Which Books Should You Be Buying This Week?
Your round-up of the weekend’s newspaper book reviews Dec 9/10
Welcome to new readers of White Ink, and an especially warm welcome to The Book Room, a sub-section of White Ink and also my very own online bookshop.
Each Sunday I bring you a digest of the books that the weekend’s newspapers are reviewing, and even better, you can click through and buy them from my shop.
So let’s take a dive into what’s piqued the literary editors’ interest this week.
First up, those of you, like me, with tweens or teens will probably be wanting to add this to your stocking filler list pronto, it’s the very latest, Heartstopper book published just a few days ago. A graphic novel which was banned on publication in the US, which, let’s face it, always makes a book more interesting, it has since been made into a hit Netflix series which the kids love.
This weekend, The Telegraph was reviewing HEARTSTOPPER VOLUME 5. This series which follows two gay British schoolboys as they navigate the highs and lows of secondary school started off as a web-comic and has since sold eight million copies worldwide. In Volume 1, 15-year-old Charlie fell for Nick, a popular rugby player in the year above. Charlie didn’t think that Nick was gay, but their classmates knew better.
‘Fast-forward to Volume 5: the couple have declared their love, and Nick’s father has been told. “My dad finally knows about us,” Nick says. “Actually, pretty much everyone knows we’re together now. I guess we’ve come a long way.” But with Nick about to leave school, their equilibrium is threatened.’
Fans of the series will be eagerly awaiting this latest chapter, and if you know nothing about it, you can find Heartstopper volumes 1-4 in The Book Room, but even The Telegraph admits these books have something special about them:
‘Contrary to the books’ dramatic title, much of the charm of the stories lies in their gentle pace. In a crowded market, Young Adult fiction often tries to seduce us with helter-skelter plots, but here it’s the slow suspense of the relationship, and the constant churn of emotion, that proves so absorbing.’
You can buy HEARTSTOPPER VOLUME 5 here.
Next up, a bit of romance, and why not? THE PORCELAIN MAKER by screenwriter Sarah Freethy got a brilliant review in The Sunday Times and sounds like the perfect bit of escapism — might we see this made into a drama some time soon?
Told via a dual narrative, the novel weaves together the story of Max and Bettina who fall in love as art students in the 1920s Berlin but are torn apart when Max is arrested and sent to one of Hitler’s concentration camp. He is able to avoid the worst horrors thanks to his artistic talents and works as a modeller in Himmler’s porcelain factory. Bettina meanwhile, giving up hope of her love returning to her enters a marriage of convenience.
In a parallel narrative set in the 1990s, Bettina’s daughter has lost contact with her German roots and sets off on a journey to rediscover them as well as her mother’s secret past.
‘Fiction set in Nazi Germany demands sensitivity and sympathetic understanding,’ wrote Nick Renninson reviewing in The Sunday Times. ‘It is all too easy to appear crass or simplistic, but Freethy rises to the challenges that she sets herself.’
See what I mean about it being made into a drama? You can buy THE PORCELAIN MAKER here.
The Guardian’s Saturday magazine had a round-up of the best books of the year and it featured one I’ve been meaning to mention to you for a while, not least because it won the Pulitzer Prize. New York writer Hua Hsu’s STAY TRUE is a coming of age book which takes you deep into the story of him growing with and later losing his friend.
The Guardian describes it as ‘a powerful and beautifully written meditation on guilt, memory and male friendship as the author reflects on the death of his “flagrantly handsome” college friend, Ken, who was murdered in 1998 after leaving a house party.’
It is so evocative of being a teenager in the nineties, having no responsibility and the world at your feet. It is completely absorbing.
Right, that’s your lot today as I’ve got to get to panto this afternoon… oh yes I have!
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Also, don’t forget you can order any book at The Book Room, just click here.