The Nile's Books of the Month: September

The Nile's Book of the Month: Non-Fiction

Ottolenghi SIMPLE TOO by Yotam Ottolenghi

For the millions of home cooks who loved Ottolenghi SIMPLE, discover the pleasure of keeping things SIMPLE TOO.

It’s a noisy world out there, so stop, take a minute or two, listen to the soup bubble or the egg crackle… and let simple cooking be your solution.

Bring Yotam Ottolenghi’s innovation to your everyday with 135 new recipes for breakfast, lunch, dinner and dessert. Every dish has simplicity at its core and can be made in under 30 minutes, cooked in one pot, or prepped ahead. Whatever your barriers to cooking, this book brings you into the kitchen with a promise that even the simplest of meals can be full of flavour and joy.

The Nile's Book of the Month: Fiction

Ordinary Funny Tragic by Bridie Jabour

A darkly sharp, wryly funny and entirely delightful novel about bad mothers, problematic families, forgiveness and finally - reluctantly - growing up.

Crimson’s life has been indelibly shaped by her magnetic, clever, self-absorbed mother, Villy. When Crimson was nine, Villy fell in love with another man and left her marriage (and her children) for him. And now, as Crimson is on the cusp of turning thirty and single-parenting a three-year-old son (with all the messiness, chaos and love that entails), her mother has – inconveniently, dramatically – declared she is dying. Crimson doesn’t quite believe it, and neither does Marty, her brother. But, summoned to Villy’s bedside, they go, like moths to a flame.

Villy, it turns out, was not exaggerating. There is sickness, there is dying, there is a funeral. And, most importantly, there is a will. A will that requests Marty and Crimson to escort their mother’s body home to her family – well, the rest of her family – in England.

Crimson and Marty are entirely unprepared for the melodramatic and eccentric family that awaits them. Nor are they ready for the grief that is coming their way like a runaway horse, nor the fact that their lives are going to change… They are also not prepared for the duck.

Sharp, spiky, dark, hilarious and irrepressible, Ordinary Funny Tragic is about learning to forgive the people you love most in the world for being flawed human beings. Just like you.

The Nile's Book of the Month: Young Adult

Five Voices by Tamara Moss

Five Voices is the highly popular podcast founded by five friends - Rosie, William, Simone, Zac, and Ocean - who debate contentious issues while playing classic board games. Until one night when, an hour after a huge argument during a recording session of the podcast, William is found dead. Everyone claims innocence, but something doesn’t add up … somebody must be lying.

Rosie was on the phone with William minutes before he fell to his death from his apartment balcony. He was on the brink of telling her a secret about one of their co-hosts, and his last words imply they were interrupted by the very person he was about to expose.

As Rosie searches for answers, she realises their world isn’t as black and white as she’d believed, and that sometimes doing the right thing isn’t as easy as it sounds. Especially when it comes to solving your best friend’s murder.

From the bestselling co-author of The Escape Game comes this fantastic, fast-paced, high-stakes YA that will have readers second-guessing and on the edge of their seats till the very last page.

The Nile's Book of the Month: Children's Book

Gruffalo Granny by Julia Donaldson

The brand new Gruffalo picture book from Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler

The Gruffalo said to his daughter one day,
"Your Gruffalo Granny is coming to stay."

Return to the deep dark wood with the first new Gruffalo story in over 20 years, and meet Gruffalo Granny as she visits the Gruffalo family. This fresh and exciting new Gruffalo adventure features the return of much-loved characters and is destined to become a classic.

Julia Donaldson said "I really hope that children - and adults too - will enjoy the new story, as I know what a wonderful experience shared reading can be. I was delighted when Axel came on board, and am even more so now that I've seen the brilliant sketches he's already done for the new book."

Axel Scheffler said ". . . One day out of the blue there came a wonderfully clever and inspired new text by Julia. How does she do this? Could I decline? Of course not! As I have had to draw the odd Gruffalo and his daughter over the last 20 years, I'm not completely out of practice."