Books
The Skinny book guide – bringing you book reviews, features, events, reviews and author interviews. Find previews and on the ground reporting from festivals of literature and poetry in Scotland and beyond.
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Book ReviewsHit and Run by Doug Johnstone
Doug Johnstone continues his fascination with cliffs and cars in his fourth novel Hit and Run, a story following trainee reporter Billy Blackmore, who, aft... Read more »| 29 Feb 2012 -
Book ReviewsTrackman by Catriona Child
Trackman is a novel told from the perspective of Edinburgh-born Davie Watts. Davie is haunted by the traumatic death of his younger brother Lewey, for whic... Read more »| 29 Feb 2012 -
Book ReviewsWildwood by Colin Meloy and Carson Ellis
Prue McKeel was babysitting her baby brother, but could do nothing when he was kidnapped by crows and flown away. She has only one choice: to follow his abdu... Read more »| 29 Feb 2012 -
Book Reviews
Trieste by Dasa Drndic
Many contemporary writers believe that in order to overcome the sense of ineffability surrounding the horrors of the Holocaust one must attempt radical innov... Read more »| 29 Feb 2012 -
Book Reviews
This Is Life by Dan Rhodes
Misguided but enthusiastic heroine Aurelie Renard is struggling to come up with a project for Art College which will blow the socks off her lecherous profess... Read more »| 29 Feb 2012 -
Book ReviewsFurnace by Wayne Price
In his debut collection of short stories, Price has done the paring down already. Not even a foreword makes it in. The stories are raw and precise, and ea... Read more »| 29 Feb 2012
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Book Reviews
Sarah Thornhill by Kate Grenville
Gosh, what a shame. Where The Secret River had a deserved debutante sparkle and The Lieutenant had an adventurous and poetic grace, Sarah Thornhill is an un... Read more »| 29 Feb 2012 -
Book Reviews
Leaving Alexandria by Richard Holloway
Like the man himself, Richard Holloway’s autobiography is candid, entertaining and delightfully unstuffy. The former Bishop of Edinburgh traces a thou... Read more »| 28 Feb 2012 -
Features
Seven Stanzas about StAnza
How best to preview the programme at this year's StAnza Poetry Festival? There's no way we can cover all the highlights. So here are a few, but written in verse. Why? Consider it a test – if you can get through this nonsense, you'll bloody love StAnza... Read more »| 27 Feb 2012 -
Festivals
Margins Book and Music Festival: Writing Alive
February 2012: Many people are reported to be excited about the Margins Book and Music Festival this month, as the start of this festival approaches Read more »| 22 Feb 2012 -
Features
The Inevitable E-Book Article
Be glad we didn’t go with the headline ‘To e or not to e’. Here’s a mercifully brief bit about ‘the future of books’, with some e-book recommendations afterward. You might want to just skip to those Read more »| 02 Feb 2012 -
Book Reviews
So Much Pretty by Cara Hoffman
Cara Hoffman’s debut novel follows the disappearance of Wendy White, a teenage waitress in the small rural town of Haeden, New York. In a town where ... Read more »| 26 Jan 2012 -
Book Reviews
Edinburgh Street Furniture by David Brandon
Edinburgh Street Furniture is an informative guide to the capital’s landmarks and streets. Fittingly, it’s written by historian David Bran... Read more »| 26 Jan 2012 -
Book Reviews
The Last Holiday by Gil Scott-Heron
The Last Holiday is a deeply personal, if self-conscious, telling of Gil Scott-Heron’s life. The writer and musician’s early life is described fr... Read more »| 25 Jan 2012 -
Book Reviews
Exile by Jakob Ejersbo
Exile is set in Tanzania in the late 1980s and follows the late teenage years of Samantha, a second generation ex-pat. Packed off to an international board... Read more »| 24 Jan 2012