Leaver's Post ...

Sadly, this term sees the retirement of Mrs Aslett, who's been school librarian at St Paul's since 1999: that's almost twenty years of gently guiding Paulines around the library's vast collection of resources, helping them to host author's visits, put on exhibitions, and discover the treasures of the archives and rare books room (as well as issuing the occasional fine).  She oversaw the seamless transition from the Walker Library (now, alas, mere rubble) to the new Kayton Library, and very kindly took the time during the busy last week of term to answer the book blog's questionnaire.

What sort of books were you reading when you were a teenager?
As a teenager I was into detective stories for recreation – Agatha Christie, Dorothy Sayers while also reading a lot of the classics.

This developed out of the texts I was reading at school eg a love of Dickens came from reading David Copperfield and A Tale of Two Cities. We studied Thomas Hardy's The Mayor of Casterbridge so I read almost all of the Hardy collection and still have some copies. My eldest daughter has my school copy of Pride and Prejudice.

Man Booker International Prize

The longlist for the Man Booker International Prize for Fiction has just been announced, and includes a wide range of interesting and provocative titles. It's still a relatively new prize, a development of the Independent newspaper's Foreign Fiction Prize, which ran until 2015, and included authors such Haruki Marukami and Karl Ove Knausgaard among its nominees and prize winners.

Book of the Week

Trials of Apollo: The Hidden Oracle by Rick Riordan
Recommended by Kian Kamshad

This book is the first in a trilogy about the Greek god Apollo, who has been cursed by Zeus to become a human called Lester Papadopoulos. He has to complete tasks for the first ‘demigod’ that claims him, and then he will become a god again. A demigod is the child of a god and a human. Apollo is ‘claimed’ by a demigod girl called Meg McCaffrey.

Measure for Measure

Next week's school play is Shakespeare's Measure for Measure.  Mr Anthony introduces the play, and explains some of the thoughts behind his production, which updates the play to 1980s London.
 

Measure for Measure is a play about a man who starts a fire in order to demonstrate his skill in putting it out. As a politician the Duke is conceited, idle and capricious (as well as being a compulsive liar), more concerned with re-igniting public awe at his absolute majesty than with restoring the fractured judicial system that his own negligence has allowed to crumble. As such, in a PR stunt of notable modernity, he temporarily absconds from his state, overlooks the uniquely qualified Escalus as replacement, and instead appoints a politically inexperienced junior, Angelo, to flounder in his place.

Book of the Week

The Blind Side: Evolution of a Game by Michael Lewis
Recommended by Alex Powell

The Blind Side, the latest book by bestselling author Michael Lewis (author of The Big Short), focuses on the story of the Michael Oher, one of the players accredited with redefining the Left Tackle position in American Football.

Overall, the story is told fluently, as the reader is given insights into the real story of this man. It is a clever blend of both fiction and fact, as the story is based on real events.

International Women's Day 2018 Books of the Week: Part 2

Welcome to our second post celebrating women writers, which features an introduction to the Women's Prize for Fiction and a recommendation from Dr Hudson.

The Women's Prize for Fiction was launched in 1996, in response to a Booker prize shortlist which didn't include a single woman writer.  It is awarded annually, and open to any full-length novel written in English.  

It's a prize that has continued to generate controversy. Some argue that opening a prize exclusively to women writers is sexist and discriminatory. Others point out that the literary world has a long way to go before it represents male and female writers equally, and that a recent survey suggests the world of books is still dominated by male writers and reviewers. Giving increased space and prominence to women writers and reviewers goes a little way towards redressing that imbalance.

International Women's Day 2018 Books of the Week: Part 1

As part of the SPS International Women's Day 2018 season of events, the book blog will be dedicating its two posts this week to books by women writers, as selected and recommended by the English Dept.

The Lesser Bohemians by Eimear McBride
Recommended by Mr Kemp

A wonderful story about a young female drama student falling into a passionate relationship with an older, troubled actor. This is a story seen many many times from a male perspective, where an older artist is revivified by a younger (usually early twenties) female muse. Often times the male novelist ends up writing an obnoxious wish-fulfilment fantasy – the worst example I’ve ever read being Milan Kundera’s ghastly Immortality. Yet McBride turns this story on its head, giving us something that is tender, lively, erotic, vivacious, and written with great joy and passion.

I can’t think of a better novel to read in Spring or early Summer, it’s such a beautifully evocative exploration of youth, young love, and awakening identity. It falls into an often overlooked category of modern fiction: a big-hearted book about characters we care about, and more importantly, we like. It’s also very romantic, in a tender and touching way.

Monster Mash-Up Final Poll Result

Is it a bird? Is it a plane?? No - it's the winner of our final World Book Day Monster Mash-Up Poll, as Paulines decided that the literary character most likely to win in a fight was - Superman!!!!!

(although you could also argue that the true winner of our final poll was 'the weather').  We hope you've enjoyed this week of polls, and that they've introduced you to some new monsters and monstrous characters, whether it's Azathoth, Urizen, Bartimaeus or Mr Kurtz - and that you'll be inspired to go off and find out more about them.  Thanks once again to everyone who contributed, and happy monster hunting!

Monster Mash-Up Poll Number 4: which literary character would win in a fight?

It's World Book Day!!  And we're delighted to kick the celebrations off with the results of yesterday's poll. With The Hungry Caterpillar in third place, and Shrek in second, the literary character Paulines would least like to have dinner with turns out to be - Hannibal Lecter!!!!! 

Today's final poll in our World Book Week Monster Mash-Up invites you to answer the deeply profound and significant question, which literary character would win in a fight?  Here at the book blog, we've always wondered: so read the nominations, cast your vote, and we'll find out ... (and remember, if you're reading this on your phone, you need to go to the end of the post and click 'view web version' to vote).