Halfman, Halfbook

December 2024 Review

10/01/2025 / / 0 Comments

How are we finished with that year already? I was just getting the hang of it. Anyway, here is what I read in December:

 

Books Read

An Irish Atlantic Rainforest: A Personal Journey into the Magic of Rewilding – Eoghan Daltun – 4 Stars

Oaklore – Jules Acton – 4 Stars

Foothold – Pam Zinnemann-Hope – 3 Stars

The Lost Future of Pepperharrow – Natasha Pulley – 2.5 Stars

Cornish Horrors: Tales from the Land’s End – Ed. Joan Passey – 3 Stars

The Masquerades of Spring – Ben Aaronovitch – 3.5 Stars

Prisoners of Geography: Ten Maps That Tell You Everything You Need to Know About Global Politics – Tim Marshall – 3.5 Stars

A Year Of Garden Bees & Bugs: 52 stories of intriguing insects – Dominic Couzens & Gail Ashton – 4 Stars

Prisoners of Geography: The Quiz Book: How Much Do You Really Know About the World? – Tim Marshall – 3.5 Stars

Nature Writing for Every Day of the Year – Ed. Jane McMorland Hunter – 3.5 Stars

 

Book(s) Of The Month

The Heart Of The Woods – Wyl Menmuir – 5 Stars

 

Top Genres

Fiction – 34

Travel – 30

Natural History – 18

Poetry – 12

Memoir – 9

Science Fiction – 8

Science – 5

Miscellaneous – 4

History – 4

Food & Drink – 3

 

Top Publishers

Bloomsbury – 8

Elliott & Thompson – 5

Eland – 5

Vintage – 5

Summersdale – 4

Faber & Faber – 4

Picador – 4

Canongate – 4

Penguin Classics – 3

Orbit – 3

 

Review Copies Received

A Quiet Evening – Norman Lewis

The Haunted Vintage – Marjorie Bowen

Summoned to the Séance: Spirit Tales from Beyond the Veil – Emily Vincent

 

Library Books Checked Out

A Tree A Day – Amy-Jane Beer

 

Books Bought

Transit Of Venus: Travels In The Pacific – Julian Evans

The Pharaoh’s Shadow: Travels In Ancient And Modern Egypt – Anthony Sattin

The Undefeated – George Paloczi-Horvath

The Place of Tides – James Rebanks (Signed)

On the Shadow Tracks: A Journey through Occupied Myanmar – Clare Hammond

Stormforce, an Otter’s Tal – David Chaffe (Signed)

Parallel Lines: Or, Journeys on the Railway of Dreams – Ian Marchant

Woodsman: Living In A Wood In The 21st Century – Ben Law

The New English Landscape – Ken Worpole

Ghost Milk: Calling Time on the Grand Project – Iain Sinclair

A House in Sicily – Daphne Phelps

Blue Highways: A Journey into America – William Least Heat-Moon

Heida – Steinunn Sigurðardóttir

In Tearing Haste: Letters Between Deborah Devonshire and Patrick Leigh Fermor – Deborah Devonshire, Patrick Leigh Fermor & Charlotte Mosley (Ed)

Designing Terry Pratchett’s Discworld – Paul Kidby

Lot: Travels Through a Limestone Landscape in SouthWest France – Helen Martin

Hermit Of Peking: The Hidden Life Of Sir Edmund Backhouse – Hugh Trevor-Roper

Dawdling Through The Danube – Edward Enfield

 

I have been told that I need to clear some books too 🙁

 

So are there any from that list that you have read, or now seeing them, now want to read? Let me know in the comments below.

January 2025 TBR

03/01/2025 / / 6 Comments

Another year, and the hope and possibilities of another large pile of books to read. I am doing things a little differently this year, even though I will still publish a monthly TBR a lot of what I am going to be reading I have already chosen on a planning matrix that I have developed to ensure that I include books that meet the plans that I had written about in my intentions here. If you like to see that, let me know & I can email you a link to the file

 

Daily Books

A Tree A Day – Amy-Jane Beer

An Insect a Day: Bees, Bugs, And Pollinators For Every Day Of The Year – Dominic Couzens & Gail Ashton

 

Review Books

Polar Horrors: Strange Tales from the World’s Ends – John Miller (Ed)

While the Earth Holds its Breath: Embracing The Winter Season – Helen Moat

Handbook of Mammals of Madagascar Hardcover – Nick Garbutt

From Utmost East to Utmost West: My Life Of Exploration And Adventure – John Blashford-Snell

To Obama: With Love, Joy, Anger, and Hope – Jeanne Marie Laskas

21 Lessons for the 21st Century – Yuval Noah Harari

A Quiet Evening – Norman Lewis

 

Standford

Wild Twin – Jeff Young

The Place of Tides – James Rebanks

On the Shadow Tracks: A Journey through Occupied Myanmar – Clare Hammond

Slow Trains To Istanbul – Tom Chesshyre

 

Themed Reads

Mountain Modern: Contemporary Homes in High Places – Dominic Bradbury

Iconicon: A Journey Around The Landmark Buildings Of Contemporary Britain – John Grindrod

Survival of the City: Living and Thriving in an Age of Isolation – Edward Glaeser, David Cutler

 

Clearance

Growing Old Disgracefully – Silvey-Jex

 

Library

The Story of Silbury Hill – Jim Leary & David Field

The Stirrings: A Memoir In Northern Time – Catherine Taylor

Weathering – Ruth Allen

 

Bookclub

The Twelve Days of Murder – Andreina Cordani

 

Poetry

milk and honey – Rupi Kaur

 

Are there any from the list above that you’ve read or like the look of? Let me know in the comments below

My 2025 Reading Intentions

31/12/2024 / / 6 Comments

I like doing these as it gives me time to reflect on what I have and haven’t achieved over the past twelve months, what is working and what isn’t. It is often why certain things stay the same and there are tweaks to certain intentions. This is why I call them intentions too, they are not hard and fast rules to stick by, the main intention is to read and enjoy it rather than obsessively trying to reach targets. I have reduced the number of books I read last year and will be sticking to the same target of 150 (ish). This I can cope with, given everything that has gone on this year and still isn’t over, reading 150 books over a year is much less stressful than 190 unsurprisingly…

My rule of thumb is to read whatever takes your interest, don’t be told what to read. If you have been recommended something and don’t like it, then stop. Make your own reading journey. Not everyone can like the same book and as strange as it sounds, everyone reads a slightly different book!

