Category: Book Musings (Page 10 of 32)

This is something that I have been meaning to do for absolutely ages. A tour of almost all my bookshelves that are around the house.

I have a fairly extensive collection and as I buy other books, I have ended up with the occasional duplicate. Sometimes this is accidental, but not always.

I apologise in advance for their untidiness and mayhem.

 

Bookshelf 1

This is where almost all of my Terry Pratchett books are, there are others upstairs.  He is joined by Neil Gaiman and then some travel and a few random genres. It is mostly tidy, but I need to read and clear some of here to make room for some extra Pratchett hardbacks. The Tsunduko on top are slightly out of hand…

 

Bookshelf 2

This started as a bookshelf to keep all the review copies that I have been sent and the plan was to have them in publication order so I could lay my hands on them quickly. I ended up stuffing books on there as I bought them and now it is a bit of a mess… At the moment there are all sorts of genres on here and it is double stacked so you can’t see the books behind.

Bookshelf 3

This is a newish bookshelf (from the fantastic people at shelfstore) and it is a mix of review books and others that I have found whilst book hunting. In front of it is a Tsunduko that is the same height as the desk with a right old mix of books too.

Bookshelf 4

This is one of four bookshelves that I had made by a guy close to where I worked in Addlestone. It is solid pine with fixed shelves and is really strong. Which is a good job as it is home to the substantial collection of cookery books that I (we) have. There are some American books that I bought from Brian and Cooking The Books years ago as well as books that we have inherited after family members have passed on.

Bookshelf 5

This is the latest bookshelf that was bought for me after Sarah complained about the number of books around the house. Promptly filled it and still have piles of books around the house…There is a mix of genres on here too, but the plan is to make it a travel / Dorset bookshelf as I sort and clear books out.

Bookshelf 6

Another shelfstore bookshelf that is tucked into the corner of the dining room. There is just travel books on here including most (but not all) of my Eland books.

Bookshelf 7

This is another of the commissioned bookshelf and this one lives in the conservatory. Again, a total mix of genres with one shelf of gardening books. A large number of these are to be read and passed on, but on the middle shelf on the second row are my Iain M Banks books and my Arthur Ransome books from childhood. This shelf has sun on it a lot of the day so some have faded.

Bookshelf 8

These are three billy bookshelves that contain almost all of my natural history and landscape books. There is a sofa now in front of one of them, so I can’t photograph that one. There are a few shelves that aren’t nature books, including one for poetry that is very nearly full, and three of just random stuff that I need to read and clear… There are even ornaments on this one!

Bookshelf 9

This is one of two bookshelves in our bedroom, the other has a lot of Sarah’s books and files on it so I haven’t photographed that. There are some of the bigger nature books on here, Flora Britannica and the like, as well as a random selection of genres, such as travel, fiction, science fiction and so on.

 

So there you have it. There are a couple of shelves of books that I haven’t photographed plus some odd piles here and there, but those are all my books.

There are several reasons for doing this:

1. To aid me in cataloguing all the books that I have (duplicates will be passed on so keep an eye on my Instagram page).

2. To give me the nudge that I need to sort and clear some of the books that I am never going to read

3. To give me a list of books that I want to read but that I don’t have any interest in keeping in my library.

4. And finally to be able to show you in around six to nine months, how much better they all look!

Even though I had a chunk of August off, it seemed to whizz by. Alas, I didn’t get as much read as I hoped either, but I did get my #20BooksOfSummer Reading challenge finished for the first time. It was an interesting reading month too, with a whole variety of fiction and some very interesting non-fiction too. So here is what I read and acquired in August:

 

Books Read

An Artist’s View of Jurassic Dorset – Richard Watkin – 3.5 Stars

The Invention Of Essex: The Making Of An English County – Tim Burrows – 4 Stars

Mayhem – Sarah Pinborough – 3.5 Stars

Hot Milk – Deborah Levy – 2.5 Stars

Year of the Golden Ape – Colin Forbes – 2.5 Stars

The Acid Test – Élmer Mendoza Tr. Mark Fried – 2.5 Stars

From a Low and Quiet Sea – Donal Ryan – 3 Stars

Nightingale – Marina Kemp – 3 Stars

Crow Court – Andy Charman – 3.5 Stars

A Perfect Explanation – Eleanor Anstruther – 3.5 Stars

A Flat Place: A Memoir – Noreen Masud – 4 Stars

One Midsummer’s Day: Swifts And The Story Of Life On Earth – Mark Cocker – 4 Stars

Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats – T.S. Eliot – 3 Stars

All In: How We Build A Country That Works – Lisa Nandy – 3.5 Stars

Walking The Wharfe: An Ode to a Yorkshire River – Johno Ellison – 4 Stars

 

Book(s) Of The Month

Wild About Dorset: The Nature Diary of a West Country Parish – Brian Jackman – 4.5 Stars

 

Top Genres

Fiction – 26

Natural History – 17

Travel – 16

Poetry – 11

Memoir – 9

History – 6

Science Fiction – 6

Fantasy – 6

Art – 4

Photography – 3

 

Top Publishers

Faber & Faber – 9

Penguin – 6

Bloomsbury – 5

Little Toller – 4

Simon & Schuster – 4

Jonathan Cape – 4

William Collins – 3

Granta – 3

Allen Lane – 3

Michael Joseph – 3

 

Review Copies Received

Freethinking: Protecting Freedom of Thought Amidst the New Battle for the Mind – Simon McCarthy-Jones

Interstellar Tours: A Guide to the Universe from Your Starship Window – Brian Clegg

Reboot: Reclaiming Your Life in a Tech-Obsessed World – Elaine Kasket

 

Library Books Checked Out

Some Of Us Just Fall: On Nature And Not Getting Better – Polly Atkin

Ravenous: How To Get Ourselves And Our Planet Into Shape – Henry Dimbleby

Where The Seals Sing – Susan Richardson

Footprints in the Woods: The Secret Life of Forest and Riverbank – John Lister-Kaye

Follow The Money: How Much Does Britain Cost? – Paul Johnson

Rural: The Lives Of The Working Class Countryside – Rebecca Smith

High Caucasus: A Mountain Quest In Russia’s Haunted Hinterland – Tom Parfitt

 

Books Bought

Messy: How to Be Creative and Resilient in a Tidy-Minded World – Tim Harford

Lost Acre – Andrew Caldecott

Asusterlitz – W.G. Seabald Tr. Anthea Bell

How To Be A Domestic Goddess – Nigella Lawson (Signed)

The Unadulterated Cat – Terry Pratchett, Ill. Gray Jolliffe

Super Crunchers: How Anything Can Be Predicted – Ian Ayres

Cold Fish Soup – Adam Farrer

The Horizontal Oak: A Life in Nature – Polly Pullar

Running a Hotel on the Roof of the World: Five Years in Tibet – Alec Le Sueur (Signed)

To the Lake: A Balkan Journey of War and Peace – Kapka Kassabova

Glowing Still: A Woman’s Life On The Road – Sara Wheeler

East to the Amazon: In Search of Great Paititi and the Trade Routes of the Ancients – John Blashford-Snell & Richard Snailham

42: The Wildly Improbable Ideas of Douglas Adams – Douglas Adams Ed. Kevin Jon Davies (Signed)

Three Stripes South: The 1000km thru-hike that inspired a women’s adventure movement – Bex Band

Caesar’s Vast Ghost – Lawrence Durrell

 

Are there any there that you’ve read? Or like the look of? Let me know in the comments below.

We’re into the final third of the year and the mornings already have that autumn twang. Not that we had that much of a summer after the promise of June…

Any way you’re here for the books, and I am here to tell you what I am aiming to read in this equinox month.

 

It is a bit shorter than normal as previous TBRs have been recently. This is partly a hope that I can actually read all on the list and secondly that I have less than 60 book to go on my Good Reads challenge.

I am very late in posting this as I have been away to Jersey and came back last weekend. And then have been busy doing lots of other things this week.

