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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FeaturesThe 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 ReviewsSo 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 ReviewsEdinburgh 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 -
Book ReviewsPoems of Youth and Turbulence by Peter G Mackie
This collection is one of poems written by Peter G Mackie between 1969 and 1984. He was a youth at the time – the collection spans his work between his... Read more »| 15 Dec 2011
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Book Reviews
The Boys: The Big Ride by Garth Ennis, Russ Braun, Darick Robertson and John McCrea
The Boys is author Garth Ennis’s attempt to, in his words, "Out-Preacher Preacher." If you haven’t read his earlier Preacher comics, suffice to s... Read more »| 15 Dec 2011 -
Book Reviews
Body of Work, Edited by Giles Foden
Body of Work is a celebration of 40 years of the creative writing course at the University of East Anglia. It’s important to note the word celebration ... Read more »| 15 Dec 2011 -
Book ReviewsScotland The Best 2012 by Peter Irvine
Scotland the Best is a guide to travelling around, or simply living in Scotland, as it rates restaurants, cafes, hotels, pubs, regular events and a whole lot... Read more »| 15 Dec 2011 -
Book Reviews
One Model Nation by Courtney Taylor-Taylor and Jim Rugg
Author Courtney Taylor-Taylor is a member of The Dandy Warhols, and so it’s appropriate that his debut graphic novel is the story of a band. This band ... Read more »| 02 Dec 2011 -
Features
A 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 Reviews
Bye 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 Reviews
Charley'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 Reviews
One 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