I have been thinking about supporting a charity that is aiming to get books into people’s hands who for whatever reason do not have the opportunity to get them. I like the sound of what Bookbanks, are doing and will see if I can support them in a small way next year.

 

Blogging

As I said last year, I have always tended to think of myself as a reader who blogs rather than just a book blogger. I have never had a huge following on social media, there are some out there who have 100K followers which is just staggering. I tend to have a niche reading interest, which may reflect my much lower following too. It has changed since I started, even what I thought were popular bloggers seems to have slipped from the limelight. Probably because everyone seems to be chasing the latest trends. I have never been that fashionable so I will keep doing what I am doing.

 

Books

Review Books

I am forever grateful for every single review copy that I receive. I am making a concerted plan to work through all of the review books that I have been sent and much reducing the number that I request still further. That said, I would be delighted to receive some of the books that were on my anticipated list… However, it is not a deal breaker, books that I really want to read I can get from the library or buy if necessary. I am hoping to read and review at least 60 books next year from that list.

 

My Own Books

I have been cataloguing the books that I have in the past few months, and have found numerous duplicates. Some I am keeping for one reason or another and I have passed on quite a lot so far. There are a few more to go, so keep an eye on my social media channels. The plan is to buy fewer books (HA!!) and I have been keeping a tally of book that came in and left the house for good. I can share those figures in my 2024 review, they are quite scary!

 

Library Books

I have got further down on the number of library books that I have out on both cars and have just under one shelf now. There is going to be a bit of a bump as the books I have reserved a while back finally turn up but I am aiming to get it to around 30 fairly soon.

 

Reading Plans

I am fairly happy with the mix of books that I am reading at the moment. I feel that I got the balance right between travel writing and natural history books last year, but as these make up the bulk of my collection, then I want to read more of them. I also want to read more science fiction and fiction, because, hey, why not? I also have some other intentions detailed below, that whilst not set in stone, I would like to achieve.

 

Themed Reads

This was an idea that I had a little while back, to pick a theme each month and read three or four books on that chosen subject from my gargantuan TBR. So next year I am going to do it. Here are the themes that I have picked for 2025.

Architecture

Art

Business / Economics

Environment

Food & Drink

History

Language

London

Maths

Memoir

Venice

Walking

 

Female Authors

I am going to keep my target of reading women authors at 40% for 2025.

 

Ethnic Minority Authors

I had my target set to 12 last year and I am going to set the same again for 2024. Slowly more ethnic minority authors are being commissioned in the genres that I like reading, but it is sadly too few still.

 

Science Fiction & Fantasy

Aiming again to average at least one a month for this. Science fiction is good for expanding the mind and as Terry Pratchett says: Fantasy is an exercise bicycle for the mind. It might not take you anywhere, but it tones up the muscles that can.

 

Fiction

I don’t read or buy a huge amount of fiction, but I do have a lot around that I have acquired or been sent. This year I am going to make an effort to read at least one fiction book a month. I probably won’t review them, but it depends on the book.

 

Poetry

I am aiming to read one poetry book a month this year again.

 

Literary Awards

Last year I was a bit better at reading some of the shortlisted books from my favourite prizes (as usual). I did manage to read some from the minor prizes too, but still have a long list of books that I haven’t quite got to read yet… The same list of prizes from last year:

Wainwright

Stanford

Royal Society

Baillie Gifford

Arthur C Clarke

I would like to read some of the winners from other prizes too, including:

The Republic Of Consciousness Prize

Rathbones Folio Prize

Women’s Prize for Fiction

Jhalak Prize

The Portico Prize

 

Challenges

I have concluded that challenges are great but they can distract me from reading the backlog that I have. I am going to stick to the 20 books of summer as I use that to clear a particular genre. I read fiction in 2024 and I am aiming to read science fiction for 2025.

 

The World From My Armchair Challenge

My ongoing challenge is to read a travel book set in or that passes through every country, sea and ocean in the world. I did slightly better at this in 2024 as I read four books for the challenge. I have twelve lined up for this and there will be an update on a blog post sometime in the first part of the year.

 

20 Books of Summer

This is run by the blogger, Cathy of 746 books. I normally sign up to read 20 books and will do so again this summer. I did manage to read all 20 books this year too, but finished the last well into autumn!

 

Other Bookish Stuff

Cataloguing Books

I am still cataloguing books! I have completed all nine that were in the original post, and have added in two more with another about to be filled soon. I have 2610 according to my spreadsheet and 312 of those are signed. According to the list I have read 882 and not read 1727! I thought I had read more of them than that!!! The spreadsheet is set up with a shelf number so I can find books when I need them!

 

Spreadsheets

I wrote about this back in 2023 here. I have now made further refinements and will write another post about these changes early next year. (It was going to be this year, and  I have the notes to type up, but not done it yet). My main master sheet works so much better than before!

 

Bookshelves

I wrote a blog post showing all my shelves here. I have drawn up a plan for what genre of books that I want on what shelf and still have not sorted it out! There are gaps on the shelves that I need to start shuffling around based on the plan. Let me know if you want to see more of my bookshelves in a blog post.

