Welcome to this week's blog. A couple of weeks ago, frustratedartist suggested that we commission a piece about literary estates:
I notice that Dimitry Nabokov died a few days ago, leaving no heir. It'd be interesting to see an article about the heirs of great writers - sons, daughters, surviving spouses, etc, and the way in which they try and control, or otherwise, the writer's legacy
We liked the idea and couldn't think of any one better to blog on the subject than Robert McCrum who has long been interested in literary estates and families. For those of you who might have missed it, here's a link to The great estate: those global literary brands roll on. Thanks for the suggestion frustratedartist.
If you have any suggestions for books, authors or topics we should be covering on the site, please tell us in the thread.
Here are some highlights from last week's thread, recommendations and your thoughts on the books you are currently reading.
CheddarFrenzy said:
Just finished the Bellwether Revivals, and whilst I enjoyed it, it left me a little disappointed as well after the hype. A great idea for a book no doubt, but it wore its influences on its sleeve a bit to obviously for me, and didn't quite manage to form itself into something with its own compelling voice - the Secret History style prologue I thought was a particularly bad decision, serving only to lessen the tension rather than to intriguingly muddy the waters.
jennybaby said:
I've just posted a review of a very funny book I've just finished reading - Dreams of Gold by Jonathan Chamberlain - to summarise it is a comic novel set against the backdrop of the London 2012 Olympics. I do recommend it.
DanHolloway said:
cheekily slipping back to performance poetry, a hearty recommendation for Anna Freeman who's currently on headline touring duty for Hammer and Tongue. I caught her last night in Oxford and she's incredible - an amazing ability to switch directions between humour and the darkest places imaginable.
lizzie99 said:
Been mostly still reading The Art of Fielding.
Though, the last two days outside my work in Hoxton Square, around lunchtime there has been a boy reading poems and handing out homemade 'flyers' with www.sadpoetry.co.uk on them. There are a few more posted up there, which are a bit hit and miss, but some of the stuff is really quite good and gives me impressive chance to boast about how many underground writers I know. Definitely worth checking out.
Thanks to eveyone who left comments in last week's thread. Here's a list of some of the books our critics will be writing about this week, subject to last minute changes to the schedule.
Non-fiction
• Rub Out the Words: The Letters of William S. Burroughs 1959-1974 by William S. Burroughs
• Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking by Susan Cain
• Cheek by Jowl: A History of Neighbours by Emily Cockayne
• Underdogs: The Unlikely Story of Football's First FA Cup Heroes by Keith Dewhurst
• Turing's Cathedral: The Origins of the Digital Universe by George Dyson
• The Event of Literature by Terry Eagleton
• Time Traveller's Guide to Elizabethan England by Ian Mortimer
• The End of Money: Counterfeiters, Preachers, Techies, Dreamers - and the Coming Cashless Society by David Wolman
Fiction
• Gay Life Stories by Robert Aldrich
• No Time Like the Present by Nadine Gordimer
• Painter of Silence by Georgina Harding
• Land of Decoration by Grace McCleen
• Silver: Return to Treasure Island by Andrew Motion
• The Game is Altered by Mez Packer
• We the Animals by Justin Torres
• Point Man by Mark Townsend
• The Misfortunates by Dimtiri Verhulst
Poetry
• Terrestrial Variations by Jane Griffiths
Children
• A Midsummer Tights' Dream by Louise Rennison
What are you reading this week?
