Welcome to Waterstone's bookclub

Marina Lewycka - live webchat - 8th July, 2009

Marina Lewycka is of Ukrainian origin and was born in a refugee camp in Kiel, Germany, during World War II. She studied at Keele University, and has written a number of books of practical advice for carers of the elderly, published by Age Concern, as well as two bestselling novels. She lectures in media studies at Sheffield Hallam University. Her latest book is We Are All Made of Glue.

On Wednesday 8th July , between 10am and 12 noon, we hosted a live webchat with Marina Lewycka. You can read Marina's responses to readers' questions below.

About We Are All Made of Glue:

From bonding to bondage, from B & Q to Belarus, along with seven smelly cats, three useless handymen, two slimy estate agents, social workers, and a bonker lady, this is the story of a very unlikely friendship. Georgie Sinclair's husband has walked out; her sixteen-year-old son is busy surfing born-again websites; and all those overdue articles for Adhesives in the Modern World are getting her down. So when Georgie spots Mrs Shapiro, an eccentric old Jewish emigre neighbour with an eye for a bargain and a fondness for matchmaking, rummaging through her skip in the middle of the night, it's just the distraction she needs...

Read more about Marina on her author page

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June 26, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (35)| TrackBack (0)

Sarah Waters live webchat, June 5th 2009

Sarah Waters was born in Wales in 1966. She has a Ph.D. in English Literature and has been an associate lecturer with the Open University. She has won a Betty Trask Award, the Somerset Maugham Award and was twice shortlisted for the Mail on Sunday/John Llewellyn Rhys Prize. In 2003, she was named Author of the Year three times: by the British Book Awards, The Booksellers’ Association and Waterstone’s Booksellers. She was also chosen as one of Granta's Best of Young British Novelists in 2003.

On Friday 5th June we hosted a live webchat with Sarah Waters. You can read the questions and answers below.

About The Little Stranger :

After her award-winning trilogy of Victorian novels, Sarah Waters turned to the 1940s and wrote The Night Watch, a tender and tragic novel set against the backdrop of wartime Britain. Shortlisted for both the Orange and the Man Booker, it went straight to number one in the bestseller chart. In a dusty post-war summer in rural Warwickshire, a doctor is called to a patient at Hundreds Hall. Home to the Ayres family for over two centuries, the Georgian house, once grand and handsome, is now in decline, its masonry crumbling, its gardens choked with weeds, the clock in its stable yard permanently fixed at twenty to nine. But are the Ayreses haunted by something more sinister than a dying way of life? Little does Dr Faraday know how closely, and how terrifyingly, their story is about to become entwined with his. Prepare yourself. From this wonderful writer who continues to astonish us, now comes a chilling ghost story.

Read more about Sarah on her author page

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May 22, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (28)| TrackBack (0)

Webchat with innocent - 13th May, 2009

It's been ten years since a group of three friends sold their first smoothies from a stall at a small music festival in west London. Over that period, the business has grown to have a turnover of more than £100 million and their drinks are now sold in over 8,000 outlets across 13 different countries in Europe.

A Book about innocent:

This is a book about innocent, the smoothie company that we started in 1999. We began writing it about two years ago, as we thought it was about time we started documenting the history of our business. So we racked our brains and tried to remember all of the important stuff and sat down to write it. As can happen with these things, it took us a bit longer than we thought, but we finally finished it off just after Christmas. It tells the tale of the first ten years, and is a book for anyone who wants to start their own business, bring fresh thinking to their current one or has been told their idea won't work. innocent is a business that almost didn't happen (we were turned down by every bank and investor in the land), and we hope by telling our story we can encourage other people to have a go at doing their own thing.

Read more about innocent on our innocent page

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May 11, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (39)| TrackBack (0)

The Book Circle - Born Under a Million Shadows

Welcome to the Book Circle.

The May Cardholders' Choice of the Month is Born Under a Million Shadows by British journalist Andrea Busfield. Join in the discussion below to share your views on this moving tale.