 

Planning Matrix

To try and get a grip on what books I want to read and when I have started to do things on what I call a Planning Matrix. Yes, it’s another spreadsheet and it is based on the set-up that I have developed, but uses a grid to collate what categories a particular book fits. I am finding it quite useful so far. If you want to hear more about it, let me know and I will include it in the spreadsheet post next year.

 

What aims or intentions do you have for next year? Let me know in the comments below or post a link to your post on your blog.

 

My Take on Book Lists 2024

20/12/2024 / / 9 Comments

Five years ago I wrote a blog post as a response to yet another book list that the great and the good in the literary world insist are the books that everyone should read. That post is here.  I thought that after five years I needed to add to that list of books that I have discovered and read in that time.

My previous list has generally been received well, bar one person who though my fiction choices were not worthy of being on my list. And that kind of proved the point of what I was trying to do, we select the culture that we want to consume, be it books, films, art and theatre. Having it imposed on us, by someone who thinks that their opinions and choices are more worthy than your own, is just utterly wrong.

Revisiting it was also prompted by the New Time posting their 100 Best Books of the 21st Century earlier this year, their post is here

These were chosen by 503 authors, primarily novelists , with a little assistance from the NYT staff. The fill list is heavily biased towards novels and it gives you the option of selecting the books that you have read in the past or are on your TBR. Here are mine:

    

As you can see, I haven’t read that many and haven’t got plans to read many more…

I thought the same when I read the BBC list five years ago that made me write the blog post: I am not sure how some of these books got there. It feels like people want to be seen to be reading the books that they feel should be seen reading, rather than being passionate about them.

I have come to the conclusion that forging my own reading path is the way to go. I have read enough books over the years to know what I want to read, but it is always good to push the boundaries. I chose books based on a number of factors, who wrote it, what genre it is, the subject matter, does the premise of the story look interesting and even did the cover made me want to pick it up. Very rarely do I read a terrible book, however, not all of the books I pick up, I like, and it is almost always because it didn’t work for me.

If people come along for the walk with me and discover new things for themselves then that is great. And that is the fundamental point here; the books I have listed below are those that I have loved for a variety of reasons, that at the time I read them meant a lot to me. Not everyone will have the same opinion on these books, and I am not going to insist people read them. However, if you are looking for a recommendation for a book from a particular genre, I hope that you find one from the list below to try.

 

So here they are:

Art

Feather, Leaf, Bark & Stone by Jackie Morris

Ravilious: Wood Engravings by James Russell

England on Fire: A Visual Journey through Albion’s Psychic Landscape by Stephen Ellcock& Mat Osman

 

Biography

Tales From The Life Of Bruce Wannell: Adventurer, Linguist, Orientalist by Ed. Barnaby Rogerson & Rose Baring

The Swimmer: The Wild Life Of Roger Deakin by Patrick Barkham

 

Books

The Book Collectors of Daraya: A Band of Syrian Rebels, Their Underground Library, and the Stories that Carried Them Through a War by Delphine Minoui

The Bookseller’s Tale by Martin Latham

White Spines: Confessions Of A Book Collector by Nicholas Royle

Bibliomaniac: An Obsessive’s Tour Of The Bookshops Of Britain by Robin Ince

Dark, Salt, Clear: Life in a Cornish Fishing Village by Lamorna Ash

 

Dorset

Real Dorset by Jon Woolcott

Lost Dorset: The Towns by David Burnett

 

Economics

Moneyland: Why Thieves and Crooks Now Rule the World and How to Take It Back by Oliver Bullough

 

Environmental

The Nutmeg’s Curse: Parables For A Planet In Crisis by Amitav Ghosh

Rebirding: Rewilding Britain and Its Birds by Benedict MacDonald

Hothouse Earth: An Inhabitant’s Guide by Bill McGuire

Silent Earth: Averting The Insect Apocalypse by Dave Goulson

Nomad Century: How to Survive the Climate Upheaval by Gaia Vince

Ravenous: How To Get Ourselves And Our Planet Into Shape by Henry Dimbleby

Fire, Storm & Flood: The Violence of Climate Change by James Dyke

Irreplaceable: The Fight To Save Our Wild Places by Julian Hoffman

 

Fantasy

The Wee Free Men by Terry Pratchett

A Hat Full of Sky by Terry Pratchett

Unseen Academicals by Terry Pratchett

I Shall Wear Midnight by Terry Pratchett

Snuff by Terry Pratchett

Raising Steam by Terry Pratchett

The Shepherds Crown by Terry Pratchett

Seriously Funny: The Endlessly Quotable Terry Pratchett by Terry Pratchett

 

Fiction

Take My Hand by Dolen Perkins-Valdez

London Incognita by Gary Budden

Fox Fires by Wyl Menmuir

 

Food & Drink

Eating to Extinction: The World’s Rarest Foods and Why We Need to Save Them by Dan Saladino

 

Gardening

Grounding: Finding Home In A Garden by Lulah Ellender

 

History

Mudlarking: Lost And Found On The River Thames by Lara Maiklem

London Clay: Journeys into the Deep City by Tom Chivers

Our Island Stories: Country Walks Through Colonial Britain by Corrine Fowler

 

Landscape

Unofficial Britain: Journeys Through Unexpected Places by Gareth E. Rees

Field Notes: Walking The Territory by Maxim Peter Griffin

The Book of Trespass: Crossing the Lines that Divide Us by Nick Hayes

Wild Service: A Culture Of Connection And Care by Nick Hayes (Ed)

Where: Life and Death In the Shropshire Hills by Simon Moreton

 

Media

The Age of Static: How TV Explains Modern Britain by Phil Harrison

 

