BookTalk
Book Talk with Smiffs book & card store , Nerja
The latest in Dan ‘ Da Vinci Code ’ Brown ’ s series of thrillers featuring Professor Robert Langdon is Origin ( l ). It kicks off at the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao and moves on at hectic pace to Barcelona in a tale blending a scientific breakthrough , a worldshattering revelation , hidden history , an ancient religion , a cryptic password and a tormented enemy out to eliminate Langdon and his sidekick .
It leads off our latest Hotlist of titles , some entirely new , others moving into small paperback format for the first time or being reissued , sometimes after a long time out of print . All of them are due for publication on various dates this month and in early November . The Hotlist helps readers to plan and budget for book ordering , particularly with the gift-giving season ahead .
Other thrillers worth a look include : Don ’ t Let Go ( l ), by Harlan Coben ; The Mountain ( l ), by Luca D ’ Andrea ; Manhattan Beach ( l ), by Jennifer Egan ; The Rooster Bar ( l ), by John Grisham ; Need You Dead ( p ), by Peter James ; Reckless Creed ( p ), by Alex Kava ; Prussian Blue ( p ), a Bernie Gunther thriller by Philip Kerr ; Cross The Line ( p ), an Alex Cross novel from James Patterson ; The Silent Companions ( l ), by Laura Purcell ; and Midnight At The Bright Ideas Bookstore ( l ), by Matthew Sullivan .
The Temptation To Be Happy ( p ), by Lorenzo Marone , is a feel-good tale of later life . Cesare , 77 , a widower and cynical troublemaker , has lived life by his own rules with no intention of changing . Aside from an intermittent fling with a nurse , he spends his days avoiding the old catlady next door and screening calls from his children . But when the enigmatic Emma moves in next door with her strange and sinister husband , Cesare suspects there is more to their relationship than meets the eye . He enlists other residents to help him investigate and discovers a new and unexpected sense of purpose leading him to risk everything for a future he had never thought possible .
Other fiction titles worth considering include : The Terranauts ( p ), by TC Boyle ; Christmas At Little Beach Street Bakery ( p ), by Jenny Colgan ; The Sparsholt Affair ( l ), by Alan Hollinghurst ; The Witches Of New York ( p ), by Ami McKay ;
Secrets Of A Happy Marriage ( p ), by Cathy Kelly ; Homegoing ( p ), by Yaa Gyasi ; Fever Dream ( p ), by Samanta Schweblin ( p ); The Mountain Between Us ( p ), by Charles Martin , which is now a major film starring Idris Elba and Kate Winslet ; A Book Of American Martyrs ( p ), by Joyce Carol Oates ; and Echoland ( p ), by Per Petterson .
Joan Fallon , the Axarquíabased writer , will be signing copies of The Ring Of Flames , the last book in her Al-Andalus series , at 11am on Thursday , October 19 at Smiffs Books & Card Shop in Nerja ( see advertisement opposite ).
The book begins in the year 1008 AD with al-Mansur , the despotic ruler of al-Andalus dead . Civil war looms as pretenders to the throne battle for supremacy of the Omayyad dynasty . Amid the turmoil , Ahmad continues to look after the falcons , but is torn between concern for his family ’ s safety and his loyalty to al-Hisham , the rightful caliph . The city of Córdoba is surrounded and the palace of Madinat al-Zahra is in ruins . There seems to be no escape , until help comes from an unexpected ally .
Back in the real world , new history titles include The Hundred Thousand Sons of St Louis ( h ), Ralph Weaver ’ s detailed account of the French military campaign in Spain from April to October , 1823 . France invaded with 100,000 men after a revolution in Spain in 1820 brought in a ' Liberal ' government and the Spanish parliament held Ferdinand , their king , a virtual prisoner . Ferdinand appealed for help from the French , who were supported by an army of Spanish Royalists . The publisher says there has been no book on this in any language since 1824 despite the war restoring France to a position as one of the leading world powers .
! No Pasaran !: Writings From The Spanish Civil War ( p ), by Pete Ayrton , moves into paperback . It draws most heavily on writers from Spain itself , including Mercè Rodoreda ( 1908 – 1983 ), Javier Cercas and Luis Buñuel .
Among this month ’ s cookery books , Catalonia : Recipes From Barcelona And Beyond ( h ), by Jose Pizarro , presents just what the title suggests . Aside from traditional plates , it includes some delicious recipes that may be new to you : duck egg and
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