Books of the month for July

David Leavitt – Two Hotel Francforts

General Fiction: David Leavitt – Two Hotel Francforts

It is the summer of 1940, and Lisbon, Portugal, is the only neutral port left in Europe—a city filled with spies, crowned heads, and refugees of every nationality, tipping back absinthe to while away the time until their escape. Awaiting safe passage to New York on the SS Manhattan, two couples meet: Pete and Julia Winters, expatriate Americans fleeing their sedate life in Paris; and Edward and Iris Freleng, sophisticated, independently wealthy, bohemian, and beset by the social and sexual anxieties of their class. As Portugal’s neutrality, and the world’s future, hang in the balance, the hidden threads in the lives of these four characters—Julia’s status as a Jew, Pete and Edward’s improbable affair, Iris’s increasingly desperate efforts to save her tenuous marriage—begin to come loose. This journey will change their lives irrevocably, as Europe sinks into war.

Ian Sansom – The Norfolk Mystery

British Crime: Ian Sansom – The Norfolk Mystery

Love Miss Marple? Adore Holmes and Watson? Professor Morley's guide to Norfolk is a story of bygone England; quaint villages, eccentric locals - and murder! It is 1937 and disillusioned Spanish Civil War veteran Stephen Sefton is stony broke. So when he sees a mysterious advertisement for a job where 'intelligence is essential', he applies. Thus begins Sefton's association with Professor Swanton Morley, an omnivorous intellect.A must-read for fans of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Agatha Christie, every county is a crime scene, and with 39 counties in store there'll be plenty of murder, mystery and mayhem to confound and entertain you for years to come.

C. J. Box – The Highway

Tough Crime: C. J. Box – The Highway

When two sisters set out across a remote stretch of Montana road to visit their friend, little do they know it will be the last time anyone might ever hear from them again. The girls—and their car—simply vanish.  Former police investigator Cody Hoyt has just lost his job and has fallen off the wagon after a long stretch of sobriety.  Convinced by his son and his former rookie partner, Cassie Dewell, he begins the drive south to the girls’ last known location.  As Cody makes his way to the lonely stretch of Montana highway where they went missing, Cassie discovers that Gracie and Danielle Sullivan aren’t the first girls who have disappeared in this area.  This majestic landscape is the hunting ground for a killer whose viciousness is outmatched only by his intelligence.

Ben Bova – New Earth

Science Fiction: Ben Bova – New Earth

The entire world is thrilled by the discovery of a new Earthlike planet. Advance imaging shows that the planet has oceans of liquid water and a breathable oxygen-rich atmosphere. Eager to gain more information, a human exploration team is soon dispatched to explore the planet, now nicknamed New Earth.

All of the explorers understand that they are essentially on a one-way mission. The trip takes eighty years each way, so even if they are able to get back to Earth, nearly 200 years will have elapsed. They will have aged only a dozen years thanks to cryonic suspension, but their friends and family will be gone and the very society that they once knew will...

J. Kathleen Cheney – Golden City

Fantasy: J. Kathleen Cheney – Golden City

For two years, Oriana Paredes has been a spy among the social elite of the Golden City, reporting back to her people, the sereia, sea folk banned from the city’s shores….

When her employer and only confidante decides to elope, Oriana agrees to accompany her to Paris. But before they can depart, the two women are abducted and left to drown. Trapped beneath the waves, Oriana survives because of her heritage, but she is forced to watch her only friend die. Vowing vengeance, Oriana crosses paths with Duilio Ferreira—a police consultant who has been investigating the disappearance of a string of servants from the city’s wealthiest homes. Duilio also has a secret: He is a seer and his gifts have led him to Oriana. Bound by their secrets, not trusting each other completely yet having no choice but to work together, Oriana and Duilio must expose a twisted plot of magic so dark that it could cause the very fabric of history to come undone….

Chloe Neill – Some Girls Bite (Chicagoland Vampires #1)

Paranormal/Urban Fantasy: Chloe Neill – Some Girls Bite (Chicagoland Vampires #1)

They killed me. They healed me. They changed me.