Memoir

Two Lights: Walking through Landscapes of Loss and Life by James Roberts

Ghost Town: A Liverpool Shadowplay by Jeff Young

Seaglass: Essays, Moments and Reflections by Kathryn Tann

Thin Places by Kerri ní Dochartaigh

Spring Rain by Marc Hamer

Undercurrent: A Cornish Memoir Of Poverty, Nature And Resilience by Natasha Carthew

Water and Sky: Voices from the Riverside by Neil Sentance

Rural: The Lives Of The Working Class Countryside by Rebecca Smith

 

Mental Health

How To Be Sad: Everything I’ve Learned About Getting Happier, By Being Sad, Better by Helen Russell

 

Miscellaneous

Music To Eat Cake By: Essays on Birds, Words and Everything in Between by Lev Parikian

The Notebook: A History Of Thinking On Paper by Ronald Allen

 

Natural History

Singing Like Larks: A Celebration Of Birds In Folk Songs by Andrew Millham

Orchard: A Year In England’s Eden by Benedict MacDonald & Nicholas Gates

On Gallows Down: A Memoir by Nicola Chester

Wild About Dorset: The Nature Diary of a West Country Parish by Brian Jackman

The Screaming Sky by Charles Foster

The Book Of Pebbles: From Prehistory To The Pet Shop Boys by Christopher Stocks

Diary of a Young Naturalist by Dara McAnulty

The New Wild by Fred Pearce

The Lost Rainforests Of Britain by Guy Shrubsole

Rock Pool: Extraordinary Encounters Between the Tides by Heather Buttivant

Cull of the Wild: Killing in the Name of Conservation by Hugh Warwick

Much Ado About Mothing: A Year Intoxicated By Britain’s Rare And Remarkable Moths by James Lowen

Cairn by Kathleen Jamie

The Language of Trees: How Trees Make Our World, Change Our Minds and Rewild Our Lives by Katie Holten

Into The Tangled Bank: In Which Our Author Ventures Outdoors to Consider the British in Nature by Lev Parikian

Light Rains Sometimes Fall: A British Year Through Japan’s 72 Ancient Seasons by Lev Parikian

The Lost Orchards: Redicovering The Forgotten Cider Apples Of Dorset by Liz Copas & Nick Poole

The Circling Sky: On Nature and Belonging in an English Forest by Neil Ansell

Emperors, Admirals and Chimney Sweepers: The Naming of Butterflies and Moths by Peter Marren

Living with Trees: A Common Ground Handbook by Robin Walter

Shearwater: A Bird, an Ocean, and a Long Way Home by Roger Morgan-Grenville

Restoring The Wild: Sixty Years of Rewilding Our Skies, Woods and Waterways by Roy Dennis

Vickery’s Folk Flora: An A-Z of the Folklore and Uses of British and Irish Plants by Roy Vickery

Skylarks With Rosie: A Somerset Spring by Stephen Moss

Nests by Susan Ogilvy

Greenery by Tim Dee

The Draw Of The Sea by Wyl Menmuir

Late Light: Finding Home In The West Country by Michael Malay

 

Poetry

Springlines: Exploring Hidden and Mysterious Bodies of Water by Clare Best and Mary Anne Aytoun-Ellis

The Heeding by Rob Cowen & Nick Hayes

 

Prehistory

Grounded: A Journey Into The Landscapes Of Our Ancestors by James Canton

 

Science

Invisible Women: Exposing Data Bias In A World Designed For Men by Caroline Criado-Perez

Taking Flight: A Celebration Of The Miraculous Phenomenon Of Flight by Lev Parikian

A Natural History Of The Future: What The Laws Of Biology Tell Us About The Destiny Of The Human Species by Rob Dunn

Science Fiction

Doggerland by Ben Smith

Sea of Rust by C. Robert Cargill

Attack Surface by Cory Doctorow

Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel

Before Mars by Emma Newman

Atlas Alone by Emma Newman

Under The Blue by Oana Aristide

Rosewater by Tade Thompson

The Rosewater Redemption by Tade Thompson

 

Social History

The Nanny State Made Me: A Story of Britain and How to Save it by Stuart Maconie

 

Sport

Where There’s A Will by Emily Chappell

 

Technology

This Is How They Tell Me The World Ends: The Cyber Weapons Arms Race by Nicole Perlroth

 

Travel

Notes from the Cévennes: Half a Lifetime in Provincial France by Adam Thorpe

Local: A Search for Nearby Nature and Wildness by Alastair Humphreys

The Bells of Old Tokyo: Travels in Japanese Time by Anna Sherman

Red Sands: Reportage and Recipes Through Central Asia, from Hinterland to Heartland by Caroline Eden

The Frayed Atlantic Edge: A Historian’s Journey from Shetland to the Channel by David Gange

Life At Full Tilt: The Selected Writings of Dervla Murphy by Dervla Murphy, Ed. Ethel Crowley

Lone Rider: The First British Woman to Motorcycle Around the World by Elspeth Beard

Between The Chalk And The Sea: A Journey On Foot Into The Past by Gail Simmons

Sunken Lands: A Journey Through Flooded Kingdoms and Lost Worlds by Gareth E. Rees

Warriors: Life And Death Among The Somalis by Gerald Hanley

The Lost Paths: A History Of How We Walk From Here To There by Jack Cornish

Water Ways: A Thousand Miles Along Britain’s Canals by Jasper Winn

The Gardens of Mars: Madagascar, an Island Story by John Gimlette

La Vie: A Year In Rural France by John Lewis-Stempel

To The Lake: A Balkan Journey Of War And Peace by Kapka Kassabova

Among Muslims by Kathleen Jamie

Bitter Lemons of Cyprus by Lawrence Durrell

The Serpent Coiled in Naples by Marius Kociejowski

Summer In The Islands: An Italian Odyssey by Matthew Fort

Gathering Carrageen by Monica Connell

The Way Of The World: Two Men In A Car From Geneva To The Khyber Pass by Nicolas Bouvier, Translated By Robyn Marsack

