Books of the day, nos. 2 and 3

   

    As I said over on the other blog (where you will find Book of the Day No. 1), I've been looking at some of the books due to be published early next year - and more on them soon - and I've chosen one to put in the spotlight here today, On Writing by A.L. Kennedy:

"After six novels, five story collections and two books of non-fiction, and countless international prizes, A.L. Kennedy certainly has the authority to talk about the craft of writing books – it’s just a wonder she’s found the time. These are missives from the authorial front line – urgent and vivid, full of the excitement, fury and frustration of trying to make thousands of words into a publishable book. At the core of On Writing is the hugely popular blog that Kennedy writes for The Guardian – and we follow her during a three-year period when she finished one collection of stories and started another, and wrote a novel in between. Readers and aspiring writers will have almost everything they need to know about the complexities of researching, writing and publishing fiction, but they will be receiving this wisdom conversationally, from one of the funniest and most alert of our contemporary authors.

Alongside the blogs are brilliant essays on character, voice, writers’ workshops and writers’ health and the book ends with the transcript of Kennedy’s celebrated one-person show about writing and language that she has performed round the world to huge acclaim. Read together, all these pieces add up to the most intimate master-class imaginable from one of the finest – and most humane – writers in our language."

                                                  ~~~~~

   

    From writing to reading, and the good news today is that Linda Gillard's very popular novel House of Silence (click on the title for my post on it) is now available as a paperback, having previously been published in e-book form; US readers will find it here. The book was one of Amazon UK's "Best of 2011", and given its style and content - it's best described as "a country house mystery ... a family drama ... a gothic romantic comedy" - I'm not at all surprised at its success. I'm quoted on the back cover saying "it's one of those books you'll put everything on hold for", and I certainly found it compulsive reading.

Comments

[Joan Kyler]

Thanks for the link for U.S. readers. I just bought the Kindle edition of House of Silence at a bargain price. We have the long Thanksgiving weekend coming up tomorrow and I'm looking forward to settling in with it.

[Cornflower]

I hope you'll enjoy it very much, Joan.