Category: Book Musings (Page 10 of 29)

I have been through all of the spring 2023 publishers’ catalogues that could lay my hands on (24 so far). I have listed all the books that I really like the look of. The majority on this list are non-fiction, as you have probably come to expect by now, but there is a smattering of fiction, sci-fi and the odd poetry in there.

 

Abacus
Hidden Valley: Finding freedom in Spain’s deep country – Paul Richardson

Migrants: The Story of Us All – Sam Miller

Follow the Money: How much does Britain cost? – Paul Johnson

Glowing Still: A woman’s life on the road – Sara Wheeler

Edgeland – Sasha Swire

Spies: The epic intelligence war between East and West – Calder Walton

 

Allen Lane

The Crisis Of Democratic Capitalism – Martin Wolf

Crack-Up Capitalism: Market Radicals And The Dream Of A World Without Democracy – Quinn Slobodian

Free And Equal: What Would A Fair Society Look Like? – Daniel Chandler

Twelve Words For Moss: Love, Loss And Moss – Elizabeth-Jane Burnett

Fancy Bear Goes Phishing: A Story Of The Information Age, In Five Parts – Scott J. Shapiro

 

Bloomsbury

The Half Known Life – Pico Iyer

The Core Of An Onion – Mark Kurlansky

Operation Chiffon – Peter Taylor

The Book Of Wliding – Isabella Tree

The North Will Rise Again – Alex Niven

The Deadly Balance – Adam Hart

Into The Groove – Jonathan Scott

One Thousand Shades Of Green – Mike Dilger

The Bridleway – Tiffany Francis-Baker

Avocado Anxiety – Louise Grey

Gathering Places – Mary Cowell

Cuddy – Benjamin Myers

 

Bodley Head

Attack Warning Red – Julie McDowall

Being Human – Lewis Dartnell

 

Calon

Shaping the Wild – David Elias

 

Canongate

We Are Electric: The New Science Of Our Body’S Electrome – Sally Adee

Grounded: A Journey Into The Landscapes Of Our Ancestors – James Canton

Wolfish: The Stories We Tell About Fear, Ferocity And Freedom – Erica Berry

Why Women Grow: Stories Of Soil, Sisterhood And Survival – Alice Vincent

Beastly: A New History Of Animals And Us – Keggie Carew

The Memory Keeper: A Journey Into The Holocaust To Find My Family – Jackie Kohnstamm

Homelands: The History Of A Friendship – Chitra Ramaswamy

Cacophony Of Bone – Kerri Ní Dochartaigh

Black Ghosts: Encounters With The Africans Changing China – Noo Saro-Wiwa

 

Chatto & Windus

In Her Nature – Rachel Hewitt

 

Constable

It’s Not About Whiteness, It’s About Wealth: How the Economics of Race Really Work – Remi Adekoya

 

Corsair

Wounded Tigris: A river journey through the cradle of civilisation – Leon McCarron

Métropolitain: An Ode to the Paris Métro – Andrew Martin

 

Duckworth

The Case for Nature – Siddarth Shrikanth

The Possibility of Life – Jaime Green

 

Ebury Press

AI 2041: Ten Visions for Our Future – Kai-Fu Lee and Chen Qiufan

British Woodland: Discover the Secret World of Our Trees – Ray Mears

The Russia Conundrum: How the West Fell For Putin’s Power Gambit – and How to Fix It – Mikhail Khodorkovsky (with Martin Sixsmith)

The Bleeding Tree: A Pathway Through Grief Guided by Forests, Folk Tales and the Ritual Year – Hollie Starling

 

Elliott & Thompson

And Then What? Inside Stories of 21st Century Diplomacy – Catherine Ashton –

The Future Of Geography: How Power And Politics In Space Will Challenge Our World – Tim Marshall

Taking Flight: A Celebration Of The Miraculous Phenomenon Of Flight – Lev Parikian

A Day In the Life Of The Global Economy – Dharshini David

 

Europa Editions

Free to Obey: How The Nazis Invented Modern Management – Johann Chapoutot Tr. Steven Rendall

 

Faber & Faber

Enchantment: Reawakening Wonder in an Exhausted Age – Katherine May

Shy – Max Porter

Emotional Ignorance – Dean Burnett

On Being Unreasonable – Kirsty Sedgman

Ten Birds That Changed The World – Stephen Moss

Floodmeadow – Toby Martinez De Las Rivas – Male

 