Black Ghosts by Noo Saro-Wiwi

Naples ’44: An Intelligence Officer in the Italian Labyrinth by Norman Lewis

Roumeli: Travels in Northern Greece by Patrick Leigh Fermor

Smelling the Breezes: A Journey through the High Lebanon in 1957 by Ralph Izzard & Molly Izzard

Cut Stones and Crossroads: A Journey in the Two Worlds of Peru by Ronald Wright

The Ravens Nest by Sarah Thomas

Signs of Life: To the Ends of the Earth with a Doctor by Stephen Fabes

The Granite Kingdom: A Cornish Journey by Tim Hannigan

Slow Trains Around Spain: A 3,000-Mile Adventure on 52 Rides by Tom Chesshyre

High Caucasus: A Mountain Quest In Russia’s Haunted Hinterland by Tom Parfitt

One Place De L’Eglise: A Year Or Two In A French Village by Trevor Dolby

Tender Maps: Travels in Search of the Emotions of Place by Alice Maddicott

 

Woodlands

Thirteen Ways to Smell a Tree: Getting To Know Trees Through The Language Of Scent by David George Haskell

Anticipated Books for Spring 2025

13/12/2024 / / 11 Comments

As usual, I have scoured the catalogues for all the books that pique my attention I only managed to find 16 catalogues this time, so this may be updated as the others are published. So without further ado, here are my picks from all the books being published next year :

 

Allen & Unwin

Get the Picture: A Mind-Bending Journey among the Inspired Artists and Obsessive Art Fiends Who Taught Me How to See – Bianca Bosker

The Meaning of Beer: How our pursuit of the perfect pint built the world – Jonny Garrett

 

Atlantic Books

Conspiracyland: My Journey with Trolls, True Believers and the New Information War – Marianna Spring

Patriarchy Inc.: Exposing Inequality at Work and Why Men Still Rule – Cordelia Fine

Rare Tongues: A Journey Through the Languages of the World – Lorna Gibb

Lost Boys: Undercover Adventures in Modern Masculinity – James Bloodworth

Super Natural: How Life Thrives in Extraordinary Places – Alex Riley

 

Bodley Head

The Technological Republic: The Crisis of Technology and the West – Alexander C. Karp and Nicholas W. Zamiska

TheAICon: Exposing the Myth, the Hype and the Harm of AI – Emily M. Bender & Alex Hanna

Earth, Wind and Fire: How Trees Mastered the Elements and Conquered the World – Harriet Rix

The Roma: A Travelling History – Madeline Potter

 

Canongate

The Bright Side: Why Optimists Have the Power to Change the World – Sumit-Paul Choudhury

Let the Light Pour In – Lemn Sissay

The Secret Painter – Joe Tucker

A History of Women in 101 Objects: A Walk Through Female History – Annabelle Hirsch

Renaturing: Small Ways to Wild the World – James Canton

Overnight: Journeys, Conversations and Stories After Dark – Dan Richards

Hark: How Women Listen – Alice Vincent

Nature’s Genius: Evolution’s Lessons for a Better World – David Farrier

Homework: A Memoir – Geoff Dyer

 

Chatto & Windus

The Drowned Places Diving in Search of Atlantis – Damian Le Bas

The Big Hop: The First Non-stop Flight Across the Atlantic Ocean and Into the Future – David Rooney

 

Doubleday

A Training School for Elephants – Sophy Roberts

 

Duckworth

Catastrophe Ethics: How to be Good in a World Gone Bad – Travis Rieder

Standard Deviations: The truth about flawed statistics, AI and Big Data – Gary Smith

In Green: Two Horses, Two Strangers, 2,000 Miles from Mountain to Sea – Louis D. Hall

Understorey: A Year Among Weeds – Anna Chapman Parker

 

Elliott & Thompson

Mother Animal – Helen Jukes

Pathfinding: On Walking and Motherhood – Kerri Andrews

Lifelines: Finding a Home in the Mountains of Greece – Julian Hoffman

Nature Needs You: The Fight to Save Our Swifts – Hannah Bourne-Taylor

Ctrl+Alt+Chaos: How Teenage Hackers Hijack the Internet – Joe Tidy

 

Eland

A Quiet Evening – Norman Lewis

 

Europa Editions

The Passenger: Thailand – Various

The Passenger: Naples – Various

 

Faber & Faber

Your Life is Manufactured – Tim Minshall

The Lost Folk – Lally MacBeth

Nature Matters – Mona Arshi and Karen McCarthy Woolf

Dwell – Simon Armitage

 

Fern Press

Speaking in Tongues – J M Coetzee and Mariana Dimópulos

 

Gollancz

Frankenstein Rex – Adam Roberts

T B C – Ben Aaronovitch

 

Granta

Under A Metal Sky – Philip Marsden

No Straight Road Takes You There – Rebecca Solnit

 

Grove

Searches – Vauhini Vara

What the Wild Sea Can Be: The Future of the World’s Ocean – Helen Scales

 

Hamish Hamilton

Is A River Alive? – Robert Macfarlane

 

Head of Zeus

A Life in 50 Books – Anthony Cheetham

Steel River: Walking the Tees – A Journey Through Nature in a Human World – Steve Nicholls

Ghosts of Iron Mountain: The Hoax that Duped America and its Sinister Legacy – Phil Tinline

Picks and Shovels – Cory Doctorow

Bee Speaker – Adrian Tchaikovsky

 

Hurst

Ransom War – Max Smeets

Rebooting A Nation – Joel Burke

 

Jonathan Cape

Midden Witch – Fiona Benson

 

