18 May
Bertrand Russell, born in Monmouthshire, 1872. English philosopher, mathematician, historian, social reformist, and pacifist. He is best known for the work Principia Mathematica, an attempt to ground mathematics on logic. Read Principia Mathematica
Read the opening extract of the brand new Philippa Gregory book before its publication on 24/05/2012
Bring Up the Bodies Hilary Mantel
May 2012 MEGA Book of the Month.
With her dazzling, utterly absorbing style of writing Bring Up the Bodies focuses on the downfall and destruction of the charismatic Anne Boleyn. This is the... Format: Hardback - Released: 10/05/2012
Dare Me Megan Abbott
May 2012 Book of the Month.
Following on from her Richard and Judy selected title, The End of Everything, is this dark dangerous coming of age story set among a fiercely competitive... Format: Hardback - Released: 10/05/2012
In One Person John Irving
May 2012 Book of the Month.
Picking up on the term 'a sexual suspect' Irving first used in his landmark novel The World According to Garp, In One Person is the tragic,... Format: Hardback - Released: 10/05/2012
Other Featured Books this Month
The Light Between Oceans M. L. Stedman
May 2012 MEGA Debut of the Month.
What a brilliant and memorable debut. Superb characters, heart-rending plot and, set on an island 100 miles from Australia, a uniquely beautiful setting. After the horrors... Format: Hardback - Released: 26/04/2012
Seating Arrangements Maggie Shipstead
May 2012 Debut of the Month.
Dark, comic with captivating prose, this is a stunning first novel and quite rightly being talked about as one of the literary debuts of 2012. A seemingly... Format: Hardback - Released: 24/05/2012
Heart-shaped Bruise Tanya Byrne
May 2012 Debut of the Month.
This gripping, provoking and emotional debut, written from the perspective of a troubled young girl in a young offenders institute awaiting trial for a vicious crime, is... Format: Hardback - Released: 10/05/2012
The River Woman Sorrel Pitts
May 2012 Debut of the Month.
'A fascinating story told by a very promising writer.' Sir Michael Parkinson.A young woman is found half frozen to death on a remote farm and... Format: Paperback - Released: 19/09/2011
Mr g: A Novel About the Creation Alan P. Lightman
May 2012 eBook of the Month.
Philosophy and physics combine with imagination, wit, and clearly a lot of intellectual firepower, in this fictional account of an omnipotent being creating a universe. Suspend disbelief... Format: Hardback - Released: 03/05/2012
Dreams of Joy Lisa See
Set in 1950s China during Mao’s brutal ’great leap forward’ this heart-rending story of a mother's love is a gripping and mesmerising read. And with the research the author has done, an education as well. This book can be read... Format: Paperback - Released: 10/05/2012
The Song of Achilles Madeline Miller
Shortlisted for the Orange Prize for Fiction 2012.
A breathtakingly original rendering of the Trojan War - a devastating love story and a tale of gods and kings, immortal fame and the human heart. Format: Paperback - Released: 12/04/2012
That Summer in Ischia Penny Feeny
May 2012 Debut of the Month.
