Reading Room
GENRES
NEWS
- Orion Children's Books to publish new novel from internationally bestselling author Cornelia Funke (22 May 2012)
- The Hairy Bikers are going on tour! (22 May 2012)
- The Art of Betrayal shortlisted for Intelligence book of the Year Award (22 May 2012)
- Duncan Jones to direct new film based on biography of Ian Fleming (21 May 2012)
- Gollancz acquires 'The Hunger Games' Parody (8 May 2012)
NEW EVENTS
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Thursday 24 May 2012
The Cornish House -
Saturday 26 May 2012
Adventure Island 7: The Mystery of the Dinosaur Discovery -
Wednesday 30 May 2012
The Impossible Dead
Our featured reading room title for April is Salmon Fishing in the Yemen by Paul Torday. On the Reading Room page you'll also find reading guides, extracts and exclusive author interviews for all of our previous Reading Room Books of the Month.
Book Of The Month
Salmon Fishing in the Yemen
When he is asked to become involved in a project to create a salmon river in the highlands of the Yemen, fisheries scientist Dr Alfred Jones rejects the idea as absurd. But the proposal catches the eye of several senior British politicians.
Fred then finds himself forced to work with the eccentric Sheikh Muhammed and his beautiful assistant Harriet. And there's the small matter of figuring out how to fly ten thousand salmon to a desert country.
Now a major movie starring Ewan McGregor and Emily Blunt, Salmon Fishing in the Yemen is a novel about hypocrisy and bureaucracy, dreams and deniability, and the transforming power of faith and love.
Book Of The Month
Please Look After Mother
Travelling from the Korean countryside to the Seoul of her grown-up children, So-nyo is separated from her husband when the doors close on a packed train.
As her children and husband search the streets, they recall So-nyo's life, and all they have left unsaid. Through their piercing voices, we begin to discover the desires, heartaches, and secrets she harboured within. And as the mystery of her disappearance unravels, we uncover a larger mystery, that of all mothers and children: how affection, exasperation, hope and guilt add up to love.
Compassionate, redemptive and beautifully written, PLEASE LOOK AFTER MOTHER will reconnect you to the story of your own family, and to the forgotten sacrifices that lie at its heart.
Book Of The Month
Dark Matter
'Paver is the mistress of suspense, and the strangeness that humans can suffer from when exposed to the Arctic wilderness is brilliantly exploited in this period piece' The Times
January 1937. Clouds of war are gathering over a fogbound London. Twenty-eight year old Jack is poor, lonely and desperate to change his life. So when he's offered the chance to join an Arctic expedition, he jumps at it. Spirits are high as the ship leaves Norway and at last they reach the remote, uninhabited bay where they will camp for the next year. Gruhuken.
But the Arctic summer is brief. As night returns to claim the land, Jack feels a creeping unease. One by one, his companions are forced to leave. He faces a stark choice. Stay or go. Soon he will see the last of the sun, as the polar night engulfs the camp in months of darkness. Soon he will reach the point of no return - when the sea will freeze, making escape impossible. And Gruhuken is not uninhabited. Jack is not alone. Something walks there in the dark..
Watch Michelle Paver's interview about Dark Matter with Richard & Judy