Little Toller

The English Path by Kim Taplin

Angels in the Cellar by Peter Hahn

 

Profile Books

Your Right to Protest Understand It, Use It – Christian Weaver

My Head For A Tree: The Extraordinary Story of the Bishnoi, the World’s First Eco-Warriors – Martin Goodman

The Meteorites: Encounters with Outer Space and Deep Time – Helen Gordon

Larry: A New Biography of Lawrence Durrell, 1912–47 – Michael Haag

Tiny Experiments: How to Live Freely in a Goal-Obsessed World – Anne-Laure Le Cunff

Out of this World – and into the Next Notes from a Physicist on Space Exploration – Adriana Marais

The Illegals: Russia’s Most Audacious Spies and the Plot to Infiltrate the West – Shaun Walker

Extractive Capitalism: How Commodities and Cronyism Drive the Global Economy – Laleh Khalili

Land of Shifting Sands: A New History of the Sahara – Judith Scheele

Unequal: The Maths of When Things Do and Don’t Add Up – Eugenia Cheng

 

Reaktion Books

Amazing Worlds of Science Fiction and Science Fact – Keith Cooper

Rough Music: Folk Customs, Transgression and Alternative Britain – Liz Williams

Ghosts, Trolls and the Hidden People: An Anthology of Icelandic Folk Legends – Dagrún Ósk Jónsdóttir

The Green Fuse: Essays in Making Sense of Gardens – Peter Dale

Lost Animals, Disappearing Worlds: Stories of Extinction – Barbara Allen

Transatlantic Drift: The Ebb and Flow of Dance Music – Katie Milestone and Simon A. Morrison

Delicioso: A History of Food in Spain – María José Sevilla

Al Dente: A History of Food in Italy – Fabio Parasecoli

Future Cities: Architecture and the Ima – Paul Dobraszczyk

 

Square Peg

Bookish: How Reading Shapes Our Lives – Lucy Mangan

 

Summersdale

Land Beneath the Waves – Nic Wilson

 

W&N

Motherland – Luke Pepera

Threads of Empire – Dorothy Armstrong

38 Londres Street – Philippe Sands

 

There are some really good books coming out and if I had to say which one I am most excited about it would have to be Robert Macfarlane’s.

Is there any here that you like the look of? Or are there any that I have missed that you think I should know about? Let me know in the comments below.

Oaklore by Jules Acton

09/12/2024 / / 1 Comment

Welcome to Halfman, Halfbook for my stop on the Blog Tour for Oaklore by Jules Acton and published by Greystone Books.

About the Book

What connects Robin Hood, the history of ink, fungi, Shakespeare and sorcery? In Oaklore, Jules Acton, an ambassador for The Woodland Trust, explores the incredibly diverse history of the ‘king of the woods’: from a source of food and shelter to its use in literature as a plot device and muse, its role as an essential ingredient in ink, and in mythology from across the British Isles as a sacred plant and precious resource. Acton’s infectious enthusiasm shines through in chapters that open with excerpts from oak-y poems, as well as tips for connecting with nature – like how to recognize bird songs and help moths and butterflies thrive. Meeting fellow oak-lovers along the way, and trees like Sherwood Forest’s Medusa Oak or the gargantuan Marton Oak in Cheshire, Acton plots an unforgettable journey through the tangled roots of the oak’s story, and that of Britain itself.

About the Author

JULES ACTON – whose surname means ‘oak place’ – can trace her love of nature back to childhood. A former journalist, she has worked for the Woodland Trust, the Wildlife Trusts and WaterAid. She lives near Sherwood Forest, Nottinghamshire, with her husband, Toby, and rescue dog, Pepe. This is her first book.

My Review

I love being in a woodland, especially in spring and early summer when the sunlight filters through the leaves, dappling the floor with light. Equally good is finding a really old single tree this planet for several of our lifetimes.

Like Acton, I have a particular fondness for oak trees and similar to her too, my surname means oak, coming from the French le Chene. These are long-lived trees; it is said that an oak takes 300 years to grow, 300 years to live and 300 years to die. Though there are a select few that have even outlived this.

This book by Acton is a celebration of these magnificent trees and all the stories and folklore associated with them. She tells of how there are more ancient oaks in the UK (100) than there are in the whole of mainland Europe (85). This is one of the few positives left over from the feudal system that we have lived under for 1000 years or so.

Oaks are capable of supporting up to 2300 different species. They are probably not all on the same tree though! There are purple hairstreaks that live at the top of the canopy, so you have to look very hard to see them. They support a variety of different types of gall wasps, whose homes have been used to make ink for hundreds of years. These are just two of the 1178 different invertebrates that can be found on or in the oak.

If you like lichen, then an oak is the place to look. She has written a whole chapter on these algae and fungi hybrids, and even the Remedy Oak near me in Wimborne gets a mention. Fungi aren’t always funguys though, some of the ones found on oaks can either feed or kill you depending on the one that you pick…

Oaks are pretty resilient, hence why they live for such a long time in the right places. There are diseases out there that can affect them, but they thankfully haven’t suffered in the same way that elms and ash have. They can’t live the length of time that they do without some help and they rely on the whole menagerie of creatures and plants on them to help them survive. Even an oak that has lived 900 years, when it dies can still support a different set of creatures for another century or so.

Don’t think that they are all in good health though. We have really low tree cover compared to mainland Europe (13% versus 30%) and only 7% of the forests and woodlands that we have are in good condition, I found this quite shocking.

I thought that this was a really engaging natural history book. Acton is very enthusiastic about her chosen subject of the oak, but she is keen to point out that she is not an expert. If you are keen to read a natural history book that doesn’t have the personal backstory you may find elsewhere, then this is a good book to start with.

