New November Book Releases

since 2010

November Book Releases

Murder in Old Bombay by Nev March

In 19th century Bombay, Captain Jim Agnihotri channels his idol, Sherlock Holmes, in Nev March’s Minotaur Books/Mystery Writers of America First Crime Novel Award-winning debut. In 1892, Bombay is the center of British India. Nearby, Captain Jim Agnihotri lies in Poona military hospital recovering from a skirmish on the wild northern frontier, with little to do but re-read the tales of his idol, Sherlock Holmes, and browse the daily papers. The case that catches Captain Jim's attention is being called the crime of the century: Two women fell from the busy university’s clock tower in broad daylight. Moved by Adi, the widower of one of the victims — his certainty that his wife and sister did not commit suicide — Captain Jim approaches the Parsee family and is hired to investigate what happened that terrible afternoon.

We Keep the Dead Close: A Murder at Harvard and a Half Century of Silence by Becky Cooper 1969: the height of counterculture and the year universities would seek to curb the unruly spectacle of student protest; the winter that Harvard University would begin the tumultuous process of merging with Radcliffe, its all-female sister school; and the year that Jane Britton, an ambitious 23-year-old graduate student in Harvard's Anthropology Department and daughter of Radcliffe Vice President J. Boyd Britton, would be found bludgeoned to death in her Cambridge, Massachusetts apartment. Forty years later, Becky Cooper, a curious undergrad, will hear the first whispers of the story. In the first telling the body was nameless. The story was this: a Harvard student had had an affair with her professor, and the professor had murdered her in the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology because she'd threatened to talk about the affair.

The Book Collectors: A Band of Syrian Rebels and the Stories That Carried Them Through a War by Delphine Minoui, Lara Vergnaud (Translation)

Award-winning journalist Delphine Minoui recounts the true story of a band of young rebels in a besieged Syrian town, who find hope and connection making an underground library from the rubble of war Day in, day out, bombs fall on Daraya, a town outside Damascus, the very spot where the Syrian Civil War began. In the midst of chaos and bloodshed, a group searching for survivors stumbles on a cache of books. They collect the books, then look for more. In a week they have six thousand volumes. In a month, fifteen thousand. A sanctuary is born: a library where the people of Daraya can explore beyond the blockade. Long a site of peaceful resistance to the Assad regimes, Daraya was under siege for four years. No one entered or left, and international aid was blocked.

The Thirty Names of Night

by Zeyn Joukhadar The author of the “vivid and urgent…important and timely” (The New York Times Book Review) debut The Map of Salt and Stars returns with this remarkably moving and lyrical novel following three generations of Syrian Americans who are linked by a mysterious species of bird and the truths they carry close to their hearts. Five years after a suspicious fire killed his ornithologist mother, a closeted Syrian American trans boy sheds his birth name and searches for a new one. He has been unable to paint since his mother’s ghost has begun to visit him each evening. As his grandmother’s sole caretaker, he spends his days cooped up in their apartment, avoiding his neighborhood masjid, his estranged sister, and even his best friend (who also happens to be his longtime crush). The only time he feels truly free is when he slips out at night to paint murals on buildings in the once-thriving Manhattan neighborhood known as Little Syria.

The Office of Historical Corrections: A Novella and Stories by Danielle Evans

Danielle Evans is widely acclaimed for her blisteringly smart voice and x-ray insights into complex human relationships. With The Office of Historical Corrections, Evans zooms in on particular moments and relationships in her characters' lives in a way that allows them to speak to larger issues of race, culture, and history. She introduces us to Black and multiracial characters who are experiencing the universal confusions of lust and love, and getting walloped by grief—all while exploring how history haunts us, personally and collectively. Ultimately, she provokes us to think about the truths of American history—about who gets to tell them, and the cost of setting the record straight. In "Boys Go to Jupiter," a white college student tries to reinvent herself after a photo of her in a Confederateflag bikini goes viral. In "Richard of York Gave Battle in Vain," a photojournalist is forced to confront her own losses while attending an old friend's unexpectedly dramatic wedding.

in Bookshops

by Shaun Bythell A very funny view of books and the people who love them. It does take all kinds and Shaun Bythell knows them all--from the "Person Who Doesn't Know What They Want (But Thinks It Might Have a Blue Cover)" to the "Parents Secretly After Free Childcare." A wickedly witty field guide by the curmudgeonly author of Confessions of a Bookseller.

What We Don't Talk About

When We Talk About Fat

by Aubrey Gordon Anti-fatness is everywhere. In What We Don't Talk About When We Talk About Fat, Aubrey Gordon unearths the cultural attitudes and social systems that have led to people being denied basic needs because they are fat and calls for social justice movements to be inclusive of plus-sized people's experiences. Unlike the recent wave of memoirs and quasi self-help books that encourage readers to love and accept themselves, Gordon pushes the discussion further towards authentic fat activism, which includes ending legal weight discrimination, giving equal access to health care for large people, increased access to public spaces, and ending anti-fat violence. As she argues, I did not come to body positivity for self-esteem. I came to it for social justice. By sharing her experiences as well as those of others-from smaller fat to very fat people--she concludes that to be fat in our society is to be seen as an undeniable failure, unlovable, unforgivable, and morally condemnable. Fatness is an open invitation for others to express disgust, fear, and insidious concern. To be fat

Seven Kinds of People You Find

is to be denied humanity and empathy.

