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 ReviewsNicotine by Gregor Hens
Nicotine. A highly appropriate work to review this time of year, when self-imposed abstinence casts its cloud over the chaste post-Christmas period. Gregor ... Read more »| 05 Jan 2016 -
Book ReviewsBret Easton Ellis and the Other Dogs by Lina Wolff
‘We’re going to call this little pup Dante. Let’s call the mangy old cur over there Chaucer.’ This is Alba Cambo, standing in front o... Read more »| 04 Jan 2016 -
Book Reviews
Paulina & Fran by Rachel B. Glaser
Paulina and Fran are struggling with art school. Paulina pretends to be an artist, to her everything is art – maintaining her hair, trying on dead peop... Read more »| 01 Jan 2016 -
Book ReviewsGolden Years by Ali Eskandarian
Singer, songwriter and novelist Ali Eskandarian's Golden Years is exactly what the literary scene needs. Claimed by Eskandarian himself as an 'Iranian-Americ... Read more »| 29 Dec 2015 -
Book ReviewsDemanding Democracy by Christopher Silver
The central argument of Christopher Silver’s excellent book Demanding Democracy: The Case for a Scottish Media is twofold: every nation is held togethe... Read more »| 29 Dec 2015 -
Features
Scottish Books: On our Radar for 2016
Taking a loose and healthy approach to nationhood, we look forward to the Scottish books being served up in the coming months. New novels from big hitters Irvine Welsh and James Kelman, challenging sophomore works, award-winning debuts and hidden gems. Read more »| 22 Dec 2015
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Features
The School of Sophisticated Drinking: Interview
In the lead up to the season of indulgence, we travel to Berlin to take in new book The School of Sophisticated Drinking, a cultural and historical backgroun... Read more »| 17 Dec 2015 -
Book Reviews
Sinclair ZX Spectrum: A Visual Compendium
Although it's been bubbling for some time, 2015 could be seen as a renaissance year for the ZX Spectrum. Read more »| 15 Dec 2015 -
Book Reviews
Beatlebone by Kevin Barry
Kevin Barry's second novel, Beatlebone – adding to the author's collection of awards with the Goldsmiths Prize this year – marks a cont... Read more »| 10 Dec 2015 -
Book Reviews
Points of Origin by Diao Dou
'There are those who would say that tales of the fantastic can come only from the times of Apuleius or Kafka,' suggests Diao Dou in his newly translated coll... Read more »| 09 Dec 2015 -
Book Reviews
Filmish by Edward Ross
Aiming to act as a 'graphic journey through film' – charting both the evolution of the medium and the theory surrounding it – the most ... Read more »| 08 Dec 2015 -
Book Reviews
On Cats by Charles Bukowski
Like Bukowski. Love cats. Like people who love cats. Bukowski loved cats. Felt that with the best of them, 'each movement slides through space without fricti... Read more »| 08 Dec 2015 -
Features
Forgotten Women
This month biographer Rachel Holmes will be discussing Eleanor Marx, a feminist literary translator whose legacy quickly diminished. We trace a familiar pattern of female writers linked to male prestige, and wonder why so many have been lost in history Read more »| 03 Dec 2015 -
Features
Books for Christmas: A Literary Gift Guide
Books are the ideal gift, reflecting a certain intelligence upon the giver, and alluding with a sly wink that the recipient is the same. We look at the output of local publishers from Scotland and the Northwest to suggest the ideal literary Xmas gifts Read more »| 02 Dec 2015 -
Book Reviews
Nocilla Dream by Agustín Fernández Mallo
The first novel in the Nocilla trilogy, Nocilla Dream features an inventive though irregular series of narrative snapshots, whose singular plots intersect at... Read more »| 30 Nov 2015