Category: Book Musings (Page 4 of 31)

I have scoured all the catalogues I could find online and here is my list of new books coming out in the latter part of the year that caught my attention.

 

Birlinn

The Edge of Silence: In Search of the Disappearing Sounds of Nature – Neil Ansell

 

Bloomsbury

Neurodivergent, By Nature: Why Biodiversity Needs Neurodiversity – Joe Harkness

Floating Home: Lessons from a life less ordinary – Adam Lind

Moonlight Express: Around the World By Night Train – Monisha Rajesh

The Library of Lost Maps – James Cheshire

Every Day I Read: 53 Ways to Get Closer to Books – Hwang Bo-reum & Shanna Tan (Tr)

Jesus Christ Kinski – Benjamin Myers

Ghosted: A Social History of Ghost Hunting, and Why We Keep Looking – Alice Vernon

The Way of the Waves: A cycling odyssey to rediscover the soul of European surfing – Martin Dorey

Endemic: Exploring the wildlife unique to Britain – James Harding-Morris

 

Canongate

The Edge of Solitude – Katie Hale

Little Ruins: Rebuilding a Life – Manni Coe

The Game Changers: How Playing Games Changed the World and Can Change You Too – Tim Clare

Could, Should, Might, Don’t: How We Think About the Future – Nick Foster

The Many Lives of James Lovelock: Science, Secrets and Gaia Theory – Jonathan Watts

The Bridge Between Worlds: A Brief History of Connection – Gavin Francis

Green Crime: Inside the minds of the people destroying the planet, and how to stop them – Julia Shaw

That Beautiful Atlantic Waltz – Malachy Tallack

Physics for Cats – Tom Gauld

 

Chatto & Windus

Clearing the Air: A Hopeful Guide to Solving Climate Change — in 50 Questions and Answers – Hannah Ritchie

True Nature: The Lives of Peter Matthiessen – Lance Richardson

 

Chelsea Green

Ghosts Of The Farm – Nicola Chester

 

Duckworth

The Untold Railway Stories – Monisha Rajesh (Ed)

 

Elliott & Thompson

Three Rivers: The extraordinary waterways that made Europe – Robert Winder

The Writer’s Room: The Hidden Worlds that Shape the Books We Love – Katie da Cunha Lewin

The Cat’s Tales: Feline fairytales and folklore – Charlie Creed

 

Faber & Faber

The Dark Frontier – Jeffrey Marlow

A Year with Gilbert White – Jenny Uglow

New Cemetery – Simon Armitage

 

Fitzcarraldo Editions

Greyhound – Joanna Pocock

 

Gollancz

Halcyon Days – Alastair Reynolds

No Man’s Land – Richard Morgan

 

Granta

How the World Eats: A Global Food Philosophy – Julian Baggini

Pulse – Cyan Jones

Every Last Fish: What Fish Do for Us and What We Do to Them – Rose George

 

Headline

The Lost Elms – Mandy Haggith

Upon a White Horse – Peter Ross

The Social Lives of Birds – Joan E. Strassmann

An Inconvenience of Penguins – Jamie Lafferty

 

Hurst

So You Want to Own Greenland? Lessons from the Vikings to Trump – Elizabeth Buchanan

Travels Through the Spanish Civil War – Nick Lloyd

Small Earthquakes: A Journey Through Lost British History in South America – Shafik Meghji

Melanesia: Travels in Black Oceania – Hamish Mcdonald

Orwell’s Ghosts: Wisdom and Warnings for the 21st Century – Laura Beers

 

Jonathan Cape

Night Vision – Jean Sprackland

 

Oneworld

White Light: The Essential Element that Changed the World – Jack Lohmann

The Invention of Infinite Growth: How Economists Forgot About the Natural World – Christopher Jones

Off the Rails: The Inside Story of HS2 – Sally Gimson

Homesick: How the Housing Market Broke London – and How to Fix It – Miranda Kaufmann &Peter Apps

Humanish: How Anthropomorphism Makes Us Smart, Weird and Delusional – Justin Gregg

 

Profile

Abundance: How We Build a Better Future – Ezra Klein & Derek Thompson

To the Sea by Train The Golden Age of Railway Travel – Andrew Martin

Think Like a Mathematician How Simple Tools Explain Complex Problems – Junaid Mubeen

Earth Shapers: How Humans Mastered Geography and Remade the World – Maxim Samson

 

Quercus

Think Like A Stoic: The Ancient Path to a Life Well Lived – Ken Mogi

The Longest Walk Home: The epic 2,000-mile escape of a WWII POW, in his own words – Ray Bailey with David Wilkins

 

Reaktion Books

The Sound Atlas: A Guide to Strange Sounds across Landscapes and Imagination – Michaela Vieser And Isaac Yuen

Trees Ancient and Modern: Woodland Cultures and Conservation – Charles Watkins

 

Seven Dials

Volcanoes: 10 Things You Should Know – Dr Rebecca Williams

 

Souvenir Press

Whisky and Scotland: A Spiritual Journey from Grain to Glass – Neil M. Gunn

 

