Podcast: Essex Book Festival and what makes a classic?

This week Rob and Kate look at what makes a classic book after attending the Picador Classic Day at Foyles Charing Cross, as well as previewing their picks of the Essex Book Festival. Continue reading “Podcast: Essex Book Festival and what makes a classic?”

Review: Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel

An incomplete list:

No more diving into pools of chlorinated water.
No more porch lights with moths fluttering on summer nights.
No more trains running under the surface of cities.
No more cities.
No more flight.
No more Internet.
No more towns glimpsed from the sky through airplane windows.
No more countries, all borders unmanned.

Day One
The Georgia Flu explodes over the surface of the earth like a neutron bomb. News reports put the mortality rate at over 99%.

Week Two
Civilisation has crumbled.

Year Twenty
A band of actors and musicians called the Travelling Symphony move through their territories performing concerts and Shakespeare to the settlements that have grown up there. Twenty years after the pandemic, life feels relatively safe. But now a new danger looms, and he threatens the hopeful world every survivor has tried to rebuild.
Continue reading “Review: Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel”

Our new bookish adventures – 1st August

There’s lots happening behind the scenes at Adventures With Words at the moment, and there’ll be more reviews coming soon, but in the meantime, I’d like to share some of our lovely new arrivals with you.  No, not another royal baby but some fantastic reads that Rob and I have bought, received and even won!

Time Riders, The Last BanquetI try to take part in The Readers’ Book Club when I can, and I recently had a really strong recommendation from WDW Kate (@wetdarkandwild) to try the Time Riders series, so Rob kindly bought the first Time Riders book by Alex Scarrow (Penguin) and The Last Banquet by Jonathan Grimwood (Canongate), for The Readers’ Bookclub, for me from Waterstones. Continue reading “Our new bookish adventures – 1st August”