Book Reviews

The Ugly Five
Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler
Scholastic £12.99
You may have heard of the Big Five African animals… Now meet the Ugly Five! The wildebeest, hyena, lappet-faced vulture, warthog and marabou stork think that they’re so ugly that they frighten all who are around them… But who could love them enough to see their beauty and kindness?
Another outstanding book from the dream team of Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler, with Julia’s witty, flowing verse complemented by Axel’s funny and charming illustrations.
Julia will be signing copies of The Ugly Five at 2.30pm on 2nd September at the Steyning Bookshop. Contact us for further details.

Jigsaw of Fire and Stars
Yaba Badoe
Head of Zeus £9.99
Sante knows where she came from – she came from the sea. That’s where Priss, her eagle found her, a baby tucked up in a chest full of treasures, sole survivor of a shipwreck. And then Mama Rose finds her on the beach and Sante becomes a member of Mama Rose’s Family Circus. But what Sante doesn’t know is what happened before – how she came to be in the water, who put her into the chest, and whose are the voices whispering at the edge of her consciousness. When a red-haired girl walks into the sea and a pair of men turn up looking for Sante, the past and its dead creep a little closer, asking questions that need to be answered and clamouring for justice.
A thought-provoking adventure with elements of fantasy, for readers aged 10 and up.

Gennaro’s Passione
Gennaro Contaldo
Pavilion £20
Gennaro Contaldo grew up on the Amalfi Coast of Italy, in a time when children were free to explore much more than they are today. Roaming the hills and hunting for game, mushroom s and herbs, combing the beaches and fishing in the sea of his childhood home (and avoiding school as far as possible), laid the foundations for a lifelong passion for food. When he moved to England and started working as a kitchen porter, he was horrified at the food served as Italian, and gradually started getting work as a chef. This lovely cookery book goes back to the days of Gennaro’s childhood – the deliciously fresh and simple recipes, such as hake salad with green beans and salsa verde, porchetta and stuffed globe artichokes, are interspersed with memories and photographs. Mouthwatering!
As part of the Steyning Food Festival Gennaro will be guest author at our special bookshop supper at The Sussex Produce Company on the 26th of September. The event is already sold out as you might imagine, but signed copies of his book should be available after that date if you would like to reserve them.

Innocents and Others
Dana Spiotta
Macmillan £8.99
Meadow Mori, and Carrie Wexler meet as teenagers in LA. Meadow is rich, beautiful, precocious and ambitious, Carrie is a little more average. They are both consumed by films and film making. Carrie goes on to film school, eventually becoming a successful director of slightly subversive romcoms, while Meadow takes her own singular route, working through different cameras, trying to recreate lost films, making silent movies and then her own brand of documentary making, getting right to the heart of her subject. The third woman at the centre of the novel is Jelly, a once blind woman who has discovered that her power lies in her voice and conversation, which she uses to seduce powerful creative men in Hollywood. Of course, she becomes the subject of a documentary by Meadow, a piece of work that asks the reader, as well as Meadow to start thinking about who is being exploited and how.
An intelligent, unusual and elegant novel about the art of film, the nature of watching and being watched, love, lust, and above all, female friendship.
For fans of Siri Hustvedt’s What I Loved.

Steyning Bookshop - 01903 812062 - info@steyningbookshop.co.uk