Fly On The Wall

We Saw It All Happen – Julian Bishop

The Naming Of Moths – Tracy Fells

 

Fum D’Estampa Press

In Yellow Evenings – Jordi Larios Tr. Ronald Puppo

Pharmakon – Almudena Sánchez Tr. Katie Whittemore

 

Harvill Secker

Spring Rain – Marc Hamer

Stone Will Answer – Beatrice Searle

 

Head of Zeus

Quantum Radio – A.G. Riddle

The Best of World SF Volume 2 – Various

Alien Worlds: The Secret Life Of Insects – Steve Nicholls

Stuck Monkey: How The Things We Love Are Killing the Environment – James Hamilton-Paterson

The Known Unknowns: The Unsolved Mysteries of the Cosmos – Lawrence Krauss

The Granite Kingdom: A Cornish Journey – Tim Hannigan

The Vanished Collection – Pauline Baer de Perignon Tr. Natasha Lehrer

 

Headline

Between the Chalk and the Sea – Gail Simmons

The Long View: Why We Need to Transform How the World Sees Time – Richard Fisher

The Queen of Codes – Jacki Ui Chionna

Who Cares – Emily Kenway

The Red Hotel – Alan Philps

Steeple Chasing – Peter Ross

Rivets, Trivets and Galvanised Buckets – Tom Fort

 

Hodder & Stoughton

If Nietzsche Were A Narwhal: What Animal Intelligence Reveals About Human Stupidity – Justin Gregg

Defeating The Dictators: How Democracy Can Prevail In The Age Of The Strongman – Charles Dunst

Nuts And Bolts: Seven Small Inventions That Changed The World (In A Big Way) – Roma Agrawal

Echolands: A Journey In Search Of Boudica – Duncan Mackay

Hands Of Time: A Watchmaker’S History – Rebecca Struthers

Undercurrent: A Cornish Memoir Of Poverty, Nature And Resilience – Natasha Carthew

The Tidal Year: A Memoir On Grief, Swimming And Sisterhood – Freya Bromley

 

Hurst Publishers

Plotters: The UK Terrorists Who Failed – Lizzie Dearden

Proving Ground: The Untold Story of the Six Women Who Programmed the World’s First Modern Computer – Kathy Kleiman

How To Fight A War – Mike Martin

 

Hutchinson Heinman

Hermit: A memoir of finding freedom in a wild place – Jade Angeles Fitton

Sea Bean: A Beachcomber’s Search for a Magical Charm – Sally Huband

How to Build Impossible Things: Lessons in Life and Carpentry – Mark Ellison

 

Icon Books

Wise Gals: The Spies Who Built The CIA And Changed The Future Of Espionage – Nathalia Holt

Unravelling The Silk Road: Travels And Textiles In Central Asia – Chris Aslan

The Jay, The Beech And The Limpetshell: Teaching My Kids About Wild Things – Richard Smyth

Across A Waking Land: A 1,000-Mile Walk Through A British Spring – Roger Morgan-Grenville

India Uniform Nine: Secrets From Inside A Covert Customs Unit – Mark Perlstrom And Douglas Wight

Here Comes The Fun: A Year Of Making Merry – Ben Aitken

The Life Cycle: 8,000 Miles In The Andes By Bamboo Bike – Kate Rawles

 

Jonathan Cape

Elixir: In the Valley at the End of Time – Kapka Kassabova

Urban Jungle: Wilding the City – Ben Wilson

One Midsummer’s Day: Swifts and the Story of Life on Earth – Mark Cocker

 

Little Toller

List to follow!!

 

Lund Humphries

What is it that will last?: Land and tidal art of Julie Brook – “Julie Brook, Simon Groom, Alexandra Harris, Kichizaemon XV, Raku Jikinyū and Robert Macfarlane”

 

Oneworld

Sleeping Beauties: The Mystery Of Dormant Innovations In Nature And Culture – Andreas Wagner

Black Ops And Beaver Bombing: Adventures With Britain’s Wild Mammals – Fiona Mathews And Tim Kendall

The Battle For Thought: Freethinking In The Twenty-First Century – Simon Mccarthy-Jones

Goodbye Eastern Europe: An Intimate history of a Divided Land – Jacob Mikanowski

 

Particular Books

Chicken Boy: My Life With Hens – Arthur Parkinson

 

