Trashionista

Orange Prize 2008 shortlist

There are three debut novels on the Orange Broadband Prize for Fiction shortlist. Lullabies For Little Criminals by Heather O'Neill, The Outcast by Sadie Jones and Lottery by Patricia Wood.

Also on the list are long-time author Rose Tremain with The Road Home and Nancy Huston, a Canadian writer who writes in both French and English, with Fault Lines and Charlotte Mendelson's When We Were Bad.

Related posts: Orange Prize 2008 longlist | Book Video Awards 2008

Galaxy British Book Awards 2008

Lovely JK Rowling has been awarded an outstanding achievement prize at the Galaxy British Book Awards.

Also honoured were Ian McEwan (I bet he loved getting one alongside JK!), Khaled Hosseini and Ewan McGregor. Gordon Brown praised Rowling for her charity work and for books that had "the whole country reading".

I was also rather pleased that Katie Price's My Pony Care Book lost out the children's book of the year to Francesca Simon's Horrid Henry (a staple in our house) and the Abominable Snowman.

[Via BBC]

Related posts: Chocolate and books - delicious! | Book Video Awards

Orange Prize 2008 longlist

The Orange Prize is awarded for excellence in fiction by women and the longlist for 2008 has just been announced. I was excited to see a blast from my past - Stella Duffy - there. I read her early Saz Martin noir crime thrillers and then 1998 and 1999's Eating Cake and Singling Out The Couples (twisted, ironic tales of the heart) but had kind of lost track of her...

In fact, I haven't read a single title from the list. Not even the fabulously titled  The Voluptuous Delights of Peanut Butter and Jam. Have you? (Head over the cut for the list in full).

Tessa Hadley, The Master Bedroom
Nancy Huston, Fault Lines
Gail Jones, Sorry
Sadie Jones, The Outcast
Lauren Liebenberg, The Voluptuous Delights of Peanut Butter and Jam
Charlotte Mendelson, When We Were Bad
Deborah Moggach, In The Dark
Anita Nair, Mistress
Heather O'Neill, Lullabies for Little Criminals
Elif Shafak, The Bastard of Istanbul
Dalia Sofer, The Septembers of Shiraz
Scarlett Thomas, The End of Mr Y
Carol Topolski, Monster Love
Rose Tremain, The Road Home
Patricia Wood, Lottery

Related posts: The Orange Prize for the best book club | Orange Broadband new writers

The Best of the Booker prize

A new, one-off prize has been announced to celebrate forty years of The Booker prize. Called The Best of the Booker Award, it will honour the best overall novel from the previous winners.

The public will be asked to choose from a shortlist of six books (created by a judging panel). The bookies have already picked Yann Martel's Life Of Pi as favourite to win.

Related posts: Booker Prize longlist | Carnegie Medal winners

Freya North wins Romantic Novel of the Year

Freya North's Pillow Talk has beaten the competition to win this year's Romantic Novel of the Year.

Pillow Talk is the only one of the shortlisted books we'd reviewed when the shortlist was announced ... coincidence or the power of Trashionista? You decide? (Yeah, coincidence.)

Since I'm announcing winners, I might as well announce the winner of the competition to win all six shortlisted books ... *drumroll* ... Karen Clarke of Great Missenden, Buckinghamshire.

Congratulations, Freya and Karen!

BOOK REVIEW: Young Wives' Tales

Young Wives' Tales has been shortlisted for the Romantic Novel of the Year 2008 (there's still time to enter our fabulous giveaway for the entire shortlist, by the way) and is Adele Parks' seventh novel.

It's also a follow-on from Adele's first novel, Playing Away, catching up with the main characters a few years later. I haven't actually read any Parks before, and, I have to admit I will pick up her next book with some trepidation...

It's not that I didn't race through the story, happy to pick up the book each time after I'd left it, and it wasn't that the writing wasn't up to scratch.

Unfortunately, it was that rather important element in a character-driven plot. The people. I found them all fairly objectionable.

The story focuses on, and is told from the different viewpoints of Lucy (the mistress who became the wife), Rose (the ex-wife and dutiful mother to twin boys) and John (divorcee lad on permanent 'totty alert').

Lucy is vile. Selfish, bitchy, and dissatisfied with her (rather shiny and plentiful) lot, while John is almost a caricature of a lad-about-town commitment-phobe bloke. Both have epiphanies towards the end of the book, but by then, I had developed such a disliking for them that I didn't really believe they could change that drastically.

Rose, the ex-wife, was probably supposed to be more sympathetic character, but I found her rather sanctimonious. Her twin boys were great, though, as was her best friend, Connie, and love interest, Craig.

I realise that you don't have to have likeable characters to write a good book, and Young Wives' Tales certainly isn't a bad one. It's just not exactly my cup of tea.

Rating: 3/5

Like this? Try: Getting Rid of Matthew by Jane Fallon

New prize for Scottish fiction

Good news for Scottish writers; there's a brand new national prize for Scottish fiction.

The Clare Maclean Prize for Scottish Fiction is dedicated to the memory of Professor Mike Gonzalez of the Universtiy of Glasgow. It offers a top prize of £3000 for the best published book of the year.

Carry on over the cut for the authors in with a chance...

In the running are:
Old Men in Love by Alisdair Gray
Girl Meets Boy by Ali Smith
Gold by Dan Rhodes
The Steep Approach to Garbadale by Iain Banks
The Devil's Footprints by John Burnside
Day by AL Kennedy

The winner will be announced on 15th March at the Aye Write! festival in Glasgow.

Related posts: Chick Lit at the Aye Write festival | Prize Winners archives

BOOK NEWS: Late Nights on Air by Elizabeth Hay

Elizabeth Hay's Late Nights on Air, which details the loves and rivalries of a cast of eccentric characters at a small radio station in Yellowknife, near Canada's Arctic, has won the 2007 Scotiabank Giller Prize, Canada's most lucrative and prestigious prize for fiction. [via Booktrade.info]

I haven't read a huge amount of Canadian fiction - just Margaret Atwood, Jennifer McCartney's Afloat and Mary Lawson's Crow Lake, in fact - but Late Nights on Air sounds wonderful, so it's going on my list.