The Bodley Head

The Genius of Trees: How trees mastered the elements and shaped the world – Harriet Rix

Dangerous Miracle: A natural history of antibiotics – and how we burned through them – Liam Shaw

Craftland: A Journey Through Britain’s Lost Arts and Vanishing Trades – James Fox

If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies: The Threat to Humanity of Superintelligent AI – Eliezer Yudkowsky & Nate Soares

The Age of Extraction: How Tech Platforms Conquered the Economy and Threaten Our Future Prosperity – Tim Wu

 

The Bridge Street Press

The Whispers of Rock – Anjana Khatwa

 

W&N

Seven Rivers: A Journey Through the Currents of Human History – Vanessa Taylor

Everybody Loves Our Dollars: How Money Laundering Won – Oliver Bullough

 

Wellbeck

Kew: The Psychedelic Garden – Sandra Lawrence

There are some really good books coming out and if I had to say which ones I am most excited about it would have to be Neil Ansell’s and Monisha Rajesh’s.

Is there any here that you like the look of? Or are there any that I have missed that you think I should know about? Let me know in the comments below.

As much as I like the two bank holidays in May, I do wish they’d move one to another month. July, for example. Anyway, it does give more time for reading, well it would of if we hadn’t been away both weekends, flat viewing for my daughter who is starting a Phd in October and then away in the Cotswolds for the MiL’s 80th birthday. That said, I did manage to read 14 books:

Books Read

The Atlas of Unusual Borders: Discover Intriguing Boundaries, Territories and Geographical Curiosities– Zoran Nikolić

Banksy: Wall & Piece – Banksy – 3.5 Stars

Behavioural Economics Saved My Dog: Life Advice For The Imperfect Human – Dan Ariely – 3 Stars

Tideways and Byways in Essex and Suffolk – Archie White – 3.5 Stars

Positive Linking: How Networks Can Revolutionise Your World – Paul Ormerod – 3 Stars

The Corn Bride – Mark Stay – 4 Stars

Fair Rosaline – Natasha Solomons – 2 Stars

Welcome To Paradise – Mahi Binebine & Lulu Norman (Tr) – 4 Stars

The Antidote: Happiness For People Who Can’t Stand Positive Thinking – Oliver Burkeman – 3 Stars

The Orchid Outlaw: On A Mission To Save Britain’s Rarest Flowers – Ben Jacob – 3.5 Stars

Raw – Patience Agbabi – 3 Stars

Stone Will Answer: A Journey Guided by Craft, Myth and Geology – Beatrice Searle – 2.5 Stars

Cocaine Train: Tracing My Bloodline Through Colombia – Stephen Smith – 4 Stars

Book(s) Of The Month

We Came By Sea – Horatio Clare – 5 Stars

 

Top Genres

Travel – 15

Fiction – 8

Natural History – 7

Poetry – 5

Photography – 5

 

Top Publishers

Faber & Faber

Eland

Oneworld

Picador

Simon & Schuster

 

Review Copies Received

Medusa: A Novel of Mystery, Ecstasy and Strange Horror – E. H. Visiak

Spores of Doom: Dank Tales of the Fungal Weird – Aaron Worth (Ed)

The Whispers of Rock – Anjana Khatwa

Neurodivergent, By Nature: Why Biodiversity Needs Neurodiversity – Joe Harkness

 

Library Books Checked Out

Cabin: How To Build A Retreat In The Wilderness And Learn To Live With Nature – Will Jones

The Shipping Forecast – Meg Clothier

The Antidote: Happiness For People Who Can’t Stand Positive Thinking – Oliver Burkeman

The Corn Bride – Mark Stay

The Drowned Places: Diving In Search O\f Atlantis – Damian le Bas

Normally Weird And Weirdly Normal: My Adventures In Neurodiversity – Robin Ince

Renaturing: Small Ways To Wild The World – James Canton

The Anechoic Chamber And Other Weird Tales – Will Wiles

What The Wild Sea Can Be: The Future Of The World’s Ocean – Helen Scales

The North Road – Rob Cowen

Meditations For Mortals: Four Weeks To Embrace Your Limitations And Make Time For What Counts – Oliver Burkeman

 

Books Bought (Or Sent by Friends)

As I have said elsewhere, I am trying to buy fewer books. So I will give totals of l the number of books that enter my house and those that leave permanently. These are the figures for May:

May Books in: 43

May Books out: 52 (The books leaving the house were sold, returned to the library or passed on to friends or charity. I am aiming for this number to be higher than the one above!!!). I kept these below:

 

Is a River Alive? – Robert Macfarlane (signed)

36 Islands: In Search Of The Hidden Wonders Of The Lake District And A Few Other Things Too – Robert Twigger

The Meteorites: Encounters with Outer Space & Deep Time – Helen Gordon

I Bought a Mountain – Thomas Firbank

The Desert And The Sown – Gertrude Bell

Portable Magic: A History of Books and Their Readers – Emma Smith

Wildly Different: How Five Women Reclaimed Nature In A Man’s World – Sarah Lonsdale

Ulverton – Adam Thorpe

The Hunt for the Golden Mole: All Creatures Great & Small and Why They Matter  – Richard Girling

The Last Resort: A Memoir of Zimbabwe – Douglas Rogers

A Venetian Bestiary – Jan Morris

Antlers of Water: Writing on the Nature and Environment of Scotland – Kathleen Jamie (Ed.)