Pelagic Publishing

Invisible Friends: How Microbes Shape Our Lives and the World Around Us – Jake M. Robinson

Reconnection: Fixing our Broken Relationship with Nature – Miles Richardson

 

Profile Books

Common Or Garden: Encounters With Britain’S Most Successful Wild Plants – Ken Thompson

Tree Stories – Stefano Mancuso

The Observant Walker: Wild Food, Nature And Hidden Treasures On The Pathways Of Britain – John Wright

George: A Magpie Memoir – Frieda Hughes

Is Maths Real?: & Other Questions That Reveal Mathematics’ Deepest Truths – Eugenia Cheng

The Invention Of Essex: The Making Of An English County – Tim Burrows

 

Quercus

My Russia: War Or Peace? – Mikhail Shishkin Tr. Gesche Ipsen

 

Reaktion Books

Astray: A History of Wandering – Eluned Summers-Bremner

Travellers Through Time: A Gypsy History – Jeremy Harte

Wind: Nature And Culture – Louise M Pryke

Yew – Fred Hageneder

 

Red Dog Books
Brittany: Stone Stories – Wendy Mews

 

Saraband

The Nature Chronicles – Ed. Kathryn Aalto

Singing Like Larks – Andrew Millham

 

September Publishing

Two Lights: Walking through Landscapes of Loss and Life – James Roberts

 

Seren Books

Real Dorset by Jon Woolcott

 

Souvenir Press

One Hundred Saturdays: Stella Levi And The Vanished World Of Jewish Rhodes – Michael Frank And Maira Kalman

 

Summersdale

Lost In The Lakes: Notes From A 379-Mile Walk In The Lake District – Tom Chesshyre

 

Transworld

Blue Machine – Helen Czerski

 

Virago

Mother Tongue: The surprising history of women’s words – Jenni Nuttall

 

W&N

On Savage Shores: How Indigenous Americans Discovered Europe – Caroline Dodds Pennock

 

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

Here is my December TBR. Yes, I know it is much shorter than usual, but I am focused on getting what I need to read for the Good Reads challenge and the Natural History book reading challenge. It may change as inevitably library books that I have out, get reserved by others…

 

Reading Through The Year

A Poem for Every Night of the Year Allie Esiri

Word Perfect: Etymological Entertainment For Every Day of the Year – Susie Dent

 

Finishing Off (Still!)

The Travel Writing Tribe: Journeys in Search of a Genre – Tim Hannigan

 

Blog Tour

None this month!

 

Challenge Books

The last six for the nature reading challenge:

I Belong Here: A Journey Along the Backbone of Britain – Anita Sethi

Swifts and Us: The Life of the Bird that Sleeps in the Sky – Sarah Gibson

The Consolation of Nature: Spring in the Time of Coronavirus – Michael McCarthy, Peter Marren, Jeremy Mynott

The Book of Trespass: Crossing the Lines that Divide Us – Nick Hayes

The Overstory – Richard Powers

True North – Gavin Francis

 

Review Books

What Remains?: Life, Death and the Human Art of Undertaking – Rupert Callender

West Cumbria Mining: The Silence Between The Shadows – David Banning

Smelling the Breezes: A Journey through the High Lebanon in 1957 – Ralph Izzard & Molly Izzard

The Wheel of the Year: A Nurturing Guide to Rediscovering Nature’s Seasons and Cycles – Rebecca Beattie

On Travel and the Journey Through Life – Ed. Barnaby Rogerson

Haunters at the Hearth: Eerie Tales For Christmas Nights – Ed. Tanya Kirk (Kind of a Christmassy read…)

 

Library

Who knows this month? All the books I had planned to read were passed as I had five other reservations!