Anyway, July was a good reading month, with two books making my book of the month

Books Read

Circles And Tangents: Art In The Shadow Of Cranborne Chase – Vivienne Mary Light – 4 Stars

The Bedlam Stacks – Natasha Pulley – 2 Stars

The Watchmaker of Filigree Street – Natasha Pulley – 3 Stars

Don’t Look Now – Daphne du Maurier – 2 Stars

One August Night – Victoria Hislop – 2.5 Stars

The Last Dance And Other Stories – Victoria Hislop – 2.5 Stars

Blood Storm – Colin Forbes – 3 Stars

The Mermaid of Black Conch – Monique Roffey – 3.5 Stars

Himself – Jess Kidd – 3.5 Stars

Elowen: A Story of Grief and Love – William Henry Searle – 4 Stars

A Trillion Trees: How We Can Reforest Our World – Fred Pearce – 3.5 Stars

Out For Air – Olly Todd – 3 Stars

We, Robots: Staying Human In The Age Of Big Data – Curtis White – 2.5 Stars

Venice: The Lion, The City And The Water – Cees Nooteboom – 4 Stars

 

Book(s) Of The Month

La Vie: A Year In Rural France – John Lewis-Stempel – 4.5 Stars

The Swimmer: The Wild Life Of Roger Deakin – Patrick Barkham – 5 Stars

 

Top Genres

Fiction – 18

Natural History – 15

Travel – 15

Poetry – 10

Memoir – 8

History – 6

Science Fiction – 6

Fantasy – 5

Art – 3

Photography – 3

 

Top Publishers

Faber & Faber – 8

Bloomsbury – 5

Penguin – 4

Little Toller – 4

Simon & Schuster – 4

Monoray – 3

Chatto & Windus – 3

William Collins – 3

Doubleday – 3

Michael Joseph – 3

 

Review Copies Received

Walking The Wharfe: An Ode to a Yorkshire River – Johno Ellison

A Fenland Garden: Creating a haven for people, plants and wildlife in the Lincolnshire Fens – Francis Pryor

The Uncanny Gastronomic: Strange Tales of the Edible Weird – Ed. Zara-Louise Stubbs

Holy Ghosts: Classic Tales of the Ecclesiastical Uncanny – Ed. Fiona Snailham

 

Library Books Checked Out

A Flat Place: A Memoir – Noreen Masud

Wasteland: The Dirty Truth About What We Throw Away, Where It Goes, And Why It Matters – Oliver Franklin-Wallis

One Midsummer’s Day: Swifts And The Story Of Life On Earth – Mark Cocker

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

Borderland: A Journey Through The History Of Ukraine – Anna Reid

Some Of Us Just Fall: On Nature And Not Getting Better – Polly Atkin

Ravenous: How To Get Ourselves And Our Planet Into Shape – Henry Dimbleby

The Only Gaijin In The Village – Iain Maloney

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

Where The Seals Sing – Susan Richardson

Footprints in the Woods: The Secret Life of Forest and Riverbank – John Lister-Kaye

 

Books Bought

Wayfinding: The Art And Science Of How We Find And Lose Our Way – Michael Bond

One More Croissant for the Road – Felicity Cloake (Signed)

Tojours Provence – Peter Mayle (Signed)

Treacle Walker – Alan Garner

Gone Bones – Margaret Atwood (Signed)

Bridges – David McFetrich & Jo Parsons

Harry Mount’s Odyssey: Ancient Greece in the Footsteps of Odysseus – Harry Mount

The Heavens – Sandra Newman

Follow This Thread: A Maze Book to Get Lost In – Henry Eliot

From Yukon to Yucatan: A Journey of Discovery in the Footsteps of America’s First Travellers – Irwin Allan Sealy

Farming – J.H. Bettey

The Gallows Pole – Benjamin Myers

Bitter Lemons – Lawrence Durrell

Motoring With Mohammed: Journeys to Yemen and the Red Sea – Eric Hansen

A Shepherd’s Life – W. H. Hudson

Against Straight Lines: Alone in Labrador – Robert Perkins

The Old Stones: A Field Guide to the Megalithic Sites of Britain and Ireland – Andy Burnham

A Far Country: Travels in Ethiopia – Philip Marsden-Smedley

Raven Seek Thy Brother – Gavin Maxwell

The Lonely Planet Travel Anthology – Lonely Planet

An Introduction to William Barnes – Douglas Ashdown

Setting the Poem to Words – David Hart

The Skin Spinners: Poems – Joan Aiken

 

Are there any from that list that you may have read or having now seen, would like to read at some point? Let me know what you read above in July in the comments below.

