Make Mine an Indie: Atlantic Books

Welcome back to my series on independent publishers and bookshops in anticipation of 2016 being the year of making mine an indie! Last week I focused on And Other Stories. This week it's the turn of Atlantic Books. 

 

Atlantic was founded in 2000 and has won both the 'Imprint of the Year' and 'Independent Publisher of the Year' at the British Book Awards since then. They represent Australian publisher Allen & Unwin in the UK and have an imprint, Corvus, focusing primarily on crime, fantasy, historical and women's fiction. 

Their catalogue is pretty vast and features a wide range of both fiction and non and I haven't even started browsing the Corvus catalogue yet! 

Some titles I'm excited to read: 

The Unravelling by Emma Sky

From the Atlantic Books website:

In 2003, shortly after the invasion of Iraq, Emma Sky made her way alone to Baghdad to assist the Coalition Provisional Authority and within weeks found herself in the role of Civilian Governor of Kirkuk – the most dangerous place on Earth. After her residence came under mortar fire, Sky realized that she must integrate herself within the US Army in order to survive. She moved into the army compound and won the confidence of General Odierno, who became a friend, confidant and mentor. Throughout her three tours of Iraq, Sky worked alongside Odierno, becoming his key political advisor until US combat operations ended in 2010. The Unravelling is a vivid first-hand account of the occupation, from its very beginnings to the rise of Islamic State, and a deeply personal exploration of what it is like to be a woman working with a foreign power in a very foreign land.

Brother's Keeper by C.E Smith

From the Atlantic Books website:

Struck off and hooked on prescription pills, disgraced American doctor Ryan Burkett flies to a war-torn country in the Middle East to identify his murdered twin’s body. Staring down at the lifeless form in the mortuary, it is as though Burkett is gazing at his own failings. His brother was first and best – the better athlete, better doctor, better son. With little reason to go home, Burkett agrees to take over his brother’s charitable surgical clinic. Within weeks, however, he is taken hostage by Islamic fundamentalists. Forced into withdrawal – from both drugs and his own self-loathing – Burkett becomes convinced that his captors are his brother’s murderers, and that revenge may be the only path to redemption.

Rembrandt's Mirror by Kim Devereaux

From the Atlantic Books website:

Forced to find work as a maid, Hendrickje enters Rembrandt’s flourishing and busy household after the death of the great artist’s wife, and finds a world filled with secrets and desire. She is shocked to the core when she becomes aware of the intense relationship between Rembrandt and Geertje, his housekeeper, and yet she is soon drawn to Rembrandt by his freshness and freedom. Rembrandt’s Mirror explores the three women of Rembrandt’s life, and the towering passions of the artist, seen through the eyes of his last, great love, Hendrickje.

The Making of Home by Judith Flanders

From the Atlantic Books website:

Judith Flanders traces the evolution of the house and paints a striking picture of how the homes we know today differ from homes through history. As full of fascinating detail as her previous bestsellers, this is also a book teeming with original and provocative ideas.

There are so many more titles I could add to this list and honestly I think I'm just going to add pretty much the entire catalogue to my wishlist. 

Have a look for yourselves on their website or follow them on twitter @atlanticbooks

Fairytale Fridays: Fairytale Retellings!

I've already posted for Fairytale Friday this week on the top ten fairytale retelling on my TBR. I just wanted to add a few that I've already read and highly recommend!

The Bloody Chamber & Other Stories by Angela Carter (I don't have a review on the blog but I did my dissertation on it and it's basically the best)

Beastly by Alex Finn (Beauty and the Beast retelling most of you have probably heard of but the book is much better than the film in my opinion)

The Fables series by Bill Willingham & others

Godmother: the Secret Cinderella Story by Carolyn Turgeon (Cinderella. Obviously)

The Ladies of Grace Adieu by Susanna Clarke (various short story retellings occasionally featuring characters from Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell which I am still to read!)

