Travelling Suitcase Library

Hooray! The Travelling Suitcase Library is giving away books!!!
(so any other day then yes?)

No!

World Book Night (http://www.worldbooknight.org/titles/) is a national incentive to get people reading for pleasure. We're giving away 40-odd (after donating a couple to work) copies of Stuart: A Life Backwards by Alexander Masters.

World Book Night is on the Saturday 5 March.

I'll be at Left Bank Leeds on Cardigan Lane (lovely old church now used for the community) doing a book swap from 6-8, then hot footing it to My Spiritual Home, Arcadia, to give out books from 8.30 pm. I'll be doing a book-swap as well so Bring Your Tomes!!!!

xxxx

Anyone who hasn't seen it here's my interview with The Leeds Guide, fabulous people that they are
http://www.leedsguide.co.uk/review/interview/jess-haigh/17801

Just wanna say one thing.

You may have noticed that this blog, compared to www.leedsbookclub.blogspot.com, is a bit, shall we say, plain.

This is because I am not a blogger. I don't know anything about how the internet actually works, or how to write coded script and make it look pretty or any of that jazz. I work in libraries and I am only concerned with promoting reading for pleasure. Yes I bash out some writing occasionally because I love doing it, but it isn't who I am.

I do not run www.leedsbookclub.blogspot.com, or the @LeedsBookClub twitter feed, as it might come accross in the article. That blog is entirely down to the incredibly hard work of Avid Reader as she's known on the blog, and I really don't want anyone confusing us.

If you want to read my writing, find the pieces tagged with "BookElf", that I didn't even tag myself because I have no idea what I'm doing!

Thank you. More info on the next Book Swap coming soon. I can confirm I'll be taking the Travelling Suitcase Library to #Bettakultcha on the 1st of March though (and I promise not to have a hideous migraine this time! Sorry anyone who brought books!) so hopefully see you there!

Happy Reading!
Jess xxx

The Travelling Suitcase Library Presents...
Presents…
A Book Swap to end all Book Swaps…
Arcadia, Headingley,
Sunday 30th January
From about 5ish
Bring Your Tomes!
As seen at Bettakutlcha, Culture Vulture, Morley Lit Fest LadyFestTen and many many more…
WE ARE ALSO VERY PROUD TO ANNOUNCE THE FIRST ARCADIA BOOK CLUB WILL BE MEETING AT THE SAME TIME…..
…tweet @LeedsBookClub, email leedsbookclub@gmail.com, web www.leedsbookclub.blogspot.com for details
…or just turn up! Very informal, friendly, open book club
WE WILL BE DISCUSSING THE FOLLOWING EXCELLENT TOME …. The White Woman on the Green Bicycle by Monique Roffey

I know this isn't a political blog, but this is the only public forum I've got.

TAX AVOIDENCE SHOULD BE A CRIME
There is gonna be a few protests tomorrow. I hate violence, we should educatate not isolate. Here are some more carols with tax-avoidence lyrics.

In The Bleak Midwinter
In the bleak midwinter, tax payers moaned,
Philip Green won't pay for, all that we are owed
He could pay for nurses, he could pay for schools,
But instead he'll pay nowt, and still keep the rules

Our Government is not fair, out government sucks.
For we're loosing our jobs, whilst they keep ther bucks
In the bleak midwinter, tax payers moaned,
Why won't all these millionaires, pay what we are owed?


Philip The Tax Avoider
Philip the Tax Avoider,
Had a very shiney nose,
And if you ever saw it,
You would even say it grows, (like his tax bill)

All of the tax avoiders,
Really should all pay their tax,
So next time that your in Topshop,
Ask them for your money back.

Do you despair at the readers in your life preferring trash to treasure? At the Travelling Suitcase Library we believe there’s nothing wrong with that! This Christmas, why not treat them to something you know they’ll enjoy. These are some of the most popular titles that I’ve lent out in the past year. I hope that your readers enjoy them.

For the Twilight fan in your life…House of Night series by P. C. Cast and Kristin Cast
I know vampires are sooo 2009, but this ever-growing series set in a ‘school for vampyres’ (so the best bits of Harry and Edward combined) flies of the shelves, is easy to get into and also features openly gay characters, a rarity in YA fiction. ‘Marked’ is the first one, but at £10.50 for the first three on Amazon this is an easy stocking filler for love-struck teens.

