Happy Birthday to me! April is my birthday month and like any other regular bookworm, the only thing I want for my birthday is BOOKS. I’m trying to do a post each month based on a meme I’ve liked (or an idea I’ve developed myself) and this month is the perfect opportunity to show you all what I might be asking for for my birthday. Obviously I’m not expecting to get all five but if I’m lucky enough to get any vouchers, this is what I’ll be buying. Let’s get on with it.
1.) Three Things About Elsie – Joanna Cannon
What’s it all about?:
There are three things you should know about Elsie.
The first thing is that she’s my best friend.
The second is that she always knows what to say to make me feel better.
And the third thing… might take a little bit more explaining.
84-year-old Florence has fallen in her flat at Cherry Tree Home for the Elderly. As she waits to be rescued, Florence wonders if a terrible secret from her past is about to come to light; and, if the charming new resident is who he claims to be, why does he look exactly like a man who died sixty years ago?
From the author of THE TROUBLE WITH GOATS AND SHEEP, this book will teach you many things, but here are three of them:
1) The fine threads of humanity will connect us all forever.
2) There is so very much more to anyone than the worst thing they have ever done.
3) Even the smallest life can leave the loudest echo.
Why do I want it?:
I loved The Trouble With Goats And Sheep and I’ve been eyeing this book for a little while now, even before it was long-listed for The Women’s Prize For Fiction this year. That cover, that synopsis and a host of fantastic, gushing reviews. It needs to be mine.
2.) The Mermaid And Mrs Hancock – Imogen Hermes Gowar
What’s it all about?:
This voyage is special. It will change everything…
One September evening in 1785, the merchant Jonah Hancock hears urgent knocking on his front door. One of his captains is waiting eagerly on the step. He has sold Jonah’s ship for what appears to be a mermaid.
As gossip spreads through the docks, coffee shops, parlours and brothels, everyone wants to see Mr Hancock’s marvel. Its arrival spins him out of his ordinary existence and through the doors of high society. At an opulent party, he makes the acquaintance of Angelica Neal, the most desirable woman he has ever laid eyes on… and a courtesan of great accomplishment. This meeting will steer both their lives onto a dangerous new course, on which they will learn that priceless things come at the greatest cost.
Where will their ambitions lead? And will they be able to escape the destructive power mermaids are said to possess?
In this spell-binding story of curiosity and obsession, Imogen Hermes Gowar has created an unforgettable jewel of a novel, filled to the brim with intelligence, heart and wit.
Why do I want it?:
Like Three Things About Elsie, The Mermaid And Mrs Hancock has been getting rave reviews. It joins Elsie on the Women’s Prize For Fiction long-list and looks to be a cracking piece of historical fiction.
3.) Sight – Jessie Greengrass
What’s it all about?:
The extraordinary first novel from the author of the prizewinning An Account of the Decline of the Great Auk, According to One Who Saw It.
It seemed, at times, an act of profound selfishness, to have a child so that I might become a parent; but selfish, too, to have a child and stay the same, or not to have one – unless the only honest choice would have been to try to become this kinder version of myself without the need to bring another into it . . .
Sight is about X-rays, psychoanalysis, and the origins of modern surgery. It is about being a parent, and being a child. Fiercely intelligent, brilliantly written and suffused with something close to forgiveness, it is a novel about how we see others and how we imagine ourselves.
Why do I want it?:
I hesitated about going to see this author speak at an event and now I’m kicking myself. This is a debut novel about motherhood so could potentially be quite a difficult read for me but I’ve heard such great things I think I’m just going to dive in and do it. Oh yes and it’s on the Women’s Prize For Fiction long-list.
4.) The Trick To Time – Kit de Waal
What’s it all about?:
Mona is a dollmaker. She crafts beautiful, handmade wooden dolls in her workshop in a sleepy seaside town. Every doll is special. Every doll has a name. And every doll has a hidden meaning, from a past Mona has never accepted.
Each new doll takes Mona back to a different time entirely – back to Birmingham, in 1972. Back to the thrill of being a young Irish girl in a big city, with a new job and a room of her own in a busy boarding house. Back to her first night out in town, where she meets William, a gentle Irish boy with an easy smile and an open face. Back to their whirlwind marriage, and unexpected pregnancy. And finally, to the tragedy that tore them apart.
Why do I want it?:
Shamefully, I still haven’t read the author’s first book, My Name Is Leon yet, although I have put it on my most recent Five Star TBR Predictions so I WILL be reading it soon. Again, I’ve heard fantastic things about this novel and guess what? It’s long-listed for The Women’s Prize For Fiction! I sense a pattern appearing here….
5.) Cannibalism: A Perfectly Natural History – Bill Schutt
What’s it all about?:
For centuries scientists have written off cannibalism as a bizarre phenomenon with little biological significance. Its presence in nature was dismissed as a desperate response to starvation or other life-threatening circumstances, and few spent time studying it. A taboo subject in our culture, the behavior was portrayed mostly through horror movies or tabloids sensationalizing the crimes of real-life flesh-eaters. But the true nature of cannibalism–the role it plays in evolution as well as human history–is even more intriguing (and more normal) than the misconceptions we’ve come to accept as fact.
In Cannibalism: A Perfectly Natural History, zoologist Bill Schutt sets the record straight, debunking common myths and investigating our new understanding of cannibalism’s role in biology, anthropology, and history in the most fascinating account yet written on this complex topic. Schutt takes readers from Arizona’s Chiricahua Mountains, where he wades through ponds full of tadpoles devouring their siblings, to the Sierra Nevadas, where he joins researchers who are shedding new light on what happened to the Donner Party–the most infamous episode of cannibalism in American history. He even meets with an expert on the preparation and consumption of human placenta (and, yes, it goes well with Chianti).
Bringing together the latest cutting-edge science, Schutt answers questions such as why some amphibians consume their mother’s skin; why certain insects bite the heads off their partners after sex; why, up until the end of the twentieth century, Europeans regularly ate human body parts as medical curatives; and how cannibalism might be linked to the extinction of the Neanderthals. He takes us into the future as well, investigating whether, as climate change causes famine, disease, and overcrowding, we may see more outbreaks of cannibalism in many more species–including our own.
Cannibalism places a perfectly natural occurrence into a vital new context and invites us to explore why it both enthralls and repels us.
Why do I want it?:
Oh my goodness, a book that isn’t on the Women’s Fiction long-list!! If you’ve followed me for a little while you might know I love my science non-fiction and this looks completely awful in the most intriguing of ways! Just reading the synopsis makes me want it more and more.
I’d love to know what you think of my birthday wish-list selection. Have you read any of these books and what did you think? Or do you want to read any of them and why? Let me know in the comments below!