Mermaid by Carolyn Turgeon (again obviously The Little Mermaid)

Rags & Bones: New Twists on Timeless Tales ed. Melissa Marr & Tim Pratt (short story retellings of various tales including Neil Gaiman's The Sleeper and the Spindle)

Uprooted by Naomi Novik (Beauty and the Beast, again you've probably mostly heard of this as it's been getting quite a bit of buzz on blogs recently but I loved it, it's a very unique twist on the tale)

And the Canongate Myth Series, but particularly the ones I've actually read;

Dream Angus by Alexander McCall Smith

The Penelopiad by Margaret Atwood

The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ by Phillip Pullman

Link up your fairytale related posts below! They don't have to be recent posts, just one that you haven't previously linked for this event. Please spread the word using #fairytalefridays!

Graphic Novels: My Current Favourite Series

I don't write about graphic novels as much as I'd like on this blog, mostly because I feel like I'll spoil them for people and it's difficult to talk about them without spoiling as they're pretty much all series!

That said I do think it's important that they're represented here as they're a major part of my reading life, so I thought what better way to do it than to talk about the series I'm currently loving and give a little outline just in case there are some you've not heard of an are interested in, so here goes!

The Sandman by Neil Gaiman & Various

The Sandman was the series that got me into graphic novels. It's about the Sandman, otherwise known as Morpheus or Dream and his siblings, the Endless, anthropomorphic personifications of universal concepts (thanks Wikipedia); Destiny, Death, Destruction, Desire, Despair and Delirium. Honestly I don't remember the storylines of each individual volume but they're good and very infused with myth and fairytale and all the good things. The artwork is generally beautiful as well. Recently I read The Dreamhunters which is slightly separate from the main series and is a collaboration with Japanese illustrator Yoshitaka Amano. It's based on a Japanese folk tale and is pretty incredible and definitely worth a read!

Fables by Bill Willingham & Various

Gah I love Fables so much and it totally sucks that it's ended now :-( I still have the last two volumes to read though, and I have to hold on for my sister to get them before I can do that so it'll be a while before I can actually finish it. The basic concept is that all the characters you know from fables and fairytales have been displaced from their own world by a war with an evil emperor known as The Adversary and have taken refuge in downtown New York, in a neighbourhood imaginatively called Fabletown. The series follows the various characters through many different situations, events, relationships etc. It's generally epic and amazing and a definite must for all fairytale fans!

Fairest by Bill Willingham & Various

I got the first volume of Fairest from Hanna a while ago and I'm not surprised that I loved it. This is a spin off of the Fables universe, focusing on the female fables characters which is awesome for obvious reasons. It's as gripping as Fables and will fill the gap left by the Fables series nicely!

Saga by Brian K. Vaughan & Fiona Staples


Everyone in the world recommended this to me and I'm so glad I listened to them. I've only read the first two volumes so far but it's amazing! It's about Marko and Alana who are on different sides of an intergalactic war but fall in love and have a baby and the effects that that has. It's just incredible, immersive storytelling and I adore it.

Umbrella Academy by Gerard Way and Gabriel Ba

There are only two volumes of this series so far but there are apparently going to eventually be at least two more. Basically seven children with superhero abilities are adopted by a guy called Sir Ronald Hargreeves, otherwise known as The Monocle. He trains them up to defend the world from an evil threat, and after he dies the Umbrella Academy has to reunite and save the world from an unlikely villain. It's pretty random and pretty cool and you should probably read it.

Scott Pilgrim by Bryan Lee O'Malley

Obviously. If you haven't at least seen the awesome film of this series I don't think we can be friendsanymore. The books are a series of six books beginning with Scott Pilgrim's Precious Little Life, about a Canadian guy called Scott Pilgrim and his quest to be able to date a girl named Ramona Flowers by defeating her seven evil exes. It's full of magical realism and insanity and it's generally amazing. Possibly my favourite series of all.

Ms Marvel by G. Willow Wilson

I just got Volume 1 from Nahree for my birthday and adored it! Kamala Khan is just a normal teenage girl when she suddenly becomes a reimagined version of Captain Marvel after she sneaks out to go to a party. The first volume is about her struggling to come to terms with being herself as a superhero and it's pretty amazing. It's also the only series on here that's by a woman. Sort it out, me!