Related: Late Night Talking by Leslie Schnur

Keira Knightley 'too pretty' for Atonement?

Ceri Radford of The Telegraph's books blog can't decide if she's looking forward to the adaptation of Ian McEwan's World War Two-set modern classic Atonement or not. On the one hand, she loves a period drama, on the other hand... there's Keira Knightley. That alone would put me off (me-ow!) but Radford's specific problem is that the pouty one is "too pretty"  for Cecilia, who is described in the book as "plain".

Does it matter that actresses look like the characters they're playing, or is a little artistic licence understandable - we are talking about Hollywood after all!

What do you think?

Booker Prize longlist announced

No sooner do I mention the Booker Prize in passing than longlist is announced for the British literary establishment's biggest prize. Nothing that I've read on there (which to be honest, doesn't make a change) but at least there are a few women nominated...

On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan is the bookies favourite to win but, as we've said before, that doesn't always mean much!

The winner, announced in October, will bag a healthy £50,000. (And, if they're lucky, increased sales too.)

Carry on over the cut for the full list.

The Booker Longlist:

Darkmans by Nicola Barker

Self Help by Edward Docx

The Gift of Rain by Tan Twan Eng

The Gathering by Anne Enright

The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid

The Welsh Girl by Peter Ho Davies

Mister Pip by Lloyd Jones

Gifted by Nikita Lalwani

On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan

What Was Lost by Catherine O'Flynn

Consolation by Michael Redhill

Animal's People by Indra Sinha

Winnie & Wolf by A N Wilson

Prizewinners archive.

[Via BooktradeInfo]

The Orange prize for the best... book club?

Normally when we talk about book prizes like the Orange, The Booker and more, we're talking about a prize given to a single book. But now Orange has announced the shortlist of its first award for the best book club in the country.

Six shortlisted reading groups across the country are in contention for the Penguin/Orange Broadband Readers' Group Prize, which will be announced on 28th August. You can read the list of nominated groups here (I like the name 'The Book Gluttons'!)

[Via Booktrade.info]

MORE ON MONDAY: Fever Pitch by Nick Hornby

Nick Hornby came to most women's attention (sorry to be gender biased, but I think that's true!) with High Fidelity, his excellent lad lit novel about a music obsessive and his estranged girlfriend.

But if you haven't read Fever Pitch, you've missed a trick. The memoir of Hornby's obsession with Arsenal might be a bit much if you're a mad-keen Chelsea or Man Utd. supporter, or if you're American and think football's called soccer...(I tease!) but even if you're not a fan of the 'beautiful game', there's still a lot to enjoy in this book. It's a raw and touching story abut the power of sport to transform the emotions and the sense of belonging and bonding that football can provide. Even if you don't like sport, it's hard not to be won over by Hornby's enthusiasm and the excitement and tension at the end of the book is palpable.

I admit, I wouldn't ahve picked this book up had I not loved High Fideltity, or if it wasn't handy on my Dad's bookshelf. But I'm so very, very glad I did.

It's a cult classic of the footie field and beyond!

Rating: 5 out of 5

Like this? Try A Long Way Down by Nick Hornby.

Carnegie Medal winners announced

Meg Rosoff has won Britain's most prestigious children's literature prize with her second novel, Just In Case.

Philip Pullman's Northern Lights has won the vote for the best Carnegie book of all time, the Carnegie of Carnegies.

Related posts: Phillipa Ashley's Decent Exposure wins the Joan Hessayon New Writers' Scheme award | Chimamanda Ngozi Adichi scoops the Orange Prize

A Taste of Italy wins New York Book Festival prize

Friend-of-Trashionista Lucie Simone's e-book A Taste of Italy has won the New York Book Festival Competition for best e-book. You can find the full list of winners here.

The 2007 New York Book Festival will take place this Saturday, June 23 from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. near the Naumburg Bandshell in Central Park. The event is free and open to the public and includes author readings, live music, children’s storytelling, clowns performing children’s face-painting and twisting balloon animals, book signings, vendor demonstrations and food.

Related posts: The Hay-on-Wye Festival's relay story | Word for Word series at New York's Bryant Park

Marian Keyes wins Melissa Nathan award for Comedy Romance

Marvellous Marian Keyes has won the inaugural Melissa Nathan award for Comedy Romance for her book Anybody Out There. Judges Jo Brand, Joanna Trollope, Jessica Hynes, Gaynor Allen and Sophie Kinsella awarded Keyes the £5000 prize in memory of author Nathan who died from cancer in 2006. [via Booktrade.info]

YAY OR NAY WEDNESDAY

In last week's Yay or Nay you were unanimously opposed to the idea of dissing your ex in print ("Get a shrink and get over it already!" as Lucie very validly said).

Also last week, the winner of the Orange prize for Fiction was announced... but should she have been?

Do we need a literary fiction prize just for women, or are mixed prizes like The Booker enough? Does women's fiction need a special prize of its own, or can we compete amongst the men (and win) without discrimination?

What do you think: The Orange Prize - Yay or Nay, and why?

Yay or Nay archives.

[Don't forget it's Yay or Nay day at Hippyshopper, Bridalwave, Dollymix, Corrie Blog, Catwalk Queen, Kiss and Makeup, The Bag Lady, Shoewawa and Shiny Shiny, too!]

Phillipa Ashley's Decent Exposure wins the Joan Hessayon New Writers' Scheme Award

Phillipa Ashley has won the Romantic Novelists' Association's Joan Hessayon New Writers' Scheme Award for her debut novel Decent Exposure.