 

Big Books

When I have finished the Good Reads challenge, I like to start on some big books that I don’t always get around to reading in other months with the intention of finishing them in January. I have some huge books to get through from the library and review copies and these are some that I am going to pick from:

Gnomon – Nick Harkaway
Endurance: 100 Tales of Survival, Endurance and Exploration – Ed. Levison Wood
Iconicon: A Journey Around the Landmark Buildings of Contemporary Britain –  John Grindrod
Seveneves –  Neal Stephenson
The Night Lies Bleeding – M.D. Lachlan
Hunted – G X Todd
Red Moon – Kim Stanley Robinson
Thin Air – Richard Morgan
Shadow Captain –  Alastair Reynolds
Horizon – Barry Lopez
The Human Swarm: How Our Societies Arise, Thrive, and Fall – Mark W. Moffett
The Warehouse – Rob Hart
The Cruel Stars – John Birmingham
The Solar War – A.G. Riddle
Cage of Souls – Adrian Tchaikovsky
Broken Stars: Contemporary Chinese Science Fiction in Translation – Ken Liu
The Border – A Journey Around Russia: Through North Korea, China, Mongolia, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Ukraine, Belarus, Lithuania, Poland, Latvia, … Finland, Norway and the Northeast Passage – Erika Fatland Tr. Kari Dickson
Britain Alone: The Path from Suez to Brexit – Philip Stephens
Survival of the City: Living and Thriving in an Age of Isolation – Edward Glaeser, David Cutler
The Serpent Coiled in Naples – Marius Kociejowski
From Utmost East to Utmost West: My life of exploration and adventure – John Blashford-Snell

 

Any that you have heard of or like the sound of? Let me know in the comments below

This blog post came from an idea from the master book tempter, Runalong Womble and you can read more about his idea in his blog post here. In essence, it is to highlight the magnificent work that the small publishers and presses do in bringing books that the big five see as too risky or not commercial enough. Independent publishers are great and they were the subject of a series of posts that I did a few years ago, just search for Publisher Profiles on here.

I want to talk about two books and two publishers in my post today. The first is the mighty Little Toller. There are based on the other side of Dorset to me and have two main themes of books that they publish. The first is the reprinting of nature classics that have gone out of print and they now also publish modern and contemporary books on the natural world. You can read more about their story here.

The book that I want to bring to your attention today is brother. do. you. love. me. by Manni and Ruben Coe.

Reuben, aged 38, was living in a home for adults with learning disabilities. He hadn’t established an independent life in the care system and was still struggling to accept that he had Down’s syndrome. Depressed and in a fog of anti-depressants, he hadn’t spoken for over a year. The only way he expressed himself was by writing poems or drawing felt-tip scenes from his favourite West End musicals and Hollywood films. Increasingly isolated, cut off from everyone and everything he loved, Reuben sent a text message: ‘brother. do. you. love. me.’ 

When Manni received this desperate message from his youngest brother, he knew everything had to change. He immediately left his life in Spain and returned to England, moving Reuben out of the care home and into an old farm cottage in the countryside. In the stillness of winter, they began an extraordinary journey of repair, rediscovering the depths of their brotherhood, one gradual step at a time.

Combining Manni’s tender words with Reuben’s powerful illustrations, their story of hope and resilience questions how we care for those we love, and demands that, through troubled times, we learn how to take better care of each other.

This is a wonderful and heartwarming tale of how Manni rescues Ruben and they rekindle their deep brotherly friendship. My review is here

 

The second publisher that I want to talk about is one of those that inspired Little Toller, Eland. They have been publishing travel books for forty years now, and whilst they do have some modern  travelogues, their primary aim is to bring back to life the travel books that were considered great and can now be found in second-hand bookshops. There is more on their story here.

The book that I want to bring to your attention today is On Travel edited by Barnaby Rogerson.

On Travel presents a pyrotechnic display of cracking one-liners, cynical wordplay and comic observation, mining three thousand years of global wit and wisdom: from Pliny to Spinoza and from Albert Einstein to Aunt Augusta. Beyond the mad diversity of opinions and ideas, there is a gradually emerging consensus: that other people are crucial to our understanding of ourselves and that there is more than one right way to be.

It also offers occasional practical tips to make the most of your trip, ranging from advice on choosing your companions to the importance of tethering your camel. And it proves that travel – far from being an indulgent escape – is real preparation for the journey through life.

I haven’t read this yet, it is one I have lined up for December!

