Stateside fans of Brit Lit, rejoice: Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman and the not-yet-published The Chalk Man by CJ Tudor are among Book of the Month’s December selections.
And on that note, I wrote this post on Book Riot about 3 British books to look out for in the US this month.
If you’d like my curated list of new books to land in your inbox every 1st of the month, head to the Patreon page for details.
Penelope Lively, author of The Photograph, discusses her debt to roasted grasshopper with ladybird sauce and the books that made her.
Ever Dundas’ “captivating” novel Goblin has won the Saltire Society First Book of the Year Award.
Christopher Bollen has won the 25th annual Literary Review Bad Sex in Fiction Award for The Destroyers. And if you need cheering up, head over to The Literary Review’s Twitter feed for saucy and ridiculous quotes from previous years’ entries.
It’s looking like the Christmas Number One will belong to either Jamie Oliver or David Walliams.
Penelope Fitzgerald’s papers have been acquired by the British Library.
Jessie Burton’s The Miniaturist is among the books that staff at The Pool are reading this week.
Best of 2017
Tasty spices from India, long-forgotten recipes from France, and Turkish delight from Narnia are among the recipes in the best food books of 2017, according to the Guardian.
The Guardian also has a list of best 2017 books on drink, as well as timeless list of best drinking bouts in fiction.
Also in the Guardian: best music books of the year.
Need to fill a stocking this Christmas? This list will help.
The Financial Times has the best economics books.
Love & Fame, The Sparsholt Affair, and The Lie of the Land are among the FT’s picks for best 2017 fiction.
Podcasts
R J Palacio’s award-winning book, Wonder, about a young boy with facial differences, has just been made into a film starring Julia Roberts, Owen Wilson and Jacob Tremblay. Front Row reviews.
Bonnets at Dawn discuss the final chapters of North and South.
A Tale of Two Booksellers chat with Lauren James, author most recently of The Loneliest Girl in the Universe.