Sleep Pale Sister by Joanne Harris
Before Chocolat, Johnny Depp and world wide fame, Yorkshire writer Joanne Harris wrote hauntingly beautiful gothic thrillers. Sleep Pale Sister is the story of Effie, Victorian artist’s model who is kept as a laudanum-addled bride by the sinister Henry Chester. When she meets her lover Mose, she is drawn into the ghostly story of Marta, a brothel keeper’s daughter, murdered ten years ago and planning her revenge. Yes the subject matter is slightly risky for younger readers, but this is guaranteed to thrill fans of the gothic, and acts as a nice little introduction to ‘grown up’ books.

The Glass Lake by Meave Binchey.
I know, I know, but work with me here. This book has everything a Twilight fan requires, apart from the fangs. Teenage drama and am embarrassing family? Check. Strange mystery surrounding loved one? Check. Evolution of heroine from spoilt small town princess to grown modern women? Check. Everlasting love? Check. The least ‘provincial’ of Binchey’s books, this is the story of Kit, who’s beautiful, if odd mother tragically disappears in the lake near her small Irish town. As Kit grows up the mystery surrounding the supposed death deepens until she receives a letter from her mother’s childhood friend… I love this book, which I first read when I was twelve, and would recommend it as a great way to wean your teen off the vamps. Plus it’s a good three inches thick, which as any serious teen bookworm knows, are the only books worth checking out these days!

For the Jodi Picault fan in your life…The Lost Daughter by Diane Chamberlain
Less weepy, more pacy than Picault, Chamberlain again is from the ‘tell don’t show’ school of writing hated by Creative Writing students but loved by readers who want chunky heated storylines without the commitment of literary prose. This is the story of foolish love struck teen CeeCee, who has vital information on the murder of Genevieve Russell which tears apart her whole family. Gripping and movingly written, recommended.

American Wife by Curtis Sittenfeld
A ‘fictional story’ based heavily on the life of Laura Bush, this book is as fascinating as it is frustrating. Almost a justification for her action, Alice Blackwell looks back on her life leading up the last year of her husband’s presidency. You’ll love, then hate her. Sittenfeld is a wonderful writer and the depiction of America throughout the 60s to the present day is nostalgic and insightful, as well as impeccably researched.

The Girls by Lori Lansens
Absolutely riveting story of two conjoined twins living in small town Canada. This will appeal to Picault fans for its empathetic rendorings of the twin sister’s thought, and dreams. Although the writing is not consistant throughout, with the opening chapters being by far the best in the book, the amazing characterisations of Rose and Ruby and the pathos behind their condition makes this a weepy, but a goody.

For the Phillippa Gragory fan in your life
The King’s Daughter by Christie Dickason
Similar in premise to Gregory’s Tudor court novels, this takes a woman from history and re-works her story with a slightly more modern emphasis. The King’s Daughter is the tale of Princess Elizabeth, daughter of King James IV of Scotland, I of England and is absolutely fascinating. I have no idea how historically accurate this book is, but if they’re an ardent Gregory fan then historical accuracy really isn’t going to be the be all and end all is it. At the end of the day it’s a damn good yarn and has a sparkly cover with a ruff on it, what more do you need?

Crown in Candlelight by Rosemary Hawley Jarman
This is one of those writers that was massive back in the day, and deserves to become popular again. Writing of the Plantagenet era, Hawley Jarman’s pen pours beautiful flowery prose that just weeps along with you. This is my favourite of hers’, Katherine of Valios, raised in the mad corrupt dangerous world of the French court in the early 1400s marries the conquering English King Henry V (him off Agincourt). After the King’s death she falls for a certain Welsh archer, Owen Tudor, founding a rather more famous (if the world of publishing will have anything to do with it anyways) dynasty. Wonderful stuff.

Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel
Because it is so good I can hardly speak. And if they’re as big a Tudor buff as they like to make out, then there will be no need to have a pen and paper to hand to keep track of the thousand and one characters called ‘Thomas’.