October is one of those funny months. It is the longest, only by an hour mind, and the darker evenings should mean that I can more read. But this month I didn’t. I only read 10 books in October, but a couple of them,, (and a half) were seriously chunky books. There were the books that I did read:
Books Read
Citadel – Kate Mosse – 3 Stars
Still Life in Milford: Poems – Thomas Lynch – 3 Stars
Brazilian Adventure – Peter Fleming – 4 Stars
All My Wild Mothers: A Memoir Of Motherhood, Loss And An Apothecary Garden – Victoria Bennet – 4 Stars
Empordan Scafarlata – Adrià Pujol Cruells Tr. Douglas Suttle – 3 Stars
The Rosewater Redemption – Tade Thompson – 4.5 Stars
Hagstone – Sinéad Gleeson – 3.5 Stars
Island to Island: From Somerset to Seychelles – Sally Mills – 4 Stars
Clear Thinking: Turning Ordinary Moments Into Extraordinary Results – Shane Parrish – 2.5 Stars
Book(s) Of The Month
Our Island Stories: Country Walks Through Colonial Britain – Corrine Fowler – 5 Stars
Top Genres
Fiction – 32
Travel – 28
Natural History – 13
Poetry – 10
Memoir – 9
Science Fiction – 7
Miscellaneous – 4
History – 4
Food & Drink – 3
Humour – 3
Top Publishers
Bloomsbury – 7
Vintage – 5
Picador – 4
Eland – 4
Canongate – 4
Summersdale – 4
Faber & Faber – 3
Jonathan Cape – 3
Orbit – 3
Orion – 3
Review Copies Received
Eerie East Anglia: Fearful Tales of Field and Fen – Edward Parnell (Ed)
The Weird Tales of Dorothy K Haynes – Dorothy K. Haynes
The Haunted Trail: Classic Tales of the Rambling Weird – Weird Walk (Ed)
Library Books Checked Out
It’s A Gas: The Magnificent And Elusive Elements That Expand Our World – Mark Miodownik
An Irish Atlantic Rainforest: A Personal Journey into the Magic of Rewilding – Eoghan Daltun
Tickbox – David Boyle
Hagstone – Sinéad Gleeson
Books Bought
Band on the Bus: Around the World in a Double-Decker – Richard King (Signed)
One Thousand Feasts – Nigel Slater (Signed)
England: A Natural History – John Lewis-Stempel (Signed)
Airplane Mode: Travels in the Ruins of Tourism – Shahnaz Habib
Notebook – Tom Cox (Signed)
Talking to the Neighbours: Conversations in a Country Parish – Ronald Blythe
Lost To The Sea: A Journey Round The Edges Of Britain And Ireland – Lisa Woollett
Back Door to Byzantium: To the Black Sea by the Great Rivers of Europe – Bill & Laurel Cooper
The Life And Times Of The Thunderbolt Kid – Bill Bryson
Dorset Witches – Rodney Legg & Olive Knott
Dorset Ghost Stories – Richard Holland
The Story of a Non-marrying Man and Other Stories – Doris Lessing
The Wisdom of Sheep & Other Animals: Observations from a Family Farm – Rosamud Young
Remainders of the Day: More Diaries from The Bookshop, Wigtown – Shaun Bythell (Signed)
Island Of The Colour Blind And Cycad Island – Oliver Sacks
Wainwright’s TV Walks – Alfred Wainwright
So are there any from that list that you have read, or now seeing them, now want to read? Let me know in the comments below.
Loved the Nigel Slater book.
Currently reading the Lewis-Stempel book which is excellent. He is my favourite nature writer by a long way, so I was sad to read in his introduction that this is his last full length nature book. I really hope he reconsiders.
Slater is such a wonderful writer. Lewis-Stempel is too. I don’t think that he will, based on what he said at the talk I went to with him.
Did he say why?
He did a talk near me in October but I was in Scotland and couldn’t go.
I’m so glad you rated Our Island Stories so highly – hooray! Have you reviewed it yet? I’m horribly behind with my blog reading because I’ve been reading and blog-writing a lot!
I missed this comment, Liz. Sorry! It was really good and such an important book. I probably won’t because of life at the moment.