Welcome back to Book Break!
Today, we are doing a publishing house TBR.
So I've been going around and chatting to loads of people in the office
to see the range of books that are being read, and quite how different everyone's TBR is
around the office!
We all love books here but we've all obviously got quite different tastes.
So let's start with my own TBR for the next few weeks.
I have just started reading The Testaments by Margaret Atwood.
Yes, I gave into the hype.
I have been really excited about this one for quite a while, and I've heard nothing
but amazing things from everyone who has read it.
So this one I imagine is on quite a few people's TBRs at the moment, so let's see what else
I've got.
I'm planning next on reading The Inheritance of Solomon Farthing by Mary Paulson-Ellis.
So this one I've just heard so many good things about.
Everyone in the office has been so excited about it.
And later this month on Book Break we're going to do a video all about historical fiction
recommendations, so I thought I better brush up on some really good ones.
This one's the story of an old man who dies alone in a nursing home in Edinburgh, and
nobody knows who his family is, he's got no will to speak of,
but they find £50,000 sewn into the lining of his coat.
So Solomon Farthing is the heir hunter who's brought in to try and find who this money
should go to
and in order to do that he has to delve into his past, and he finds this whole mystery
hidden back in his family tree.
So we've got parallel timelines between the present day
and during the First World War, the story of what happened to this man in France.
I love a parallel timeline so I've got really high hopes for this one.
And then another historical fiction that I'm also going to read for that video is The Winter
Soldier by Daniel Mason.
I have heard nothing but incredible things, particularly about the writing of this book,
and his last book The Piano Tuner, I want to read that at some point as well.
But he's just supposed to be such a beautiful writer, so I feel like this one's going to
be really moving.
This one is also a WW1 book, this time set in Vienna,
and it actually came up in our latest book haul video which I will link to if you haven't
watched that one yet,
and I just, I couldn't resist,
once I started talking about it I got so excited so I've definitely bumped it up to the top
of my TBR.
So those are my plans, but I have been talking to other people around the office to find
out what they've got on their TBRs as well.
So Rosh from Editorial is working on Saint X at the moment, so that's what she's currently
reading.
This is a book we'll be publishing next year.
It's a psychological drama which I can't tell you too much about yet, but do look out for
it.
It's about sisters, murder, and obsession, which are basically all of my buzzwords for
a good thriller,
so I am now officially adding that to my TBR as well.
And next up Rosh is going to be reading Educated by Tara Westover, which she said she added
to her TBR because she's never met anyone who didn't like it
which honestly, same.
Then I asked Elle, the other half of the Book Break team, and she is currently reading a
proof of a book called The Matchmaker by Catriona Innes
which she's reading because Catriona is actually one of her best friends!
And Catriona has also been on Book Break before.
She's the Features Director at Cosmopolitan, and she did a great video for us talking about
what it's like to work at Cosmo
so I will link to that, go check it out,
this is her debut novel, coming out later in November.
And it's apparently inspired by her love of the TV show First Dates.
So it's about a matchmaker, it's a love story, but also with a twist,
so there's a mystery running through it, it sounds so much fun.
Now Andy from Digital has got a perfect Halloween read on his TBR, he's going to be reading
Security by Gina Wohlsdorf.
So this is about a futuristic new build hotel, where people start dying off one by one,
even though there are security cameras watching everything.
It sounds really intriguing, really terrifying,
I might actually have to copy him and read that one on Halloween night, because that
sounds just perfect,
I love that kind of terrifying book.
And then I spoke to Emma from Children's, and she has been reading Three Women by Lisa
Taddeo.
I just finished this one as well, and it's honestly so good,
this is one you will have seen everywhere, so many people are talking about it,
but it really just is that brilliant.
So this is a non-fiction book, though it's written as if it was a novel,
you could believe it was a novel.
And it's about three different women
and the author basically interviewed them about their sex lives
and their three very different stories about female sexuality and desire
and the feeling of being desired.
They're really really interesting stories, and a lot of them really sad and moving as
well.
But then for something very different after that,
the next on Emma's TBR is The Secret Commonwealth, which is the next in Philip Pullman's Book
of Dust trilogy.
And the TV show of His Dark Materials is coming out in November,
so I can see why it is just the perfect time to be reading that book.
Now Sawney from the Digital team has got two great sounding books on his TBR which I hadn't
heard of before.
First is Fugitive Pieces by Anne Michaels, which he said he's reading because his mum
told him to,
which is as good a reason as any.
So this one sounds super powerful,
this is about a seven year old Holocaust survivor,
and it follows his life as he grows up and becomes an artist.
So wow, can't wait to hear more about that one when he's finished.
And then the next book on his TBR is The New Faces of Fascism by Enzo Traverso, which again,
I've been hearing a lot about, it sounds really really interesting.
And he said he's reading this one now, because it's been so frustrating watching the rise
of these white nationalist support groups,
and seeing them not being condemned by leading political figures.
So he wanted to read this to try and better understand how these groups are existing and
surviving in the world today.
Fascinating stuff.
Marisa, who works on our metadata, has also got a super political TBR at the moment.
She's going to be reading Prisoners of Geography by Tim Marshall,
which she said she picked up to try and make sense of everything that's going on in Europe
and the world at the moment.
So this one looks super interesting,
each chapter is focused on a different geographical area.
So it begins with a map, and then discusses quite how strongly geography affects politics,
and also how these lines between countries are drawn,
often really arbitrarily, and then end up having such a huge effect.
And then the next on Marisa's TBR is The Mercies by Kiran Millwood Hargrave,
I am so excited about this one,
it's coming out in February next year.
So this is set on a Norwegian island called Vardo in 1617, when a huge storm hit on Christmas
Eve,
and kills all of the men who are out fishing.
And so the women are effectively left to fend for themselves for the next 18 months,
until they are discovered and then accused of being witches.
And this is based on a true story,
it sounds absolutely brilliant, and I am so excited to hear Marisa's thoughts,
and also to pick it up for myself.
So that's a little selection of what people around the office are reading this month,
but do let us know what's on your TBR and what we should be picking up as well.
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See you next time.