Don’t forget to visit the other blogs on the blog tour

 

Buy this at your local independent bookshop. If you’re not sure where your nearest is then you can find one here

My thanks to Anne Cater from Random Things Tours for the copy of the book to read.

November 2024 Review

06/12/2024 / / 2 Comments

I read eleven books last month, lower than normal, but it has kept me on my end-of-year target. No five-star books this month, so I have selected the best four-star from the ones that I read. I thought that I had bought less than normal, but it turns out that I hadn’t…

 

Books Read

North – Seamus Heaney – 4 Stars

Seveneves – Neal Stephenson – 3.5 Stars

The Station – Athos: Treasures and Men – Robert Byron – 3.5 Stars

The Secret Life of the Mountain Hare – Andy Howard – 4 Stars

The Art of The Fellowship of the Ring – Gary Russell – 4 Stars

The Long Unwinding Road: A Journey Through the Heart of Wales – Marc P. Jones – 4 Stars

The Whalebone Theatre – Joanna Quinn – 3.5 Stars

Blue Machine: How The Ocean Shapes Our World – Helen Czerski – 4 Stars

Blue Mind: How Water Makes You Happier, More Connected and Better at What You Do – Wallace J. Nichols – 3.5 Stars

A Cloud a Day – Gavin Pretor-Pinney – 4 Stars

 

Book(s) Of The Month

Bloom: From Food to Fuel, the Epic Story of How Algae Can Save Our World – Ruth Kassinger – 4 Stars

 

Top Genres

Fiction – 33

Travel – 30

Natural History – 14

Poetry – 11

Memoir – 9

Science Fiction – 8

Science – 4

History – 4

Miscellaneous – 4

Humour – 3

 

Top Publishers

Bloomsbury – 7

Eland – 5

Vintage – 5

Picador – 4

Summersdale – 4

Faber & Faber – 4

Canongate – 4

Saraband – 3

Orion – 3

Orbit – 3

 

Review Copies Received

The Company of Owls – Polly Atkin

Oaklore – Jules Acton

An Insect a Day: Bees, Bugs, And Pollinators For Every Day Of The Year – Dominic Couzens & Gail Ashton

Three-Quarters Of A Footprint: Travels in South India – Joe Roberts

On This Holy Island: A Modern Pilgrimage Across Britain – Oliver Smith

While the Earth Holds its Breath: Embracing The Winter Season – Helen Moat

 

Library Books Checked Out

The Masquerades of Spring – Ben Aaronovitch

The Ponies At The Edge Of The World: A Story of Hope and Belonging in Shetland – Catherine Munroe

 

Books Bought

Turkiye: Cycling Through a Country’s First Century – Julian Sayarer

The Lost Future of Pepperharrow – Natasha Pulley

Wild Twin – Jeff Young (Signed)

The Secret Life of the Mountain Hare – Andy Howard

The Art of The Fellowship of the Ring – Gary Russell

The Far Land: 200 Years of Murder, Mania and Mutiny in the South Pacific – Brandon Presser

The Naming of the Shrew: A Curious History of Latin Names – John Wright (Signed)

Aeneid Book VI – Virgil, Seamus Heaney (Tr)

Homecoming – Melissa Harrison (Signed)

Walking the Himalayas – Levison Wood (Signed)

C’est La Folie – Michael Wright (Signed)

Celtic Britain – Lloyd Laing

Autumn – Martin Maudsley & Sarah Acton

Coast & Sea – Sarah Welton

A Gleaming Landscape: A Hundred Years of the Guardian’s Country Diary – Martin Wainwright (Ed)

The Marmalade Diaries: The True Story of an Odd Couple – Ben Aitken

Bothy: In Search of Simple Shelter – Kat Hill (Signed)

Erebus – Michael Palin

The Lost Rainforests of Britain – Guy Shrubsole

The Last Grain Race – Eric Newby

Flavours Rosello – Pino Iacaruso (Signed)

Before the Coffee Gets Cold – Toshikazu Kawaguchi, Geoffrey Trousselot (Tr)

 

So are there any from that list that you have read, or now seeing them, now want to read? Let me know in the comments below.

 

Brazillian Adventure by Peter Flemming

04/12/2024 / / 6 Comments

4 out of 5 stars

The publisher provided a copy of this, free of charge, in return for an honest review.

It was an inauspicious start, an advert in  the Agony column of The Times. It read:

Exploring and sporting expedition, under experienced guidance, leaving England June, to explore rivers Central Brazil, if possible ascertain fate Captain Fawcett; abundance game, big and small; exceptional fishing; ROOM TWO MORE GUNS; highest references expected and given. – Write Box X, The Times, EC4

He wrote for particulars and after a little consideration, applied and was selected. His main qualifications were his age, 24 and his school, Eton.

They departed and undertook a fairly uneventful trip on a liner to Brazil. They had a telegram asking them not to undertake the search for Fawcett, with the threat of legislation being passed to hinder them. They stopped at Lisbon, Madeira and Tenerife and not having the strongest sea legs, he found the trip to be full of tedium. Nine days later they arrived at Rio as the sun was setting. Officials boards the ship to examine passports where they encounter the mind numbing pedantry of the minor official. They were eventually allowed to depart and readied themselves to depart to San Paulo in the morning.

Reader, they didn’t…

They finally departed after several false starts and lots of procrastination. The guy who was their main contact was Major Pringle. One morning there were two cars there to take them and a lorry had been provided for their baggage. The description of the journey sounded terrifying. Though I am not sure what was worse, the local driver heading towards them at full speed or the bridges they were crossing. It was an alien place, though he noted that the birds seemed familiar and yet utterly different at the same time. They would take lunch at different places on the trip, but invariably it was the same, rice and beans with roast meats.