With intrigue, lost friendships and set on a sun-drenched Italian island, this is one of these stories that you just want to keep on reading. 25 years... Format: Paperback - Released: 03/05/2012
Jubilee Shelley Harris
A joyous, cleverly written, morally minded (but never preachy) novel. Set during a street party for the Queen's Silver Jubilee in 1977 and 35 years later, it explores the real story behind an iconic photograph taken in 1977 that seems... Format: Paperback - Released: 24/05/2012
The Midnight Palace Carlos Ruiz Zafon
From the author of The Shadow of the Wind, the haunting story of a secret society and a labyrinthine railway station with a dark past. Written with a teenage audience in mind but enjoyable by all. Format: Paperback - Released: 26/04/2012
You Joanna Briscoe
This story is about a girl's compulsive obsession with her teacher and it is a compulsively obsessive book, taking you to the wilds of Dartmoor and the depth of your senses, both physical and emotional. What happens when childish dreams... Format: Paperback - Released: 10/05/2012
The Watch That Ends the Night : Voices from the Titanic Allan Wolf
Arrogance and innocence, hubris and hope - twenty-four haunting voices of the Titanic tragedy, as well as the iceberg itself, are evoked in a stunning tour de force. Format: Hardback - Released: 02/02/2012
An Inventory of Heaven Jane Feaver
The few years Mavis Gaunt spent in the village of Shipleigh, Devon, as a wartime evacuee - away from London and her parents' loveless marriage - were sufficient for her to conceive of the place as a heavenly retreat. But... Format: Hardback - Released: 17/05/2012
That Summer at Hill Farm Miranda France
Farmer Hayes loves the land - but hates farming. His neglected wife Isabel adores her three children, but is temperamentally unsuited to life as a wife and mother. The Smith sisters have not spoken to one another for forty years,... Format: Paperback - Released: 03/05/2012
The Red House Mark Haddon
Family, that slippery word, a star to every wandering bark, and everyone sailing under a different sky. After his mother's death, Richard, a newly remarried hospital consultant, decides to build bridges with his estranged sister, inviting Angela and her family... Format: Hardback - Released: 10/05/2012
Lucky Bunny Jill Dawson
'Crime's a man's business. So they say. Who was that small figure then, slender enough to trot along the moonlit track, swift and low, virtually invisible? Who was it that covered the green signal with a glove to stop the... Format: Paperback - Released: 10/05/2012
River of Smoke Amitav Ghosh
In September 1838 a storm blows up on the Indian Ocean and the Ibis, a ship carrying a consignment of convicts and indentured laborers from Calcutta to Mauritius, is caught up in the whirlwind. When the seas settle, five men... Format: Paperback - Released: 10/05/2012
The Lovers Vendela Vida
Yvonne is newly widowed, her children grown up. And so, hoping to revisit memories of a happier time, she travels to Turkey. Despite the sand and sea, memories of Yvonne's past are overwhelming and she clings to a newfound friendship... Format: Paperback - Released: 01/05/2012
The Humorist Russell Kane
Featured on The Book Show on Sky Arts on 10 May 2012.
The coruscatingly original debut novel from one of Britain's best young comedians. Format: Hardback - Released: 26/04/2012
This is where you’ll find the very best in modern literary writing and discover the new heroes of fiction as well as the established masters. This section features novels not only from home-grown favourites (from Martin Amis and Salmon Rushdie, to David Nicholls and Zadie Smith) but also from international writers too, like Isabel Allende, David Guterson and Gabriel Garcia Marquez (and, obviously, many more)
By looking at the list of books opposite you can see, at a glance, all the ‘featured’ books for this and for last month. Each book comes with a review, a synopsis and free opening extract to help you choose your next great read. Whether it’s Sebastian Faulks, Alain de Botton, Jostein Gaarder, Joanne Harris or Linda Grant you’ll find what you’re looking for here.
All of our featured books are hand-picked and reviewed by our in-house editorial experts. This is unique to Lovereading and means that you can be sure of considered guidance by industry professionals. That’s how much we want you to Lovereading!
By receiving our regular emails you will stay informed about this huge range of great writing and get direct access to free downloadable extracts, to ensure you constantly find titles that suit your taste.
Sign up today!
Author “Like For Like”
Liked your last read? Like to discover new writers? Know what you Like, but not where to look? By using our unique “Author Like for Like” service, you can let us do the work for you! Simply follow the link at the bottom of the page, type in an author and we will suggest other similar writers for you to try. You’ll never be stuck for choice again!
Member of a Reading Group? - Buy 5 or more copies of any single title and get an extra 5% discount!
The Legacy of Hartlepool Hall Paul Torday
From the author of instant bestseller Salmon Fishing in the Yemen, comes a highly readable, witty tale of unwanted inheritance, uptight Britishness and the preservation of a lost way...
Secrets of the Tides Hannah Richell
April 2012 MEGA Debut of the Month.
A sensitive, convincing and beautifully written novel. Full of descriptive power, it defines the beginnings and...
On Canaan's Side Sebastian Barry
April 2012 Book of the Month.
Getting a copy of a new novel from award-winning Sebastian Barry in the office is always a...
Briefs Encountered Julian Clary
Whoever said the afterlife would be easy...Noel Coward is the toast of twenties society...a brilliant playwright, composer and entertainer whose witty songs and pithy lines don't quite tell the full...
The Chemistry of Tears Peter Carey
It's London 2010, Catherine Gehrig, conservator at the Swinburne museum, learns of the unexpected death of her colleague and lover of thirteen years. As the mistress of a married man...
