Beat the Reaper: A Novel by Josh Bazell – Super quick read, set in NYC which gives me the warm fuzzies when it’s done well ever since I’ve moved away, involves mafia and medicine with awesome  footnotes. A great first novel – can’t wait for the next one.

The 19th Wife by David Ebershoff – Story set amid polygamy in the US, intense to read.

Juliet, Naked: A Novel by Nick Hornby – Nick Hornby back to writing about relationships and fandom – yay!

The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova – Vampire novel for bibliophiles with action taking place in beautiful libraries.

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer, Annie Barrows – Tells the story of WWII occupation of Guernsey via letters. Each character has a unique voice – it works and also involves love of books.

Ten Storey Love Song: a Novel by Richard Milward – Set in the north east of England, saw him do a reading from this and you can too. (Not the reading I was at but enjoy!)

I’ve also included Her Fearful Symmetry: a Novel by Audrey Niffenegger. I haven’t read it yet. It is waiting on my bookshelf. I am including it based on how much I loved The Time Traveller’s Wife.

Stuff White People Like

Someone left a newspaper on the train I took this morning (the Daily Mail) and I had a flip through it and came across this article…the content seemed familiar. The end of the article points out that Stuff White People Like: The Definitive Guide to the Unique Taste of Millions is now available in the UK.

This is a book based on the popular website.

Interesting difference is it talks about “middle class people” instead of White people. Class as opposed to race.

Possibly because over 90% of the UK population is White (according to the 2001 census) vs. 74% in the US (according to 2006 American Community Survey)…people just aren’t faced with race as an issue so much outside of London.

According to the 2001 census 45% of all ethnic minority people live in the London area, where they form nearly one-third of the population (29%).

The only reason I knew these stats exist is from studying random statistics for the Life in the UK test.

I passed by the way  : )

Project 3 on kickstarter.

Second project backed on Kickstarter. Check it out for the updates including great short stories and great posts about the process of writing it and additional projects that came out of this work.

Twilight-style Wuthering Heights Book

Saw this at Tesco tonight. Wuthering Heights being marketed to teens on the basis that their fave fictional characters like the book.

The red seal/sticker/stamp reads “Bella & Edward’s Favourite Book” and the cover design is similar to the Twilight series covers.

Marketing reading as sexy is good. Ugly visions of cynical marketers trying to make a few bucks off the back catalog also maybe not bad if it allows them to keep publishing in tough economic times.

I have one question – Is this actually working?

Buy it on amazon.co.uk if you want it to match your set of Twilight books from here »