Their first main stop is in Goyaz. It is a strange place where not much happens and even that happens very slowly. They end up becalmed there for a while and Fleming begins to suspect that their fixer, Major Pringle isn’t as committed to their quest as they had been led to believe. Fleming sets about trying to prove this with a false despatch that he had written for the papers back in the UK and getting Major Pringle to approve it. After another wait, they were finally allowed to proceed into the jungle.

There is a short journey by road again and they finally get to board the boats that will take them into the jungle. The batloa were 30′ clinker boats that leaked lots. They learned to settle into a routine, mostly to relieve the monotony of spending three weeks in a small boat. Fleming is amazed by the birds and wildlife that she sees from the gunwale.

They come across some of the Carajas Indians. Fleming admires certain parts of their features and describes a little of their life, but does note that they are staying with them and he isn’t seeing them in their camp, so his perception of them is skewed a little. He is entranced by the giant otters of the Amazon two of which they capture. They see alligators frequently on the river and in the spirit of the time, shoot a few…

The expedition is left in the lurch when Major Pringle has a change of heart over his commitments to the expedition and quits it to head back downstream in the smallest canoe. They were going to have to go it alone in the jungle searching for traces of Fawcett.

Since the dawn of time (whenever that was) this patch of the earth’s crust had been green and empty; it was green and empty still. Aeons had passed there unregarded. And now here were we, stealing minutes under the nose of eternity, counting our pretty swag in a place where a century was hardly legal tender. In all this there was a comforting sense of the ridiculous.

They decided to split the expedition into two; one half was going to continue on the rive and Flaming would join the land party. They come across another tribe called the Tapirapes. They are as curious about their Western visitors as Fleming’s party is about them. It was as Fleming was trying to get to sleep one night that he realised how futile the drive to find these three men who had disappeared seven years before, was. It wasn’t going to stop him though.

Progressing through the jungle was hard work though. Most of the time it was impenetrable and they could only move after a lot of frenzied macheting. They come across another river and camp and eat well. Another of the party is not well enough to carry on, so he heads back with the Indians who have accompanied them on their journey so far. In the end the jungle won, so they decided that the easiest way to progress was to wade up the river. (As can be seen on the cover of this edition).

They reach a point where they can’t really proceed any further because of the river. An enormous storm is a reminder of the power of nature and they make the sensible decision to turn back. It is a decision that Fleming knows saved their lives.

They return to the mission base and catch up with Major Pringle. He was still angry for various reasons, but not as angry as Fleming was when he found out that Pringle had not forwarded on the missives that he had written for the Times. Pringle hadn’t opened them, but he didn’t trust the contents so he heads off to the British consul, where he hope that his reputation can be kept. Fleming’s part ends up chasing him along the river in another boat with the intent of getting there before him. The race is on…

I thought that this was a really enjoyable travel book. You can tell that Fleming is a child of the British Empire with some of his prejudices, but generally he is sympathetic to the Brazilians, in particularly the Amazon natives. It is a great example of how not to plan an expedition. They took lots of unnecessary risks and were stitched up by their local fixer. All of these things contributed to it nearly becoming as big a disaster as Fawcett’s expedition.

Fleming is a good writer too and this is an engaging travel book with quite a lot of jeopardy! Though how he compares to his brother Ian, I have no idea as I have not read any of his. Another fine addition to the Eland catalogue

December 2024 TBR

29/11/2024 / / 8 Comments

My final TBR of 2024. That year has passed in a blur really but somehow I have made it to the end. The end of my 150 book challenge for Good Reads is in sight too as I have just finished my 138th book of 150. Almost there. I know there are more than 12 books below, I tend to complete my challenge and then make a start on the chunkier books that are taking up lots of shelf space on my TBR with the intention of finishing them in January. Is that cheating for annual challenges? I don’t think so. What do you think?  There are a few must-reads this month including Oaklore and The Lost Future of Pepperharrow. Anyway, here they are:

 

Daily & Weekly Books

Nature Writing for Every Day of the Year – Jane McMorland Hunter (Ed)

A Cloud a Day – Gavin Pretor-Pinney

A Year Of Garden Bees & Bugs: 52 Stories Of Intriguing Insects – Dominic Couzens & Gail Ashton

 

Blog Tour

Oaklore – Jules Acton

 

Review Books

The Heart Of The Woods – Wyl Menmuir

The Border – A Journey Around Russia: Through North Korea, China, Mongolia, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Ukraine, Belarus, Lithuania, Poland, Latvia, … Finland, Norway and the Northeast Passage – Erika Fatland Tr. Kari Dickson

Prisoners of Geography: Ten Maps That Tell You Everything You Need to Know About Global Politics – Tim Marshall

Prisoners of Geography: The Quiz Book: How Much Do You Really Know About the World? – Tim Marshall

Cornish Horrors: Tales from the Land’s End – Ed. Joan Passey

Hunt for the Shadow Wolf: The Lost History of Wolves in Britain and the Myths and Stories That Surround Them – Derek Gow

While the Earth Holds its Breath: Embracing The Winter Season – Helen Moat

Polar Horrors: Strange Tales from the World’s Ends – Ed. John Miller

Handbook of Mammals of Madagascar – Nick Garbutt

From Utmost East to Utmost West: My Life Of Exploration And Adventure – John Blashford-Snell

 

Library Books

An Irish Atlantic Rainforest: A Personal Journey into the Magic of Rewilding – Eoghan Daltun

Iconicon: A Journey Around The Landmark Buildings Of Contemporary Britain – John Grindrod

 

A Present For Someone Else

The Lost Future of Pepperharrow – Natasha Pulley

(Doesn’t everyone read books before they wrap them up?)

 

Poetry

Foothold – Pam Zinnemann-Hope

 

So, are there any books that you like the look of or have read before? Let me know in the comments below

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