The award is presented to the best debut novel each year to have come through the RNA's New Writers' Scheme and been accepted for publication.

We'll be reviewing Decent Exposure soon.

Related posts: Little Black Dress | Rosie Thomas wins Romantic Novel of the Year 2007

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie scoops The Orange Prize with Half of a Yellow Sun

I wish I was more of a gambler as I'd been saying for weeks that this would win: Nigerian author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (right) has been named winner of the Orange Broadband Prize for Fiction, for her novel Half of a Yellow Sun (also a Richard and Judy pick). She scooped £30,000 along with her award - nice!

Meanwhile Canadian author Karen Connelly won the 2007 Orange Broadband Award for New Writers for her debut novel The Lizard Cage. (And that's 10K for her, if you're interested).

[Via BBC News; Image: BBC]

MOVIE NEWS: Persepolis

I was fascinated by Marjane Satrapi's graphic novel, Persepolis and I knew there was a movie in the pipeline, but didn't have any hard info ... until now. The animated film, co-directed by Satrapi, will debut at the Cannes Film Festival. [via Galleycat]

The Melissa Nathan award for Comedy Romance

Chick lit fans may know that tragically, popular author Melissa Nathan died in April 2006, aged just 37.

Before she died, she lay out the terms for a prize to be awarded in her name:  The Melissa Nathan award for Comedy Romance shortlist has now been announced.

The finalists include Jill Mansell, Polly Williams, and of course... Marian Keyes.

Carry on over the cut for the full list and more details.

The award ceremony will be held in London on 13th June 2007, and you can read the full list of nominees here.

FRIDAY FLICK: Adaptation

Adaptation has to be the weirdest Friday Flick yet. It's both an adaptation of Susan Orlean's non-fiction book The Orchid Thief (a fascinating study of a not-always-legal orchid collector's world) and a fictional film about... adapting Susan Orlean's The Orchid Thief for the big screen.

Confused yet? You will be... Nicholas Cage plays writer twins Donald (who doesn't exist in real life) and Charlie Kaufman (who actually did write the Adaptation script). In the film, Charlie is trying to do justice to Orlean's book and struggling, whilst  his brother, who has far less writing talent but boundless enthusiasm, is racking up huge success with a pulpy thriller. So Charlie decides that the only thing to do is ratchet up the tension in his script, even if it means deviating from the truth of the book...

As this is happening, we see the events he writes about with Orlean and her subject John Laroche portrayed brilliantly by Meryl Streep and Chris Cooper, who throughly deserved his Oscar win for supporting actor.

I really enjoyed this film, although I think it might an acquired taste as it's definitely very odd. And it's important to remember that the ridiculous escalation of events at the end of the movie is satirical, and not meant to be taken seriously - but it's lucky Susan Orlean has a sense of humour!

Like this (kind of): Stranger Than Fiction.

Friday Flick archives.

THURSDAY TRAILBLAZER: Iris Murdoch

Iris Murdoch has become best known now for her descent into Alzheimer's disease and the portrayal of her by Kate Winslet and Judi Dench in the 2002 film Iris. But there was a lot more to this superbly-talented writer than a sad decline into disease.

Murdoch had a brilliant brain: in his book Iris, her husband John Bayley describes her working process. She would lock herself in her study, hard at work on her novel, for weeks on end. Then she'd emerge, relieved. She'd finished the novel now, she'd tell him... she just had to write it all down. Ironically, she had a marvellous memory and could store complex plots in her head before setting it all down on paper.  She studied at Oxford, where she met her husband and several other lovers (whether any of those relationships continued into her marriage is a matter of some - prurient - speculation).

She wrote plays and poetry too, but is best known for her novels: she wrote twenty-six between 1954 and 1995, winning the Booker Prize in 1978 (for The Sea, The Sea).

Born in 1919, she died in 1999. Murdoch's literary legacy will live on, though - many consider her one of the most significant British writers of the twentieth century, and anyone wanting to become a novelist could do a lot worse than to read and absorb her words and study (and enjoy) her storytelling technique - it's close to flawless. Hugely erudite, her books are influenced by everything from metaphyscics to the Bible... but they're also easy to read and understand even if you don't get all the references. And they will make you think.

Read this: Under The Net.

Thursday Trailblazer archives.

Jenny Gardiner wins American Title-III contest!

Remember how we nagged and nagged and nagged you to vote for Jenny Gardiner's novel Sleeping With Ward Cleaver in the American Title-III contest? Well all that nagging paid off because she won! And she sent us a message:

I would love to thank the Trashionistas for their wonderful support during the contest. The book will be published by Dorchester Publishing and the pub date is 28 January 2008! So thank you all so very much for your help--I am ever so grateful!

You're welcome, Jenny! Carry on over the cut to read the back cover blurb.

CLEAVERED

Wham, bam, no-thank-you, ma'am. That about sums up the sex life of Claire Doolittle. Not-so-happily married to Jack—once the man of her dreams but now a modern-day version of the bossy, dull Ward Cleaver of '50s sitcom fame—Claire is at the end of her rope. Gone are the glorious days of flings in elevators and broom closets. Jack? All he needs is a cardigan and a billowing pipe to become the domineering father figure Claire never wanted. And looking at her body in the mirror, Claire would cast herself as Lumpy. They’d once had a world of color, of wanton frivolity. Now, life’s black and white: a sitcom in reruns. A not-very-funny sitcom.  Cue an old boyfriend—the "one that got away"—throw in a predatory hottie who's set her sights on our leading man, and watch Claire's world spiral out of control.

In the old TV show, the Beaver always got a happy ending. Claire wants one, too.

The 10 greatest children's novels?

The Carnegie Medal is awarded annually to the writer of an outstanding book for children and, to celebrate its 70th anniversary, the judges have nominated ten previous winners from which they will choose the "Carnegie of Carnegies". [via The Independent]

Carry on over the cut to see if you agree that these are the most important children's novels of the past 70 years.