Those are my current favourites. I've got Tank Girl and Peter Panzerfaust on my shelf to read soon though, as well as Rat Queens, Bitch Planet, Sex Criminals, The Wicked & The Divine, and Lumberjanes on my wishlist! Have you read any of these? What are some of your favourites? As usual, if you have any recommendations (particularly any by women!) for me please leave them in the comments!

Top Ten Fairytale Retellings on my TBR

This week the theme for Top Ten Tuesday ties in nicely with the Fairytale Fridays post I was going to write on Friday, so instead of posting on the wrong day I'll link up to this post then!

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. Each week is a different topic and this week the theme is Fairytale Retellings we'd like to read.

Most of these books have been on my TBR forever and I will get to them! In no particular order:

The Goose Girl by Shannon Hale has probably been on my shelf the longest of any fairytale retelling. It's a retelling of the Brothers Grimm story of the same name and it sounds great. Loads of people love it and people keep recommending it to me. I will get to it soon and feature it for Fairytale Fridays!

Beauty by Robin McKinley is another one that a lot of people have a lot of love for. Robin McKinley has a huge catalogue of fairytale retellings and I've yet to read any of them. Since Beauty & the Beast is my favourite fairytale I'll be diving into a few retellings of it pretty soon and I plan to get this in there!

Wildwood Dancing by Juliet Marillier has been recommended to me by at least three different people and is a retelling of The Twelve Dancing Princesses, also a Grimm tale. It sounds like a lot of fun and hopefully is one I can get hold of through the library!

The Looking Glass Wars by Frank Beddor has also been on my shelf for... three years? I love all things Alice in Wonderland related and my sister has been raving about this series for a while now. I really need to get to it.

Briar Rose by Jana Oliver I've actually had out of the library before but ran out of time to read it before it had to be returned. It's a retelling of the Sleeping Beauty/Briar Rose story set in the modern day. I really like modern retellings so I'm looking forward to this one.

Till We Have Faces by C.S Lewis is a retelling of the myth of Cupid and Psyche. I started reading it a while back and got distracted by something else but I'm planning to finish it soon!

The Storytellers Daughter by Cameron Dokey is a retelling of the Arabian Nights, which I've not heard of a lot of retellings of. It sounds like a fun, easy read and I'm excited for it.

Zel by Donna Jo Napoli is a retelling of the Rapunzel story. All the Goodreads reviews I've seen say that it's pretty dark so I think it might make a nice contrast to the sweetness of Tangled, the other Rapunzel retelling I've been watching a lot recently.

Fablehaven by Brandon Mull sounds a little bit like a non-graphic version of Fables, my favourite graphic novel series that I only have two volumes left of. *sobs* Fablehaven is a sanctuary for magical creatures but when powerful forces of evil are unleashed people must find the courage to do what they fear most. Sounds intriguing, right?

The Fairy-Tale Detectives by Michael Buckley is a series of books about the Sisters Grimm, descendants of the original Brothers Grimm based on the idea that the original Grimm stories are actually case files of 'magical mischief'. It sounds awesome!

I already own three of these and most of the rest I can get from the library so I really have no excuse for not reading them! I'm also reading Cinder by Marissa Meyer for Brittany's readalong at the moment and really enjoying it so far.

Links are all affiliate - if you purchase through them I will get a small percentage and be very grateful.

Things That Make Me Happy #3

This week we've been on holiday and despite it being inordinately stressful for the first few days due to us still being in  everyday life/work frames of mind it's still been more full than usual of things making me happy.  Some of these will be things I'll do individual posts on over the coming days but I wanted to mention them all here first!

1. Ice Cream 

Our ice cream blog will be coming back with a bang this week as we've pretty much tried a new ice cream place every day we've been away! Highlights were the hot fudge sundae at Macari's in Worthing and Oreo and Toffee milkshakes at Starvin Marvins in Greenford. We also really enjoyed the ice cream cake from G & D's in Oxford.

