Authors know everything
Even the fixed and unchanging rituals of Christmas can reveal glimpses of hidden personality traits...
“I’ve learned that you can tell a lot about a person by the way he handles these three things: a rainy day, lost luggage, and tangled Christmas tree lights.”
Supposedly a remark by Maya Angelou, although some pedants insist there is no record of her ever putting words in this order.
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The World's Biggest Cash Machine by Chris Blackhurst. Macmillan £22
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Appropriate for a week when Manchester United have failed domestically (today's potential banana skin notwithstanding), failed in Europe and are boring the world to tears with their glacial semi-sale, this portrait of mismanagement at the universe’s biggest club is far livelier than anything they’ve managed on grass in recent memory. Showing both how nobody should be surprised at the Glazer family’s profit extraction techniques – they’ve done it everywhere they go, from trailer parks to other sports “franchises” – and the maddening near-impossibility of simultaneous book-balancing and trophy-acquisition faced by all teams, every clumsy step is magnified by United’s 21st century brand as global soap opera. (Note also the Sunday-appropriate subtitle: “the struggle for football's soul”. Tremble ye sinners!)
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The Strong Words Hot List Five new books on the perils of creative overachievement. |
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5 The Path to Paradise by Sam Wasson Faber, £20
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After The Godfather turned out to be a hit like no other in 1972, executives demanded the director repeat the trick, but empowered by the success, the artist/megalomaniac Francis Ford Coppola had other ideas. First he would bring long term physical and psychological damage on anyone involved with his Vietnam epic Apocalypse Now, then he would attempt complete financial ruin with One From the Heart.
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4 How Coppola Became Cage by by Zach Schonfeld OUP USA, £26.99 (Out Jan 31)
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Seeking independence from his uncle’s movie industry shadow, another Coppola – Nicolas – changed his name to Cage in 1982, but couldn’t quite shake the family urge to mix success with wildly creative efforts to squander the profits. This analysis of the “method to the madness” of Cage's career between 1981 and 1995 includes his removing his own teeth and eating cockroaches in the name of art.
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3 Too Much Too Young by Daniel Rachel White Rabbit, £25
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Launched in Coventry in 1979 on a few quid and the crazy dream of becoming the British Motown, the 2-Tone record label experienced overnight success with the Specials' Gangsters and a string of other hits. Exciting, original and influential, the momentum also attracted epic violence at some of the bands’ gigs and the relationship-destroying pressures of running a suddenly hot business.
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2 Paused in Cosmic Reflection by the Chemical Brothers White Rabbit, £30
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The other “Bros” reflect on the path that began as Manchester student DJs in the eighties, when a lack of records they considered acceptable led to creative experiments with primitive technology at a time when their audience was conducting ground-breaking research of its own into the delights of “E”.
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1 Pandora’s Box by Peter Biskind Allen Lane, £25
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Although people can get tediously nostalgic about old television, the author argues that the current age of great TV didn’t begin until the end of the 90s, when shows on cable in the US such as Oz and Sex and the City allowed characters to forget about being likable or wholesome and be interesting instead. When The Sopranos changed everything, the race was on to copy HBO, yet not even they knew how they’d done it, and eventually all the "greed, lust and lies" – as the subtitle has it – “broke television”.
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The national reading list is missing a key detail – anything to read.
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No one said bestseller lists were a window into a nation’s heart, but if they were, Britain’s most pressing anxiety in 2023 was lunch.
According to Amazon, Bored of Lunch (the Healthy Air Fryer Book) and Bored of Lunch (the Healthy Slow Cooker Book) were the first and third bestselling books of 2023, together making an indigestible sandwich with Prince Harry’s Spare. And having got that down, getting it off again was another worry (at no. 8: the “slimming, home-style recipes” of A Pinch of Nom).
Also in the top ten, the cosy crime of Richard Osman (at 4, and the fourth book in his Thursday Murder Club series in just three years); the records of Guinness (at 6, and plodding away since 1955); and some books from the past: James Clear’s Atomic Habits (some sort of self-help BS, at 7, published in 2018), Colleen Hoover’s It Ends With Us (romance, at 10, published in 2016), and Bonnie Garmus’ genuinely excellent Lessons in Chemistry (at 5, published last year).
Only the Britney Spears autobiography, The Woman in Me in ninth place, is new and original.
Which just goes to show, people are making some regrettable decisions when faced with the torrent of books to choose from, and more than ever need a magazine that helps guide them with confidence toward the interesting stuff.
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The velvet gloves vs dagger debate takes a radical turn...
