This Week’s Book of the Week is Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
Never Let Me Go is the brave and fantastical story by British Novelist Kazuo Ishiguro. Set in a backdrop of Dystopian 1990s London, we meet three curious and challenging students; Cathy, Ruth and Tommy. They are seemingly ordinary citizens; but have been bred to “provide” and “donate” themselves to the rest of society, and to certain extents quite fatally. For this is a world where Ruth and her peers aren’t just students, but human clones in a world where cloning is state-sanctioned. The three students live their unconventional lives trying to forge happiness out of the complexities of adolescence, human biology and social injustice. Ishiguro writes this book with a delicate level of despair but touches thoughtfully around issues around LGBTQ+, ideas of community and concepts around scientific progress. An elegantly written story with depth and intrigue. Well worth a read!
Shortlisted for the 2005 Booker Prize, the 2006 Arthur C. Clarke Award and for the 2005 National Book Critics Circle Award! Also a Major Motion Picture!
Here is our list of the Top Ten Most Requested Books from 2020 from both Westminster Libraries and Kensington and Chelsea Libraries. It has been fascinating to see what all of our users have been borrowing and we thought you might too.
We also found it interesting that “A Promised Land” by Barack Obama, which is ninth on this list, is at currently the most requested book so far in 2021 which is great news for non- fiction and its increasing popularity.
So here is our list of “Ten most requested books of 2020”.
Ten
“Trio : a novel” written by William Boyd (Viking)
1968, on a film set in Brighton, three characters’ lives are explored during this tumultuous time. A fascinating novel about lives spiralling out of control and the measures required to right them.
Nine
“A Promised Land written” by Barack Obama (Viking)
“A Promised Land written” by Barack Obama (Viking)
In this highly anticipated first volume of his presidential memoirs, Barack Obama relates his journey from a young man in search of his identity to the highest office in the free world. We gain insight to his experiences of domestic and international politics. What went on behind the closed doors of the Oval office, White House Situation Room and beyond. How being the first President of the United States of America of African – American descent and the expectations that went alongside and more.
An extraordinary, intimate and introspective account from the president who allowed us to believe in the power of democracy.
Eight
“Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” written by J.K.Rowling (Bloomsbury)
Set during Harry Potter’s sixth year at Hogwarts, it explores the past of his nemesis, Lord Voldemort and Harry’s final battle alongside his headmaster and mentor Albus.
Seven
“The Sentinel” written by Lee Child/Andrew Child (Bantam Press)
In the 25th Jack Reacher novel, it is a new dawn for our hero where he finds himself in a no-name town in Nashville, Tennessee stepping in to right the wrongs done to a band of musicians. Packed with action, fresh and perfectly plotted.
Six
“V2” written by Robert Harris (Hutchinson)
“V2” written by Robert Harris (Hutchinson)
A Sunday Times Best Historical Fiction Book of the Year:
An immersive thriller set against a tense historical background. In 1944,Rudi Graf has help create the world’s most sophisticated weapon, the V2 ballistic missile and is ordered by Hitler to fire these at London in vengeance. Second World War buffs will thoroughly enjoy V2.
Five
“Girl, Woman, Other” written by Bernardine Evaristo (Penguin)
“Girl, Woman, Other” written by Bernardine Evaristo (Penguin)
Winner of the British Book Awards Fiction Book of the Year 2020 and Joint Winner of the Booker Prize 2019.
This novel follows the lives and struggles of twelve very different characters, mostly women, black and British. They relate their stories across country and through the years. Generations of women and the people they have loved and unloved. Heart breaking, hilarious and honest.
Four
“Troubled Blood” written by Robert Galbraith (Sphere)
Troubled blood is the next thrilling instalment in the highly acclaimed bestselling series featuring Comoran strike and Robin Ellacott.
A mix of supernatural eeriness and head-scratching mystery with a juicy whodunnit at its core.
Three
“Hamnet” written by Maggie O’Farrell (Tinder Press)
“Hamnet” written by Maggie O’Farrell (Tinder Press)
The winner of the Women’s Prize For Fiction 2020, Hamnet is an emotionally beautiful work of fiction examining the effects of love, death, and grief on family life.
Agnes, Hamnet’s mother is the main character of the book, that focuses on his short life and the aftermath of his death. It explores love, and a marriage once unbreakable almost torn apart by loss, it examines the strong bond between twins, and everyday domestic life that must continue. Hamnet is William Shakespeare’s son, whom one of his most famous works Hamlet is named after.
Two
“Shuggie Bain” written by Douglas Stuart (Picador)
“Shuggie Bain” written by Douglas Stuart (Picador)
Shuggie Bain is Douglas Stuart’s debut novel and won the 2020 Booker Prize.
It is a gritty but beautiful novel based in Glasgow in the 1980s. It explores the affects of poverty and addiction and the bond between mother and son. Shuggie Bain, the main protagonist of the novel, is a fussy and snobbish boy, and is picked on by the miners kids for being different, but he believes, and hopes that if he tries hard to be normal like the other boys, he can help his mother break her addiction and leave the mining town far behind them.
One
“The Thursday Murder Club” by Richard Osman (Viking)
“The Thursday Murder Club” by Richard Osman (Viking)
Described as clever, moving and highly funny, this murder mystery has broken many records this year, as well as being the most requested book of 2020 in Westminster and Kensington and Chelsea Libraries!
Set in a retirement village, a group of elderly residents meet up weekly to examine unsolved murders. When a fresh murder occurs on their very own doorstep, The Thursday Murder Club cannot help but get involved and see if they can crack the case. With plenty of humour, this whodunnit is in the same vein as Agatha Christie, and with plenty of high-jinks, it is the start of a wonderful new series.
“Be the light in the darkness” is the theme for Holocaust Memorial Day 2021, 27th of January.