About the book:
The Taliban have disappeared from Kabul's streets, but the long shadows of their brutal regime remain. In his short life eleven-year-old Fawad has known more grief than most: his father and brother have been killed, his sister has been abducted, and Fawad and his mother, Mariya, must rely on the charity of family to eke out a hand-to-mouth existence. Then Mariya finds a position as housekeeper for a charismatic western woman, Georgie, and Fawad dares to hope for an end to their struggle. He soon discovers that his beloved Georgie is caught up in a dangerous love affair with the powerful Afghan warlord Haji Khan, a legendary name on the streets of Kabul. At first resentful of Haji Khan's presence, Fawad learns that love can move a man to act in surprising ways, and an overwhelming act of generosity persuades him of the warlord's good intentions. But even a man as influential as Haji Khan can't protect Fawad from the next tragedy to blight his young life, a tragedy so devastating that it threatens to destroy the one thing Fawad thought he could never lose: his love for his country.

"The story has lots of different things in it; love, violence, arranged marriages, culture and much, much more. I would recommend this to anyone, even if it isn't normally your kind of book. I thoroughly enjoyed it."
Zoey Totty

Born Under a Million Shadows by Andrea Busfield

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April 29, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (0)| TrackBack (0)

Join the Great Adaptations discussion now!

Have your say on the books and movies in our Great Adaptations season - join our interactive discussion on the films that you think would've been better off left as books, and the adaptations that have outshone their literary counterparts.

April 01, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (19)| TrackBack (0)

The Book Circle - Firmin: Adventures of a Metropolitan Lowlife

The April Cardholders' Choice of the Month is Firmin by first-time novelist Sam Savage. Join in the discussion below to share your views on this charmingly original tale.

About the book:
This is a novel told through the voice of a rat. Firmin is born in the basement of a ramshackle old bookstore but because he is the runt of the litter, he is forced to compete for food and ends up chewing on the books that surround him. Firmin soon realizes his source of nourishment has endowed him with the ability to read and this discovery fills him with an insatiable hunger for literature and a very unratlike sense of the world and his place in it. As Firmin navigates the shadowy streets of his decaying area, looking for understanding, his excitement, loneliness, fear, and self-consciousness become remarkably human and undeniably touching. But the days of the bookshop and of the close community around it are numbered. The area has been marked out for 'urban regeneration' and soon the faded glory of the bookshop, the small local theatre, the unique shops and small cafes will face the bulldozers and urban planners. Brilliantly original and richly allegorical, Firmin is brimming with charm and wistful longing for a world that understands the redemptive power of literature and treasures its seedy theaters, one-of-a-kind characters, and cluttered bookshops.

"The book is nostalgic for the time when bookshops and independent cinemas were thriving and shows that when they go, other things fall apart. The best way of describing this book is as a literary version of an intelligent Pixar movie for grown-ups. It is enchanting with wonderful illustrations which make turning the pages a pure joy."
Anja de Jager

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April 01, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (2)| TrackBack (0)

Stefan Merrill Block webchat, 8th April, 2009

We have a live webchat coming up on April 8th (between 3pm and 4pm) with Stefan Merrill Block, the author of our March Book Circle winner - you can either post your question now by clicking on the "take part in the discussion" link at the end of the introduction below, or wait until the day of the webchat and join in then. We look forward to hearing from you!

About the book:
Fifteen-year-old Seth Waller is devastated when his mother is diagnosed with a rare, early-onset form of Alzheimer's. When he was growing up, his mother always brushed aside questions about her past and family, and Seth realises that soon he will lose his chance to find out any more. He decides to uncover the truth about her life, their family history and the condition, and what he discovers is more surprising than he ever could have imagined. Inspired partly by Stefan Merrill Block's own family history, The Story of Forgetting is a moving and inspiring novel of love, loss, hope and genetic destiny.

"This book enthralled me. So much so, that I read it in two sittings. The author writes with such in-depth knowledge, understanding and compassion about a subject most would not want to experience. The impact of early onset Alzheimers Disease on one family really gets into the core of your emotions and intellect. It is everything a book should be."
Joyce Hyde

April 01, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (35)| TrackBack (0)

Jodi Picoult webchat, 27th April, 2009

Jodi Picoult is the bestselling author of sixteen novels (and counting). She was born and raised - happily - on Long Island... something that she believed at first was a detriment to a girl who wanted to be a writer. "I had such an uneventful childhood that when I was taking writing classes at college, I called home and asked my mother if maybe there might have been a little incest or domestic abuse on the side that she'd forgotten about" Picoult recalls. "It took me a while to realize that I already did have something to write about, that solid core of family, and the knotty tangle of relationships, which I keep coming back to in my books." Her latest book is Handle With Care.