Sure, the life of a graduate student wasn’t exactly glamorous, but it was Merit’s. She was doing fine until a rogue vampire attacked her. But he only got a sip before he was scared away by another bloodsucker–and this one decided the best way to save her life was to make her the walking undead. Turns out her savior was the master vampire of Cadogan House. Now she’s traded sweating over her thesis for learning to fit in at a Hyde Park mansion full of vamps loyal to Ethan Sullivan. Of course, as a tall, green-eyed, four-hundred- year-old vampire, he has centuries’ worth of charm, but unfortunately he expects her gratitude–and servitude. But an inconvenient sunlight allergy and Ethan’s attitude are the least of her concerns. Someone?s still out to get her. Her initiation into Chicago’s nightlife may be the first skirmish in a war–and there will be blood.

Charlotte Perkins Gilman – Herland & Selected Stories

Classic of the Month: Charlotte Perkins Gilman – Herland & Selected Stories

Written in 1915, this text is about three male explorers and the utopian female society they stumble upon. This is a community where war, famine and other "man-made" disasters do not exist.

Walter Dean Myers – Darius & Twig

Teen reading: Walter Dean Myers – Darius & Twig

Darius and Twig are an unlikely pair: Darius is a writer whose only escape is his alter ego, a peregrine falcon named Fury, and Twig is a middle-distance runner striving for athletic success. But they are drawn together in the struggle to overcome the obstacles that life in Harlem throws at them. The two friends must face down bullies, an abusive uncle, and the idea that they'll be stuck in the same place forever.

Book launch - The Year in Stockholm

Book launch The Year in Stockholm

In his new book, The Year in Stockholm, the author Kim Loughran shows us Stockholm in a new and different way. Through the four seasons we get to know the city and the people who live here. He tells us about the beauty of the islands that it is built upon and the surrounding water. But he also tells us about the inhabitants and their daily life and curious habits.

With an abundance of beautiful photos this is the perfect book for anyone interested in Stockholm.

Kim Loughran was born in Australia. Since then he has lived in many countries and he is now a Swedish citizen. His previous book The Year in Sweden has been, and still is, a great success.
 
Meet Kim Loughran Tuesday 24 June from 17.00 at The English Bookshop, Lilla Nygatan 11, Gamla Stan

Welcome!

Happy Midsummer!

Glad midsommar

The bookshops in Uppsala and Stockholm are closed for midsummer, Friday 20th–Sunday 22nd. Enjoy the holiday!

Saturday Sidewalk Supersale!

UPPSALA Tomorrow morning, Saturday June 14, on the sidewalk in front of our little corner shop your minds will be blown (but not your wallets)!!!

We're chucking out loads and loads of really good titles we need to get rid of (shop's a little TOO charmingly cluttered of late) - and (and I'm going to shout now) THE PRICES ARE AMAZING!

Any 1 book for 20 kronor. (Dirt cheap, I know but wait...)
Any 4 books for 50 kronor. (Wow! That's cheap, but hold on... )
Any 10 books for 100 kronor. (Say what????)

Yes - sale is on Saturday only, and while stocks last and we still have strength.

Why does it start at 10:05? Well - that's because we've drawn 4 lucky schools among our favourites and they get to pick 20 free books each for their school libraries starting 10:00. So, a slight head start.

Because we LOVE school libraries and always do what we can to support them.

SO - go home and sleep now and set your alarms bright and early.
Bring a little money and a trolley.

Saturday Sidewalk Supersale 20140614, Uppsala English Bookshop

Summer Evening Poetry

Poetry on a Summer Evening

Welcome to an evening with poetry at The English Bookshop!

Helene Polite will talk about and read from the poetry of Allen Polite and Maketa Smith-Groves will read from her collection Red Hot on a Silver Note.

Snacks and refreshments will be served. 

Event is open to everyone. No RSVP required.

Stockholm Tuesday June 10 at 19.00
Uppsala Tuesday June 17 at 19.00

Click Read more to... read more about the poets.

Books of the month for June

Kevin Kwan – Crazy Rich Asians

General Fiction: Kevin Kwan – Crazy Rich Asians
Uproarious, addictive, and filled with jaw-dropping opulence, Crazy Rich Asians is an insider's look at the Asian jet set; a perfect depiction of the clash between old money and new money - and a fabulous novel about what it means to be young, in love, and gloriously, crazily rich.

