You’ll notice over the next few weeks that we have revamped our review format to bring you even more recommendations from the Mr B’s team. This week, we present Dust Jackets – backlist books read and loved by our booksellers!
What did Ed say was better than James Bond? What did Laura GM call a ‘perverted and fun New York tale’? Who does Tom think is as good as Cormac McCarthy? Read on to find out all this and much more…
Soffi, our resident expert in all things weird and dystopian, has been reading The Black Cloud by Fred Hoyle, a hard sci-fi classic from 1957, which was recommended by a Mr B’s customer. Hoyle was a renowned British astronomer who also turned his hand to fiction, and his most successful novel sees a world-ending black cloud hurtle towards Earth, while astronomers and politicians squabble about how to react on the ground. “A darkly satirical and very surprising slice of classic SF”, says Soffi. Buy here!
Non-fiction Lead Sam allowed himself to delve into some fiction on his recent holiday, devouring Blake Crouch’s Recursion. Crouch is known for his high concept SF-thrillers, and Recursion is no different, pairing a research scientist and a New York detective together to save the world from a very strange epidemic. Sam calls it “mind-bending, mind-expanding – it’s like reading the Christopher Nolan film you always dreamed of.” Buy here!
Mr B’s veteran Ed has found something he says is “better than any James Bond novel. There are more arses kicked and far less people offended.” Modesty Blaise began life as a comic strip character before author Peter O’Donnell fleshed her story out for 11 novels and numerous short stories. The first book sees our heroin recruited by British Intelligence to foil a plot to sabotage a lucrative shipment to the Middle East. Later turned into an iconic movie starring Monica Vitti as Modesty, this is a great read for classic spy fans. Buy here!
Lottie has been in her absolute element exploring the grisly world of Victorian medicine with Lindsey Fitzharris’s The Butchering Art. This informative and often bloody book is a memoir of the life of Joseph Lister, the pioneering surgeon who accelerated the use of antiseptic in surgical procedures in 19th century Britain. Lottie says: “It’s a visceral and fascinating blend of memoir, medical history and cultural insight.” Buy here!
Laura GM has been enjoying the sunshine in the company of her first Truman Capote novel, Summer Crossing. Capote began work on the novel while the world was at war in 1943 but, despite coming back to it several times, never published it in his lifetime. It was later found among his papers and the manuscript published in 2005. Concerning one summer in the life of wealthy 17-year-old Grady, it sees this young woman encourage her parents to go away for a while so she can start a whirlwind affair with a valet. A “fun and perverted New York tale”, say Laura. Buy here!
Mr B has recently re-found the work of JG Ballard and convinced Rohan to give Empire of the Sun a go – which was a tremendous recommendation! Based on Ballard’s life growing up in Shanghai during the Japanese occupation of large parts of China. Rohan calls it an “oddball portrayal of war and occupation from a child’s point of view, filled with Huckleberry Finn-style misadventures.” Buy here!
Finally, I have just read JM Coetzee‘s masterful, multi-award-winning 1980 novel, Waiting for the Barbarians. Taking place in an unknown past or future, it is a dark and unremitting story of life in a frontier town. A war is brewing between the occupying forces and the barbarians, but not everything is so black and white for the Magistrate – but the risks of a differing point of view in this harsh and unforgiving place are severe. I read a few Coetzee novels a decade or so ago and thought they were superb – it was a delight to return to him with this strange and terrible western that is the equal of anything Cormac McCarthy produced. Buy here!
If you got this far, thanks for reading! Tom