Skellig by David Almond (won in 1998)
Junk by Melvin Burgess (1996)
Storm by Kevin Crossley-Holland (1985)
A Gathering Light by Jennifer Donnelly (2003)
The Owl Service by Alan Garner (1967)
The Family From One End Street by Eve Garnett (1937)
The Borrowers by Mary Norton (1952)
Tom's Midnight Garden by Philippa Pearce (1958)
Northern Lights by Philip Pullman (1995)
The Machine-Gunners Robert Westall (1981)

So what do you think? I haven't read them all, but they seem to lean towards what could arguably be called boys' books to me...

Related posts: One in 10 kids goes without a bedtime story | Five books (that encouraged you as a reader)

MORE ON MONDAY: A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian by Marina Lewycka

Marina Lewycka’s debut novel, A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian, was shortlisted for the Orange Prize in 2005 and has been critically acclaimed all over the world. Just the type of book I expected to either dislike or at least think was overrated ... but it absolutely wasn’t. In fact, it’s as readable and entertaining as it is moving.

Nadia and Vera’s father, Nikolai, has always been eccentric, but when he announces, two years after their mother’s death, his plans to marry a young Ukranian woman neither of them has met, the sisters are concerned. Their concern increases when they finally do meet Valentina - a brash, big-bosomed woman, who is clearly only interested in their father for his money and British citizenship. Their father though, is smitten.

Valentina and her son Stanislav move in and Valentina’s treatment of Nikolai soon changes. He is no longer her “holubchik” (little pigeon) he is “no-good-bad-stink-corpse”. The sisters realise they have to get Valentina and Stanislav out of their father’s life, but how?

And if all that's not enough for Nadia and Vera to deal with, there’s also their own antagonistic relationship, their mother’s memory (and their unequally-split inheritance), plus the terrible details of the family’s history that Nadia has never known, but Vera remembers all too well.

I was blown away by A Short History of Tractors in Ukranian. It managed to balance humour with terrible tragedy, while being eminently readable and though-provoking. Don’t be put off by the title, the cover, or the Orange Prize, just read it.

Rating: 5 out of 5

Like this? Try The Girls by Lori Lansens

Orange Prize shortlist announced

Yep, Marian Keyes and co.'s hard work is nearly over! The Orange Prize for the best book by a woman in the last year... is nearly here.

In the meantime, the shortlist has just been announced - carry on over the cut to read it!

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie - Half of a Yellow Sun

Novel Rachel Cusk - Arlington Park

Kiran Desai - The Inheritance of Loss

Xiaolu Guo - A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers

Jane Harris - The Observations

Anne Tyler - Digging to America

[Via Booktrade info]

Opinions, anyone? I'd bet on Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie...

Cosmopolitan's Miss Write competition

Are you Miss Write? Cosmopolitan's UK edition is once again running its popular new novelist competition, and you can find all the details on how to enter and exactly what the prize involves, by clicking here.

If you want to enter, you'll need to have a synopsis of your story plus the first 3,000 words ready by the closing date, 31 May 2007. Go on - this could be your big chance! You could even see your book being reviewed on this very site - how cool would that be? (Answer: very).

Related: The Daily Mail's first novel award | Debut novels

MORE ON MONDAY: Looking for Alaska by John Green

John Green’s Looking for Alaska is probably the book I’ve heard most consistent raves about over the last couple of years (Green’s second book, An Abundance of Katherines, would be in the top 5 too) so part of me was excited about reading it, but equally I expected to be disappointed. I wasn’t.

When Miles Hunter goes away to school he is looking for something to happen. Obsessed with the last words of historical figures, Miles wants to find the Great Perhaps (Francois Rabelais' last words were, "I go to seek a Great Perhaps".) At Culver Creek Boarding School Miles's roommate, nicknamed the Colonel, introduces him to the gorgeous and enigmatic (aren’t they always?) Alaska Young and Miles’s life takes an exiting turn.

The students of Culver Creek are into pranks, sneaking out to smoke and drink, and basically getting away with as much as they can without risk of expulsion. But, of course, when you live on the edge someone’s bound to fall off ...

John Green writes beautifully and I found that once I started reading Looking for Alaska I didn’t want to stop. The book is separated into “Before” (beginning “one hundred thirty six days before”) and “After”, which was a clever device - I found myself reading faster and faster as I got closer to whatever was going to happen  (which you don’t expect me to tell you, do you?).

The characters aren’t exactly original - Miles is the self-conscious, friendless nerdy type, taken in hand by the strong and confident Colonel. As for Alaska - do all teenage boys want a narcissistic depressive who will tease them constantly and never let them know where they stand? Fiction suggests they do. Having said that, I was kind of fascinated by Alaska too, so maybe everyone loves a tragic heroine.

What really stood out for me - apart from the excellent writing - were the teachers (who appeared to be typical cliched authority figures, but were really no such thing), the abrasive but witty dialogue throughout and an inspired scene towards the end that had me laughing out loud.

Looking for Alaska certainly deserves all the accolades that have been heaped upon it and the included preview chapter of An Abundance of Katherines suggests that book does too.

Rating: 4 out of 5

Like this? Try Holes by Louis Sachar

Marian Keyes wins popular fiction award at the 'Nibbies'

We've told you before about the Nibbies (or the Galaxy British Book Awards as they're more properly known) and now we're delighted to bring you the news that much-loved Queen of Chick Lit Marian Keyes won the award for popular fiction - way to go, Mazza! (As she'd probably loathe me to call her...)

It was also great chick lit news for Lauren Weisberger, who won Television and film book of the year for The Devil Wears Prada (of course).

Find out the other winners  and who called Ricky Gervais names (!) over the cut...

But if you'd rather not know the goss and find out the winners when the awards are on TV, then you don't have long to wait - they're on tomorrow night at 8pm on Channel 4 .