Do follow the hashtag #SmallPressBigStories  on Twitter and Mastodon

Runalong Womble can be found on Twitter and on Mastodon

With the possible demise of Twitter, I can now be found on Mastodon and Instagram

Somehow I managed to read 16 books again this month. Some were quite short though which probably helped. There was a good mix too, as you can see below. Sarah has now completed three cycles of chemo and has found a routine that works for her, but this week they found another lump in her other boob. 🙁 She described it as whack a mole, just seeing what will happen next. Anyway here they are:

 

Books Read

The Illustrated Woman – Helen Mort – 3 Stars

The Magic of Mushrooms: Fungi In Folklore, Superstition And Traditional Medicine – Sandra Lawrence – 3 Stars

Wild Child: A Journey Through Nature – Dara McAnulty – 3 Stars

Wild Nights Out: The Magic of Exploring the Outdoors After Dark – Chris Salisbury – 3 Stars

All Island No Sea – Chris Campbell – 3 Stars

The Slain Birds – Michael Longley – 3 Stars

The Art of Jeremy Gardiner: Unfolding Landscape – Wendy Baron – 3.5 Stars

The Heath: A Year in the Life of Hampstead Heath – Hunter Davies – 3.5 Stars

The Grove: A Nature Odyssey in 19 ½ Front Gardens – Ben Dark – 3.5 Stars

The Travel Photographer’s Way – Nori Jemil – 3.5 Stars

A Song for a New Day – Sarah Pinsker – 4 Stars

At the Pond: Swimming at the Hampstead Ladies’ Pond – Various – 4 Stars

Taverna by the Sea: One Greek Island Summer – Jennifer Barclay – 4 Stars

My Family and Other Enemies: Life and Travels in Croatia’s Hinterland – Mary Novakovich – 4 Stars

Bunker: Building For The End Times – Bradley L. Garrett – 4 Stars

 

Book Of The Month

This is a heartwarming story of two brothers during the pandemic. It is about how Manni brought his brother Ruben back out of the self-inflicted silence caused by the care home he was in.

brother. do. you. love. me. – Manni Coe & Reuben Coe  – 4 Stars

 

Top Genres

Natural History – 32

Travel – 22

Poetry – 15

History – 13

Memoir – 12

Fiction – 9

Science – 8

Science Fiction – 6

Environmental – 6

Photography – 5

 

Top Publishers

Faber & Faber – 8

William Collins – 7

Little Toller – 5

Gollancz – 5

Unbound – 5

Elliott & Thompson – 4

Bloomsbury – 4

Canongate – 4

Eland – 4

Picador – 4

 

Review Copies Received

West Cumbria Mining: The Silence Between The Shadows – David Banning

Spectral Sounds: Unquiet Tales of Acoustic Weird – Ed. Manon Burz-Labrande

From Utmost East to Utmost West: My life of exploration and adventure – John Blashford-Snell

Tree Glee: How and Why Trees Make Us Feel Better – Cheryl Rickman

Smelling the Breezes: A Journey through the High Lebanon in 1957 – Ralph Izzard & Molly Izzard

On Travel and the Journey Through Life – Ed. Barnaby Rogerson

The Wheel of the Year: A Nurturing Guide to Rediscovering Nature’s Seasons and Cycles – Rebecca Beattie

My Life in France: The Classic Memoir Of Food And French Living – Julia Child

 

Library Books Checked Out

Remainders Of The Day: More Diaries From The Bookshop, Wigtown – Shaun Bythell

Eric Ravilious: Artist And Designer – Alan Powers

Green Unpleasant Land: Creative Responses To Rural England’s Colonial Connections – Corinne Fowler

Wild Nights Out: The Magic Of Exploring The Outdoors After Dark – Chris Salisbury

Vuelta Skelter: Riding the Remarkable 1941 Tour of Spain – Tim Moore

Into Iraq – Michael Palin

No Country For Eight-Spot Butterflies – Julian Aguon

Burn: A Story of Fire, Woods and Healing – Ben Short

The Slain Birds – Michael Longley

Wild Child – Dara McAnulty

The Ravens Nest – Sarah Thomas

Bibliomaniac – Robin Ince

Once Upon a Tome – Oliver Darkshire

 

Books Bought

The Bedlam Stacks – Natasha Pulley

Perfume from Provence – Lady Winifred Fortescue

Ancestors: A prehistory of Britain in Seven Burials – Alice Roberts

Hidden Histories: A Spotter’s Guide to the British Landscape – Mary-Ann Ochota

Elements Of Italy – Lisa St. Aubin De Teran

The Industrial Past – Peter Stanier

Regency Riot & Reform – Jo Draper

Traveller From Tokyo – John Morris

Folklore Of Dorset – Fran & Geoff Doel

Apricots On the Nile – Colette Rossant

Night Trains – Andrew Martin

A Year In The World – Frances Mayes

Tree Tales: A Celebration of Exeter’s Trees – Jos Smith & Luke Thompson

The Rights Of The Reader – Daniel Pennac

This Luminous Coast – Jules Pretty

The Bullet Journal Method – Ryder Carrol

Dorset Up Along and Down Along: a Collection of History, Tradition, Folk Lore, Flower Names and Herbal Lore – Ed. Marianne Dacombe