This month is all about the challenge and completing (for the first time ever) the #20BooksOfSummer Challenge. I have eight to go! So here is my list. It would be good to read more that 16 too this month…

 

How are we halfway through 2023 already? How? I don’t feel that I have read enough, but somehow I finished my 99th book on June 30th. I am ahead of schedule in terms of the good reads challenge, but less so on other challenges! Ho hum. I read 17 books in June. Always less than I hope for, but seeing what other people post on social media, I am doing much better than I think I am. So here they are:

 

Books Read

David Weston: An Artist at Home and Abroad – David Weston – 3.5 stars

Small Island: A History Of Britain In 12 Maps – Philip Parker – 3 stars

Acts of Desperation – Megan Nolan – 2.5 stars

Exciting Times – Naoise Dolan – 2.5 stars

Here Comes the Miracle – Anna Beecher – 3 stars

Open Water – Nelson Caleb Azumah – 3 stars

Shy – Max Porter – 3 stars

Grounding: Finding Home In A Garden – Lulah Ellender – 4.5 stars

Hard Lying; An Intelligence Officer on the Levantine Shore, 1914-1919 – Lewen Weldon – 4 stars

The Ten Equations That Rule The World And How You Can Use Them Too – David Sumpter – 3 stars

In Her Nature: How Women Break Boundaries In The Great Outdoors : A Past, Present And Personal Story – Rachel Hewitt – 4 stars

How to Read a Tree: Clues and Patterns from Bark to Leaves – Tristan Gooley – 4 stars

The Language of Trees: How Trees Make Our World, Change Our Minds and Rewild Our Lives – Katie Holten – 4.5 starsMy Darling from the Lions – Rachel Long – 3 stars

The Testaments – Margaret Atwood – 4 stars

Nomads: The Wanderers Who Shaped Our World – Anthony Sattin – 4 stars

 

Book(s) Of The Month

Undercurrent: A Cornish Memoir Of Poverty, Nature And Resilience – Natasha Carthew – 5 stars

 

Top Genres

Natural History – 14

Travel – 13

Fiction – 13

Poetry – 9

Memoir – 7

History – 6

Science Fiction – 6

Photography – 3

Fantasy – 3

Art – 2

 

Top Publishers

Faber & Faber – 8

Allen Lane – 3

Bloomsbury – 3

Jonathan Cape – 3

William Collins – 3

Little Toller – 3

Monoray – 3

Michael Joseph – 3

Chatto & Windus – 3

Simon & Schuster – 3

 

Review Copies Received

Wind: Nature And Culture – Louise M Pryke

Moderate Becoming Good Later: Sea Kayaking the Shipping Forecast – Katie Carr & Toby Carr

Call of the Kingfisher: Bright Sights and Birdsong in a Year by the River – Nick Penny

An Almost Impossible Thing: The Radical Lives of Britain’s Pioneering Women Gardeners – Fiona Davidson

 

Library Books Checked Out

Shy – Max Porter

The Swimmer: The Wild Life Of Roger Deakin – Patrick Barkham

La Vie: A Year In Rural France – John Lewis-Stempel

The Turning Tide: A Biography Of The Irish Sea – Jon Gower

Blue Dahlia, Black Gold: A Journey Into Angola – Daniel Metcalfe

 

Books Bought

This Cold Heaven: Seven Seasons in Greenland – Gretel Ehrlich

Dorset Coast – James Crowden

A Local Habitation – Norman Nicholson

Forbidden Journey: From Peking To Kasmir – Ella Maillart, Tr. Thomas McGreevy

The Santiago Pilgrimage: Walking the Immortal Way – Jean-Christophe Rufin, Tr. Malcolm Imrie & Martina Dervis

