{"title":"Staff Picks - Our Favourite Books of 2023","description":"","products":[{"product_id":"9781781258361","title":"Geography Is Destiny : Britain and the World, a 10,000 Year History","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eFor hundreds of years, Britannia ruled the waves and an empire on which the sun never set - but forthousands of years before that, Britain had been no more than a cluster of unimportant islands off Europe's north-west shore. Drawing on the latest archaeological and historical evidence, Ian Morris shows how much the meaning of Britain's geography has changed in the 10,000 years since rising seas began separating the Islesfrom the Continent, and how these changing meanings have determined Britons' destinies. From being merely Europe's fractious, feuding periphery - divided by customs, language and landscape, and always at the mercy of more powerful continental neighbours - the British turned themselves into a United Kingdom and put it at the centre of global politics, commerce and culture.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eBut as power and wealth now shift from the West towards China, what fate awaits Britain in the twenty-first century?\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAuthor(s): Morris, Ian, \u003cbr\u003e Binding: Paperback, \u003cbr\u003e Date of Publication: 02\/02\/2023,\u003cbr\u003e Pagination: 576 pages, B\u0026amp;W illustrations and maps; B\u0026amp;W illustrations and maps,\u003cbr\u003e Series: N\/A, \u003cbr\u003eImprint: Profile Books Ltd,\u003cbr\u003e Published By: Profile Books Ltd,\u003cbr\u003e Book Classification: Europe,\u003cbr\u003e ISBN13\\EAN\\SKU: 9781781258361\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Griffin Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":40852672708652,"sku":"9781781258361","price":12.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0379\/1365\/7388\/products\/9781781258361.jpg?v=1670452376"},{"product_id":"9780571376483","title":"Demon Copperhead : Winner of the Women's Prize for Fiction","description":"\u003cp\u003e Author(s): Kingsolver, Barbara \u003cbr\u003e Binding: Paperback, \u003cbr\u003e Date of Publication: 04\/05\/2023,\u003cbr\u003e Pagination: 560 pages,\u003cbr\u003e ISBN13\\EAN\\SKU: 9780571376483,\u003cbr\u003e Description: \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e#1 NEW YORK TIMES READERS BEST BOOK OF THE 21ST CENTURYA SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLERWINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE FOR FICTIONTWICE WINNER OF THE WOMEN'S PRIZESHORTLISTED FOR THE ORWELL PRIZE FOR POLITICAL FICTION SHORTLISTED FOR THE JAMES TAIT BLACK PRIZE FOR FICTIONTHE MULTI-MILLION COPY SELLING AUTHORBOOK AT BEDTIME ON BBC RADIO 4AN OPRAH'S BOOK CLUB PICK'Without a doubt the best book I'll read this year.' KATE ATKINSON'It's EPIC. Righteously angry, DEEPLY moving and exquisitely written.' MARIAN KEYES'Daring, entertaining and highly readable.' The Times'Electrifying.' Daily Mail'A blaze of a book.' RACHEL JOYCE'A masterclass.' RICHARD POWERS'Masterful.' Pulitzer Prize'Powerful.' Guardian'A work of genius.' KATE MOSSEDemon Copperhead is a once-in-a-generation novel that breaks and mends your heart in the way only the best fiction can.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eDemon's story begins with his traumatic birth to a single mother in a single-wide trailer, looking 'like a little blue prizefighter.' For the life ahead of him he would need all of that fighting spirit, along with buckets of charm, a quick wit, and some unexpected talents, legal and otherwise.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn the southern Appalachian Mountains of Virginia, poverty isn't an idea, it's as natural as the grass grows. For a generation growing up in this world, at the heart of the modern opioid crisis, addiction isn't an abstraction, it's neighbours, parents, and friends. 'Family' could mean love, or reluctant foster care. For Demon, born on the wrong side of luck, the affection and safety he craves is as remote as the ocean he dreams of seeing one day. The wonder is in how far he's willing to travel to try and get there.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eSuffused with truth, anger and compassion, Demon Copperhead is an epic tale of love, loss and everything in between.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eReaders love Demon Copperhead:????? 'Outstanding . . . I don't know how someone can write a book like this: inhabit a totally different character and create it with such empathy, respect and fullness.'?????'Powerful and brilliant. To immerse yourself in a Kingsolver novel is to put yourself in the hands of a master.'?????'This was one of the greatest books I have read . . . Kingsolver is a magician with words, and her rage quietly seeps from each page.'????? 'Raw, angry, starkly beautiful . . . Genuinely one of the best books I've ever read.'?????'An incredibly raw and moving read, with a big-hearted hero who will stay with me for a long time.'????? 'I cannot overstate how absorbing this book is. It is wonderful and has restored my faith in fiction and novels.'