Heathlands – Lesley Haskins

Dorset Dialect Days – James Atwell

The Flora of Dorset – Humphry Bowen

Toujours Provence – Peter Mayle

The Life of My Choice – Wilfred Thesiger

One More Croissant for the Road – Felicity Cloake

The Premonitions Bureau – Sam Knight

Gardener’s Nightcap – Muriel Stuart

Island Wife: Living On The Edge Of The Wild – Judy Fairbairns (Signed)

Seven Years in Tibet – Heinrich Harrer

Any that you have heard of from that (huge) list. Let me know in the comments below.

Here is my November TBR. Yes, I know it is much shorter than usual, but I am focused on getting what I need to read for the Good Reads challenge and the Natural History book reading challenge. It may change as inevitably library books that I have out, get reserved by others…

 

Reading Through The Year

A Poem for Every Night of the Year Allie Esiri

Word Perfect: Etymological Entertainment For Every Day of the Year – Susie Dent

 

Finishing Off (Still!)

The Travel Writing Tribe: Journeys in Search of a Genre – Tim Hannigan

This Is How They Tell Me The World Ends: The Cyber Weapons Arms Race – Nicole Perlroth

 

Blog Tour

My Life in France: The Classic Memoir Of Food And French Living – Julia Child

Tree Glee: How and Why Trees Make Us Feel Better – Cheryl Rickman

What’s for Dessert: Simple Recipes for Dessert People – Claire Saffitz

 

Challenge Books

I Belong Here: A Journey Along the Backbone of Britain – Anita Sethi

Wild Nephin – Sean Lysaght

Swifts and Us: The Life of the Bird that Sleeps in the Sky – Sarah Gibson

A Still Life: A Memoir – Josie George

Black Lion: Alive in the Wilderness – Sicelo Mbatha

 

Library

A Trillion Trees: How We Can Reforest Our World – Fred Pearce

Venice: The Lion, The City And The Water – Cees Nooteboom

What Abigail Did That Summer – Ben Aaronovitch

 

Any that you have heard of or like the sound of? Let me know in the comments below

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

Here is the TBR list of books for September that I will be picking my books from. I did better than I thought last month in how many I read, but we will have to see how it goes!

 

Reading Through The Year

A Poem for Every Night of the Year – Allie Esiri

Word Perfect – Susie Dent

 

Still Reading

The Travel Writing Tribe – Tim Hannigan

 

Blog Tour

All Island No Sea – Chris Campbell

The Grove – Ben Dark

 

Review Books

Isles at the Edge of the Sea – Jonny Muir

The Good Life – Dorian Amos

Asian Waters – Humphrey Hawksley

Blue Mind – Wallace J. Nichols

Britain Alone – Philip Stephens

We Own This City – Justin Fenton

Spaceworlds – Ed. Mike Ashley

The Power of Geography – Tim Marshall

The Devil You Know – Gwen Adshead, Eileen Horne

Letters from Egypt – Lucie Duff Gordon

Crawling Horror – Ed. Daisy Butcher & Janette Leaf (Probably my Halloween read)

The Valleys of the Assassins – Freya Stark

The Cruel Way – Ella Maillart

Above the Law – Adrian Bleese

Cornish Horrors – Ed. Joan Passey (Probably another Halloween read)

Somebody Else – Charles Nicholl

Scenes from Prehistoric Life – Francis Pryor

The View from the Hill – Christopher Somerville

Black Lion – Sicelo Mbatha

The Babel Message – Keith Kahn-Harris

The Heath – Hunter Davies

Three Women of Herat – Veronica Doubleday

The Sloth Lemur’s Song – Alison Richard

Polling UnPacked – Mark Pack

Illuminated by Water – Malachy Tallack

Swan – Dan Keel

be/longing – Amanda Thomson

What Remains? – Rupert Callender

brother. do. you. love. me. – Manni Coe & Reuben Coe

Nomad Century – Gaia Vince

Taverna by the Sea – Jennifer Barclay

Dandelions – Thea Lenarduzzi

My Family and Other Enemies – Mary Novakovich

 

