This month saw the re-publishing of Tim O’Brien’s classic Vietnam war novels: If I Die in a Combat Zone, Going After Cacciato, The Things they Carried, Northern Lights and In the Lake of the Woods. Tim O’Brien’s works have been hailed as some of the finest books to emerge from the Vietnam conflict, with New York Times Book Review saying: ‘A personal document of aching clarity … O’Brien brilliantly and quietly evokes the foot soldier’s daily life in the paddies and foxholes. …beautiful, painful…’ Read more…
We all have those books which sit on the shelf months after purchase, or are picked up in charity shops, or hastily bought on a near out of date Waterstones card. Yet, once read, it’s often these books which surprise and intrigue us. Some of our own treasured books include: an eccentric guest list which gets held hostage; a dissection of our human need for superheroes; a local murder which pans out to reflect the global politics of the sixties; and an ethical guide to buying good food which doesn’t exploit the world. So take your pick, you can’t say we don’t give you an eclectic range: Read more…
We all love a juicy secret. It seems that authors are particularly keen on them; hidden romances, secret selves, and concealed codes have featured heavily in literature for centuries, and for a reason. But secrets should come with a warning. If you are harbouring something you shouldn’t, take your pick from these four cautionary tales to show you the consequence of camouflage.
