Books to talk about

Received an email from crime writer Pauline Rowson today, with the fantastic news that her new novel In Cold Daylight has been selected as one of the 100 ‘Books to Talk About’ for World Book Day 2008 .


I haven’t read In Cold Daylight yet, but am looking forward to doing so next week, once my copy has arrived, and will post a Muddy Island Book Review here as soon as I have finished it.

The publicity blurb describes In Cold Daylight as ‘a hard hitting thriller inspired by a tragic true story of fire-fighters killed in the line of duty and a potential cover up over their deaths’. With an artist, rather than a cop, as the central character, this sounds like an unusual variation on the traditional crime novel, and having read Pauline’s Tide of Death, I’m sure there will be many layers of clues and unexpected twists awaiting me.



The idea behind the Books to Talk About list is that from these carefully selected, interesting, often ‘undiscovered’ titles by contemporary writers, you can vote for the title that you think will really spark discussion in you book club, on your blog or amongst friends, and add a comment about why you’ve made your choice. And there’s even a chance to win £100 worth of National Book Tokens as well.

A shortlist of the ten titles with the most votes will be published in early February 2008 and The Book to Talk About will be announced on World Book Day – Thursday 6 March – when the winning author will receive a £5,000 prize.

There are lots of other books in the list which look well worth investigating, too – it’s quite a treasure trove. The whole enterprise is like a kind of ‘instant book group’ for bloggers everywhere. I’ll start the ball rolling with a review of In Cold Daylight – and perhaps others will be inspired not only to read Pauline’s novel but to select another title from the list to read, review and get talking about.

World Book Day is always taken very seriously in my household. My Boy’s school pulls out all the stops in its ‘dress up as a character from a book’ competition. And though I shouldn't, I will just mention here that My Boy has won a prize for his/my costume every year for the last five! I can assure you that it is the only day in the year that my very dormant domestic goddess tendencies are flexed and I get out the sewing machine with serious intent.

Here are photos I’ve dug out for a couple from recent years: The Pied Piper of Hamlyn and Biggles (the latter caused major problems when the car wouldn’t start that morning for the 9-mile journey into school, but luckily a generous landrover-driving island friend came fabulously to the rescue and the day was saved and Biggles Flew to Victory!)