2. The Story Museum, Oxford

We went to Oxford on a whim. We originally set off for Virginia Water but decided to keep going up the road as I'd never been to Oxford and Rhys not for years. A quick google of 'things to do with kids in Oxford revealed the Story Museum, an amazing space celebrating the different ways of telling stories. I'll be posting about this in full later in the week as it was incredible, but highlights were playing croquet Alice in Wonderland style with flamingoes and hedgehogs, and reading stories in a sailing boat. 

3. The Zoo

We went to Marwell Zoo on Wednesday because the boys, particularly Ben, are really into zoos and wildlife parks at the moment and Rhys had fond memories of it from when he was younger and it absolutely didn't disappoint. We particularly enjoyed the children's trail where they had a booklet that the kids could collect embossed stamps from various animals. Personally the giraffes and the penguins were my favourites, I could have watched the giraffes all day. 

4. OTSP Secret Sister

I've been seeing people tweet about #otspsecretsister (On the Same Page Secret Sister) but for the last two rounds it's been U.S only. Thankfully this time around they had enough international interest to open it up to some other countries as well and I'm really excited to be taking part! For those who don't know, the concept is like Ninja Swap but lasting for six months - you get an email containing all kinds of info about your secret sister and then you send them parcels based on their interests each month for six months. You don't know who you're receiving from and it's just generally awesome. People have been asking and answering questions for the benefit of their sisters (and brothers, it's not just for girls!) all week on twitter and it's super addictive and generally joy inspiring. It's organised by three amazing ladies, Brittany, Alyssa and Amy and having organised the (much smaller) Ninja Book Swap for the past three years I'm in awe of their ability to organise 250+ people for such an incredible event!

5. The Gracekeepers* by Kirsty Logan

I heard about Kirsty Logan on Jen's Youtube Channel a couple of weeks back and then came across The Gracekeepers on my sisters bookshelf while visiting this week so I snagged it and devoured it in a few days. It's beautiful, set in a fantasy world where there is more water than land and revolving around a circus and a displaced girl. Highly recommended for everyone!

*affiliate link

6. Re-Readathon #2

After discussion with Katie I decided to host another Re-Readathon during September! The one in May was a lot of fun - very informal and full of people's enthusiasm for re-reading their favourite books. We decided that a week wasn't long enough last time so this one will run from September 7th -20th and you can sign up here! Spread the word using #rereadathon on twitter and instagram and let me know if you're planning to take part in the comments!

There's a lot more than six things that have made me happy this week: time spent with family, watching The Iron Lady, hanging out with Rhys and being silly, Brighton (omg I love Brighton!), going to the Women's FA Cup Final at Wembley Stadium yesterday and being part of the biggest crowd to ever attend a womens' football match. The list goes on, but these are the major culprits.

What's making you happy this week? Link up your posts with Lit Nerd!

ReReadathon #2

Guys, I'm super excited to announce that the Re-Readathon is BACK by popular demand! This one will run over two weeks, as people found that one just wasn't long enough last time. It will feature a mini challenge or two and a twitter chat, date TBD. As with last time the rules are simple:

• Sign up via this linky at any time before or during the re-readathon
• The re-readathon will run from 12am Monday 7th September until 11:59pm Sunday 20th September. 
• Re-read old or new favourites at some point during the two weeks. Link up reviews or discussions via the link in the starting line post I will put up closer to the time! You don't have to dedicate the entire two weeks to re-reading - as long as you do some re-reading during the time you're still participating!
• Use #rereadathon on twitter and instagram to share the rereading love. Follow me @NinjaBookSwap (where I'll probably be tweeting from) or @armchairbythesea (on Instagram) or say hi in the comments. 
• To enter any giveaways run during the event you must be signed up via this link up. If you are not signed up your entries will be disqualified. 

That's it! All the details are still to be determined. If you have ideas for mini challenges or would like to host a giveaway of your favourite reread please contact me via the buttons in the left hand sidebar, and please spread the word in all the ways you know how! Last time it was so fun talking about rereading and connecting with new and old friends and I'm hoping it will be this time too, the more the merrier! 