List of winners:

Book of the year: Conn & Hal Iggulden, The Dangerous Book for Boys

Popular fiction award: Marian Keyes, Anybody Out There

Decibel writer of the year: Jackie Kay, Wish I Was Here

Television and film book of the year: Lauren Weisberger, The Devil Wears Prada

Biography of the year: Peter Kay, The Sound of Laughter

Children's book of the year: Ricky Gervais, Flanimals of the Deep [Gervais's video-linked acceptance speech apparently provoked a "foul-mouthed rant" from Richard Madeley, co-host of the event (with wife Judy, obv.) Is it me or is Mr Madeley losing the plot a little bit? *Allegedly*]

Crime thriller of the year: Ian Rankin, The Naming of the Dead

Sports book of the year: Steven Gerrard, Gerrard: My Autobiography

Newcomer of the year: Victoria Hislop, The Island

Reader's Digest Author of the year: Richard Dawkins, The God Delusion

The Richard & Judy best read of the year: Jed Benfeld, The Interpretation of Murder 

Lifetime achievement award: John Grisham

BOOK REVIEW: Dear Zoe by Philip Beard

Dear Zoe has been compared to The Lovely Bones (which unlike some people, I found a brilliant read) but I'm going to state this right now: it's much, much better.

It's narrated by Tess, in the form of one long letter (divided into chapters) to her three-year old sister Zoe who died in a car crash almost a year earlier - on September 11, 2001.

It includes her recollections of the past and details of where her life is now, leading up to her attempts to get down on paper what happened the fateful day that Zoe died - and her own part in what went wrong.

It's intended to be a young adult novel, I think, but anyone could read and enjoy it. It's the best YA I've ever read, totally unputdownable. It's subtle and poignant and heart-rending, but doesn't layer the sentimentality on with a trowel, which The Lovely Bones (much as I loved it) did. I also thought the exploration of private grief on a day associated with public grief was compelling and heartbreaking. It made me think of all the people whose loved ones died on that day, both in the Twin Towers attack and for unrelated reasons. I'm not ashamed to say I cried. A lot.

But this is by no means a depressing book - it concentrates a lot on normal teenage life. At times, I found myself thinking it really was written by a 15-year old girl, rather than a grown man! Philip Beard has perfectly captured the life of a teen girl and the inner workings of a teenager's mind. He must have done some research into the grooming rituals of an image-obsessed teenager, as he has this down pat.

He's created a flawed but intensely likeable character in Tess. He's also created a very vivid and true-seeming depiction of a family's loss and I highly (highly!) recommend it.

Rating: 5 out of 5

Like this? Try Anybody Out There? by Marian Keyes

The Daily Mail's first novel award for aspiring literary stars - could it be you?

The Daily Mail's book club has been a popular addition to their paper and website and now news reaches Trashionista Towers that The Daily Mail has teamed up with Transworld Publishers to launch the Daily Mail First Novel Award. Transworld will offer the winning author a publishing contract of £30,000 and publish the winning book in April 2008.

The prize will be judged by a panel of book experts including authors Joanne Harris and Lee Child.

If you want to enter, you don't have long: only until 2nd July 2007, in fact. All entries must be original, previously unpublished works of fiction on any subject in any genre. And as the title suggests, it must be your first novel!

Go to the site for more details on how to enter.

BOOK REVIEW: A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers by Xiaolu Guo

As  it featured on the Orange longlist, released yesterday, I thought a review of A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers by Xiaolu Guo would be timely!

It's the story of Zhang, known as 'Z',  who comes to London from a small Chinese town, in order to improve her English and learn about the culture. But she doesn't find the UK all she expected - people are unfriendly, it's cold and she's lonely. Then she meets a man and the two quickly become lovers, and then move in together - the result of a misunderstanding. (Z says she wants to see his house, he says "be my guest" and she takes it literally)... It begins in hilariously broken English ("sorry of my English" says a note at the beginning of the book) which improves as the story progresses...

The book is chronologically told, divided into months telling the story of Z's year in the UK (and later Europe).  It's narrated by Z, but as if she's talking to her lover, and it shows the misunderstandings that pervade their relationship. Each chapter begins with a definition, hence the title, and these are very revealing, often having a deeper or double meaning.

Only a Chinese writer could pull off writing in broken English without seeming xenophobic/racist, and that makes it OK to laugh at the silly misunderstandings caused by Z's lack of knowledge. The writer presumably had the same problems learning English herself, but clearly she's got the hang of it now: this is Xiaolu Guo's first book in English. It makes you realise how difficult English is, and I enjoyed all the cross-cultural references a lot. The book itself is very good, although it starts off very funny and becomes a lot more melancholy as Z loses her innocence (both socially and sexually). I didn't quite feel that this dark mood at the end of the book was entirely necessary - I wasn't  sure Z enjoyed much of her time over here at all, and that seemed a shame for such a likeable character (as well as from a British tourism perspective!)

But it's definitely an unusual and charming read, and I'd recommend it.

Rating: 4 out of 5

Like this? Try Empress Orchid by Anchee Min.

Orange Prize longlist announced

My favourite literary award of the year is one step closer to being decided with the announcement of The Orange Prize long list. As we told you before, Marian Keyes is among the women on the judging panel, and she's been chronicling her adventures in reading on her monthly blog/newsletter (in February her reading was broken up by a trip up the Amazon).

Anyway, the long list is rather... long (no!) so I'll post it over the cut:

Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Poppy Shakespeare by Clare Allan

Arlington Park by Rachel Cusk

The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai

Peripheral Vision by Patricia Ferguson

Over by Margaret Forster

The Dissident by Nell Freudenberger

When to Walk  by Rebecca Gowers

A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers by Xiaolu Guo

The Observations by Jane Harris

Carry Me Down by M J Hyland

The Girls by Lori Lansens

Alligator by Lisa Moore

What Was Lost by Catherine O’Flynn

The Tenderness of Wolves by Stef Penney

Careless by Deborah Robertson

Afterwards by Rachel Seiffert

Ten Days in the Hills by Jane Smiley

Digging to America by Anne Tyler

The Housekeeper by Melanie Wallace

Lots there I'd love to read (especially Jane Smiley and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's books) , but only one that I have - Xiaolu Guo's A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers.

