PUBLIC LIBRARIES

Evening Post, Volume CXXXI, Issue 92, 19 April 1941, Page 17

PUBLIC LIBRARIES

BOOKS OF THE WEEK

The City Librarian has chosen "Landfall," by Nevil Shute, as the book of the week', and has furnished the following, review :— Perhaps the first; Service novel' of this war, "Landfall" deals with ordinary people .and is a comparatively sitnple-story; Its. chief attraction is probably the insight which it gives into the routine of two of the fighting Services. The hero is a young airman in: the Bomber Command. After ascertaining thjit a particular submarine has eiieirty markings he sinks, it. Later it turns, out-iiiat a British submarine has be^iffi^%-the' same place- and at the' same $me. •. He is brought before arßbaroHof Inquiry which holds that " he has been responsible for the sinking of the British vessel. From these incidents' the story develops. The hero" finds himself a little later engaged on a secret test in the same area and ultimately through the intelligence of the girl who isV the heroine of the story, he< finds himself absolved of blame for j the destruction o^f the British vessel, j The book is interesting because it shows the various qualities which the war has brought out in the people of j Great Britain. The reviewers unite in agreeing that this is an accurate representation of. the life of a bomber pilot and that the traits which Mr. Shute describes are those most apparent in the people today. This is a racy, colloquial kind of story and it should be popular. Other titles-selected from recent accession lists are as follows: —General: "Canadian Occasions," by J. Buchan; "Stalin's Russia and the' Crisis in Socialism," by M. Eastman; "Technique for Beauty," by J. Gordon. Fiction: "The Ghost of the 'Dunsany/ " by E. L. Long; "Cloudy Weather," by J. Butler; "The Far Call," by J. Gregory.