Some recent arrivals

 

     After all your glowing recommendations of Alan Garner's work, how could I not buy The Owl Service? "In a secluded Welsh valley ringed by wild mountains, the characters and quarrels of three young people unfold as a tragic legend recurs..." There's a postscript by the author which I haven't read for fear it gives something away, but I couldn't help notice its intriguing beginning: "The Owl Service is a kind of ghost story, in real life as well as on the page. Right from the start things happened that had not happened with earlier books." Interesting.

     

     I wasn't aware that Steve Martin was a novelist, but he is, and I have his latest book An Object of Beauty set in the world of fine art in New York - and it includes pictures. Here's what Joyce Carol Oates says of it: "At first you think that An Object of Beauty will be a romantic comedy, starring a strong-willed, very smart and very ruthless heroine-adventuress ...; then, as its irresistibly rendered scenes unfold, you realise that you are experiencing, from the most intimate of perspectives, the quasi-tragic history of an era."

     

     Next, a book the like of which does not usually figure here but Real Heroes: Courage Under Fire benefits the charity Help for Heroes (£1 per copy sold). More than that, it tells the stories of the men and women of the armed forces, the courage they display under exceptional circumstances and the conditions they endure on a daily basis just to do their jobs - it makes sobering but inspirational reading. Add this to your "Christmas presents for the men and the boys" list, and prepare to be moved if you read it yourself.

Comments

[Dark Puss]

I am sure you will like the Owl Service; you here being in the plural I anticipate.

[Carole]

I read this as a child, and still feel uneasy when I think about it - although I can't actually remember the story!