The Cove Ron Rash
This simple and sad story is told with such exquisite language and believable characters you will be transported to the Appalachian mountains of Carolina during the First World War. Prejudice,...
The Invisible Circus Jennifer Egan
April 2012 Book of the Month.
This is the stunning, emotional debut novel, first published in 1995, from the unclassifiable but excellent author...
Irma Voth Miriam Toews
The stifling, reclusive life of nineteen-year-old Irma Voth, recently married, and more recently deserted is turned on its head when a film crew moves in to make a movie about...
The Marriage Plot Jeffrey Eugenides
Ten years on from his Pulitzer Prize-winning novel Eugenides delivers a witty, well written and wholehearted coming of age story. Set in the early 80s and described by The Times...
A Conspiracy of Friends Alexander McCall Smith
The third novel in McCall's acclaimed series about the colourful
inhabitants of Corduroy Mansions, Pimlico. This installment follows the
adventures of Oedipus Snark, the nasty Liberal Democrat and his mother...
The Paw Paw Tree Susan Fairfoot
A small boy is diagnosed as autistic but develops savant-type
brilliance. His father is unable to let go of recurring memories and
nightmares of a past reincarnation as a persecuted...
At Last Edward St. Aubyn
April 2012 Book of the Month.
At Last is a masterpiece of glittering dark comedy and profound emotional truth. If you haven't already...
Signs of Life Anna Raverat
April 2012 Debut of the Month.
This edgy, seductive, tense and sinister debut, perfect for reading groups, will have you, like us, engrossed;...
An Invisible Sign of My Own Aimee Bender
When Mona Gray is ten her father contracts a mysterious illness. His gradual withdrawal from everyday life marks a similar change in Mona, who removes herself from anything - or...
Skagboys Irvine Welsh
Mark Renton has it all: he's good-looking, young, with a pretty girlfriend and a place at university. But there's no room for him in the 1980s. Thatcher's government is destroying...
The Art of Fielding Chad Harbach
Henry Skrimshander, newly arrived at college, shy and out of his depth, has a talent for baseball that borders on genius. But sometimes it seems that his only friend is...
Never Mind Edward St. Aubyn
THE FIRST PATRICK MELROSE NOVEL.
At his mother's family house in the south of France, Patrick Melrose has
the run of a magical garden. Bravely imaginative and self-sufficient,
five-year-old Patrick encounters...
Bad News Edward St. Aubyn
THE SECOND PATRICK MELROSE NOVEL.
Twenty-two years old and in the grip of
a massive addiction, Patrick Melrose is forced to fly to New York to
collect his father's ashes. Over...
Mother's Milk Edward St. Aubyn
Shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize for Fiction 2006.
The novel’s perspective ricochets among all members of the Melrose family – the family featured in St. Aubyn’s Melrose series that...
Some Hope Edward St. Aubyn
THE THIRD PATRICK MELROSE NOVEL Patrick Melrose, cleaned-up and world-weary, is a reluctant guest at a glittering party deep in the English countryside. Amid a crowd of flitting social dragonflies,...
Sorry Zoran Drvenkar
March 2012 Book of the Month.
This highly original, dark (v v dark) and sinister thriller breaks all the rules; such as switching...
The Paris Wife Paula McLain
Featured on The Book Show on Sky Arts on 28 April 2011.
A heart-wrenching story of ambition and betrayal that captures a remarkable period of time and a love affair between...
The Man Who Forgot His Wife John O'farrell
March 2012 Book of the Month.
Featured on The Book Show on Sky Arts on 8 March 2012.
John O’Farrell’s novels are consistently funny,...
Painter of Silence Georgina Harding
Shortlisted for the Orange Prize for Fiction 2012.
An intimate and devastating portrait of Romania during and after the Second World War, through the prism of a moving and utterly original...
The Quiddity of Will Self Sam Mills
March 2012 Book of the Month.
How do you write a review about a book that aims to be the literary equivalent of...
Please Look After Mother Kyung-sook Shin
March 2012 Book of the Month.
This book sold over 1.5 million copies when it was published in Korea and now its universal...
Bed David Whitehouse
March 2012 Debut of the Month.
What an extraordinary debut novel, full of evocative language and tragic humour, Bed is a coming-of-age story...
Absolution Patrick Flanery
March 2012 Debut of the Month.
This is a very confident debut novel that manages to be literary yet a page-turner at the...
