How are we halfway through 2023 already? How? I don’t feel that I have read enough, but somehow I finished my 99th book on June 30th. I am ahead of schedule in terms of the good reads challenge, but less so on other challenges! Ho hum. I read 17 books in June. Always less than I hope for, but seeing what other people post on social media, I am doing much better than I think I am. So here they are:
Books Read
David Weston: An Artist at Home and Abroad – David Weston – 3.5 stars
Small Island: A History Of Britain In 12 Maps – Philip Parker – 3 stars
Acts of Desperation – Megan Nolan – 2.5 stars
Exciting Times – Naoise Dolan – 2.5 stars
Here Comes the Miracle – Anna Beecher – 3 stars
Open Water – Nelson Caleb Azumah – 3 stars
Shy – Max Porter – 3 stars
Grounding: Finding Home In A Garden – Lulah Ellender – 4.5 stars
Hard Lying; An Intelligence Officer on the Levantine Shore, 1914-1919 – Lewen Weldon – 4 stars
The Ten Equations That Rule The World And How You Can Use Them Too – David Sumpter – 3 stars
In Her Nature: How Women Break Boundaries In The Great Outdoors : A Past, Present And Personal Story – Rachel Hewitt – 4 stars
How to Read a Tree: Clues and Patterns from Bark to Leaves – Tristan Gooley – 4 stars
The Language of Trees: How Trees Make Our World, Change Our Minds and Rewild Our Lives – Katie Holten – 4.5 starsMy Darling from the Lions – Rachel Long – 3 stars
The Testaments – Margaret Atwood – 4 stars
Nomads: The Wanderers Who Shaped Our World – Anthony Sattin – 4 stars
Book(s) Of The Month
Undercurrent: A Cornish Memoir Of Poverty, Nature And Resilience – Natasha Carthew – 5 stars
Top Genres
Natural History – 14
Travel – 13
Fiction – 13
Poetry – 9
Memoir – 7
History – 6
Science Fiction – 6
Photography – 3
Fantasy – 3
Art – 2
Top Publishers
Faber & Faber – 8
Allen Lane – 3
Bloomsbury – 3
Jonathan Cape – 3
William Collins – 3
Little Toller – 3
Monoray – 3
Michael Joseph – 3
Chatto & Windus – 3
Simon & Schuster – 3
Review Copies Received
Wind: Nature And Culture – Louise M Pryke
Moderate Becoming Good Later: Sea Kayaking the Shipping Forecast – Katie Carr & Toby Carr
Call of the Kingfisher: Bright Sights and Birdsong in a Year by the River – Nick Penny
An Almost Impossible Thing: The Radical Lives of Britain’s Pioneering Women Gardeners – Fiona Davidson
Library Books Checked Out
Shy – Max Porter
The Swimmer: The Wild Life Of Roger Deakin – Patrick Barkham
La Vie: A Year In Rural France – John Lewis-Stempel
The Turning Tide: A Biography Of The Irish Sea – Jon Gower
Blue Dahlia, Black Gold: A Journey Into Angola – Daniel Metcalfe
Books Bought
This Cold Heaven: Seven Seasons in Greenland – Gretel Ehrlich
Dorset Coast – James Crowden
A Local Habitation – Norman Nicholson
Forbidden Journey: From Peking To Kasmir – Ella Maillart, Tr. Thomas McGreevy
The Santiago Pilgrimage: Walking the Immortal Way – Jean-Christophe Rufin, Tr. Malcolm Imrie & Martina Dervis
Gargoyles and Grotesques – Alex Woodcock
Pondlife: A Swimmer’s Journal – Al Álvarez
Love and War in the Apennines – Eric Newby
A Fez of the Heart – Jeremy Seal
Cuba Diaries: An American Housewife in Havana – Isadora Tattlin
Impossible Journeys – Mathew Lyons
Island On The Edge: A Life on Soay – Anne Cholawo
An African in Greenland – Tété-Michel Kpomassie Tr. James Kirkup
With Chatwin: Portrait of a Writer – Susannah Clapp
The Quite Nice and Fairly Accurate Good Omens Script Book – Neil Gaiman
Inside Dorset – Monica Hutchings
Richard Bell’s Britain – Richard Bell
Postcards From the Beach – Phil Tufnell
The Wood Age: How One Material Shaped the Whole of Human History – Rolans Ennos
The Penguin Modern Painters: Henry Moore – Geoffry Grigson
The Penguin Modern Painters: Paul Nash – Herbert Read
The Penguin Modern Painters: Edward Burra – John Rothenstein
Any that you read from that list above? Any that you now want to read? Let me know in the comments below
Ooh, An African in Greenland is excellent, and I like With Chatwin, too – I was just staring at that the other day as I perched on a storage box on wheels going through Biography.
Did you review Open Water? Don’t let it put you off reading Small Worlds which bears out his early promise without the over-name-dropping and weird second person singular narrative voice!
An African in Greenland was recommended to me by Dan Richards on Twitter and finally found a copy in a second hand bookshop. I have two Chatwin biographies to read now, and several of his books. I have ony read in Patagonia.
I read it and quite liked it, but I am not reviewing any of the 20 book of summer books. Mermaid of the Black Conch was good too
A new edition of African… weirdly popped up on NetGalley a while ago, very strange, as I’d been after a copy for literally years! I have the big Chatwin bio, too, and really enjoyed Songlines and the other one although In Patagonia was my favourite.
How very odd! I have several of his fiction books too. I really need to read quicker