How about you?

BOOK REVIEW: Karma by Holly A Harvey

Holly A Harvey’s debut novel, Karma, was published after she won the North East leg of the Undiscovered Authors competition.

It tells the story of Paige, whose life is not going well. She hates her job and is treated like dirt by her colleagues, plus previous health problems have seen her land in a fair amount of debt. And just when she thinks things can’t get worse ... they do (of course).

After realising she’s been a doormat for way too long - and inspired by an invitation to her school reunion - Paige decides to give karma a helping hand and get revenge on the people who have wronged her. That’s not exactly my understanding of karma (which, to be fair, is mostly based on My Name Is Earl) but still it’s good to see Paige standing up for herself. The problem I had with it was that the change happened so quickly. One minute she wouldn’t say boo to a goose, the next she’s kicking geese down the street (not literally, you understand).

There are quite a lot of problems with this book. The action doesn’t really get going until 100 pages in, it switches from present to past tense seemingly without rhyme or reason, there is way too much detail about everything (for example, Paige says she bought something on ebay. You then get three pages about how she found it, who she bid against, what she paid for it, obnoxious emails from the seller, etc.) and the ending is just too neat and perfect ... but, despite all of that, I did enjoy it.

Paige has a charming, self-deprecating voice and a good stock of funny one-liners. I didn’t laugh out loud, but I smiled a lot and, although chick lit readers have recently been criticised for their supposed narcissism, Karma had that recognition factor that’s always good fun (you know, when you go “that’s just like me!”) and it was particularly nice to find a heroine fantasising about my teenage crush Matt Goss!

Although it’s got its problems, Karma is an entertaining and funny read. And now that she’s (hopefully) got all the waffle out of her system, I’ve got really high hopes for Holly A Harvey’s next novel.

Rating: 3 out of 5

Like this? Try Why Not? by Shari Low

YAY OR NAY WEDNESDAY

Thanks for the great responses last week, when we tried to figure out if 'literary' is a term of endearment or abuse! (Not sure what we agreed, but none of us liked lit snobbery).

This week... Stef Penney had good reason to not visit Canada whilst researching her Costa award-winning novel* The Tenderness of Wolves: she was agoraphobic.

But in general, what do you think about writers, for example, setting their books in a country they've never been to, making up geographical details (as Jenny Colgan admitted to doing with her novel Working Wonders) or otherwise not letting accuracy get in the way of a good story?

In other words... is it a Yay or a Nay, and why?

*Guess I was wrong about there not being a woman on the shortlist - slapped wrist for me.

Yay or Nay archives.

Galaxy Book Awards shortlist announced

The Galaxy British Book Awards, formerly just The British Book Awards (those ones that Richard and Judy present where they always shout slightly embarrassing 'impromptu' interviews across the stage to the people giving out the books, I'm sure you've seen them on TV) have announced their shortlist. And they're now calling themselves The Oscars of the Book World. Posh!

Carry on over the cut to see the books in the running and for details on how to vote (for Marian Keyes!)...

The full list, with several categories, is very very long (despite the name 'shortlist'!) so it's better viewed via the awards' website. Perhaps of most interest to Trashionistas is that Marian Keyes's latest, the wonderful Anybody Out There? has been nominated for Sainsbury's popular fiction award. To vote for Marian, or any other book, click here. (Go now - hurry!)

Related: Richard and Judy archives | Prizewinners archives.

Books the British public just couldn't finish!

Normally at Trashionista we concern ourselves with those books you just can't put down, but today we're talking about books you struggle to pick up again after reading a few pages/chapters...

The book world is all a-flutter today about a new survey which shows the most frequently abandoned reads: top of the list is 'challenging' Booker Prize winner Vernon God Little by WBC Pierre, which 35% of 4000 surveyed readers apparently gave up on.  It was joined by Salman Rushdie's The Satanic Verses and classic of the impenetrables: Ulysses by James Joyce. The only female author at the top, and the biggest surprise, is that 32% of adult readers couldn't make it through Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (although, actually, you can add me to that list - Quidditch World Cup? Snoozeathon! Pick up the pace, JK...)

If any of those books are on your personal unfinished list, The Times helpfully tells you how they end, and The Guardian digests them for you.

So... what's the book you just couldn't finish? Find out mine over the cut!

For me it's William Faulkner's famously difficult The Sound and the Fury.  (With no differentiation in tenses and no idea which character is talking, it's a 'puzzler', to say the least). On the other hand, I managed to get to the end of the execrable Citizen Girl - but wished I hadn't bothered!

How about you?

Related post: Lovely Bones and Jane Austen on publishing insider's list of books NOT to read

BOOK REVIEW: A Complicated Kindness by Miriam Toews

I loved Miriam Toews's earlier novel, A Boy of Good Breeding, so I was excited to pick up A Complicated Kindness, which I'd heard a lot of great things about, although I had no idea of the storyline.

It's set in a Mennonite community in Canada in (I think) the early '80s (dates are deliberately sketchy). Mennonites are a religious sect of the 'are they a cult or aren't they?' variety and as Toews was brought up Mennonite I can only assume she is drawing heavily on her own experience with this story of a disillusioned sixteen-year old girl, fed up of her isolated life in a dead-end town in which all forms of fun and self-expression are heavily frowned-upon.

To add to main character Nomi's sense of alienation, her mother and sister ("the better looking half of our family") are missing, her best friend is bed-bound in hospital and she feels disconnected from her boyfriend. Plus she's failing in school and her only prospect for a future career seems to be snapping necks at the local chicken factory...

