The Mr B's Bookseller's Dozen - March 2021
By Mr B's Emporium of Reading Delights
The Mr B's Bookseller's Dozen - March 2021
By Mr B's Emporium of Reading Delights
Thirteen buns might be enough for a baker, but no self-respecting bookseller can narrow down a month of reading temptations that far. No, our booksellers need at least a double-dozen of books to devour and so, we suspect, do you.....
All Boys Aren't Blue
George M. Johnson
£8.99 £8.54Mr B's notes - This YA memoir-manifesto follows the life of George, a journalist and LGBT+ activist, as he navigates the complexities of a black and queer existence. Although Johnson’s tone is colloquial, ‘All Boys Aren’t Blue’ is eloquent and nuanced in the exploration of its themes.
Blacktop Wasteland: the acclaimed and award-winning crime hit of the year
S. A. Cosby
£10.99 £10.44Mr B's notes - Beauregard is an ex-getaway driver who’s gone straight. But, with his auto-repair shop failing, he can’t resist the offer of one last pay-off that could answer all of his problems. A brilliant thriller full of epic driving scenes, slick dialogue and tonnes of action.
City of Rust
Gemma Fowler
£7.99Mr B's notes - Drone races, bounty hunters, trash bombs and bio-robotic geckos collide in this original middle-grade science fiction thriller! When Railey and Atti are forced to flee Earth they find safety with the feared Junker clans, only to stumble upon something much more dangerous.
Come Join Our Disease: Shortlisted for The Gordon Burn Prize 2021
Sam Byers
£16.99Mr B's notes - In his new novel, Byers’ demonstrates his unsettling ability to write convincingly prophetic, and imminent feeling dystopias. In this particular version of reality, a homeless woman is offered a better future, all she must do is live stream her life for an audience...
Common Ground: Did you ever have a friend who made you see the world differently?
Naomi Ishiguro
£16.99Mr B's notes - Following her fantastic short story collection ‘Escape Routes’, this timely and bittersweet novel from Mr B’s alumni Naomi Ishiguro follows the unlikely friendship between two boys from very different backgrounds. Only when their paths cross again in adulthood is their loyalty put to the test.
Double Blind
Edward St Aubyn
£18.99 £18.04Mr B's notes - From the acclaimed author of the Patrick Melrose series comes this ambitious new novel exploring themes of ecology, genetics and neuroscience. Set between London, Cap d’Antibes, Big Sur and a rewilded corner of Sussex, it follows three friends during a time of great transformation.
Edge of the Grave
Robbie Morrison
£14.99 £14.24Mr B's notes - The novel kicks off with an evocative swoop through 1920s Glasgow, via its complex neighbourhood gang affiliation and is an absolutely cracking police thriller, brilliantly plotted with a shocking ending and a great central detective. Peaky Blinders with a Chandler-on-the-Clyde noir vibe.
Free-Range Freddy
Rachel Bright and Izzy Evans
£6.99 £6.64Mr B's notes - The creator of ‘Love Monster’, ‘Worrysaurus’ and more now brings us a wonderful multi-coloured chick who explodes from his egg to break-up the farmyard monotony. Freddy soon shares his penchant for joy and doing things differently with all the chickens in this riotous rhyming tale.
Greenery: Journeying with the Spring from Southern Africa to the Arctic
Tim Dee
£9.99 £9.49Mr B's notes - With the entire world coiled and preparing to spring forth in renewal, there couldn’t be a better time to read this book. In step with the best days of the year, the endlessly entertaining and perceptive Dee makes remarkable journeys from Scandinavia to the Sahara.
Helgoland: The Strange and Beautiful Story of Quantum Physics
Carlo Rovelli
£20.00Mr B's notes - In ‘Seven Brief Lessons on Physics’, the mechanics of the universe was made intelligible for us laymen - now Rovelli turns his attention to the lives of those individuals whose intellectual endeavours shaped that knowledge. In this author’s hands, these scientists were adventurers.
House of Glass: The Story and Secrets of a Twentieth-Century Jewish Family
Hadley Freeman
£9.99 £9.49Mr B's notes - Upon finding strange relics from her late grandmother’s past, Hadley Freeman embarked on a quest to understand her heritage. The result is an intricate portrait of the Jewish experience during WWII, documented with compassion and told with a compelling narrative.
Klara and the Sun: The Times and Sunday Times Book of the Year
Kazuo Ishiguro
£20.00 £19.00Mr B's notes - The Nobel Prize-winning author returns with this extraordinary near-future novel. Through the story of Klara, an Artificial Friend with unique observational abilities, Ishiguro challenges the most fundamental questions of our time - what makes us human, and what does it mean to love?
One: Pot, Pan, Planet: A Greener Way to Cook for You, Your Family and the Planet
Anna Jones
£28.00 £26.60Mr B's notes - Anna Jones is back with another fantastic veg-heavy, easier than you think, even easier to eat recipe collection. More of the clever recipes and exquisite food-photography that you know and love, now with a clear message on the role of our diet in the climate crisis.
Places I've Taken My Body
Molly McCully Brown
£12.99 £12.34Mr B's notes - Described as ‘the Rebecca Solnit of the body’, Molly McCully Brown guides us through ever-surprising ways of being within the limits of a body. These essays, exploring desire, disability, travel and history, ask what embodiment really means.
The Field
ROBERT SEETHALER
£14.99Mr B's notes - In the small town of Paulstadt, the inhabitants of ‘The Field’ (the oldest part of the cemetery) speak from beyond the grave. Their individual stories, capturing both disparate moments and life-changing events, are subtly intertwined to create a rich picture of a community through time.
The Stonemason: A History of Building Britain
Andrew Ziminski
£10.99 £10.44Mr B's notes - A working man’s personal history of an ancient craft from a stonemason whose career highlights reel includes repairing Thomas Gainsborough’s tomb and the Roman Baths. A celebration of Jurassic coast stone, working with your hands, mastering a skill and Britain’s historic built landscape.
The Weather Weaver: A Weather Weaver Adventure (Book 1)
Tamsin Mori
£7.99 £7.59Mr B's notes - Who wouldn’t want a cloud as a pet!? Stella definitely isn’t expecting one when she goes to stay with her grandfather on Shetland. A beautiful story touching on dealing with grief, but balanced with an abundance of nature, magic and myths.
Transcendent Kingdom: Shortlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction 2021
Yaa Gyasi
£14.99Mr B's notes - An artful and affecting tale of a Ghanaian-American family and the challenges of their new life in the Deep South. Traversing generations and continents, this book is an exceptionally modern novel from the celebrated author of ‘Homegoing’.
Unbury Our Dead with Song
Mukoma Wa Ngugi
£11.99 £11.39Mr B's notes - Any blurb which mentions a singing competition, an illegal boxing ring, and a newspaper called ‘The National Inquisitor’ will naturally pique our interest. This ‘love letter to African music, beauty and imagination’ is a vibrant and mysterious novel set across Ethiopia and Kenya.
Valentine
Elizabeth Wetmore
£8.99 £8.54Mr B's notes - In a 70s West Texas oil town where the men get rich quick while the women play house, the equilibrium is shaken by a brutal attack on a teenage girl. A gripping story of race, violence and gender with a roaring, shifting moral heart.