Andrew Martin – Night Train to Jamalpur

British Crime: Andrew Martin – Night Train to Jamalpur
Jamalpur is our book of the month for June. India, 1923. On the broiling Night Mail from Calcutta to Jamalpur, a man is shot dead in a first class compartment. Detective Inspector Jim Stringer was sleeping in the next compartment along. Was he the intended target?

Greg Iles – Natchez Burning

Tough Crime: Greg Iles – Natchez Burning
Growing up in the rural Southern hamlet of Natchez, Mississippi, Penn Cage learned everything he knows about honor and duty from his father, Tom Cage. But now the beloved family doctor and pillar of the community is accused of murdering Violet Turner, the beautiful nurse with whom he worked in the dark days of the early 1960s. A fighter who has always stood for justice, Penn is determined to save his father, even though Tom, stubbornly evoking doctor-patient privilege, refuses to speak up in his own defense.

Rich in Southern atmosphere and electrifying plot turns, Natchez Burning marks the brilliant return of a genuine American master of suspense. Tense and disturbing, it is the most explosive, exciting, sexy, and ambitious story Greg Iles has written yet.

John Barnes – Directive 51

Science Fiction: John Barnes – Directive 51
Part philosophic discussion, part international terrorist faction, and part artists’ movement, “Daybreak” consists of a group of diverse people with radical ideas who are united in their desire to take down modern civilization. And when they strike, the government has no choice but to implement its emergency contingency program: Directive 51.

Graham Edwards – Talus and the Frozen King

Fantasy: Graham Edwards – Talus and the Frozen King
A dead warrior king frozen in winter ice. Six grieving sons, each with his own reason to kill. Two weary travellers caught up in a web of suspicion and deceit.

In a time before our own, wandering bard Talus and his companion Bran journey to the island realm of Creyak, where the king has been murdered.

Creyak is a place of secrets and spirits, mystery and myth. It will take a clever man indeed to unravel the truth. The kind of man this ancient world has not seen before.

Richelle Mead – Gameboard of the Gods (Age of X #1)

Paranormal/Urban Fantasy: Richelle Mead – Gameboard of the Gods (Age of X #1)
The truth is, when you banish the gods from the world, they eventually come back – with a vengeance.

In a futuristic world nearly destroyed by religious extremists, Justin March is a former investigator of religious groups who was sent into exile after a failed job, a fate that has left the brilliant servitor bitter and free to indulge his addictive personality.  Suddenly, Justin is sent home to the Republic of United North America (RUNA) with a peculiar assignment – to solve a string of ritualistic murders steeped in seemingly unexplainable phenomena.

George Eliot – Romola

Classic of the Month: George Eliot – Romola
There is no book of mine about which I more thoroughly feel that I swear by every sentence as having been written with my best blood'

Wrote George Eliot of Romola, the novel which argues her most profound and utopian vision of the position of women. Romola's patient subservience to her scholar-father Bardo, her unhappy marriage to supple and treacherous Tito, and her passionate intellectual and spiritual awakening take place in Renaissance Florence which, like Victorian Britain, was caught up in a period of ferment and transition.

Romola appeared in 1862-3 to high praise by Victorians from Tennyson and Trollope to Henry James, and discerning modern readers will recognize it as George Eliot's first mature masterpiece. In her introduction to this new edition, Dorothea Barrett explores the issues of gender and learning, desire and scholarship, and the interweaving of history and fiction which she identifies at the centre of the novel.

E. Lockhart – We Were Liars

Teen reading: E. Lockhart – We Were Liars
We are the Liars. We are beautiful, privileged and live a life of carefree luxury.We are cracked and broken. A story of love and romance. A tale of tragedy. Which are lies? Which is truth?

Storytelling for Children - Saturday 7 June

Stan loves spending the day with Gran. She makes him pancakes, plays football and reads stories.
So it’s a disaster when one day her front-door key gets lost.
How does Stan save the day?

Listen to the whole intriguing story at 11 o’clock on 7th June at the English Bookshop in Uppsala!

