Extinction, crime, and a little romance

Dear gleemailees,

Just in case you’re confused about the gleemail, it has hitherto always been mainly about our events program, but while there were no events over summer, I was filling in with my book-ravings. Now we are almost back home at #49 and the events planning is well under way, it’s been decided you can have a bit of both. So one week will be events news and the next week will be me, with the aim that if Andrew ever finds time (amidst the chaos of the impending move) to teach me how to upload the events, I’ll do both.

It’s not often enough that I read a book both very funny and so highly intelligent, I feel almost incapable of reviewing it. The Extinction of Irena Rey by Jennifer Croft, a translator writing her first novel is about eight translators arriving at author Irena Rey’s house, on the edge of a Polish forest, to translate her latest environmental novel, Grey Eminence. In a beautiful conceit, the book we are reading is written by the Spanish translator, Emi, and translated by her nemesis, the English translator Alexis, complete with hilarious footnotes. The translators adore and revere Irena, and when she disappears soon after their arrival, things begin to unravel. This is a wonderful novel about the transformative nature of art, about Polish mythology, the extinction of flora and fauna and the importance of fungi. And so much more. An absolute joy. It's released locally next week (27th February).

Let’s face it, crime novels can be sloppily written, but in the (adult) thriller To the River by award-winning YA novelist, Vikki Wakefield, the excellent writing matches the page-turning plot and great characters. Sabine has been on the run for several years after her mother, sister and nine other people died in the ‘The Caravan Fires’, a crime to which she confessed. She’s living on a houseboat somewhere in the Riverina when Rachel, a journalist living in a house on the river, recognises her. The two women come together when Sabine decides it’s time to give herself up, but not before telling her side of the story. It's also out 27th February.

A shout out to ABC’s Phillip Adams who has announced his retirement this year. Who knows how many books and authors he’s introduced to his listeners over the years and we booksellers owe him our gratitude and thanks. Recently I heard Adams interview historian Andrew Pettegree about The Book at War: Libraries and Readers in an Age of Conflict, which traces what happens to books, writers and readers from the American Civil War through to the invasion of Ukraine, As the blurb says, The Book at War ‘will appeal to anyone for whom…books are an abiding, indispensable part of life.’ I read elsewhere that as far as can be determined, over nine libraries and museums have been destroyed in Gaza since October.

To end on a much lighter note, did you know that in America (only in America!) there are now dedicated romance bookshops with names like Meet Cute, Slow Burn, Lovebound Library and Ripped Bodice. Driven by Instagram and TikTok they’re apparently going great guns.

See you soon at the new shop!
Morgan

Humanist Vampire Ticket Giveaway

We have 10 double passes to giveaway to Humanist Vampire, (in cinemas now). First in best dressed - ask at the counter of our Glebe and Dulwich Hill branches now!

Sasha is a young vampire with a serious problem: she’s too sensitive to kill! When her exasperated parents cut off her blood supply, Sasha’s life is in jeopardy. Luckily, she meets Paul, a lonely teenager who is willing to give his life to save hers. But their friendly agreement soon becomes a nocturnal quest to fulfil Paul’s last wishes before daybreak.

Winner of a swathe of awards including the highly coveted 2023 Venice Film Festival Director Award, Ariene Louis Seize Stylish, sweet teen romantasy is destined to win countless bloodsucking hearts with its many dark tinged delights. |View trailer|