About Handle With Care :

Everything breaks. Some things just hurt more than others. Charlotte O'Keefe's beautiful, much-longed-for, adored daughter Willow is born with osteogenesis imperfecta - a very severe form of brittle bone disease. If she slips on a crisp packet she could break both her legs, and spend six months in a half body cast. After years of caring for Willow, her family faces financial disaster. Then Charlotte is offered a lifeline. She could sue her obstetrician for wrongful birth - for not having diagnosed Willow's condition early enough in the pregnancy to be able to abort the child. The payout could secure Willow's future. But to get it would mean Charlotte suing her best friend. And standing up in court to declare that she would have prefered that Willow had never been born...

Read more about Jodi on her author page

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March 26, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (47)| TrackBack (0)

Marian Keyes - live web chat - Friday, 20th March

We had a fantastic a live webchat with Marian Keyes between on Friday 20th March - you can read the questions and answers on the thread below.

Marian Keyes is a publishing phenomenon. Though she didn't start writing until ten years ago, she is now one of the most successful Irish novelists of all time. She describes herself as "an accidental novelist." Though she was brought up in a home where a lot of oral story-telling went on, it never occurred to her that she could write. Instead she studied law and accountancy and finally started writing short stories in 1993 "out of the blue." Though she had no intention of ever writing a novel ("It would take too long") she sent her short stories to a publisher, with a letter saying she'd started work on a novel. She was born in Limerick in 1963, and brought up in Cavan, Cork, Galway and Dublin; she spent her twenties in London, but is now living in Dún Laoghaire with her husband Tony. She includes among her hobbies, reading, movies, shoes, handbags and feminism.

About This Charming Man:

Lola has just found out that her boyfriend - charismatic politician Paddy de Courcy - is getting married. To someone else. Heartbroken, Lola flees the city for a cottage by the sea. But will Lola's retreat prove as idyllic as she hopes? Journalist Grace wants the inside story on Paddy de Courcy's engagement and thinks Lola holds the key to it. Grace knew Paddy a long time ago. But why can't she forget him? Grace's sister, Marnie, might have the answer but she also has issues with the past. Her loving loving husband and beautiful daughters are wonderful, but they can't take away memories of her first love: a certain Paddy de Courcy. What will it take for Marnie to be able to move on? Alicia Thornton is Paddy's wife-to-be. Determined to be the perfect wife, Alicia would do anything for her fiance. But does she know the real Paddy? Four very different women. One awfully charming man. And the dark secret that binds them all.

Read more about Marian on her author page and watch a video

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March 16, 2009 in Books | Permalink | Comments (40)| TrackBack (0)

James Frey - live webchat - 11th March, 2009

James Christopher Frey is an American writer. His first book, the memoir, A Million Little Pieces, was published by John Murray in 2003. Its follow-up, My Friend Leonard (also a memoir) was published by in 2005. Both books became New York Times number one bestsellers. In late 2005 and early 2006, investigators discovered that elements of his memoir, A Million Little Pieces, had been fabricated. It was a great book in any case, so everybody's happy. Frey, along with his family, currently resides in New York City. His latest book is Bright Shiny Morning .

About Bright Shiny Morning:

This is a bold and dazzling new story from the controversial creator of A Million Little Pieces. Welcome to LA. City of contradictions. It is home to movie stars and down-and-outs. Palm-lined beaches and gridlock. Shopping sprees and gun sprees. Bright Shiny Morning takes a wild ride through the ultimate metropolis, where glittering excess rubs shoulders with seedy depravity. Frey's trademark filmic snapshots zoom in on the parallel lives of diverse characters, bringing their egos and ideals, hopes and despairs, anxieties and absurdities vividly to life. Some suffer, like the otherworldly wino who tries to save a spoilt teenage runaway. Others gain, like the canny talent agent who turns sexual harassment to blackmailing advantage. Some are loaded, or grounded, and have luck on their side. Others, like the countless actresses-turned-hookers, or schoolboys-turned-gangsters, are doomed.

Read more about James on his author page

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March 10, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (50)| TrackBack (0)

About the bookclub

The Waterstone's bookclub is an open forum for the discussion of books and all related topics. Featuring titles from Chick Lit to Science Fiction and everything in-between, whatever your views, we look forward to reading your comments…