Quick Reads 2022 Announcement

 THE READING AGENCY ANNOUNCES QUICK READS 2022 AUTHORS WRITING BITESIZE BOOKS FOR THE LIFE-CHANGING LITERACY PROGRAMME

• Authors revealed at Evening Standard Stories Festival featuring Mosse & Wheatle
• ‘Buy one gift one’ 10^th anniversary campaign sees 35,507 books donated to new readers
• Quick Reads 2022 titles set to form part of World Book Night booklist

 

Publishing on 14 April 2022 | www.readingagency.org.uk | #QuickReads | @readingagency

 

Friday, 24 September 2021: The Reading Agency has announced the eight best-selling authors writing Quick Reads for 2022, the life-changing programme tackling the UK’s adult literacy crisis by helping less confident readers get reading: MW Craven, Paula Hawkins, Ayisha Malik, Santa Montefiore, Kate Mosse, Graham Norton, Lemn Sissay and Alex Wheatle.

 

The line-up was revealed by Karen Napier, CEO of The Reading Agency, during Kate Mosse and Alex Wheatle’s event at the Evening Standard Stories Festival at Picturehouse Central on Friday evening, where the two renowned authors discussed the power of reading.

 

Publishing on 14 April 2022 in a showcase of the very best contemporary writing, the new raft of Quick Reads titles incudes: a chilling story of revenge by New York Times bestseller Paula Hawkins (Blind Spot, Penguin Random House, Transworld, Doubleday); an intriguing tale of romance and danger from treasured comedian and presenter Graham Norton (The Swimmer, Hodder, Coronet); a gruesome new case for MW Craven’s popular crime-cracking duo Poe and Bradshaw (The Cutting Season, Hachette, Constable); a specially abridged version of Lemn Sissay’s prize-winning memoir (My Name Is Why abridged, (Canongate); a catch up with Ayisha Malik’s 'Muslim Bridget Jones’ Sofia Khan (Sofia Khan: The Baby Blues, Headline, Review); a fable of family dynamics and deception courtesy of the much-loved Santa Montefiore (The Kiss, Simon & Schuster); an historical drama set against the backdrop of Tenerife’s volcanic landscape by the award-winning Kate Mosse (The Black Mountain, Macmillan, Mantle); and a high stakes return to the streets of Alex Wheatle’s North Crongton estate (Witness, Serpent’s Tail).

 

The Reading Agency have also revealed the impact of this year’s 15^th anniversary ‘buy one gift one’ campaign, with 35,507 copies of these transformative books being delivered into the hands of those who struggle with reading or have limited access to books this Autumn. Working with library authorities, prisons, adult learning organisations and community-based charities the books are being distributed through a range of gifting projects and targeted outreach work. This includes work with food banks, ESOL (English as a Second Language) classes, local refugee groups, Basic Skills learners, people in prison and those being supported by homeless shelters or supported living. Thanks to generous support from this year’s six publishers, for every book bought from publication in May through to 31 July 2021, another copy was donated to The Reading Agency.

 

Following the success of ‘buy one, gift one’ and as part of The Reading Agency’s strategy to reach even more emerging readers through a gifting component of Quick Reads activity, the eight titles announced today will also form part of the World Book Night 2022 Booklist. The full list of World Book Night 2022 titles will be revealed later this year. World Book Night is an annual national celebration of reading which takes place on 23 April.

 

Quick Reads plays a vital role in addressing the UK’s adult literacy crisis, engaging the one in three adults who do not regularly read for pleasure and the one in six adults who find reading difficult. Since launching in 2006, Quick Reads titles have been loaned out over 6 million times and over 5 million copies have been distributed with the generous support of publishers and donors.

 

The titles are available for just £1 at bookshops and are free to borrow from libraries. They are used across the country in colleges, prisons, trade unions, hospitals, and adult learning organisations.

 

Karen Napier, CEO, The Reading Agency, said: “Working closely with our wonderful publisher partners, the success of this year’s innovative 10^thanniversary ‘buy one, gift one’ campaign has enabled The Reading Agency to distribute thousands of free books into the hands of those that need them most, who struggle with reading, or have limited access to books.

 

We are incredibly excited to reveal the extraordinary list of authors working with Quick Reads to publish a bitesize book next year – and thank them for their support to this life-changing programme. We are thrilled that these titles will form part of our World Book Night 2022 booklist, allowing us to explore new ways of engaging a wider audience so that more and more readers will be able to discover the pleasure and benefits that come from reading.”

Quick Reads 2021 - The Motive

Happy Quick Reads Day! Today is the day where the six titles of this year's Quick Reads are published! We have Saving the Day by Katie Fforde, The Skylight by Louise Candlish, The Baby Is Mine by Oyinkan Braithwaite, Wish You Were Dead by Peter James, an abridged How To Be A Woman by Caitlin Moran and The Motive by Khurrum Rahman. 

According to the the Reading Agency, one in six adults in the UK struggle with reading and one in three do not regularly read for pleasure. Also, England is rank 23rd out of 23 OECD nations for literary levels among 16-19 year olds and studies show that those who read for pleasure have higher levels of self-esteem and show a greater ability to cope of difficult situations. 

This year marks the final year of funding received when, several years ago, the best-selling author Jojo Moyes gave a donation to help fund the Quick Reads programme for three years. So, when the lovely people at Midas asked if I would be involved in making some noise about these titles, I was honoured. What more, I was asked if I fancied reading one of these titles and chatting about it. I was happy to read any, but had hopes for one title in particular. So, I am thrilled to talk about that title in question: The Motive by Khurrum Rahman.

Book Review - Too Good To Be True

In a few days's time, it will be World Book Day here in the UK. So, to celebrate, the next few reads will be short reads that will be published for either this year's World Book Day or as part of the Quick Reads range for this year.

So, let's start with one story from the Quick Reads 2016 range: Ann Cleeves's To Good To Be True. 

When Detective Inspector Jimmy Perez visits the small Scottish town of Stonebridge after getting a call from his ex-wife, he didn't imagine that Sarah would ask him for his help. Sarah asks Perez to look into a recent suicide of Anna Blackwell. The gossip running wild round the small town is that Sarah's new GP husband, Tom, was having an affair with Anna and it's his fault that she killed herself.

But that doesn't make sense. Anna is a single mother who loved kids - she was a teacher at the local school. Why kill herself when no one could look after her daughter? And she seemed to be happier in the recent few weeks. To Perez, this doesn't suggest a suicide. This suggests murder...

I have never read Ann Cleeves before and when I saw this on my kindle for 59p, I couldn't resist. And I am really pleased that I did as I enjoyed myself while reading this.

While this is a quick read, I enjoyed the story and I liked the main character, Jimmy Perez. There's not much I can say without spoiling it due to the story's length, but I like this. It's been a while since I read something with a crime element and I forgot how much I enjoy reading this genre.

If you are a fan of Ann Cleeves's Shetland series, this might fall a bit short as this is a novella and takes place over a very short period of time - 2 days. But for someone who only has just discovered the series (aka myself), this is a good introduction and I plan to read another book by Ann Cleeves (Twitter suggests I read the first book in the Shetland series, Raven Black, so I will trying that) in the near future...