Fresher’s Week is over but the deadline pressure hopefully hasn’t kicked in yet – that’s right, it’s the perfect time to get stuck in to September’s new releases! Our New Releases Reporter, Lucy Porter, gives us the lowdown on the latest literary happenings..
The Husband’s Secret by Liane Moriarty had me hooked from the very beginning (and not just because I’m a nosey soul who wanted to find out what the secret was – believe me, you’re kept waiting long enough). Although some brand it as chick lit, for me the writing is far too honest and the characters too rough and real for it to be shelved in this genre. That is to say: men and women, read this book. It touches on themes and events that affect us all (family, trust, betrayal, loss) through a beautifully detailed examination of a tangle of lives that lies hidden from all those involved. And all of this borne from one secret, hidden in a dusty letter in an attic. Read it quickly before term kicks off.
For those of you still pining over your travelling adventures this summer, Sir Patrick Leigh Fermor’s editors have just released The Broken Road, the third volume recounting his legendary walk from Holland to Costantinople. Whilst this, the final book, was never actually completed during the author’s life, it was in fact drafted long before the others were ever conceived. A fine job has been done of working together the drafts so that barely a string of words has been constructed since the author’s death. Allow yourself to become immersed in in Fermor’s writing which takes as many twists and turns as the author’s original journey. A magnificent and poignant ending to the trilogy.
Alternatively, perhaps it’s your stomach that’s entering the new term with little enthusiasm after a summer of home cooked food. If pasta and pesto is your usual calling then pick up a copy of Gino D’Acampo’s Italian Escape, the cookbook to accompany the ITV series. This is perfect for any foody Italophiles as he combines rich recipes with history and culture as well as sections explaining what those ingredients hiding behind Italian names really are. Whilst the recipes perhaps aren’t going to be making a regular appearance on your student budget, they are good for the occasional treat when you have a bit more time/money on your hands and in the meantime, there’s a wealth of beautiful pictures to pore over until you do.
Speaking of food, The Great British Bake Off has catapulted Mary Berry from food writer to household name and this month she releases her autobiography Recipe for Life. This book really is perfect for anyone who secretly wishes that Berry was their grandma as reading it makes you feel as though she’s recounting her tales from times gone by for you personally. It’s lovely to become absorbed in the atmosphere of yesteryear which oozes from the first part of the book as well as finding out about the highs and lows in the life of a well-loved British treasure.
On the other hand, a book that I approached with less than favourable preconceptions was The Bone Season by Samantha Shannon (why so sceptical? Pure and utter jealousy of the Oxford grad who penned the first of this coming-soon-to-a-cinema-near-you series when she was still a teenager). But even someone as green with envy as I cannot deny that it is absolutely fantastically gripping and oh my goodness I want to read more. Set in Scion London in a parallel existence of the future, the plot follows the gritty existence of those with a natural gift that means they commit treason just from staying alive. It is instantly apparent why this has been chosen for film adaptation; you can practically hear the first words being spoken in a melancholy opening monologue and the excellent characterisation together with a plot that packs one hell of a punch means that we are probably looking at the next Hunger Games or even the next Harry Potter. Jealous indeed.
Lucy Porter, New Releases Reporter
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