many wonderful writers, and I want you all to know it! I want to gift you all the wonder of these writers, people who will make your world a better place. I promise.
Mind you, you'd better be quick... because a couple of these have disappeared already! (I'll be ordering more)
Graham Joyce (under the pen name William Heaney) - I've talked about his novel MMEMOIRS OF A MASTER FORGER at length here before, so you KNOW how much I love the book and how much I love Graham as an author. Outstanding... but I thought it high time I started mentioned a few others...
ROBERT SHEARMAN - the collection is a little hard to see in the picture here, it's called LOVE SONGS FOR THE SHY & CYNICAL and it is a beautiful book. A collection of short stories that mark Shearman out as the natural successor to John Collier and Roald Dahl. Weird and wonderful, beautiful and strange, achingly heartfelt and melancholy.
STEPHEN VOLK - this is the man who created GHOSTWATCH for the BBC and so scared the nation that it's never been shown by them again. He also created the ITV series AFTERLIFE (one of the best drama series of the last 10 years). As it happens, Volk is also a fantastic prose writer, as this collection amply proves. Intelligent, creepy and provocative. Volk is a writer well worth your time, who deserves to be MUCH better known.
NEIL GAIMAN - The Wolves In The Walls is just a great bit of fun. A picture book for 5 year olds... it can be enjoyed by anyone. This edition includes a CD of Gaiman reading the story himself. He's got a great voice for it too.
CHINA MIEVILLE - The City & The City. Mieville is one of the best young writers of dark fantasy in the UK. This one takes him into new territory, blending a bit of film noir with a bit of Kafka, Orwell or Philip K. Dick...
CHRISTOPHER FOWLER - Paperboy. This is a memoir, achingly funny, sometimes sad, always touching. Fowler is another UK writer who should be better known than he seems to be. Currently enjoying success with the Bryant & May crime novels, he's a man of rich imagaination, who writes novels and stories that grab you by the throat and lead you down some very strange alleys indeed. His memoir though is the kind of book that can be enjoyed by fans or non fans alike. The sense of place, and the feeling of growing up in England in the 1960's is so acute it's like he bottled it. One whiff can act liek smelling salts, awakeniing all kinds of memories from the depths of your brain...
MICHAEL CHABON - The Yiddish Policemen's Union. Chabon won the Pulitzer prize for his novel The Amazing Adventures Of Kavalier & Clay... this one has been optioned as a movie by the Coen Brothers. I think they'll make a perfect match.
JEREMY DYSON - The Cranes That Build The Cranes. Dyson is currently enjoying great success in the theatre with his play GHOST STORIES scaring the crap out of audiences. He's themember of The League Of Gentlemen that you don't see much of onscreen. He's also a cracking writer of highly imaginative, often funny, sometimes downright twisted tales.
DAVID ALMOND - I'm pretty sure I sang the prases of David Almond in my first few posts here. Probably the UK's finest children's author. With The Savage he teams up with Dave McKean as illustrator to produce a books that is both brutal and beautiful. A perfect match of talents, and a brilliant, brilliant little book.
GUSTAV MEYRINK - The Golem. A dream like take on the classic tale. Meyrink was a wonderful writer, and this is one of the great novels of a CITY...
SCOTT BRADLEY et al - The Horror Book Of Lists. If you're a Horror fan, you NEED this book. A fantastic collection of obsessive, obscure, odd and funny lists by horror writers and film makers. The kind of thing you dip into for a quick look... only to find yourself surfacing a couple of hours later wondering where the time went!
So, keep your eyes on the window if you want somethhing good... I make no bones about the fact that it reflects my tastes. These are personal recommendations. But there are no guilty pleasures here. Only Great Stories. Great Writing. Great Imagination...
