The Inevitable Gift Shop – Will Eaves
This collection of mini vignettes of fiction and non fiction, as well as poetry, is beautifully written and frequently hilarious– “really what tortoises teach you about is abusive relationships”. It’s a book that demands to be read and re-read – and then re-read again; both front to back, back to front, and in all other manner of combinations. The perfect book to revisit.
Reality Hunger – David Shields
We live in a world where the mainstream publishing industry seems only interested in printing sequels, prequels and celebrity memoirs. This risks homogenising our literary canon and limiting what is ‘new’. Shields grapples with what this means for us as writers in terms of style, structure, form and perhaps most importantly – content. It is collage. It is even – at times – borderline theft. But, isn’t that true of all art?
Poetry plus DUB (anthology)
This is remix; destructive construction; it is, at times, a little bit mad. But there is a strange beauty that lies within the frenetic energy of it all – a beautiful madness within the random that reveals itself as you excavate further and more deeply into the material. Reading the collection, therefore, becomes an exploration – a journey where one repeatedly makes new and unique discoveries, and, crucially, re-discoveries where you uncover new meaning in the remixed versions of the poems.
This is The Place to Be – Lara Pawson
In a world that seems so unrecognisable to so many – we need books like Pawson’s This is the place to be that shows us how to recognise things we think we cannot imagine; and reflects our feelings of uncertainty about the world and things we think we know and understand. Our worlds can so easily become so small and narrow and defined; This is the place to be helps bridge the divide between our social bubbles and the rest of the planet and reminds us, ultimately, of our place within it.
Truth and Dare – Martina Devlin
For centuries, the (often heroic) work and actions of women has been scooped to the margins of history and culture; suppressed. Devlin’s collection of beautiful stories seeks to set the books (and history) straight and address this imbalance, giving the female characters in the book’s stories the recognition they deserve. Compelling, timely and powerful – it’s a poignant and significant work that urges you to tell people about it (like I’m doing here).
Samuel Dodson is a twenty-something writer based in London. He is currently crowdfunding for his first book, ‘Philosophers’ Dogs’, through award-winning publishers Unbound. The humorous illustrated book features the ideas of such canine philosophers as Karl Barks and Sun Shih-tzu, and seeks to answer such important questions as ‘who really is a ‘good’ dog?’ and whether a bark is always truly worse than a bite.