Book Blog

The Best Books on Russia and Revolution

Our Non-Fiction Book of The Month for February, The Romanovs 1613–1918 by Simon Sebag Montefiore, is an exceptional example of this year’s reflections on the 100 years that have passed since the climactic Russian revolutions of 1917. It is one of those once-in-a-decade texts that brings the past acutely into the present; the author’s inexhaustible research and deftness for story-telling sealing a vast but still intimate chronology of Russia’s twenty sovereigns.

As few have read as widely on the subject of Russia and its revolutions, Montefiore makes the ideal guide to the best that Russian history and Russian literature has to offer. Here, he shares his extensive and fascinating selection.

Quick Reads: Why We Should All Read More

In our device and app-centred age, as we increasingly divide our time between screens and not pages, The Reading Agency’s Quick Reads Initiative has put the following highly relevant question to twelve bestselling contemporary writers: Why should we all read more? From Amanda Craig's exploration of what true relaxation means to Clare Mackintosh's well argued case for reading as the ultimate investment, these twelve varied and well-reasoned answers are sure to get you logging off and reaching for the nearest book.

Arundhati Roy Announces New Novel After Twenty Years

Twenty years have passed since Arundhati Roy’s masterful, Booker-winning debut The God of Small Thing s found its way into the light: for many, it was perhaps the perfect novel; searching, wise, universal, a kaleidoscope of unforgettable incident that defined what literary fiction could do. For far too long, this wonderful book remained Roy’s only novel, her writing subsequently focusing on her real-world commitment as a courageous and committed political activist.

Now, almost unbelievably, that twenty-year wait is over. Simon Prosser, Hamish Hamilton's Publishing Director, describes the extraordinary moment he received the manuscript for Arundhati Roy’s new novel, The Ministry of Utmost Happiness.

Teaching Myself a Lesson: Maz Evans on writing Who Let The Gods Out?

Our Children's Book of the Month for February combines Greek mythology with the author's own sharp wit to create a high-octane adventure story that is absolutely perfect for that sometimes tricky 9-12 audience. Maz Evans’ Who Let The Gods Out? is a whirlwind of entombed demons and wild gods with feet of clay, written with all the gusto and energy that is spot-on for young minds. Although this is indeed her debut, Maz Evans has very much cut her teeth teaching the art of story to many, many others: for Waterstones, this spectacular new talent fills us in on how teaching writing transformed her own game.

Extract: A poem from Jacob Polley's T.S. Eliot Prize-winning collection Jackself

Jacob Polley’s dark, visceral collection of poetry Jackself was awarded the T. S. Eliot Prize on Monday. Semi-autobiographical, the collection tells the story of a young boy, Jack, coming of age in a thorny and surreal Cumbrian landscape reminiscent of Mervyn Peake’s Gormenghast. Judges of the award described the collection as ‘a firework of a book’, and referencing the Carlisle-born poet’s two previous nominations for the award said, ‘[his] mastery of phrase and rhythm and the control of line, combined with the hurts of childhood and his glee in inventive language, have taken his writing to a new level.” Polley was joined on the shortlist by British poets Alice Oswald, Ian Duhig,and Rachel Boast.

Vic James on creating Gilded Cage

As a current affairs television director, Vic James has had unique access to some of the world's most prominent and influential political figures. A lover of story-telling in all its forms, she is also a two-time judge of the Guardian's Not The Booker Prize. It is unsurprising therefore that her debut young adult novel, Gilded Cage, is underpinned by politics; the book is a dystopian fantasy set in an Orwellian Britain where the aristocracy are endowed with magical powers and the 'commoners' are poised on the edge of rebellion. Here, James explores five key experiences that inspired Gilded Cage, the first instalment in the Dark Gifts series.

A Waterstones exclusive: George Saunders frames his viral lecture hit, Congratulations, by the way

George Saunders is a writer’s writer. As a short-story author, he has hoovered up a number of awards, including the O. Henry, the World Fantasy Award, the Folio Prize, a Guggenheim Fellowship and an Arts and Letters Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Word of Saunders’ shift to the novel has provoked a rare flurry of anticipation, and the result – a wild flight from fact to fantasy where Abraham Lincoln is forced to fight for his dead son’s soul – has had everyone (from Zadie Smith to Thomas Pynchon) referring to Lincoln in the Bardo as a slice of pure, unadulterated genius.

In 2013, a convocation speech George Saunders gave for Syracuse University’s College of Arts and Sciences was later posted to the website of the New York Times and became an extraordinary viral hit. Congratulations, by the way has later found print as a beautifully produced hardback and in advance of the publication of Saunders’ novel, it’s our pleasure to be able to reproduce that speech here, together with an exclusive foreword and afterword, written for Waterstones Online.

Extract: We Come Apart

The winners of two of the most prestigious children's fiction prizes, Brian Conaghan (winner of the 2016 Costa Children's Book Award) and Sarah Crossan (winner of the 2016 CILIP Carnegie Medal), have joined forces to create an ambitious and heartbreaking young adult novel, We Come Apart. The book is a modern tale of star-crossed lovers, Nicu and Jess, two teens with troubled homes and hidden secrets. If they are to succeed as a couple, they must navigate complex issues of cultural difference, parental expectation and their own frayed self-image.

Conaghan won the 2016 Costa Children's Book Award for his dark, powerful story of survival, The Bombs That Brought Us Together,and Crossan was awarded last year's CILIP Carnegie Medal for her astonishing YA novel entirely in verse, One. The following extract is exclusive to Waterstones.

“I was everything a young person should be. Furious. Drunk. In love.” - Joseph Knox discusses Sirens

Joseph Knox’s Sirens is an out-of-the-darkness, nocturnal descent into the hardened criminal landscape of Manchester. Away from the eyes of the press, an M.P.’s daughter has gone missing and disgraced detective Aidan Waits has been hand-picked as the ideal man for the job; what follows is a mesmeric journey into a dread-filled urban noir. Sirens is Joseph Knox’s first novel.

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