Gargoyles and Grotesques – Alex Woodcock

Pondlife: A Swimmer’s Journal – Al Álvarez

Love and War in the Apennines – Eric Newby

A Fez of the Heart – Jeremy Seal

Cuba Diaries: An American Housewife in Havana – Isadora Tattlin

Impossible Journeys – Mathew Lyons

Island On The Edge: A Life on Soay – Anne Cholawo

An African in Greenland – Tété-Michel Kpomassie Tr. James Kirkup

With Chatwin: Portrait of a Writer – Susannah Clapp

The Quite Nice and Fairly Accurate Good Omens Script Book – Neil Gaiman

Inside Dorset – Monica Hutchings

Richard Bell’s Britain – Richard Bell

Postcards From the Beach – Phil Tufnell

The Wood Age: How One Material Shaped the Whole of Human History – Rolans Ennos

The Penguin Modern Painters: Henry Moore – Geoffry Grigson

The Penguin Modern Painters: Paul Nash – Herbert Read

The Penguin Modern Painters: Edward Burra – John Rothenstein

Any that you read from that list above? Any that you now want to read? Let me know in the comments below

 

How are we halfway through the year already? This month is all about reading books for the #20BooksOfSummer Challenge. I have almost finished my fifth and have eight lined up for this month along with a few from the nature reading challenge that I am doing. So without further ado, here is the list of books that I will be picking around 16 to 18 books from:

 

Still Reading

Exciting Times – Naoise Dolan

Review Books

Isles at the Edge of the Sea – Jonny Muir

The Wonderful Mr Willughby: The First True Ornithologist – Tim Birkhead

The House of Islam – Ed Husain

On the Scent: Unlocking The Mysteries Of Smell – And How Losing It Can Change Our World – Paola Totaro and Robert Wainwright

Swan: Portrait of a Majestic Bird, from Mythical Meanings to the Modern Day – Dan Keel

Handbook of Mammals of Madagascar Hardcover – Nick Garbutt

RSPB Handbook of Garden Wildlife: 3rd edition – Peter Holden & Geoffrey Abbott

Reconnection: Fixing our Broken Relationship with Nature – Miles Richardson

One Fine Day: A Journey Through English Time – Ian Marchant

The Possibility of Life: Searching for Kinship in the Cosmos – Jaime Green

Once Upon a Raven’s Nest: A Life On Exmoor In An Epoch Of Change – Catrina Davies

The View from the Hill: Four Seasons in a Walker’s Britain – Christopher Somerville

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

Minor Monuments – Ian Maleney

Cry of the Wild: Tales Of Sea, Woods and Hill – Charles Foster

The Granite Kingdom: A Cornish Journey – Tim Hannigan

Elowen – William Henry Searle

The Bathysphere Book: Effects of the Luminous Ocean Depths – Brad Fox

Call of the Kingfisher: Bright Sights and Birdsong in a Year by the River – Nick Penny

 

Other Books

Waypoints: A Journey On Foot – Robert Martineau

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

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

Circles And Tangents: Art In The Shadow Of Cranborne Chase – Vivienne Mary Light

Borderland: A Journey Through The History Of Ukraine – Anna Reid

The Swimmer: The Wild Life Of Roger Deakin – Patrick Barkham

 

Challenge Books

Botanical Folk Tales of Britain and Ireland – Lisa Schneidau

Nightingale – Marina Kemp

A Perfect Explanation – Eleanor Anstruther

The Watchmaker of Filigree Street – Natasha Pulley

The Bedlam Stacks – Natasha Pulley

Himself – Jess Kidd

Don’t Look Now – Daphne du Maurier

The Mermaid of Black Conch – Monique Roffey

Blood Storm – Colin Forbes

One August Night – Victoria Hislop

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

Bloom: From Food to Fuel, the Epic Story of How Algae Can Save Our World – Ruth Kassinger

In Search Of One Last Song: Britain’s Disappearing Birds And The People Trying To Save Them – Patrick Galbraith

 

Photo / Art

Circles And Tangents: Art In The Shadow Of Cranborne Chase – Vivienne Mary Light

 

Poetry

Out For Air – Olly Todd

 

Any that takes your fancy in this list? Let me know in the comments below

I have been through 23 catalogues so far and it is that time of the year when I release the list of books coming out in the Autumn that I really like the sound of. It is not a full list, there are many more books being published than I have included here. It is not complete, so this may be updated if I come across any more after this has been published.

