Quick Reads 2015 Ideas Pack
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Quick Reads 2015 ideas pack Introduction This short pack provides background to Quick Reads, information about the 2015 campaign, useful web links, and suggestions for how you might use and promote Quick Reads 2015. If you have any particular tips and suggestions for how to make the most of the Quick Reads titles, then please email [email protected] and we will add these to the pack. About Quick Reads 2015 Quick Reads are bite-sized, new books written by bestselling writers and celebrities to help people discover the joys of reading for pleasure. They are perfect for engaging people with reading as they are short and use clear language but still have fast-paced, brilliant storylines. Quick Reads are suitable for adults with a reading age of around nine or ten, but can be read by anyone looking for a short and satisfying read. Quick Reads are ideal for adults with low literacy skills, ESOL learners, reluctant readers, learners with learning difficulties/disabilities, and those at risk from social exclusion including the prison population and homeless people. They are also great for busy people and for people who have fallen out of the habit of reading. Once again the Quick Reads titles are very varied, with something for everyone. The six 2015 titles are: Roddy Doyle Dead Man Talking (Random House) Jojo Moyes Paris for Two One (Penguin) Sophie Hannah Pictures Or It Didn't Happen (Hodder and Stoughton) Fanny Blake Red for Revenge (Orion) Adèle Geras Out of the Dark (Quercus) James Bowen Street Cat Bob (Hodder and Stoughton) Quick Reads 2015 ideas pack Dead Man Talking by Roddy Doyle (Random House) Pat had been best friends with Joe Murphy since they were kids. But five years ago they had a fight. A big one, and they haven’t spoken since --- till the day before Joe’s funeral. What? On the day before his funeral Joe would be dead, wouldn’t he? Yes, he would… Of the book Doyle writes: ‘I started to write a story about a man who was pretending to be dead. But as I wrote, it changed and I realised I was writing about death. I wanted the story to be funny and a bit frightening because, while it’s often frightening, death is rarely funny - and I wanted the challenge.' About the author Roddy Doyle was born in Dublin in 1958. He is the author of ten acclaimed novels including the Barrytown Trilogy (The Commitments, The Snapper and The Van), two collections of short stories, Rory & Ita, a memoir about his parents and most recently, The Guts, which won the Novel of the Year Award at the Irish Book Awards 2013. He won the Booker Prize in 1993 for Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha. In 2009, he co-founded Fighting Words, a writing centre for children and young people, in Dublin. He has written two books for the Open Door series. His most recent book, published in September 2014, is Two More Pints. Also, in 2014, he co-wrote The Second Half, with Roy Keane. Paris for Two One by Jojo Moyes (Michael Joseph) Nell is twenty-six and has never been to Paris. She has never even been on a weekend away with her boyfriend. Everyone knows she is just not the adventurous type. But, when her boyfriend doesn’t turn up for their romantic mini-break, Nell has the chance to prove everyone wrong. Alone in Paris, Nell meets the mysterious moped riding Fabien and his group of care free friends. Could this turn out to be the most adventurous weekend of her life? About the author Jojo Moyes is a novelist and a journalist. She worked at the Independent for ten years before leaving to write full time. Her previous novels have all been critically acclaimed and include The Ship of Brides, Foreign Fruit, The Last Letter from Your Lover, The Girl You Left Behind, international number one bestseller Me Before You and most recently the number one bestseller The One Plus One. She lives in Essex with her husband and their three children. 