March 2024 Review

March always seems to drag a bit, but it is a longer month so more reading time. I had three book events too this month, The London Book Fair and then in the evening to Stanfords to hear Mike Parker talk about his new book, All The Wide Border. Then I was in Shaftesbury for the Reading The Land Literary Festival, where I heard Charles Foster and Sophie Pavell speak about their books. Really enjoyed all of those. Anyway here is what I read and bought and was kindly sent by publishers this month

Books Read

Where The Seals Sing – Susan Richardson – 2.5 Stars

The Britannias: An Island Quest – Alice Albinia – 3.5 Stars

Very British Problems: Still Awkward, Still Raining – Rob Temple – 3.5 Stars

Very British Problems: The Most Awkward One Yet – Rob Temple – 3.5 Stars

Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art – James Nestor – 3.5 Stars

One Thousand Shades Of Green: A Year In Search Of Britain’s Wild Plants – Mike Dilger – 3.5 Stars

Why Women Grow – Alice Vincent – 3.5 Stars

Cold Fish Soup – Adam Farrer – 3.5 Stars

Modern Fog – Chris Emery – 3.5 Stars

Now is the Time to Know Everything – Simon Moreton – 4 Stars

Hermit: A Memoir Of Finding Freedom In A Wild Place – Jade Angeles Fitton – 4 Stars

The Rosewater Insurrection – Tade Thompson – 4 Stars

 

Book(s) Of The Month

 

Spring Rain – Marc Hamer – 4.5 Stars

Sunken Lands: A Journey Through Flooded Kingdoms and Lost Worlds – Gareth E. Rees – 4.5 Stars

Sea of Tranquility – Emily St. John Mandel – 4.5 Stars

 

Top Genres

Travel – 12

Fiction – 8

Natural History – 5

Memoir – 4

Poetry – 3

Humour – 2

Science – 1

Gardening – 1

History – 1

Biography – 1

 

Top Publishers

Bloomsbury – 3

Eland – 2

Canongate – 2

Sphere – 2

Salt – 2

Saraband – 2

Influx Press – 1

Harvill Secker – 1

Lydstep Lettuce – 1

Harper North – 1

 

Review Copies Received

Peat and Whisky: The Unbreakable Bond – Mike Billett

Enchanted Islands: A Mediterranean Odyssey – A Memoir of Travels through Love, Grief and Mythology – Laura Coffey

Set My Hand Under The Plough – E.M Barraud

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

Cairn – Kathleen Jamie

In All Weathers – Matt Gaw

A Sunny Place For Shady People – Ryan Murdock

 

Library Books Checked Out

Footmarks: A Journey Into Our Restless Past – Jim Leary

Island to Island : From Somerset to Seychelles – Sally Mills

Steeple Chasing: Around Britain By Church – Peter Ross

The Laundromat: Inside the Panama Papers Investigation of Illicit Money Networks and the Global Elite – Jake Bernstein

 

Books Bought

Rambling Man: Travels of a Lifetime – Billy Connolly

Crypt: Life, Death and Disease in the Middle Ages and Beyond – Alice Roberts (Signed)

Grey Skies, Green Waves: A Surfer’s Journey Around the UK and Ireland – Tom Anderson

Shadowlands: A Journey Through Lost Britain – Matthew Green

A Writer’s World: Travels 1950–2000 – Jan Morris

Bread And Ashes: A Walk Through the Mountains of Georgia – Tony Anderson

Finding Hildasay: How One Man Walked the UK’s Coastline and Found Hope and Happiness – Christian Lewis

Stalin’s Nose: Across the Face of Europe – Rory Maclean (Signed)

The Wild Rover: A Blistering Journey Along Britain’s Footpaths – Mike Parker (Signed)

All The Wide Border: Wales, England and the Places Between – Mike Parker (Signed)

Map Addict – Mike Parker (Signed)

Forget Me Not: Finding the Forgotten Species of Climate-Change Britain – Sophie Pavelle (Signed)

Kings of the Yukon: An Alaskan River Journey – Adam Weymouth (Signed)

Curlew Moon – Mary Cowell – Female (Signed)

The Enchanted Places – Christopher Milne (Signed)

The Condor’s Feather: Travelling Wild In South America – Michael Webster

Another Breath Of Border Air – Lavinia Derwent

Elephants: Birth, Death, & Family in the Lives of the Giants – Hannah Mumby

The Great Railway Bazaar – Paul Theroux

New Reading the Landscape: Fieldwork in Landscape History – Richard Muir

Small Worlds – Caleb Azumah Nelson

Smoke in the Lanes: Happiness and Hardship on the Road with the Gypsies in the 1950s – Dominic Reeve

A Pilgrim in Spain – Christopher Howse

Along The Enchanted Way: A Romanian Story – William Blacker

Dorset Dialect – Gill Newton

Tequila Oil: Getting Lost In Mexico – Hugh Thomson

Rena Gardiner: Artist and Printmaker – Julian Francis & Martin Andrews (Signed)

 

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