The theme “encourages everyone to reflect on the depths humanity can sink to, but also the ways individuals and communities resisted that darkness to ‘be the light’ before, during and after genocide.
Holocaust Memorial Day takes place each year on 27th January to remember the six million Jews murdered during the Holocaust, alongside the millions of other people killed under Nazi Persecution and in genocides that followed in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia and Darfur.27th January marks the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau, the largest Nazi death camp.
Light in our Community:
Raymond Simonson, CEO of JW3, London’s Jewish Community Centre, explains why it is so important to remember the Holocaust.
JW3 will be remembering the Holocaust on 29th January with the theme “Be the light in the darkness.” Their ceremony will include testimony from a Holocaust survivor honouring her rescuers, Professor Yehuda Bauer from Yad Vashem in Jerusalem, Dame Margaret Hodge MP, Rob Rinder and Trudy Gold.
Staff at Mayfair Library observe Holocaust Memorial Day:
“I have read novels, articles and watched films all based on the atrocity of the Holocaust In the twentieth century. We have witnessed or read about ethnic cleansing which has continued to go on since and each time we wondered: have the lessons been learnt?
“In 1993 the US opened the Holocaust Memorial Museum; it was a museum dedicated to mass murder and survival. The Museum’s purpose is to learn about the holocaust, remember the survivors and the victims and to confront genocide.
“The name holocaust comes from a Greek word meaning ‘whole burnt offering’. However, in relation to this museum, the holocaust was the state-sponsored systematic persecution and annihilation of European Jewry by Nazi Germany and its collaborators between 1933 and 1945. Jews were primary victims, but State policy sought to eliminate Roma and Sinti (two gypsy tribes), the disabled, Poles, Soviet prisoners of war, homosexuals, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and political dissidents. It has a total of five floors and, although the first impression you get is hardly that of a warm welcome (to create an atmosphere that “something is amiss here”), the last Chapter explains “rescue, resistance, liberation, and survivors’ efforts to rebuild their lives.
“It is worth a visit to read about these courageous survivors and to remind ourselves of the resilience of the human heart and how we never want to give up hope during times of great adversity.” Robyn – Mayfair Library
Selected Readings from staff at Mayfair Library:
“A little girl goes into hiding with her family and their friends in Amsterdam in WW2. They live in cramped conditions for several years, relying on trusted neighbours to supply them with food and keep their location secret. Anne writes a diary for herself, which becomes her friend and confidant, not aware that after the war the diary would be discovered and turned into a best-selling work, translated into several languages and used widely in schools.”
Laurence – Mayfair Library
This book is based on the true story of two Slovakian Jews in Auschwitz. Lale was chosen to do the job of tattooing numbers onto the arms of prisoners who were marked to live – one of the most powerful symbols of the Holocaust. When he sees Gita, a young inmate, it’s love at first sight. The novel charts their love story and the constant struggle to survive against all the odds. It is written in an easy-to-read manner and despite the harrowing subject matter is enjoyable and gripping.
Rachel – Mayfair Library
Join Church Street Library for a special live online event with the author Heather Morris to commemorate Holocaust Memorial Day. This free online event will be taking place on Wednesday 24th February 2021 at 8pm.
This is a factual, balanced and very well written but harrowing account of the almost unbelievable, still in living memory, events that were initiated in a modern, culturally advanced, European nation – and should serve as a reminder to avoid becoming complacent to the action of people in power. It is a hard, harrowing account of an almost successful attempt by a State with a democratically elected government to systematically and cruelly wipe out an entire ethno-religious group, the Jews, together with other ‘undesirables’ as defined by the Nazi courts. Using the evidence of a wide variety of sources – survivors, relatives, Germans who took part in or were aware of the atrocities, diaries, letters, photographs – it describes how even normal people can be led to believe that such horrendous actions were the right thing to do.
Rachel – Mayfair Library
Livia Bitton-Jackson was born Elli Friedmann before WW2 and grew up as a youngster in occupied Europe. Her book is a memoir of her awful experiences under a brutal anti-semitic dictatorship, the suffering and hopelessness of a people who were betrayed and Livia’s ultimate survival and ability to lead a better life after the war, to raise a family and to fulfil her ambitions.
Lucy the giraffe can’t sleep – the zoo is full of such a lot of different noises. Ellie has the solution –she organises a way for everyone to live together and express themselves in a beautiful way.
The ‘Ellie in Concert’orchestral suite
Andy Jimenez has composed an orchestral suite for the book.Listen to it here, accompanied by an animation based on Mike Wu’s illustrations.
Cardboard tube elephant craft
Mike Wu’s ‘Ellie’ books are proving very popular. Here is a cute elephant craft for fans of the books.
Panpipes craft for kids
‘Ellie in Concert’shows us that it is possible to create music out of surprising ingredients. Thisis a great way to make a musical instrument out of 8 drinking straws.
Paper plate hippopotamus craft
This craft takes paper plate animals to another level, without being complicated. The result is very comical hippo with impressive teeth.
DIY music shakers
Music shakers are a great way to enable children to explore music. We particularly like these cardboard tube shakers decorated with tissue paper.
Ernest Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea tells the story of an unlucky fisherman in Cuba fighting hunger and the elements while in a three day battle with a large Atlantic blue marlin in an attempt to reverse the curse on his fishing. The novel won Hemingway the Pulitzer Prize in 1953 and was cited as one of the reasons he won the 1954 Nobel Prize.
We were inspired this story to try a classic Cuban recipe Pescado en Escabeche which translates to pickled fish. We tested out a recipe that doesn’t call for pickling the fish for 24 hours but instead creates a vinegar sauce that can be poured over the fish. Continue reading “Let’s make escabeche”→
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