BookTrail Travels in April – Isolation special
Books launching in isolation
These are worrying times. Dangerous times. I feel for those on the front line of the NHS, those working in supermarkets and all the key workers who we often shamefully take for granted.
Bookshops, some would argue, are not essential. I suppose when it comes down to it, only food and medicines really are. However, I am grateful for all the books I have in the house, grateful for ebooks, grateful for social media to be able to chat to booklovers and very grateful that I can lose myself for a while, travel anywhere I want to despite lockdown.
Travelling via books is a joy at any time of year, but now it’s keeping me sane. I”m currently in mobster New York with Ray Celestin. Yesterday I was on a long weekend in Lisbon and tomorrow I’m going to be….well I don’t know yet. That’s a joy for tomorrow.
I feel for the authors, especially debut ones who are releasing their books during the months ahead. That’s why I aim to help promote and spread the word about all these new books that might not be as visible right now in bookshops or via book launches.
(DEBUT ) AUTHORS NEED YOU RIGHT NOW MORE THAN EVER
INDIE BOOKSTORES NEED YOU RIGHT NOW
When bricks and mortar bookstores are closed right now, most of them are still selling books on line. They are recommending, tweeting about, sharing the book love in every way they can. They can send out books, order books and ensure you keep reading. This will ensure their survival as they will suffer with the current lack of customers in stores.
Here’s a few books to consider buying and helping celebrate their release in to an isolated world.
Conjure Women by Afia Atakora
USA
Life on the plantations was never easy but after the Civil War, everything changed. Miss Rue – midwife, healer, crafter of curses looks after her people. Freedom has come. The master’s Big House lies in ruins.However, when sickness sweeps across her tight-knit community, Rue finds herself the focus of suspicion. A gloriously written, lyrical and mystical account of plantation life and those who lived it.
One Italian Summer by Lori Nelson Spielman
New York, Trespiano, Ravello, Venice, Florence, Berlin
A journey to Tuscany to fulfill a final wish…three women embark on a journey to Tuscany to fulfill Great Aunt Poppy’s last wish to find her lost love and to break the family curse when it comes to love.
The Secrets of Ironbridge by Mollie Walton
England – Ironbridge
If you’ve never tried a saga read or been put off by them for some reason, here’s a good one to start with. There’s more meaty plot and fleshed out charcters here than in many other reads. The author immerses you deep in the heart of industrial England, factory life and day to day struggles, but more importantly, she introduces you to strong characters who survive and get on with life. Essential reading especially at the moment!
Theatre for Dreamers by Polly Samson
Greece – Hydra
The world is dancing on the edge of revolution, and nowhere more so than on the Greek island of Hydra. If you miss the sun on your face and need to isolate with some weird and wonderfully eccentric characters (who aren’t your family) then this is the book for you. Writers Charmian Clift and George Johnston, troubled king and queen of bohemia appear in the novel as does Axel Jensen and his dazzling wife Marianne Ihlen. There is also a certain young Canadian poet named Leonard Cohen….
City of Fallen Angels by Paul Buchanan
Los Angeles – LA Noir
Atmospheric detective noir set in the suffocating 1960s LA heat wave. L.A. PI John Keegan is offered a small fortune to find a beautiful woman from a set of photographs, but he smells a rat…..
You also need to keep an eye out for the 20th novel by Mandy Baggot – My Greek Island Summer
And for Gilded Cage, the new thriller from Camilla Lackberg although this is SO not like her cosy crime mysteries set in Fjallbacka. This one is set in a gilded cage of a house in Stockholm – you know, that grand apartment you would love to live in. What does go on behind closed doors however?
Plenty more where they came from. Keep your eyes on more new releases! Support authors who can’t have physical book launches or visit libraries. Travel somewhere via a book when you can’t get out in person.
Most of all- rest and relax and enjoy!