Cheery, no?

I was surprised by how different this was to her earlier book - it's a much bleaker story and although it has first-person narration instead of third-person as in A Boy... I felt much less connected to Nomi than the characters in that book. I was also disappointed with the way not much seemed to change, and nothing really happens!

It's all pretty gloomy, although intelligently written with great use of language and some wonderful moments of black humour. I also totally believed in the characters and admired the way Miriam Toews created narrative tension out of very little action! But I felt let down by the book's ending.

I wanted to love this book, but instead I just liked and admired it, in a slightly detached way.

Rating: 4 out of 5

Like this? Try A Boy of Good Breeding by Miriam Toews.

Meryl Streep wins Golden Globe for 'Prada' portrayal

Meryl Streep's star turn as boss-from-hell Miranda Priestly in hit chick-lit film adaptation The Devil Wears Prada has earned her a Golden Globe award for best actress in a comedy film, reports the BBC.

Most deserved, I must say - good on ya, Mezza!

Devil Wears Prada archives.

FRIDAY FLICK: Girl, Interrrupted

Aka: the film that won Angelina Jolie an Oscar (remember when she kissed her brother slightly incestuously to celebrate? Good times).

Girl Interrupted is adapted from Susanna Kaysen's memoir of the same name and is the story of her time in a mental institution in 1967. She "accidentally" downed a bottle of painkillers and more than a little alcohol and so has to have her stomach pumped and be institutionalised with a group of young women, all of whom seem considerably more disturbed than she is.

I found the book moving, funny and touching. But what about the film?

Well, the film is good too, and stands up on its own - it's more than just an adaptation, it's a story in its own right. I wouldn't say it's a movie you enjoy exactly, but considering it's about depression, more severe mental illness, the changing role of women, family issues and the start of Vietnam, it has great moments of humour and isn't bleak. There are some fabulous performances here - a pre-scandal Winona Ryder is overshadowed by Jolie (she's overwhelming at times, but seriously deserved the Oscar for best supporting actress) and a thoroughly disturbing Brittany Murphy (who's much better at serious stuff than the fluff she sometimes leans towards).

I believe it's on TV soon, and I'd recommend trying to catch it if you haven't seen it already. As our TV guide has sprouted legs yet again, I'm afraid I can't tell you when it's on (anyone know?) but keep your eyes out, 'cos it's definitely worth a watch.

DID YOU KNOW? Kaysen's follow-up, a book about her vaginal-health problems, was far less of a success - and thankfully, hasn't been made into a film! (Yet).

Friday Flick archives.

MOVIE NEWS: Round up: Miss Potter, Motherless Brooklyn, Perfume... and more!

There are a LOT of books-turned-films out now or coming up this year! First, Miss Potter, Bridget Jones star Renée Zellweger's portrayal of iconic British children's author Beatrix Potter (which reunites her with Ewan McGregor) is out in UK cinemas as I write. As is Perfume, out later than expected, but getting some good reviews.

And there's exciting news for fans of Jonathan Lethem's hit novel about a detective with Tourette's, Motherless Brooklyn (Keris), which I haven't read yet, but hear only good things about. (Plus it won the prestigious American National Book Critics Award for Fiction). A screenplay is currently "in production", lined up to be written, directed by and starring the fantastically talented Edward Norton, so it should be a quality film, fingers crossed...

PLUS, Dakota Fanning, who has to be the hardest-working twelve-year old in the world, is about to star in a film of kid's classic Charlotte's Web, along with the voices of Julia Roberts, Steve Buscemi and Oprah Winfrey! There's also Freedom Writers, starring Hilary Swank and sounding remarkably like Dangerous Minds, but based on this book.

I'm sure there are more on the way, but that's enough for now!

[Via Imdb.com]

Movie News archives / Friday Flick archives.

The most overrated books of the year?

Current affairs magazine, Prospect, asked contributors to nominate their most overrated books of 2006. [via Book 2 Book]

The top three were:

1 The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins
2 The Blunkett Tapes by David Blunkett
3 Everyman by Philip Roth

But it was broadcaster David Cox's response which made me laugh (don't sit on the fence, David, say what you mean!):

"The Night Watch, Sarah Waters. An imitation Catherine Cookson for dim but pretentious lesbians. The Inheritance of Loss, Kiran Desai. A typically box-ticking, offence-avoiding Booker winner whose supposedly innovative structure is more sensibly viewed as narrative incompetence ..."

So what are your most overrated books of 2006? And, for the sake of positivity, your favourites?

MORE ON MONDAY: Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell

The Cloud Atlas Sextet is a piece of music written by one of the characters in David Mitchell’s award-winning book and it's described as follows:

... 'sextet for overlapping soloists': piano, clarinet, 'cello, flute, oboe and violin, each in its own language of key, scale and colour. In the 1st set, each solo is interrupted by its successor: in the 2nd, each interruption is recontinued, in order.

Overlapping and interruption is also the structure of the book. It begins with a diary interrupted by a series of letters from the above composer. This is taken over by Half Lives: The First Luisa Rey Mystery which in turn is interrupted by The Ghastly Ordeal of Timothy Cavendish followed by An Orison of Somni and Sloosha's Crossin' an' Ev'rythin' After. Each is set in a different historical period (the last two are set in the future) and each is written in the style of that period.

I've been intrigued by David Mitchell's books for a while but always thought they looked like extremely difficult reads. Cloud Atlas isn't difficult, but it does reward attention. I didn't particularly enjoy the middle - the futuristic part. It was interesting, but I’m not a science fiction fan and I found it difficult to become emotionally involved.

My favourite parts were undoubtedly The Luisa Rey Mystery and Letters from Zedelghem. I also enjoyed The Ghastly Ordeal of Timothy Cavendish.