Library Books

A Song for a New Day – Sarah Pinsker

This Is How They Tell Me The World Ends – Nicole Perlroth

The Travel Photographer’s Way – Nori Jemil

Bunker: Building For The End Times – Bradley L. Garrett

The Art of Jeremy Gardiner – Wendy Baron

The Magic of Mushrooms – Sandra Lawrence

Rosewater – Tade Thompson

The Illustrated Woman – Helen Mort

 

Poetry

The Illustrated Woman – Helen Mort

All Island No Sea – Chris Campbell

 

Books To Clear

Our Game – John Le Carré

The Tailor of Panama – John Le Carré

Year of the Golden Ape – Colin Forbes

Dreaming in Code – Scott Rosenberg

 

Challenge Books

At the Pond –  Various

The Sloth Lemur’s Song – Alison Richard

Wild Nights Out – Chris Salisbury

The Magic of Mushrooms – Sandra Lawrence

I Belong Here – Anita Sethi

I had hoped to get more read in August because we had ten days off and were away in Jersey. Ended up doing lots of other things and not reading as much, but that is life. Did read 16 though, and bought a load! As usual.

Books Read

Outsiders – Ed. Alice Slater – 3.5 Stars

Nine Quarters Of Jerusalem: A New Biography Of The Old City – Matthew Teller – 3 Stars

The Restless Kings: Henry II, His Sons and the Wars for the Plantagenet Crown – Nick Barratt – 3.5 Stars

Ring of Stone Circles: Exploring Neolithic Cumbria – Stan L Abbott – 3.5 Stars

Word Drops: A Sprinkling of Linguistic Curiosities – Paul Anthony Jones – 4 Stars

Time On Rock – Anna Fleming – 3 Stars

Under Pressure: Living Life and Avoiding Death on a Nuclear Submarine – Richard Humphreys – 4 Stars

Where The Wildflowers Grow My Journey Through Botanical Britain – Leif Bersweden – 4 Stars

Living with Trees: A Common Ground Handbook – Robin Walter – 4.5 Stars

(un)interrupted tongues – Dal Kular – 3.5 Stars

Every Breath You Take – Mark Broomfield – 3.5 Stars

Planetfall – Emma Newman – 3.5 Stars

After Atlas – Emma Newman – 4 Stars

Before Mars – Emma Newman – 4.5 Stars

Atlas Alone – Emma Newman – 4.5 Stars

 

Book Of The Month

Field Notes – Maxim Peter Griffin – 5 stars

This is a magnificent blend of art and psychogeography and if you like either of those things then I would suggest you buy a copy.

 

Top Genres

Natural History – 22

Travel – 17

History – 12

Poetry – 11

Fiction – 8

Memoir – 8

Science – 8

Environmental – 6

Science Fiction – 4

Photography – 4

(I need to read some more travel books this month!!)

 

Top Publishers

Faber & Faber – 8

William Collins – 7

Unbound – 5

Gollancz – 4

Bloomsbury – 4

Picador – 4

Canongate – 4

Eland – 4

Little Toller – 4

Summersdale – 3

 

Review Copies Received

brother. do. you. love. me. – Manni Coe & Reuben Coe

The Horned God: Weird Tales of the Great God Pan – Ed. Michael Wheatley

Escape from Model Land: How Mathematical Models Can Lead Us Astray and What We Can Do About It – Erica Thompson

The Grove: A Nature Odyssey in 19 ½ Front Gardens – Ben Dark

The Accidental Detectorist: The Adventures of a Reluctant Metal Detectorist – Nigel Richardson

You’ve Been Played: How Corporations, Governments and Schools Use Games to Control Us All – Adrian Hon

 

Library Books Checked Out

Secret Britain: A journey through the Second World War’s hidden bases and battlegrounds – Sinclair McKay

Afropean: Notes From Black Europe – Johny Pitts

Apple Island Wife: Slow Living In Tasmania – Fiona Stocker

Small Island: A History Of Britain In 12 Maps – Philip Parker

Far From The Light – Tade Thompson

 

Books Bought

A Dorset Camera: 1855 – 1914 – David Burnett

Scotland: The Wild Places – Colin Prior (Signed)

