Books Read
Wild: Tales From Early Medieval Britain – Amy Jeffs – 3 stars
What Abigail Did That Summer – Ben Aaronovitch – 3.5 stars
My Life in France: The Classic Memoir Of Food And French Living – Julia Child – 3.5 stars
Tree Glee: How and Why Trees Make Us Feel Better – Cheryl Rickman – 3.5 stars
The Sloth Lemur’s Song: Madagascar from the Deep Past to the Uncertain Present – Alison Richard – 3.5 stars
Burn: A Story of Fire, Woods and Healing – Ben Short – 4 stars
No Country For Eight-Spot Butterflies – Julian Aguon – 4 stars
Black Lion: Alive in the Wilderness – Sicelo Mbatha – 4 stars
Eric Ravilious: Artist And Designer – Alan Powers – 4 stars
Wild Nephin – Sean Lysaght – 4 stars
A Still Life: A Memoir – Josie George – 4 stars
The Consolation of Nature: Spring in the Time of Coronavirus – Michael McCarthy, Peter Marren, Jeremy Mynott – 4 stars
Book(s) Of The Month
I have chosen two books of the month this month. The first book is a terrifying account of how hacked the web is, how we are at the mercy of rogue, and what we would like to think are good governments. Read it and weep.
This Is How They Tell Me The World Ends: The Cyber Weapons Arms Race – Nicole Perlroth – 4.5 stars
My second book is a travel memoir set in Iceland and it is just a beautiful piece of writing.
The Ravens Nest – Sarah Thomas – 4.5 stars
Top Genres
Natural History – 35
Travel – 23
Poetry – 15
Memoir – 14
History – 14
Fiction – 9
Science – 9
Environmental – 7
Science Fiction – 6
Photography – 5
Top Publishers
William Collins – 8
Faber & Faber – 8
Gollancz – 6
Bloomsbury – 6
Unbound – 5
Little Toller – 5
Eland – 4
Canongate – 4
Picador – 4
Elliott & Thompson – 4
Review Copies Received
Haunters at the Hearth: Eerie Tales For Christmas Nights – Ed. Tanya Kirk
Polar Horrors: Strange Tales from the World’s Ends – Ed. John Miller
Library Books Checked Out
The Consolation Of Nature: Spring In The Time Of Coronavirus – Michael McCarthy
Wild: Tales From Early Medieval Britain – Amy Jeffs
Cornerstones: Wild Forces That Can Change Our World – Benedict Macdonald
Hothouse Earth: An Inhabitant’s Guide – Bill McGuire
England’s Green – Zaffar Kunial
Ephemeron – Fiona Benson
Eating to Extinction – Dan Saladino
36 Islands – Robert Twigger
Books Bought
Cocaine Train: Tracing My Bloodline Through Colombia – Stephen Smith
The Wind At My Back: A Cycling Life – Paul Maunder
The Swallow: A Biography – Stephen Moss
Ancient Stones Of Dorset – Peter Knight
Old Calabria – Norman Douglas
A Life in Car Design – Oliver Winterbottom
Mariana – Monica Dickens
Engineers of Victory: The Problem Solvers who Turned the Tide in the Second World War – Paul Kennedy
Elisabeth’s Lists: A Life Between the Lines – Lulah Ellender
The Olive Farm – Carol Drinkwater
Squirrel Pie (and other stories): Adventures in Food Across the Globe – Elisabeth Luard
Walking the Woods and the Water: In Patrick Leigh Fermor’s footsteps from the Hook of Holland to the Golden Horn – Nick Hunt
Thinking Again – Jan Morris
Trees & Woodland in the British Landscape: The Complete History of Britain’s Trees, Woods & Hedgerows – Oliver Rackham
The Manor Houses of Dorset – Una Russell & Audrey Grindrod
The Songs of Trees: Stories from Nature’s Great Connectors – David George Haskell
I think that is it! Any that you have read or that takes you fancy? Let me know in the comments below
I just bought two William Collins books for my best friend for Christmas (Islands of Abandonment and Between the Tides), didn’t realise I’d done that till I had them in a pile on the counter. Good reading in November and good incomings, too.
It was. I try to read mostly from independent, but this year it doesn’t look that way!