\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Griffin Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":41139934134316,"sku":"9780571376483","price":9.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0379\/1365\/7388\/files\/9780571376483_6df04f1e-a6a3-4bb6-9117-452ed7f421e4.jpg?v=1759675914"},{"product_id":"9780857529251","title":"The Unbroken Beauty of Rosalind Bone","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eTucked into the Welsh valleys and encircled by silver birch and pine, the village of Cwmcysgod may appear a quiet, sleepy sort of place. But beneath the surface, tensions simmer, hearts ache, and painful truths threaten to emerge. Sixteen-year-old Catrin Bone knows only what she has been told.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eNow, she is beginning to question her small world, and a version of the past that seems to entrap and embitter her reclusive mother, Mary. Mary had a sister once, a girl of unparalleled beauty. Why did she disappear from the village in a shroud of shame all those years ago - and where is she now?Meanwhile the Clements brothers, skint and all out of hope, run rampant across the hills and lanes.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eAnd old Dai Bevel, whose frailty masks a dark history, dreams of a girl he used to know... The sins of the past are approaching, for it takes a village: to raise a child, to bring down a woman, to hide something monstrous and to look the other way. In this tender, sly, exquisitely wrought novella, a unique cast of characters give voice to their versions of the truth.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eBut it is the story of Rosalind Bone, of her strength and of all that she has endured, that rises above the rest, shimmering with hope and possibility...\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAuthor(s): McCarthy, Alex, \u003cbr\u003e Binding: Hardback, \u003cbr\u003e Date of Publication: 15\/06\/2023,\u003cbr\u003e Pagination: 176 pages,\u003cbr\u003e Series: N\/A, \u003cbr\u003eImprint: Doubleday,\u003cbr\u003e Published By: Transworld Publishers Ltd,\u003cbr\u003e Book Classification: Fiction \u0026amp; related items,\u003cbr\u003e ISBN13\\EAN\\SKU: 9780857529251\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Griffin Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":41139960840236,"sku":"9780857529251","price":12.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0379\/1365\/7388\/products\/9780857529251.jpg?v=1680252781"},{"product_id":"the-forgotten-girls-an-american-story","title":"The Forgotten Girls: An American Story","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eTalented and ambitious, Monica Potts and her best friend, Darci, were both determined to make something of themselves. How did their lives turn out so different? Growing up gifted and working-class in the foothills of the Ozarks, Monica and Darci became fast friends. Bonding over a shared love of learning, they pored over the giant map in their classroom, tracing their fingers over the world that awaited them, vowing to escape their broken town.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eIn the end, Monica left Clinton for university and fulfilled her dreams. Darci, along with many in their circle of friends, did not. Years later, working as a journalist covering poverty, Monica discovers what she already intuitively knew about the women in Arkansas.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eTheir life expectancy had steeply declined -- the sharpest such fall in a century. As she returns to Clinton to report the story, she reconnects with Darci, and finds that her once talented and ambitious best friend is now a statistic: a single mother of two, addicted to meth, jobless and nearly homeless. Deeply aware that Darci's fate could have been hers, she retraces the moments in each of their lives that led such similar women toward such different destinies.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eWhy did Monica make it out while Darci became ensnared in a cycle of poverty and opioid abuse? Gripping and unforgettable, The Forgotten Girls is a story of friendship and lost promise in 21st century America.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eby Monica Potts (Author)\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eFormat:Hardback 272 pages\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003ePublisher:Penguin Books Ltd\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eImprint:Allen Lane\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eISBN:9780241320525\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003ePublished:27 Apr 2023\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Griffin Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42275807952940,"sku":"9780241320525","price":20.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0379\/1365\/7388\/files\/9780241320525.jpg?v=1702558023"}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0379\/1365\/7388\/collections\/Copy_of_Shopify_home_page_icons.jpg?v=1704195320","url":"https:\/\/www.griffinbooksonline.live\/collections\/staff-picks-our-favourite-books-of-2023.oembed","provider":"Griffin Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}