2 Quick Reads 2015 ideas pack Pictures Or It Didn’t Happen by Sophie Hannah (Hodder & Stoughton Would you trust a complete stranger? After Chloe and her daughter Freya are rescued from disaster by a man who seems too good to be true, Chloe decides she must find him again to thank him. But instead of meeting her knight in shining armour, she comes across a woman called Nadine Caspian who warns her to stay well away from him. The man is dangerous, Nadine claims, and a compulsive liar. Alarmed, Chloe asks her what she means, but Nadine will say no more. Chloe knows that the sensible choice would be to walk away – after all, she doesn't know anything about this man. But she is too curious. What could Nadine have meant? And can Chloe find out the truth without putting herself and her daughter in danger? About the author As well as writing psychological thrillers, Sophie Hannah is a bestselling poet and an award-winning short story writer. The Other Half Lives was shortlisted for the Independent Booksellers' Book of the Year Award and a Barry Award and her most recent psychological thriller, The Carrier, won the 2013 Specsavers National Book Award for Crime Novel of the Year. The Point of Rescue and The Other Half Lives were adapted for television as ‘Case Sensitive’, starring Olivia Williams and Darren Boyd. Sophie has been commissioned by the estate of Agatha Christie to write the first Hercule Poirot novel since Christie's death, The Monogram Murders. Red for Revenge by Fanny Blake (Orion) Two women, one man: code red for revenge... Maggie is married with two grown-up children. Her twenty-five year-old marriage to Phil has lost its sparkle. Carla is widowed. She understands life is short so she lives it to the full. But is her new romance all that it seems? When the two women meet in the beauty salon, they soon find they have more in common than the colour of their nails. The discovery that they are sharing the same man is shocking. How will Phil be taught a lesson or two he won’t forget? About the Author Fanny Blake was a publisher for many years, editing both fiction and non-fiction before becoming a freelance journalist and writer. She has written various non-fiction titles, acted as ghost writer for a number of celebrities, and is also Books’ Editor of Woman & Home magazine. To find out more visit Facebook/ Fanny Blake or follow her on Twitter @FannyBlake1 3 Quick Reads 2015 ideas pack Out of the Dark by Adele Geras (Quercus) Rob Stone comes back from the horrors of the First World War with a ruined face and a broken heart. Lonely, unable to forget the things he has seen, and haunted by the ghost of his dead captain, all that Rob has left is a picture of the captain’s family. Rob sets out to find them, hoping that by giving them the picture, he can bring peace to the captain’s ghost – and to his own troubled heart. About the author Adele Geras was born in Jerusalem in 1944 and spent her early childhood in many different countries including Cyprus, Nigeria and Tanzania. She went to boarding school in England in 1955 and graduated from Oxford University in 1966. She worked as an actress, a singer and a teacher before becoming a full-time writer in 1976: since then she has published more than ninety books for children, young adults and adults. She lives in Cambridge. Street Cat Bob by James Bowen (Hodder & Stoughton) When James Bowen found an injured street cat in the hallway of his sheltered housing, he had no idea just how much his life was about to change. James had been living on the streets of London and the last thing he needed was a pet. Yet James couldn’t resist the clever tom cat, whom he quickly named Bob. Soon the two were best friends, and their funny and sometimes dangerous adventures would change both their lives, slowly healing the scars of each other’s troubled pasts. Street Cat Bob is a moving and uplifting story that will touch the heart of anyone who reads it. About the author James Bowen is a street musician in London. He found Bob the cat in 2007 and the pair have been inseparable ever since. There is also a variety of Quick Reads books available from previous years. Please visit the Quick Reads website (http://www.quickreads.org.uk) for full details of the new and backlist titles. 4 Quick Reads 2015 ideas pack Quick Reads in libraries Since the launch of Quick Reads in 2006, 3.9 million books* have been loaned through libraries. Libraries are not only a great place to promote the new titles but they also stock the backlist Quick Reads titles. You can buy the Quick Reads 2015 titles from your library supplier. If you ordered Quick Reads promotional material (posters and bookmarks) through The Reading Agency shop, you can use these to make attractive face-out displays of the books. You can also download and print additional posters at different sizes, as well as a blank poster to customise for your own purposes, from the Quick Reads website here: (http://www.quickreads.org.uk/resources ). You can also download the Quick Reads logos here. *PLR figures 2014 Displays Here are some of the ways in which you can promote the Quick Reads books: Create a dedicated Quick Reads display using the six new titles.