 

Bloomsbury

The Other Pandemic – James Ball

Code of Conduct – Chris Bryant

The Globemakers – Peter Bellerby

Slow Seasons – Rosie Steer

Unfinished Woman – Robyn Davidson

The Gardener of Lashkar – Larisa Brown

God Is An Octopus – Ben Goldsmith

 

Bodley Head

Techno-Feudalism What Killed Capitalism – Yanis Varoufakis

 

Bradt

Call of the Kingfisher: Bright Sights and birdsong in a Year by the River – Nick Penny

 

Canongate

Footprints in the Woods: The Secret Life of Forest and Riverbank – John Lister-Kaye

Uprooting: From the Caribbean to the Countryside – Finding Home in an English Country Garden – Marchella Farrell

The Edge of the Plain: How Borders Make and Break Our World – James Crawford

Namesake: Reflections on A Warrior Woman – N.S. Nuseibeh

Let the Light Pour In – Lemn Sissay

A History of Women in 101 Objects: A walk through female history – Annabelle Hirsch Tr. Eleanor Updegraff

The Shakespeare and Company Book of Interviews – Ed Adam Biles

Black Ghosts: A Journey Into the Lives of Africans in China – Noo Saro-Wiwa

 

Cheerio

Shopping Lists: A Consuming Fascination – Ingrid Swenson

 

Faber & Faber

Cahokia Jazz – Francis Spufford

The Farmer’s Wife – Helen Rebanks

Property – Rowan Moore

The Wisdom of Sheep (And Other Animals): Observations From a Cotswold Farm – Rosamund Young

 

Granta

Nature’s Calendar: The British Year in 72 Seasons – Kiera Chapman, Lulah Ellender, Rowan Jaines and Rebecca Warren

A Book of Noises” Notes on the Auraculous – Caspar Henderson

 

Headline

High Caucasus: A Mountain Quest in Russia’s Haunted Hinterland – Tom Parfitt

Lost Music of the Holocaust – Francesco Lotoro

 

Hodder & Stoughton

Many Things Under a Rock: The Mysteries of Octopuses – David Scheel

Dust: The Story of the Modern World in a Trillion Particles – Jay Owens

Mountains Of Fire: The Secret Lives of Volcanoes – Clive Oppenheimer

 

Hurst Publishers

Stuff” Humanity’s Epic Journey from Naked Ape to Nonstop Shopper – Chip Colwell

All That Glistens: Chinese Party-State Influence in Britain – Martin Thorley

Edge of England: Landfall in Lincolnshire – Darek Turner

 

John Murray

Interesting Stories about Curious Words – Susie Dent

Climate Capitalism: Winning the Race to Zero Emissions – Akshat Rathi

The Race To The Future: Peking to Paris and Beyond – Kassia St Clair

The Women Who Made Modern Economics – Rachel Reeves

Starborn – Roberto Trotta

 

Jonathan Cape

Orbital – Samantha Harvey

 

Little Toller

Elowen – William Henry Serle

 

Oneworld

What an Owl Knows: The New Science of the World’s Most Enigmatic Birds – Jennifer Ackerman

What We Owe the Future: A Million-Year View – William MacAskill

The Battle for Thought: Freethinking in the Twenty-First Century – Simon McCarthy-Jones

 

Pan Macmillan

Breaking Twitter: Elon Musk and the Most Controversial Corporate Takeover in History – Ben Mezrich

 

Profile Books

Invisible Lines: Boundaries and Belts That Define the World – Maxim Samson

The Handover: How We Gave Control of Our Lives to Corporations, States and AIs – David Runciman

The Book at War: Libraries and Readers in an Age of Conflict – Andrew Pettegree

The Secret Life of John le Carré – Adam Sisman

The Deorhord: An Old English Bestiary – Hana Videen

The Notebook: A History of Thinking on Paper – Roland Allen

 

Pushkin

The Bathysphere Book: Effects of the Luminous Ocean Depths Brad Fox

National Dish: Around The World In Search Of Food, History And The Meaning Of Home – Anya von Bremzen