The Things We Did for Love Natasha Farrant
March 2012 Mega Debut of the Month.
A beautiful and bittersweet love story set in the real village of Oradour-sur-Glane which was cruelly...
Aleph Paulo Coelho
From the renowned author of The Alchemist, Aleph marks a return to
Paulo Coelho's beginnings. In a frank and surprising personal story, one
of the world's most beloved authors...
James Joyce : A Biography Gordon Bowker
Inspiring, learned and readable this is the long-awaited, comprehensive biography of the great Irish author James Joyce, who died 70 years ago and who wrote the outstanding novels Ulysses...
Annabel Kathleen Winter
In 1968, in a remote part of Canada, a mysterious child is born: a baby who appears to be neither fully boy nor girl, but both at once. Only three...
The Saturday Big Tent Wedding Party Alexander McCall Smith
While investigating unpleasant occurrences on a southern cattle-post, Mma Ramotswe, always on the side of the weak against the strong, has reason to reflect on Rule No.3 of The Principles...
Various Pets Alive and Dead Marina Lewycka
Featured on The Book Show on Sky Arts on 10 May 2012.
Set half in Doncaster, half in London, this is a very funny riff on modern values, featuring hamsters, cockroaches,...
The Sense of an Ending Julian Barnes
Winner of the Man Booker Prize 2011.
The Sense of an Ending is the story of one man coming to terms with the
mutable past. Laced with trademark precision,...
The Proof of Love Catherine Hall
The Lake District of 1976 and a highly conservative tightly knit
farming community are the back drop for this beautifully written slow
burning novel. Catherine Hall’s writing has been compared...
The Book of Crows Sam Meekings
In a series of delicately interlaced stories, Sam Meekings' richly poetic and gripping second novel follows the journeys of characters whose lives, separated by millennia, are all in some way...
Waiting for Sunrise William Boyd
Featured on The Book Show on Sky Arts on 8 March 2012.
A thrilling, plot-twisting new novel set in Europe during the first world war, from the bestselling author of Any...
Ulysses James Joyce
March 2012 Guest Editor Alan Bradley on Louise Penny...
As a young child and early reader, I used to pilfer my older sister’s copy of Ulysses. I didn’t understand the...
Finnegans Wake James Joyce
March 2012 Guest Editor Alan Bradley on Louise Penny...
As a young child and early reader, I used to pilfer my older sister’s copy of Ulysses. I didn’t understand the...
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Mark Twain
March 2012 Guest Editor Alan Bradley on Mark Twain...
The book. Ernest Hemingway wrote, “All modern American literature comes from one book by Mark Twain called 'Huckleberry Finn.'” I believe...
The Danger Game Kalinda Ashton
The danger game is not a winning game' Alice and Louise are sisters united by a distant tragedy - the house fire their brother died in and the disappearance of...
The Forgotten Waltz Anne Enright
Shortlisted for the Orange Prize for Fiction 2012.
Featured on The Book Show on Sky Arts on 9 June 2011.
With The Forgotten Waltz Enright turns her attention fully to love -...
May Contain Nuts John O'farrell
Alice never imagined that she would end up like this. Is she the only mother who feels so permanently panic-stricken at the terrors of the modern world - or is...
This is Your Life John O'farrell
Just as bogus doctors are occasionally discovered in hospitals, Jimmy Conway has become a bogus celebrity; winning an award for something he never did, being photographed in Hello! in someone...
The Best a Man Can Get John O'farrell
Michael Adams shares a flat with three other men in their late twenties. Days are spent lying in bed, playing computer games and occasionally doing a bit of work. And...
Trackman Catriona Child
March 2012 Debut of the Month.
Everyone has a significant track of music that can really effect them and change their mood or...
Silver Return to Treasure Island Andrew Motion
Featured on The Book Show on Sky Arts on 10 May 2012.
Featuring a cast of noble seamen, murderous pirates and stories of love, valour and terrible cruelty, Silver is a...
The Homecoming of Samuel Lake Jenny Wingfield
One of our Debuts of the Year 2011.
Funny, wise, heart-stopping and heartbreaking, with a cast of unforgettable characters, The Homecoming of Samuel Lake is a masterpiece of storytelling.
A "Piece...
Wish You Were Here Graham Swift
A masterly work from one of our greatest writers, told for the first
time in the third, rather than the first person. It's a true departure
in many ways and...
Categories
Books of the Month
