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NEW TITLES: NON-FICTION FEBRUARY
Caroline Sanderson
NON- FICTION
A massive month for non-fiction, with February establishing itself as the month for publishers to break out their latest talent
Valentine’s Day, nor even International Women’s Day on 8th March, both of which are prevailing themes as you might expect. It’s more that February seems now to be a time when publishers elect to release newly fledged non-fiction authors of promise out into the world. This trend has provided me with both an embarrassment of riches and the headache of not being able to highlight all the books I would like to have done. And while in almost any other month, exceptional books such as Afua Hirsch’s Brit(ish) or Helen Thomson’s Unthinkable would have been shoo-ins for Book of the Month, no title could quite compete with the extraordinary Educated by Tara Westover. When putting this preview to bed I realised, to my horror, that amid the deluge I had completely omitted yet another favourite February title. So here it is: Not That Kind of Love by Clare and Greg Wise (Quercus, 22nd, h/b, £16.99, 9781786488459), Clare’s personal journal of terminal cancer which oozes sass, verve, jokes and emotional depth, as it jerks from you the kind of tears you feel better for crying. Once Clare becomes too ill to write, her brother, the actor Greg Wise, takes up the story. It’s the most beautiful and giving of memorials.
I
EDITOR’S CHOICE/BOOK OF THE MONTH Personal favourites TOP SELLER
Likely to be the biggest selling titles of the month based on an author’s sales history ONES TO WATCH
Titles with strong sales potential and publisher support, regardless of sales history of the author
n all my years of compiling this preview I have never received as many proofs as I did this month. It’s not the fault of
10.11.17
www.thebookseller.com
E DITOR’ S C HOIC E BOOK OF TH E MONTH
BIOGRAPHY & MEMOIRS
TARA WESTOVER EDUCATED HUTCHINSON, 22ND, H/B, £14.99, 9781786330512 Educated was first brought to my attention a year or so
ago. Bought for a six-figure sum within 24 hours of the submission being sent out, rights have now been sold in 20 territories and it is a lead 2018 title for Penguin Random House. Does it live up to its rave advance billing? Absolutely it does. In fact, for me, it ranks alongside Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight—one of my favourite memoirs—in its blistering portrayal of landscape, hardship, violence, family and
the ties that bind. Tara Westover grew up in rural Idaho, the youngest of seven siblings in an intensely religious Mormon family. Her radical, survivalist father became so increasingly paranoid about federal interference in the lives of his family that he would allow no official records of Westover’s existence until she was nine. Neither did she set foot in a classroom until she was 17, where she caused offence one day by inadvertently revealing her complete ignorance of the Holocaust. And yet, 10 years later, she had earned a doctorate from Cambridge University. This is as powerful a story about the
transforming potential of education as you’ll ever read, by a writer still not yet 30. But it also leaves you reeling at the price Westover is still paying for a privilege most take for granted, severing her bonds with home in order to live in a brave new world.
POPULAR SCIENCE
ROMA AGRAWAL BUILT BLOOMSBURY, 8TH, H/B, £20, 9781408870365
Cars, houses, phones, bridges, roads,
tunnels, skyscrapers. Aspects of our daily lives created by engineers, but we give little thought to how they were built. This fascinating look at how construction has evolved, from the mud huts of our ancestors, to skyscrapers of steel hundreds of metres high, should fix that. Agrawal is an award-winning structural engineer who has worked on numerous buildings including The Shard, and is also a judge on Channel 4’s new “LEGO” show, and an active promoter of engineering and technical careers to young people. She tells many colourful stories of her life-long fascination with buildings, accompanied by her own hand-drawn illustrations.
BIOGRAPHY & MEMOIRS
DOLLY ALDERTON EVERYTHING I KNOW ABOUT LOVE FIG TREE, 1ST, H/B, £12.99, 9780241322710
Alderton is a 28-year-old journalist, writer, director and podcaster; story producer on “Made in Chelsea” and T4’s “Summer Daze”; the Sunday Times’ dating columnist from 2015–17; and presenter of popular culture podcast “The High Low”. Everything I Know About Love reveals an ordinary woman with an intelligent and entertaining take on trials and tribulations of growing up, growing older and finding love, especially the all-important love of friends, and of oneself. I found this major lead for Fig Tree funny, touching and wholly delightful. I especially loved her lists, and her recipes.
© David O’Driscoll
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