A Line In The World: A Year On The North Sea Coast – Dorthe Nors

 

Reaktion Books

Way Makers: An Anthology of Women’s Writing about Walking – Kerri Andrews

Enchanted Forests: The Poetic Construction of a World before Time – Boria Sax

Alone – Daniel Schreiber Tr. Ben Fergusson

The Food Adventurers: How Around-the-World Travel Changed the Way We Eat – Daniel E. Bender

The Point of the Needle: Why Sewing Matters – Barbara Burman

Stones: A Material and Cultural History – Cally Oldershaw

Living with the Dead: How We Care for the Deceased Vibeke – Maria Viestad and Andreas Viestad

Dreamwork: Why All Work Is Imaginary – Steven Connor

 

Square Peg

The Owl: A Biography – Stephen Moss

Weird Medieval Guys: How to Live, Laugh, Love (and Die) in Dark Times – Olivia Swarthout

 

Summersdale

Moderate Becoming Good Later: Sea Kayaking the Shipping Forecast – Katie Carr & Toby Carr

 

Two Roads

Rambling Man: Travels of a Lifetime – Billy Connolly

 

William Collins

Kings of Their Own Ocean: Tuna, Obsession, and the Future of Our Seas – Karen Pinchin

The Bone Chests – Cat Jarman

Windswept: Life, Nature and Deep Time in the Scottish Highlands – Annie Worsley

The Infinite City: Utopian Dreams on the Streets of London – Niall Kishtainy

 

So are there any there that you have heard of before? Are you now making your TBR much longer? Let me know in the comments below

Even though we had three bank holidays in May, I didn’t get as much read as I hoped. Story of my life really. However, I did manage to read 16 in the end and had three books of the month and here they are:

Books Read

Brittany – Stone Stories – Wendy Mewes – 4 Stars

The Fell – Sarah Moss – 3 Stars

Threads – William Henry Searle – 3.5 Stars

Enchantment – Katherine May – 3.5 Stars

Elegy For A River – Tom Moorhouse – 3.5 Stars

Shaping the Wild – David Elias – 4 Stars

Wild City – Florence Wilkinson – 4 Stars

The Golden Valley – Phil Cope – 3.5 Stars

Two Cures for Love – Wendy Cope – 3.5 Stars

The Passengers – Will Ashon – 3.5 Stars

Sarn Helen – Tom Bullough – 4 Stars

Coffee First, Then The World – Jenny Graham – 4 Stars

Glowing Still – Sara Wheeler – 4 Stars

 

Book(s) Of The Month

Taking Flight – Lev Parikian – 4.5 Stars

Real Dorset – Jon Woolcott t 4.5 Stars

Between The Chalk And The Sea – Gail Simmons – 4.5 Stars

 

Top Genres

Travel – 12

Natural History – 12

Fiction – 9

Poetry – 8

History – 5

Science Fiction – 5

Memoir – 5

Photography – 3

Fantasy – 3

Social History – 2

 

Top Publishers

Faber & Faber – 7

Simon & Schuster – 3

Bloomsbury – 3

Little Toller – 3

William Collins – 3

Monoray – 3

Orbit – 2

Michael Joseph – 2

Fum D’Estamps Press – 2

Jonathan Cape – 2

 

Review Copies Received

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

Brazilian Adventure – Peter Fleming

Hard Lying; An Intelligence Officer on the Levantine Shore, 1914-1919 – Lewen Weldon

Travellers Through Time: A Gypsy History – Jeremy Harte

The Language of Trees: How Trees Make Our World, Change Our Minds and Rewild Our Lives – Katie Holten

The Bathysphere Book: Effects of the Luminous Ocean Depths – Brad Fox

 

Library Books Checked Out

Enchantment : Reawakening Wonder In An Exhausted Age – Katherine May

In Her Nature: How Women Break Boundaries In The Great Outdoors : A Past, Present And Personal Story – Rachel Hewitt

How to Read a Tree: Clues and Patterns from Bark to Leaves – Tristan Gooley

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

Nomads : the wanderers who shaped our world – Anthony Sattin

 

