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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FeaturesA Book Gift Guide
Whether it's someone you know well or someone you find hard to buy for, books are always a good gift solution, because they're cheap(ish), portable and usually available in all good book shops. Here are a few suggestions Read more »| 29 Nov 2011 -
Book ReviewsBye Bye Babylon by Lamia Ziade
This is a book that starts with a contention that seems unusual to our ears: Beirut in the 1970s is a paradise. Author Lamia Ziade was 7 years old in 1975, a... Read more »| 23 Nov 2011 -
Book ReviewsCharley's War: Hitler's Youth by Pat Mills and Joe Colquhoun
Charley’s War was a seminal comic strip which followed Charley Bourne, a young soldier, throughout the whole of the First World War. This collected edi... Read more »| 23 Nov 2011 -
Book ReviewsOne Day I Will Write About This Place by Binyavanga Wainaina
Binyavanga Wainaina grew up in Kenya, but his mother was Ugandan, and this makes a difference that most European readers wouldn’t assume at first. But ... Read more »| 23 Nov 2011 -
Book Reviews
Atrocitology by Matthew White
The premise of Atrocitology seems morbid, at the very least. Author Matthew White has compiled a list of humanity’s 100 deadliest ‘achievements&r... Read more »| 31 Oct 2011 -
Features
Neil Forsyth: The Funniest Men In Dundee
Think that title's a bit underwhelming? You don’t know how wrong you are Read more »| 31 Oct 2011
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Book Reviews
Killing the Messenger by Christopher Wallace
Mental health as a vote-winning issue might stretch the most overactive of imaginations, but that’s the premise behind Killing The Messenger. ... Read more »| 27 Oct 2011 -
Book Reviews
Work! Consume! Die! by Frankie Boyle
Frankie Boyle’s new book is a curious mixture of the expected harsh humour with social commentary and fiction. The book is a series of chapters of Fran... Read more »| 26 Oct 2011 -
Book Reviews
The Glamour Chase by Tom Doyle
First published a year after Billy Mackenzie’s suicide in 1997, the 2011 edition of The Glamour Chase contains a Foreword written by Björk (descri... Read more »| 25 Oct 2011 -
Features
Getting Wasted with Allan Wilson
Allan Wilson’s debut short story collection, Wasted in Love, tells stories that could be described as ‘scenes from Glasgow, 2011’. And quite frankly, it's a brilliant book, well crafted, authentic and necessary. And since it’s set in Glasgow, a number of the stories involve drink in one way or another, more by necessity than design... which gives us a tenuous but excellent excuse for an interview/pub game hybrid Read more »| 26 Sep 2011 -
Book Reviews
The Tree That Bleeds
In 2001 Nick Holdstock travelled to Yining, a city in China’s largest province – the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region – to ‘teach En... Read more »| 22 Sep 2011 -
Book Reviews
The Darkest Walk, by Malcom Archibald
The workers are revolting – and not just because they haven’t had a wash. Insurrection is in the air, and only one man can save the respectable... Read more »| 22 Sep 2011 -
Book Reviews
Good Offices by Evelio Rosero
Evelio Rosero won his first literary award in 1979, and it would come as no surprise if he were given another honour for new novel Good Offices. Set in Ros... Read more »| 22 Sep 2011 -
Book ReviewsGioconda by Lucille Turner
Gioconda – a study of the life of Leonardo da Vinci – is a first novel by Lucille Turner, imagining thelife of the artist, from his humble beginn... Read more »| 22 Sep 2011 -
Book Reviews
Ragnarok: The End of the Gods by AS Byatt
One of the most distinguished contributors to Canongate's 'Myths' series, AS Byatt has long been fascinated by the nihilistic glamour of Ragnarok, where, in ... Read more »| 22 Sep 2011