Make Mine an Indie: And Other Stories

For those who didn't see, the other day I posted about my plans to make 2016 the year of only buying from independent bookshops and publishers. In other words the year of making mine an indie. Yes, this was the best title I could come up with so we're all just going to have to live with it! In the interest of doing some research into small publishers particularly as I know... not a lot... I decided to make this a semi regular blog series spanning the rest of 2015. Hopefully I will start 2016 armed with knowledge and anticipation, and if I can inspire some of you along the way, so much the better!

The first small publisher I want to talk about is one that I'm also really excited about. There is nothing I don't like about And Other Stories so far. Their website is fantastic and one of the first things I saw after arriving was that in 2018 they are publishing only female authors. As a massive supporter of the #readwomen campaign on twitter and in general I was really intrigued by this and am very much in favour. In the article Sophie Lewis says that only publishing women for a year will allow them to "carry out a thorough investigation of how different books reach us, and how we can encourage more underrepresented voices to be heard" which I thought was just fantastic. It's an even bigger deal as the primary business of And Other Stories is publishing translated fiction, often written by authors whose work is otherwise unavailable in English, so they're already representing the underrepresented and I thought it was really interesting and exciting that they're pushing that even further. 

Other things I love love love about And Other Stories: they have a subscription service where you pay an amount of money per year and they send you 2,4, or 6 titles ahead of publication. This is what I will be doing the minute my book buying ban ends and I am so excited for it, what a fantastic idea! I also love that they use foreign language reading groups as a source for suggestions of which titles to publish. I have to admit to not knowing an awful lot about the decision process behind what gets published, but this kind of direct link with the readers is amazing and innovative and very inspiring to read about. 

Overall their catalogue looks extremely diverse (a big plus for me this year, obviously) and yes I'll admit a lot of the books they publish don't look easy but as they say often the things that are most worth doing (or reading) are the hardest. 

A couple I'm really excited about:

The Adventure of the Busts of Eva Peron by Carlos Gamerro. 

From the And Other Stories website:

1975. The cusp of Argentina’s Dirty War. The magnate, Fausto Tamerlán, has been kidnapped by guerrillas, who as part of their ransom demands have stipulated the placement of a bust of Eva Perón in all ninety-two offices of Argentina’s leading construction company, Tamerlán & Sons. Tamerlán’s head of procurement, Ernesto Marroné, is the man tasked with the job, but he soon finds out that his is a mission for executives of a heroic disposition. His subsequent picaresque journey plunges him into a world of occupied factories, the slums of Buenos Aires and the utopian Evita City. Equipped with his trusty copy of Don Quixote: The Executive-Errant, Marroné is a modern knight who finds himself forced to penetrate the ultimate Argentinian mystery: Eva Perón – that maid of myth and legend whom we know as Evita. A stand-alone novel in its own right but also a prequel to his first novel, The Islands (And Other Stories, 2012), Carlos Gamerro’s caustic and utterly original novel is a shattered window onto Argentina’s recent past.

Esperanza Street by Niyati Keni.

From the And Other Stories website:

I was eight when my father brought me to one of the big houses at the top of Esperanza Street and left me with Mary Morelos. ‘I haven’t the time to fix broken wings,’ she said. ‘Does he have any trouble with discipline?’ My father glanced at me before answering.

So begins the story of Joseph, houseboy to the once-wealthy Mary Morelos, who lives in the three-storey Spanish colonial house at the top of Esperanza Street. Through Joseph’s eyes we witness the destruction of the community to which they are both, in their own way, bound. Set in a port town in the Philippines, Niyati Keni’s evocative and richly populated debut novel is about criminality under the guise of progress, freedom or the illusion of it, and about how the choices we make are ultimately the real measure of who we are.

Find And Other Stories at their website, www.andotherstories.org, on twitter @andothertweets or Facebook www.facebook.com/AndOtherStoriesBooks.