A Lizard in My Luggage: Mayfair to Mallorca in One Easy Move – Anna Nicholas

Bottoms Up in Belgium – Alec le Sueur (Signed)

Free: Coming of Age at the End of History – Lea Ypi

The Museum of Whales You Will Never See: Dreamers and Collectors in Iceland – A. Kendra Greene

A Handful of Honey: Away to the Palm Groves of Morocco and Algeria – Annie Hawes

Letters to Camondo – Edmund de Waal

Cuckoo: Cheating by Nature – Nick Davies

Cuba – The Land of Miracles: A Journey Through Modern Cuba – Stephen Smith

Viva Mexico!: A Traveller’s Account of Life in Mexico – Charles Macomb Flandrau

Ask Sir James: The Life of Sir James Reid, Personal Physician to Queen Victoria – Michaela Reid

The Train in Spain: Ten Great Journeys Through The Interior – Christopher Howse

Love Her Wild – Atticus

Selected Poems – Lawrence Durrell (Signed)

Mirrors of the Unseen: Journeys in Iran – Jason Elliot

The Owl Service – Alan Garner

I’m a Joke and So Are You: Reflections on Humour and Humanity – Robin Ince

Paranormal Purbeck: A Study of the Unexplained – David Leadbetter

 

Any of those that you have come across before or read yourself? Let me know in the comments below

Here is the TBR list of books for September that I will be picking my books from. Not sure how many I will get read this coming month as my wife, Sarah, begins the first of her six cycles of chemo for breast cancer too. I do have one blog tour book that will be read, though.

 

Reading Through The Year

A Poem for Every Night of the Year – Allie Esiri

Word Perfect – Susie Dent

 

Finishing Off (Still!)

The Travel Writing Tribe – Tim Hannigan

Beautiful Country – Qian Julie Wang

 

Blog Tour

Accidental Detectorist – Nigel Richardson

 

Review Copies

Asian Waters – Humphrey Hawksley

Blue Mind – Wallace J. Nichols

The Devil You Know – Gwen Adshead, Eileen Horne

Above the Law – Adrian Bleese

Black Lion: Alive in the Wilderness Sicelo Mbatha

The Babel Message: A Love Letter to Language Keith Kahn-Harris

Isles at the Edge of the Sea – Jonny Muir

The Good Life – Dorian Amos

Britain Alone – Philip Stephens

We Own This City – Justin Fenton

Spaceworlds – Ed. Mike Ashley

The Power of Geography – Tim Marshall

The Devil You Know – Gwen Adshead, Eileen Horne

Letters from Egypt – Lucie Duff Gordon

Crawling Horror – Ed. Daisy Butcher & Janette Leaf

The Valleys of the Assassins – Freya Stark

The Cruel Way – Ella Maillart

Above the Law – Adrian Bleese

Cornish Horrors – Ed. Joan Passey

Somebody Else – Charles Nicholl

Scenes from Prehistoric Life – Francis Pryor

The Heath – Hunter Davies

Three Women of Herat – Veronica Doubleday

The Sloth Lemur’s Song – Alison Richard

Polling UnPacked – Mark Pack

The View from the Hil – Christopher Somerville

The Po – Tobia Jones

A River Runs Through Me – Andrew Douglas-Home

Illuminated by Water – Malachy Tallack

Rhythms of Nature – Ian Carter

Thunderstone – Nancy Campbell

be/longing – Amanda Thomson

Return to My Trees – Matthew Yeomans

Swan – Dan Keel

 

Library

Ravilious: Wood Engravings – James Russell

Between Light and Storm – Esther Woolfson

Bewilderment – Richard Powers

Tweet Of The Day – Brett Westwood & Stephen Moss

My 1001 Nights – Alice Morrison

A Song for a New Day – Sarah Pinsker

The This – Adam Roberts

Looking for Transwonderland – Noo Saro-Wiwa

 

Poetry

Dancing Satyr – Chris Waters

 

Books to Clear

Our Game – John Le Carré

The Tailor of Panama- John Le Carré

Year of the Golden Ape – Colin Forbes

Dreaming in Code – Scott Rosenberg

 

Own Books

Er, not sure there are any this month…

 

Challenge Books

The Wood That Made London – C.J. Schuler

English Pastoral – James Rebanks

A Still Life – Josie George

A Trillion Trees – Fred Pearce

 

Photobook

Ravilious: Wood Engravings – James Russell