Halfway through another strange year, and it doesn’t seem to be getting any better at the moment. I could go on about Covid, but you’re probably as bored of it as I am. Anyway, you are here for the books so this is the super long list that I am intending to work my way into. If I don’t emerge please send doughnuts.
Finishing Off (Still!)
Lotharingia: A Personal History Of Europe’s Lost Country – Simon Winder
Behind the Enigma: The Authorized History of GCHQ, Britain’s Secret Cyber-Intelligence Agency – John Ferris
On The Marsh: A Year Surrounded By Wildness And Wet – Simon Barnes
Pie Fidelity: In Defence Of British Food – Pete Brown
Another Fine Mess: Across Trumpland In A Ford Model T – Tim Moore
Blog Tour
The Storm is Upon Us – Mike Rothschild
New Book
These Towers Will One Day Slip Into The Sea – Gary Budden & Maxim Griffin
Review Copies
Did manage to read 7 review copies in May, but the list grows ever longer each month:
Burning The Books – Richard Ovenden
Dear Reader – Cathy Rentzenbrink
Astral Travel – Elizabeth Baines
The Germans and Europe – Peter Millar
Britain Alone – Philip Stephens
We Own This City – Justin Fenton
Elites – Douglas Board
The Fugitives – Jamal Mahjoub
Invisible Work – John Howkins
Slow Trains Around Spain – Tom Chesshyre
The Power of Geography – Tim Marshall
The Four Horsemen – Emily Mayhew
The Spy who was left out in the Cold – Tim Tate
Tarmac to Towpath – David Banning, Julian Hyde
Where – Simon Moreton
The Devil You Know- Gwen Adshead, Eileen Horne
Human, Nature- Ian Carter
Letters from Egypt – Lucie Duff Gordon
The Glitter in the Green – Jon Dunn
Lakeland Wild – Jim Crumley
Croak – Ed. Phil Bishop
Borderlines – Charles Nicholl
The Pay Off – Gottfried Leibbrandt and Natasha De Terán
The Eternal Season – Stephen Rutt
The Story of Life in 10 1/2 Chapters – Marianne Taylor
Mainstream – Ed Justin Davis & Nathan Evans
Flight of the Diamond Smugglers- Matthew Gavin Frank
White Spines – Nicholas Royle
Above the Law – Adrian Bleese
Library
There are fewer library books this month as I managed to renew some:
The Lost Plot – Genevieve Cogman
The Burning Page – Genevieve Cogman
The Way To The Sea – Caroline Crampton
Concretopia – John Grindrod
The Electricity Of Every Living Thing – Katherine May
Weathering – Lucy Wood
No Friend But The Mountains – Behrouz Boochani
Seed To Dust – Marc Hamer
Wainwright Prize
The Wainwright Prize was announced last month and I have read six so far so I am intending on working my way through the ones that I haven’t read yet.
Vesper Flights Helen Macdonald
The Stubborn Light of Things: A Nature Diary Melissa Harrison
Seed to Dust Marc Hamer
English Pastoral: An Inheritance James Rebanks
Birdsong in a Time of Silence Steven Lovatt
I Belong Here Anita Sethi
The Wild Silence Raynor Winn
Poetry
Only intending on reading one this month given the vastness of the rest of the list…
Owl Unbound – Zoë Brooks
20 Books Of Summer
Cathy at 746 books is running this again and my post about it is here. I am not going to get to all of these this month, but they are here so I can start ticking them off the list to read. Two down from last month!
An Affair Of The Heart – Dilys Powell
Wyntertide – Andrew Caldecot
The Con Artist – Fred van Lente
Girl Squads: 20 Female Friendships That Changed History – Sam Maggs
Water Ways: A Thousand Miles Along Britain’s Canals – Jasper Winn
The Night Lies Bleeding – M.D. Lachlan
Divided: Why We’re Living in an Age of Walls – Tim Marshall
The Wonderful Mr Willughby: The First True Ornithologist – Tim Birkhead
The House of Islam – Ed Husain
Asian Waters: The Struggle Over the South China Sea and the Strategy of Chinese Expansion – Humphrey Hawksley
Light of the Stars: Alien Worlds and the Fate of the Earth – Adam Frank
Blue Mind: How Water Makes You Happier, More Connected and Better at What You Do – Wallace J. Nichols
21 Lessons for the 21st Century – Yuval Noah Harari
The Restless Kings: Henry II, His Sons and the Wars for the Plantagenet Crown – Nick Barratt
The Kindness Of Strangers: Travel Stories That Make Your Heart Grow – Ed. Fearghal O’Nuallain
To Obama: With Love, Joy, Anger, and Hope – Jeanne Marie Laskas
What We Have Lost – James Hamilton-Paterson
Bloody Brilliant Women: The Pioneers, Revolutionaries and Geniuses Your History Teacher Forgot to Mention – Cathy Newman
These lists never seem to get any shorter, do they? ?
Any that you have read or are there some above that take your fancy?
Eeps! I did some photographs of my 20Books (lagging one behind) and collages of my NetGalley books (lagging two behind) for July and that was frightening enough! Good luck! I’m reading I Belong Here by Anita Sethi at the moment and it’s pretty unusual. Hoping to get a review up late today.
I have read one and almost finished another (about 20 pages to go)