A Promised Land

by Barack Obama

A riveting, deeply personal account of history in the making—from the president who inspired us to believe in the power of democracy. In the stirring, highly anticipated first volume of his presidential memoirs, Barack Obama tells the story of his improbable odyssey from young man searching for his identity to leader of the free world, describing in strikingly personal detail both his political education and the landmark moments of the first term of his historic presidency—a time of dramatic transformation and turmoil. Obama takes readers on a compelling journey from his earliest political aspirations to the pivotal Iowa caucus victory that demonstrated the power of grassroots activism to the watershed night of November 4, 2008, when he was elected 44th president of the United States, becoming the first African American to hold the nation’s highest office.

AVOCADO: the versatility of the pandemic-proof superfood

AS EUROPEAN AVOCADO CONSUMPTION IS EXPECTED TO GROW BY 15% IN 2020, TOP CHEFS HIGHLIGHT ITS VERSATILITY WITH THEIR SIGNATURE #AVOMYWAY RECIPES

The World Avocado Organization (WAO) has invited the UK’s top chefs to develop new avocado-based recipes, as part of the #AvoMyWay challenge. The prize for the winning dish is a pallet of avocados donated to NHS Charities Trust in the chef’s name. The winning chefs, Tom Aikens (Muse) and Sanjay Dwivedi (COYA), created recipes that celebrated the avocado’s versatility. The avocado has also proved pandemic-proof as its popularity with British consumers continues. Over 6,000 avocados are now sold every hour in the UK, used as an ingredient in the kitchen and at-home skincare routines.

To celebrate the versatility of the avocado, the World Avocado Organization (WAO) challenged some of the UK’s top chefs to create a dish with the avocado as the star ingredient. The winning chef will have a pallet of avocados donated to the NHS Charities Trust in their name.

The competition was fierce as the inspired chefs smashed, grilled, piped and puréed their avocados. WAO chose the winning recipes as a testament to the chefs’ creativity and flair as well as the avocado’s unique versatility as an ingredient. COYA’s Sanjay Dwivedi created a sumptuous avocado mousse with coconut, passion fruit sorbet and rice crackers while Tom Aikens from Muse reinvented a classic with his avocado cannelloni.

For the full list of entries, see below:

lTOM AIKENS from MUSE: Avocado Cannelloni lSANJAY DWIVEDI from COYA: Avocado Mousse, Coconut, Passion Fruit Sorbet, Rice Crackers lJOE GRANT from ISSHO: Dragon Rolls with Tempura Tiger Prawns, Avocado and Spicy Mayonnaise lRUTH HANSOM from PRINCESS OF SHOREDITCH: Gin Cured Sea Trout and Bream, Nori, Avocado Purée Coriander and Citrus lATUL KOCHHAR from VAASU: Hawkyns’ Crispy Soft-shell Crab with Avocado Panna Cottas lCYRUS TODIWALA from CAFÉ SPICE NAMASTÉ: Avocado and Parsee Wedding Pickle Cake lCHRIS & JEFFERY GALVIN from GALVIN RESTAURANTS: Avocado Puree lJOHN WILLIAMS from RITZ LONDON: Roast Scallops Bergamont and Avocado lPAULO DE TARSO from MARGOT: Guacamole lTHEO RANDALL from THEO RANDALL AT THE INTERCONTINENTAL: Toasted Sourdough with Smashed Avocado, Poached Eggs, Smoked Salmon, Chill and Parsley lRICH HENDERSON from CORNISH ARMS TAVISTOCK: Salmon Avocado Pink Grapefruit Fermented Cucumber Nasturtium lJODIE KIDD from THE HALF MOON: The Half Moon King Prawn and Avocadotini lSOPHIE MICHELL: Salmon Yuzu Ceviche with Avocado and Crab lBEN BARTLETT: Grilled Avocado Salad with 21 Aged D Rump Steak lBRIAN TURNER: Avocado & Asparagus Salad lTHOMAS LEATHERBARROW: Avocado Toast with Poached Egg lCHING HE HUANG: Ying-Yang Chilli Eggs lCHRIS PROW from the CAPITAL HOTEL: Avocado Chocolate Mousse with Avocado Coconut Frozen Yoghurt lALFREDO RUSSO from THE FRANKLIN LONDON: Cocktail di Gamberi con Emulsion di Avocado lOLIVER MARLOWE from THE HUNTER’S MOON: Scallop Ceviche with Whipped Avocado, Pickled Ginger and Ponzu lROBERT WALTON (PRESIDENT OF THE RESTAURANT ASSOCIATION): Avocado Rose Toast lDIANE KOCHILAS: Greek Guacamole

Avocados: the pandemic-proof superfood The chefs aren’t the only ones making the most of the avocado’s health benefits. So far this year, Europe has consumed 700 million kilos of avocados, 100 million kilos more than last year. During the pandemic, the avocado has become the new healthy comfort food both for the body and mind. It was a key part of embracing a healthier lifestyle under lockdown, along with sourdough starters and the boom in YouTube fitness videos.

Avocado consumption across Europe has been steadily growing for years, with the United Kingdom and France being the two biggest markets. Over 6,000 avocados are now sold every hour in the UK!

“During the pandemic, many people have started to pay more attention to their diets and are turning to foods that will strengthen their immune systems. The avocado, along with a balanced diet and an active lifestyle, is our body’s best friend, ideally matched to new consumer habits and needs in 2020”, states Xavier Equihua, CEO of WAO.

And it’s not just being bought as an ingredient in the kitchen. Providing a wealth of essential fatty acids, vitamins C and E, and minerals, the avocado is proving popular in at-home skincare. Avocado oil soothes burnt skin and boasts regenerative properties for both the face and hair.