Entirely gripping, Cloud Atlas is a dazzling achievement. It's more than a stunning book: it's six stunning books.

Rating: 4 out of 5

Like this? Try The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins

Marian Keyes on Orange Prize judging panel

Yep, it's all Marian, all the time here lately - we do like some other authors too, I promise! But this is big news so I had to share. In her monthly newsletter, the lovely Ms Keyes announced that she's been picked as one of the judges for prestigious literary award The Orange Prize, which celebrates women's fiction. Past winners include We Need to Talk about Kevin and Small Island.

Says Marian, "Naturally my joy will be corrupted by snobby types complaining that if a chick-lit author is judging the Orange Prize, then the barbarians are at the gate, my dears. But my response will be a mature and dignified one. Yes. TOUGH *****, SNOBBY AMIGOS! THEY ASKED ME AND THEY DIDN'T ASK YOU!!!!!"

Well put.

More info on the judging panel here.

The bad sex in fiction award

OK, so it isn't anything to do with women's fiction but I think Trashionista readers will still find this interesting/amusing/snigger-worthy... The Literary Review's Bad Sex in Fiction Award 2006 has just been awarded to author Iain Hollingshead for his debut novel Twenty Something which includes the phrase "bulging trousers".

The judges said the point of the award is "to draw attention to the crude, tasteless, often perfunctory use of redundant passages of sexual description in the modern novel, and to discourage it".

Iain Hollingshead said: "I hope to win it every year."

[Via the BBC]

Related: Yay or Nay: Sex in books? / Bonkbuster archives!

The Costa Book Awards shortlist shuns women

Sigh. Just when you think women's fiction might be on an equal footing with men's at last (with Kiran Desai winning the Booker prize), along comes the Costa Book Awards (formerly the Whitbread prize) and its shortlist for best novel, which doesn't include ONE book by a woman... you're not telling me that no woman has written a prize-worthy book in the last year!

What's even more surprising and disappointing? Sophie Kinsella (or rather "Sophie Kinsella") was on the judging panel as were Kate Adie and Adele Geras-you'd think all three female authors would be advocates for woman writers... but no.

[Via The Times]

SPOTLIGHT: Sarah Mason

Having just learned that she's got a new book out next year - and because we've loved all of her books so far - I thought I'd shine this week's spotlight on Sarah Mason.

Aged 25, Sarah started an enormously successful company importing gourmet popcorn from America (she was once voted one of the top five British entrepreneurs). She started writing after selling the business.

Her first novel, Playing James, was published in 2002 and Sarah became the first-ever first-time novelist to win the Romantic Novelists' Association Romantic Novel of the Year award. Playing James was followed by The Party Season and High Society. (All three books got a 5 out of 5 rating from Trashionista!)

Sarah's new novel, Sea Fever, is due out in July 2007 and is described by her publishers as "Sun, sea, sailing, and sex ... [following] the scandal, gossip, drama and fun of an America's Cup regatta."

Sarah lives in Cheltenham with her husband and daughter.

Carry on over the cut for Sarah's bibliography.

Playing James
The Party Season (Party Girl in the US)
High Society (Society Girls in the US)

See Sarah talking about High Society and The Party Season on Meet the Author.

THURSDAY THREE: Books that aren't what they say!

If you're thinking, "Huh?" don't worry, all will become clear! I'm talking about books whose titles are purposefully misleading, obscure or don't describe what the story is actually about in any way.

First up has to be A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian by Marina Lewczykca, which found itself housed in the non-fiction/agriculture sections of book shops around the country. It's actually the fictional story of two sisters and their irascible Ukrainian immigrant father, who's just married a gold-digger from the motherland and is trying to complete his masterpiece- a pamphlet about a history of tractors, written in Ukrainian... (incidentally, the mix-up hasn't had disastrous results- the book's sold well and and won awards).

What will the other two quirkily-titled books be? Come with me over the cut to find out...

You might not have heard of this next book yet, but you will... Special Topics in Calamity Physics has been a big hit in the States and with literary critics. Marisha Pessl is a name you'll be hearing again and again... A long and complex book modelled on the structure of a literary course (with a final exam at the end), it certainly sounds different. And nothing at all to do with physics, of course.

Finally, the book that could be said to have started this naming trend in women's fiction: The Girls' Guide to Hunting and Fishing. When I told people I was reading this, Melissa Bank's debut, back in 2000, they all thought I was mad "But you're not into hunting or fishing..." No, I'm not. So it's lucky this book is a collection of linked stories about life and love centered around a woman named Jane, instead...

Are there any I've forgotten? What's your favourite book  that doesn't do what the title describes?

Thursday Three archives.

The play's the thing (apparently)

We often feature book-to-movie adaptations, but what about books-to-plays? The London theatres seem to be full of them at the moment.

From the end of this month, Nina Bawden's classic, Carrie's War - about a former evacuee returning to her wartime home and telling her story to her children - is on at Sadler's Wells. The book has been adapted by Emma Reeves and the show is directed by Andrew Loudon (creators of Little Women and Anne Of Green Gables at Sadler’s Wells).

Coram Boy, Jamila Gavin's Whitbread award-winning children's book about growing-up, struggle, tradition and corruption, returns to the National Theatre from 29 November. Its previous run was a sell-out.

The smash-hit musical, Wicked, is based on Gregory Maguire’s novel - about the witches from The Wizard of Oz and how the wicked witch perhaps wasn't so wicked after all - is currently showing at the Apollo (not to mention New York, Chicago, LA and more!).

Susan Hill's ghost story The Woman in Black is in its 15th year in the West End at the Fortune Theatre. (A friend of mine went to see this and was so terrified she literally wouldn't go to bed afterwards - she was about 35 at the time!)

My personal favourite - Lauren Child's That Pesky Rat - opens at the Soho Theatre at the beginning of December. (The pesky rat even has a rat blog!)