Dear Editor, May I add to the suggestion of velvet gloves and the colour of them. I feel sure the colour sought should be pale mauve. Carole J (subscriber)
An excellent suggestion. Further thoughts on the right gloves for reviewing books, or any other issues you'd like to raise with the group, to info@strong-words.co.uk please.
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Dear Ed, A while ago (by while, I mean a couple of years), you asked Strong Words readers how many pages of books they feel obliged to read before they consider it acceptable to give up. You said this was for a future feature, yet no further word was heard – what happened? Diana W, (subscriber)
Several of you were kind enough to respond with your thoughts on when it is appropriate to stop with a book that isn't making much effort to hold your attention. The result was that there was absolutely no pattern at all – some people happily quit on page one without the slightest hint of guilt, others had yet to summon the courage to ever give up before the end. My own early exit hatch has always been page 50 – if it hasn't happened by then, the relationship is unlikely to suddenly burst into flame. But at a book prize dinner recently, I sat next to someone who had been a judge on one of the big awards, where theoretically they have to read 200 or more books to find an winner. An impossibility, right? She said they did it by putting each book aside as soon as she realised it wasn't going to win. Harsh, but some books wouldn't even make it past the first sentence. Feel free to adopt the technique. Ed
Further thoughts on the correct way to break up with a book, please, to info@strong-words.co.uk.
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How to sell freedom in a plastic box...
I believe that one of life’s great Venn diagrams is that people can be divided into either makers or sellers (those lucky few who sit in the intersection tend to be very successful). To succeed in business, each needs the other. A great example of this comes in a new book I’d highly recommend, Annabelle Hirsch's A History of Women in 101 Objects (Canongate, £25) – it’ll keep you interested all the way into three figures, and it could be the answer to all your Christmas gift emergencies (especially suitable for bigots). One good story concerns someone called Earl Tupper – you can probably guess what he invented. He bought up loads of plastic after the war, and after trying to think what to do with it, designed and patented a series of sealable plastic bowls, which he marketed as the “Millionaire Line” (he was going to be the millionaire). “They praised its clean lines and fresh colours,” says Hirsch, “but no one actually wanted to have it in their kitchen.” It was a flop.
Tupper the maker then employed a single mother – and seller – in her mid-thirties called Bonnie Wise. A natural at door-to-door sales, Bonnie came up with something even more successful than Tupperware – the Tupperware party. She sold so much “ware” that back at the factory, Tupper couldn’t keep up with production. He soon dropped the idea of selling in shops – what a stupid concept! Thanks to this innovation, women all over America – and then the world – were able to make more money for themselves selling the range than in other jobs available to them. And not only did it dramatically prolong the life of leftovers, but countless women were able to enjoy an agreeably chilled container of financial independence.
Which leads me to… (please join me after this amusing graphic)
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Next year will be the sixth year of Strong Words, and in April the fiftieth issue. But before you start preparing the congratulations, consider the facts: it takes me seven days a week, every week, and has yet to reward my efforts with a farthing of profit. So it's less a labour of love and more an act of supreme lunatic folly, one that I'm not sure I can sustain far into the future unless I can find a Bonnie Wise to my Earl Tupper. Should you know – or be – such a person, please make yourself known.
If you don't know – or aren't – and are wondering how you might help, these are the options:
• Share this newsletter as widely as you can. The Strong Words community needs to transition quickly from “well-kept secret” to “leading international source of quality information about new books”. Make it so.
• Take every available opportunity to encourage friends to subscribe until a) they have, or b) they are on the verge of no longer being your friend. In the case of b), buy them a gift subscription.
• If you have money lying around that you are unable to find a purpose for, throw it at me. This is not a joke: if you'd like to invest in Strong Words – and there are few causes more noble than helping people read more – or even just quietly donate, then please get in touch.
In keeping with book industry tradition, the Sunday Book Club is resting over the “holiday” period, but will be back on January 7.
Thanks for all your support and encouragement (2023 vintage). Merry everything to everyone, and see you on the other side.
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How to subscribe to Strong Words
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If you're still not sure how this subscription lark works, it couldn't be easier. Just follow this link and choose the deal that works best for you. A word of insider information: prices will be going up early in the new year – the printing industry and the Royal Mail will see to that – so take clever advantage of the current inflation-busting rates, and get right on it.
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Got a story you’d like to share? Or a question that's bothering you? Send your gossip, tips, literary sightings and intel to info@strong-words.co.uk
For all advertising enquiries info@strong-words.co.ukMost importantly of all, please share this email with anyone you think might like a weekly shot of lively book recommendations. Strong Words needs readers, so use this link to pass it on. Or to sign up to receive the newsletter weekly, go to the website at www.strong-words.co.uk.
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