Apologies the recent lack of posts here at The Bookshelf. Tim is beginning a Masters Degree, while I (Joel) has just started a new job working for Quercus, the UK publisher - part of the excitement of moving to the big city is coping without internet while the good people of Tesco Broadband fight the good fight to set it up.
To give you a flavour of what you can look forward to when we're back in business, there's the promised analysis of the politics of JK Rowling's The Casual Vacancy (check out our review here). A lot of attention has focused on the novel's perceived left-wing politics, which so displeased the Daily Mail, but I'm inclined to think it's actually a lot more complicated than that - check back in a week or three for more.
We're also very excited about the upcoming release of The Twelve, by Justin Cronin. The novel is the second in an anticipated trilogy, which began with The Passage - a wonderful book which fused apocalyptic vampires with literary fiction. Look out for a review of The Passage, as well as Cronin's award-winning earlier novel The Summer Guest, which might well be the best book I've read this year. Of course, once The Twelve is released it'll be read and reviewed as quickly as professional life makes possible.
Finally, while the professional world is hampering my reading time, it's also giving me more of an insight into the world of publishing. I won't be leaking any trade secrets, but hopefully I'll be able to share some interesting news about what's going on in the book world.
Happy October!
