I ended up reading sixteen books in September, far more than I thought that I would, given everything that is going on. Here they are:
Books Read
Seven Kinds Of People You Find In Bookshops – Shaun Bythell – 4 Stars
Bewilderment – Richard Powers – 3 Stars
Beautiful Country – Qian Julie Wang – 3.5 Stars
The Accidental Detectorist – Nigel Richardson – 4 Stars
Thunderstone – Nancy Campbell – 4 Stars
Between Light and Storm – Esther Woolfson – 2.5 Stars
A River Runs Through Me – Andrew Douglas-Home – 3 Stars
Tweet Of The Day – Brett Westwood & Stephen Moss – 3.5 Stars
Rhythms of Nature – Ian Carter – 4 Stars
Return to My Trees – Matthew Yeomans – 4 Stars
Dancing Satyr – Chris Waters – 3 Stars
The This – Adam Roberts – 3.5 Stars
My 1001 Nights – Alice Morrison – 4 Stars
The Po – Tobias Jones – 4 Stars
Looking for Transwonderland – Noo Saro-Wiwa – 4 Stars
Book Of The Month
There is not much prose in this book, but the art by Ravilious is jaw-droppingly good. This is why I didn’t hesitate to make it my book of the month.
Ravilious: Wood Engravings – James Russell – 4.5 Stars James Russell
Top Genres
Natural History 27
Travel 20
History 13
Poetry 12
Memoir 11
Fiction 9
Science 8
Environmental 6
Science Fiction 5
Photography 4
I have 15 natural history books to read by the end of the year for a challenge, so I will have to see how many travel books I can squeeze in.
Top Publishers
Faber & Faber 8
William Collins 7
Gollancz 5
Unbound 5
Canongate 4
Picador 4
Bloomsbury 4
Eland 4
Elliott & Thompson 4
Little Toller 4
Review Copies Received
All Island No Sea – Chris Campbell
My Family and Other Enemies – Mary Novakovich
Taverna by the Sea – Jennifer Barclay
Dandelions – Thea Lenarduzzi
Seasons of Storm and Wonder – Jim Crumley
What Remains? – Rupert Callender
The Peckham Experiment – Guy Ware
Tree Thieves – Lyndsie Bourgon
Library Books Checked Out
The Art of Jeremy Gardiner – Wendy Baron
The Magic of Mushrooms – Sandra Lawrence
Rosewater – Tade Thompson
The Rosewater Insurrection – Tade Thompson
The Rosewater Redemption – Tade Thompson
One Place de l’Eglise – Trevor Dolby
A Line Above the Sky – Helen Mort
The illustrated Woman – Helen Mort
Endurance – Ed. Levison Wood
Seven Kinds Of People You Find In Bookshops – Shaun Bythell
Books Bought
A Winter in Arabia – Freya Stark
The Abduction of General Kreipe – Georgiou Efthymios Harokopos, Tr. Rosemary Tzanaki, Ed. Emmy G. Harokopu
To Oldly Go – Various
Riding Route 94 – David McKie
Havana Dreams: A Story of Cuba – Wendy Gimbel
The Liquid Continent – Nicholas Woodsworth
The Road To Nab End – William Woodruff
A Time in Arabia – Doreen Ingrams
On Persephone’s Island – Mary Taylor Simeti
The Edible Atlas – Mina Holland
The Butterfly Isles – Patrick Barkham
Frostquake – Juliet Nicolson
Landlines – Raynor Winn
River – Philipa Forrester
Fenwomen – Mary Chamberlin
Of Wolves & Men – Barry Lopez
While Wandering – Ed. Duncan Minshull
Names For The Sea – Sarah Moss
Serious Concerns – Wendy Cope
So, any there that you like the look of or have read? Let me know in the comments below
Well done on all that reading! The Butterfly Isles is great, the Wendy Cope poems are excellent, I got cross with Names for the Sea but most people enjoy it and I’m v fussy about Iceland stuff!
Thank you. I read the Butterfly Isles ages ago, but it was a library copy. Same with Names for the Sea. I have several of Wendy Cope’s collections now (including a signed one) that I must read.