Books Bought 

Selected Poems 1923 – 1958 – E.E. Cummings

Selected Poems – W.H. Auden

New Selected Poems 1966-1987 – Seamus Heaney

The Yellow-Lighted Bookshop: A Memoir, a History – Lewis Buzbee

How to be a Knowledge Ninja: Study Smarter. Focus Better. Achieve More. – Graham Allcott

Dorset (The King’s England) – Arthur Mee

A Chip Shop in Poznań: My Unlikely Year in Poland – Ben Aitken

Boat in Our Baggage: Around the World With a Kayak – Maria Coffey

Unknown Dorset – Donald Maxwell

Jade City – Fonda Lee

Last Chance to See – Douglas Adams & Mark Carwardine

Nala’s World: One Man, His Rescue Cat, and a Bike Ride around the Globe – Dean Nicholson & Garry Jenkins

A Wild Life: My Adventures Around the World Filming Wildlife – Martin Hughes-Games

The English Village – Richard Muir

 

Any from there that you have read or now want to read? Let me know in the comments below.

Hello again. Here is my June TBR. I have quite a few challenge books lined up this month as I have once again signed up to Cathy at 746Books 20 Books Of Summer Challenge. I have a few books on walks to read and a fair number of library books. So without further ado, here is the list of books that I will be picking around 16 to 18 books from:

 

Still Reading

Between The Chalk And The Sea: A Journey On Foot Into The Past – Gail Simmons

 

Review Books

Isles at the Edge of the Sea – Jonny Muir

The Wonderful Mr Willughby: The First True Ornithologist – Tim Birkhead

The House of Islam – Ed Husain

On the Scent: Unlocking The Mysteries Of Smell – And How Losing It Can Change Our World – Paola Totaro and Robert Wainwright

Swan: Portrait of a Majestic Bird, from Mythical Meanings to the Modern Day – Dan Keel

Handbook of Mammals of Madagascar Hardcover – Nick Garbutt

RSPB Handbook of Garden Wildlife: 3rd edition – Peter Holden & Geoffrey Abbott

Reconnection: Fixing our Broken Relationship with Nature – Miles Richardson

One Fine Day: A Journey Through English Time – Ian Marchant

The Possibility of Life: Searching for Kinship in the Cosmos – Jaime Green

Once Upon a Raven’s Nest: A Life On Exmoor In An Epoch Of Change Catrina DaviesReview Books The View from the Hill: Four Seasons in a Walker’s Britain – Christopher Somerville

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

Minor Monuments – Ian Maleney

Cry of the Wild: Tales Of Sea, Woods and Hill – Charles Foster

Hard Lying; An Intelligence Officer on the Levantine Shore, 1914-1919 – Lewen Weldon

The Language of Trees: How Trees Make Our World, Change Our Minds and Rewild Our Lives – Katie Holten

 

Other Books

The Last Overland: Singapore to London: The Return Journey Of The Iconic Land Rover Expedition – Alex Bescoby

A Walk in the Park: The Life and Times of a People’s Institution – Travis Elborough

Wanderers: A History of Women Walking – Kerri Andrews

The Ten Equations That Rule The World And How You Can Use Them Too – David Sumpter

Cornerstones: Wild Forces That Can Change Our World – Benedict Macdonald

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

Grounding: Finding Home In A Garden – Lulah Ellender

Apple Island Wife: Slow Living In Tasmania – Fiona Stocker

In Search Of One Last Song: Britain’s Disappearing Birds And The People Trying To Save Them – Patrick Galbraith

Waypoints: A Journey On Foot – Robert Martineau

 

Challenge Books

Botanical Folk Tales of Britain and Ireland – Lisa Schneidau

Bloom: From Food to Fuel, the Epic Story of How Algae Can Save Our World – Ruth Kassinger

Exciting Times – Naoise Dolan

Nightingale – Marina Kemp

Acts of Desperation – Megan Nolan

Open Water – Nelson Caleb Azumah

Here Comes the Miracle – Anna Beecher

The Testaments – Margaret Atwood

 

Poetry

My Darling from the Lions Rachel Long

 

Photobooks

David Weston: An Artist at Home and Abroad – David Weston