The Mookse and the Gripes discussion

Salt publishing has quite an interesting catalogue of well-received books, including the Costa nominated The Clocks in This House All Tell Different Times.

https://www.saltpublishing.com/

I just read The Chameleon by Samuel Fisher. I liked it, it was well paced, but I feel like the book who could morph into any book he chose wasn’t used as effectively or creatively as it could have been. It had a much more useful role in this story than the literal underground railroad did in Whitehead’s .

It’s disappointing when a good writer doesn’t do all that they could with an original idea. The best parts of the story were John, the book, recalling his different avatars and owners and all that he witnesses. I wish Fisher would have focused much more on John and his 800 years then on the story of Roger the Cold War spy.

I gave the book 3 stars.

I am a fan of Salt Publishing and I always look forward to their books, even if The Chameleon may not be good, you have to admire them for trying different things.

It is near the top of my TBR pile.

The author is of course a former RoC judge and his bookshop (as Jonathan can testify) strongly promotes the books - so I am predisposed to like it.

Incidentally Salt are 20 years old this year - impressive! - and on a 'please buy a book' fundraise

https://www.saltpublishing.com/collec...

I did like The Chameleon, I just didn’t love it.

I don’t need to be asked twice to buy a book, so to support the fundraiser I ordered Bodies of Water by V.H. Leslie.

I really like the two Guy Ware novels Salt has published: The Fat Of Fed Beasts and Reconciliation

I liked the Chameleon more I think - my review https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... - although it is not entirely obvious why the two different elements - the Cold War love story and the self-aware book-narrator - belong together.

Paul wrote: "I liked the Chameleon more I think - my review https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... - although it is not entirely obvious why the two different elements - the Cold War love story and th..."


That what I thought, Paul. I would have rather Fisher told the story of the books travels and why he morphed into various books when he did. The Cold War spy story on its own was not a gripping story.

I think Fisher felt there was a strong links between the two strands; not sure though that I could see it.

I noted on your review, which was excellent as usual, that the passages of John, the book, musing on being a book, and telling his story was worthy of 4 stars so I changed my rating. The only reason I didn’t give it 5 was the Cold War spy story wasn’t necessary. The whole book could have been the story of the life of John.
I do look forward to Samuel Fishers’ next novel.

I know some of the members in this group are big fans of Salt, so this might make someone sad: https://twitter.com/saltpublishing/st...

I'm looking into their books right now! Any recommendations?

Madalena wrote: "I know some of the members in this group are big fans of Salt, so this might make someone sad: https://twitter.com/saltpublishing/st...

I'm looking into their books right now!..."

The Clocks in this house all tell different times is fantastic

Surprisingly, there's a lot of amazing books that were already in my radar on the site! (Which I didn't know were published by Salt.) I'm excited! Thank you for the suggestion, Robert.

If you haven't read them the Simon Okotie books Whatever Happened To Harold Absalon? and In the Absence of Absalon are quite quite brilliant.

Thanks for the suggestions, Paul! I will look into them.

By the way, I saw you mention Missing by Alison Moore, and I'm quite intrigued about that one. Have you read it yet?

Well ... my copy of Missing has literally gone missing!

I think it arrived - there was a letter on my desk saying 'thanks' from Salt - but I can't find the book!

Wow! Hahahahaha. Maybe that's all the book is... Literally Missing.

In any case, I hope you find it and read it soon so I can know your thoughts. I have this irrational fear of buying new releases when there isn't a lot of reviews yet so I might wait on that and buy something else. Luckily there's about 8 books on the cart to choose from.

Review of Missing out today from a fellow Republic of Consciousness judge
https://neverimitate.wordpress.com/20...

As for my copy of Missing, horrible feeling it got thrown away by mistake with the packaging.

Madalena wrote: "I know some of the members in this group are big fans of Salt, so this might make someone sad: https://twitter.com/saltpublishing/st..."

Thanks for this, Madalena. I have ordered The Good Son and The Missing. I loved Alison Moore's The Lighthouse.

Readers saved Salt Publishing. This is another reason to love small presses. Galley Beggar was encouraging ppl to buy from Salt to help them out, which was really nice to see.

http://www.edp24.co.uk/business/salt-...

I doubly love the article as not only great news but it's from my local paper where I grew up.

I was in their home town of Cromer this weekend. caught a crab from the pier and two novels.

Lightly fried with copious salt and pepper?

No we put it back in the sea

That's no way to treat a book.

That was funny, Gumble.

I am not embarrassed to admit I was almost fighting back tears when I read that the press was saved by asking readers to order a book to help them. They thanked everyone and said they were a bit worried about how to fill so many orders timely since they came in so quickly and a lot of ppl tweeted that they could be patient. It was a heartwarming story for bookish persons.

WndyJW wrote: "That was funny, Gumble.

I am not embarrassed to admit I was almost fighting back tears when I read that the press was saved by asking readers to order a book to help them. They thanked everyone a..."

Yeah I thought that was sweet - This is why I like indie publishers