Another month passes and this one is always the strangest of them. I had a slower reading month for one reason and another. but did reach my Good reads Target of 190 right on the last day of the year. I knew this would be the case as I was reading two books that had a daily reading. Have got some underway to leap ahead in the new year.
A thank you too, to the few of you that come and read my mutterings and reviews. I know that there are not many of you, but thank you for all your comments and conversations. Anyway, to the books:
Books Read
Remainders Of The Day: More Diaries From The Bookshop, Wigtown – Shaun Bythell – 4 Stars
Once Upon A Tome: The Misadventures Of A Rare Bookseller – Oliver Darkshire – 3.5 Stars
West Cumbria Mining: The Silence Between The Shadows – David Banning – 3.5 Stars
Word Perfect: Etymological Entertainment For Every Day of the Year – Susie Dent – 4 Stars
Swifts and Us: The Life of the Bird that Sleeps in the Sky – Sarah Gibson – 4 Stars
I Belong Here: A Journey Along the Backbone of Britain – Anita Sethi – 3.5 Stars
The Wheel of the Year: A Nurturing Guide to Rediscovering Nature’s Seasons and Cycles – Rebecca Beattie – 4 Stars
Ephemeron – Fiona Benson – 3 Stars
A Poem for Every Night of the Year – Allie Esiri – 3 Stars
On Travel and the Journey Through Life – Ed. Barnaby Rogerson – 4 Stars
True North – Gavin Francis – 4 Stars
Book(s) Of The Month
I had two five star books this month. Both are very different and excellent in their own way and I cannot recommend them enough:
The Book of Trespass: Crossing the Lines that Divide Us – Nick Hayes – 5 Stars
Smelling the Breezes: A Journey through the High Lebanon in 1957 – Ralph Izzard & Molly Izzard – 5 Stars
Top Genres
Natural History – 38
Travel – 26
Poetry – 17
Memoir – 14
History – 14
Science – 9
Fiction – 9
Environmental – 7
Science Fiction – 6
Photography – 5
Top Publishers
William Collins – 9
Faber & Faber – 8
Bloomsbury – 8
Gollancz – 6
Eland – 6
Unbound – 5
Elliott & Thompson – 5
Little Toller – 5
Jonathan Cape – 4
Profile Books – 4
Review Copies Received
Handbook of Mammals of Madagascar – Nick Garbutt
We Saw It All Happen – Julian Bishop
Library Books Checked Out
Borderland: A Journey Through the History of Ukraine – Anna Reid
Circles and Tangents: Art In The Shadow Of Cranborne Chase – Vivienne Mary Light
Elegy For A River: Whiskers, Claws And Conservation’s Last, Wild Hope – Tom Moorhouse
We, Robots: Staying Human In The Age Of Big Data – Curtis White
The Golden Mole: And Other Living Treasure – Katherine Rundell
In the Shadow of the Mountain: A Memoir of Courage – Silvia Vasquez-Lavado
The Women Who Saved the English Countryside – Matthew Kelly
Books Bought
The Songs of Trees: Stories from Nature’s Great Connectors – David George Haskell
The Twelve Birds of Christmas – Stephen Moss
Favourite Middle Eastern Recipes – Pat Chapman
Terminal Zones – Gareth Rees
In the Catacombs: A Summer Among the Dead Poets of West Norwood Cemetery – Chris McCabe
The Old Weird Albion – Justin Hopper
Feral Borough – Meryl Pugh
The Girl Who Forgets How To Walk – Kate Davis
Out For Air – Olly Todd
Nemesis, My Friend: Journeys Through the Turning Times – Jay Griffiths
The Left Hand of Darkness – Ursula K. Le Guin
Weymouth And Portland At War: Countdown to D-Day – Maureen Attwooll & Denise Harrison
Weymouth: An Illustrated History – Maureen Attwooll & Jack West
Given Ground – Roger Garfitt
Nature’s Child – John Lister-Kaye
Telling the Seasons: Stories, Celebrations and Folklore around the Year – Martin Maudsley
The Valleys – Anthony Stokes
Taste:My Life Through Food – Stanely Tucci
A House by the Shore – Alison Johnson
Turning the Tide on Plastic: How Humanity (And You) Can Make Our Globe Clean Again – Lucy Siegle
Londoners: The Days and Nights of London Now—As Told by Those Who Love It, Hate It, Live It, Left It, and Long for It – Craig Taylor
River Diary – Ronald Blythe
How Not to Travel the World: Adventures of a Disaster-Prone Backpacker – Lauren Juliff
The Epic City – Kushanava Choudhury
A Small Place In Italy – Eric Newby
My Early Life – Winston S. Churchill
The Song of Stone – Iain Banks
The Cloudspotters Guide – Gavin Prettor-Pinney
Botanical Folk Tales Of Britain And Ireland – Lisa Schneidau
Bittersweet: How Sorrow and Longing Make Us Whole – Susan Cain
Ancient Monuments and Stone Circles: Photographic Memories – Les Moores
Circles And Standing Stones – Evan Hadingham
Into Iraq – Michael Palin
Wild Light – Angela Harding
Malarkoi – Alex Pheby
Any that you have read>? O take you fancy? Let me know below
Oh, The Book of Trespass was excellent, wasn’t it, I read it a while ago (for Shiny, I think) and loved it. Have you reviewed it here yet And the Anita Sethi, I’ll be interested in your thoughts on that, I was a bit so-so about it as I celebrated its existence but thought it could have done with an edit. Anyway I’m sooooo behind with blog reading so I might find those reviews soon!
It was. I haven’t written a review yet, bit behind on them at the moment. I have written a review for Anita Sethi’s but have not published it yet. I tend to agree with you on that, hence why I bought a copy to support her