April always seems to come and go really quickly. I did have a week off where I had hoped to read more, but it was disturbed by work ringing me up about various issues… Anyway, here are the 15 books that I did get read in April. Not a bad selection and a good variety of subjects.
Books Read
Hope and Fear – Ronald H. Fritze – 4 Stars
Seed To Dust – Marc Hamer – 4 Stars
Secret Bristol – James MacVeigh – 2.5 Stars
The Mercenary River – Nick Higham – 4 Stars
Tomorrow’s People – Paul Morland – 4 Stars
12 Birds to Save Your Life – Charlie Corbett – 3 Stars
Fledgling – Hannah Bourne-Taylor – 4 Stars
Mysterious Britain – Homer W. Sykes – 3.5 Stars
Kid – Simon Armitage – 3 Stars
Ariel – Sylvia Plath – 3.5 Stars
The Year the World Went Mad – Mark Woolhouse – 3.5 Stars
The Four Horsemen – Emily Mayhew – 4 Stars
Who Are We Now? – Jason Cowley – 4 Stars
Umbria – Patricia Clough – 3.5 Stars
Book of the Month
The Nanny State Made Me – Stuart Maconie – 5Stars
I thought that this was excellent. Maconie has a distinctive voice that comes through strongly in this book and he is not afraid to put forward his point of view about the failing of the current government and those that have gone before. It is more than a middle-aged guy having a rant too. He looks back at the way that the state enabled him to be able to participate in society by having a properly funded education and health system and he is seething that those opportunities have been successively taken away by Tory governments over the years.
Top Genres
Natural History – 11 books
Travel – 9 books
History – 7 books
Poetry – 7 books
Science – 5 books
Top Publishers
William Collins – 6 books
Faber & Faber – 4 books
Quercus – 4 books
Picador – 3 books
Eland – 2 books
Little Toller – 2 books
Review Copies Received
Thank you to all the publishers who are generous enough to send me these:
The Ghost Slayers – Ed. Mike Ashley (British Library)
Riding Out – Simon Parker (Summersdale)
The Best British Travel Writing – Ed. Jessica Vincent (Summersdale)
Machine Journey (Self)
The View From The Hill – Christopher Somerville (Haus)
Illuminated By Water – Malachy Tallack (Doubleday)
Ring Of Stone Circles – Stan L. Abbott (Saraband)
Library Books Checked Out
Iconicon: A Journey Around the Landmark Buildings of Contemporary Britain – John Grindrod
Wild City: Encounters With Urban Wildlife – Florence Wilkinson
The Crow Folk – Mark Stay
Secrets Of A Devon Wood: A Nature Journal – Jo Brown
The Ship Asunder: A Maritime History In Eleven Vessels – Tom Nancollas
Otherlands: A World In The Making – Thomas Halliday
Salt Lick – Lulu Allison
Books Bought
The Olive Harvest – Carol Drinkwater (Signed)
Down To The Sea In Ships – Horatio Clare (to be passed on to a friend)
Border – Kappa Kassabova
Street Fight In Naples – Peter Robb
Wild Signs & Star Paths – Tristan Gooley
Coronation Everest – Jan Morris
Cruel Crossing: Escaping Hitler Across the Pyrenees – Edward Stourton
London Overground: A Day’s Walk Around the Ginger Line – Iain Sinclair
Amazing Story of the Man Who Cycled from India to Europe for Love – by Per J. Andersson, Tr. Anna Holmwood
Blackmore Vale – Hilary Townsend
Geology – Paul Ensom
Isle Of Purbeck – Paul Hyland
Cranborne Chase – Desmond Hawkins
Madagascar – Gian Paolo Barbieri Tr. Carola Lodari
Wanderers in the New Forest – Juliette De Bairacli Levy
To A Mountain in Tibet – Colin Thubron
Eat Pray Eat: One Man’s Accidental Search For Enlightenment – Michael Booth
The Tao Of Travel – Paul Theroux
Barbed Wire And babushkas: A River Odyssey Across Siberia – Paul Grogan
River Dog: A Journey Down the Brahmaputra – Mark Shand
Russians Among Us – Gordon Corera
From the Camargue to the Alps: A Walk Across France in Hannibal’s Footsteps – Bernard Levin
The Eastern Fells – Alfred Wainwright
The Far Eastern Fells – Alfred Wainwright
The Central Fells – Alfred Wainwright
The Southern Fells – Alfred Wainwright
The Northern Fells – Alfred Wainwright
The North Western Fells – Alfred Wainwright
The Western Fells – Alfred Wainwright
Island Reich – Jack Grimwood
Shape of Light: 100 years of Photography and Abstract Art – Simon Baker & Emmanuelle De L’Ecotais
The History of the Countryside – Oliver Rackham
Serpent In Paradise – Dea Birkett
For Love and Money – Jonathan Raban (to be passed on to a friend)
Trees & Bushes – Eyre Methuen
Discovering Timber Framed Buildings – Richard Harris
Iceland: People Sagas, Landscapes – Hans Siwik
Sky – Storm Dunlop
I am very much out of shelf space…
Whoo – where did you buy all those books?! I am struggling to find the Iceland one, was that an old one or am I looking in the wrong places? Also I could have sent you the Ginger Line one had I known you’d want it – one of my readalongs with my best friend and NOT a great success, I have to say, though we enjoyed not enjoying it, if you see what I mean!
Mostly charity shops, though a few were in a WHSmith’s sale. I read some of London Orbital about 30 years ago and didn’t understand it at all, but my reading tastes and comprehension has changed considerably since then so have been acquiring a few of his to have another go! The Iceland Book was also from a charity shop, but there is scant information about it online. I have now added it to Good Reads.
I really enjoyed London Orbital so I fear my tastes have changed in the other direction in the interim (his John Clare book was a terrible slog, though!). Regarding the Iceland one, if and when you read it and if and when you decide you don’t need to keep it, could I please be first in line for it?! Such a random find that doesn’t seem to exist anywhere!
I think I will now. Back in the 1990s when I read it, it really wasn’t for me, though I knew it should be the sort of book that I like. I think I will start with his Black Apples from Gower book first though. Ok, I will think about that, Liz. Not sure when I am going to get to it yet
Potholes and caves in the Gower one – eeps! And not to worry about the Iceland book as I have managed to source a copy … finding some more to add to my wishlist on the way, of course.
No way! Where from?
I found a single copy on AbeBooks today – they must have listed it really recently as I swear I looked the other day!