Stan and his Gran by Sarah Garland

Storytelling for Children at The English Bookshop in Uppsala, Stockholm

Helena’s 2014 summer reading list (the tentative version)

in

So what if the temperatures are a bit lower than what you'd like for this time of the year? So what if the shelves are a-bursting with books you haven't found the time to read (yet - always yet - hope eternally does spring after all!)? I say it is high time to start planning that favourite activity I like to call "summer reading". Which is basically reading, which is when you think about it really as everyday as, say, brushing your teeth, only way more fun.

Storytelling for Children - Saturday 24 May

Mr Pod and Mr Piccalilli both have cats and like cake. And they live in the same block of flats. But they aren’t friends. Yet.
What will bring them together?

Find out at 11 o’clock on 24th May at the English Bookshop in Uppsala!

Mr Pod and Mr Piccalilli by Penny Dolan and Nick Sharratt

Storytelling for Children at The English Bookshop in Uppsala, Stockholm

Books of the month for May

Alice Nutting – Tampa General Fiction: Alice Nutting – Tampa
Celeste Price is an eighth-grade English teacher in suburban Tampa. She is attractive. She drives a red Corvette. Her husband, Ford, is rich, square-jawed and devoted to her. But Celeste has a secret. She has a singular sexual obsession - fourteen-year-old boys. It is a craving she pursues with sociopathic meticulousness and forethought.
Shaw William – A Song From Dead Lips British Crime: Shaw William – A Song From Dead Lips
A crime thriller that reveals gritty sixties London in all its power and prejudice. The first in a trilogy featuring DS Breen and WPC Tozer, set against a clashing backdrop of sixties idealism and a corrupted CID on the brink of exposure.
Aric Davis – Nickel Plated

Tough Crime: Aric Davis – Nickel Plated
Nickel lives by his wits on the streets, blackmailing pedophiles and selling marijuana, but when a young girl, Arrow, needs help finding her runaway sister, Nickel's investigation leads to the dark world of child traffickers.

Weston Ochse – Grunt Life (Task Force Ombra)

Science Fiction: Weston Ochse – Grunt Life (Task Force Ombra)
For years, their spies have been coming to Earth, mapping our cities, learning our weaknesses, leaving tragedy in their wake. Our governments knew, but they did nothing—the prospect was too awful, the costs too high—and now, the horrifying and utterly alien Cray are invading, laying waste to our cities. The human race is a heartbeat away from extinction.

That is, unless Mason, and the other men and women of Task Force OMBRA, can do anything about it.

This is a time for heroes. For killers. For Grunts.

Paul Kearney – Different Kingdom

Fantasy: Gaie Sebold – Shanghai Sparrow
Shanghai Sparrow is a Far Eastern steampunk tale of espionage, distant empires and thrilling exploits, with a dynamic heroine.

Eveline Duchen is a thief and con-artist, surviving day by day on the streets of London, where the glittering spires of progress rise on the straining backs of the poor and disenfranchised. Where the Folk, the otherworldly children of fairy tales and legends, have all but withdrawn from the smoke of the furnaces and the clamour of iron.

Caught in an act of deception by the implacable Mr Holmforth, Evvie is offered a stark choice: transportation to the colonies, or an education – and utter commitment to Her Majesty’s Service – at Miss Cairngrim’s harsh school for female spies.

Kimberly Frost – Slightly Spellbound Paranormal/Urban Fantasy: Kimberly Frost – Slightly Spellbound
With two kinds of magick at odds inside her and two gorgeous men vying for her attention, Tammy Jo Trask is used to being pulled in opposite directions. But in the latest Southern Witch novel she’ll have to make some serious decisions—like how she intends to stay alive.

Jane Austen – Persuasion

Classic of the Month: P. G. Wodehouse – The Inimitable Jeeves
A classic collection of linked stories featuring some of the funniest episodes in the life of Bertie Wooster, gentleman, and Jeeves, his gentleman's gentleman - in which Bertie's terrifying Aunt Agatha stalks the pages, seeking whom she may devour, while Bertie's friend Bingo Little falls in love with seven different girls in succession.

Sarah Mlynowski – Don't Even Think About It Teen reading: Sarah Mlynowski – Don't Even Think About It
When 10B get their flu vaccines, they also get a side effect: they become telepathic. But hearing the thoughts of everyone around them isn't always much fun!