A Year in the New Forest –  Pete Gilbert, Zac Gilbert & Hugh Lohan (signed)

 

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.

 

We’re into June already. Solstice month. As I write this the sun is shining and I am intending on sitting in the garden to read a little more of the Kathleen Jamie book I have just started. This is the planned TBR for this month. though I have a strong feeling it will change as I have some incoming library reservations that I am sure have lots of other reservations of them.

 

Daily Reading

A Tree A Day – Amy-Jane Beer

An Insect a Day: Bees, Bugs, And Pollinators For Every Day Of The Year – Dominic Couzens & Gail Ashton

 

Still Reading

Handbook of Mammals of Madagascar Hardcover – Nick Garbutt

 

Themed Reads

In Search of the Perfect Peach: Why Flavour Holds the Answer to Fixing Our Food System – Franco Fubini

Scoff: A History of Food and Class in Britain – Pen Vogler

Ultra-Processed People: Why Do We All Eat Stuff That Isn’t Food … and Why Can’t We Stop? – Chris van Tulleken

 

#20BooksOfSummer

Annihilation – Jeff VanderMeer

Idlewild – Nick Sagan

The Warehouse – Rob Hart

Broken Stars: Contemporary Chinese Science Fiction in Translation – Ken Liu

Evolution – Stephen Baxter

 

WFMAC

The Year of Living Danishly: My Twelve Months Unearthing the Secrets of the World’s Happiest Country – Helen Russell

Along the River that Flows Uphill: From the Orinoco to the Amazon – Richard Starks

 

Review Books

21 Lessons for the 21st Century – Yuval Noah Harari

Your Journey Your Way: The Recovery Guide to Mental Health – Horatio Clare

Doomed Romances: Strange Tales of Uncanny Love – Joanne Ella Parsons

The House Divided: Sunni, Shia and the Making of the Middle East – Barnaby Rogerson

Lifelines: Finding a Home in the Mountains of Greece – Julian Hoffman

Wild Galloway: From the Hilltops to the Solway, a Portrait of a Glen – Ian Carter

 

Books I’m clearing

Dilbert 2.0 – Scott Adams

Armada – Ernest Cline

Natural Selection – Dan Pearson

 

Library

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

Normally Weird And Weirdly Normal: My Adventures In Neurodiversity – Robin Ince

Renaturing: Small Ways To Wild The World – James Canton

The Laundromat: Inside the Panama Papers Investigation of Illicit Money Networks and the Global Elite – Jake Bernstein

The Anechoic Chamber And Other Weird Tales – Will Wiles

What The Wild Sea Can Be: The Future Of The World’s Ocean – Helen Scales

The North Road – Rob Cowen

Meditations For Mortals: Four Weeks To Embrace Your Limitations And Make Time For What Counts – Oliver Burkeman

 

Poetry

Selected Poems – Kathleen Jamie

 

Bookclub

The Last Resort – Heidi Perks

 

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.

How is it that time of year already? Admittedly, it did feel like summer until a week ago, and we have had wind and rain ever since… But it time for #20BooksofSummer2025

In a change, Cathy who used to host it, has stepped back and Anna of  Annabookbel and Emma of Wordsandpeace have stepped up to take over.

I have been doing this for a few years now and try to pick a theme of sorts for each challenge. This year, my theme is science fiction (and the odd fantasy)

And here are the books:

 

Month 1

Annihilation – Jeff VanderMeer

Idlewild – Nick Sagan

The Warehouse – Rob Hart

Broken Stars: Contemporary Chinese Science Fiction in Translation – Ken Liu

Evolution – Stephen Baxter

 

Month 2

The Wall – John Lanchester

Red Moon – Kim Stanley Robinson

The Cruel Stars – John Birmingham

The Solar War – A.G. Riddle

Cage of Souls – Adrian Tchaikovsky

 

Month 3

Sunfall – Jim Al-Khalili

The Three Body Problem – Ci Xin Liu

Thin Air – Richard Morgan

Nemesis – Alex Lamb

Revenger – Alastair Reynolds

 

Month 4

The Bridge – Janine Ellen Young

Shadow Captain – Alastair Reynolds

A Second Chance at Eden – Peter F. Hamilton

Jade City – Fonda Lee

The Old Drift – Namwali Serpell

 

I know that the challenge is technically until August, but as the equinox isn’t until September, then I tend to do it over four months.

I have picked five books to read a month and tried to balance it so there is approximately the same number of pages per month.

As before, these are books that I won’t be keeping (bar one which is signed), so if there are any you’d like, let me know and I’ll post them on.

Another month passed, and it was momentous in lots of ways. It was our thirtieth wedding anniversary, and we had a trip over to Venice for the first time. Well worth going if you can. I did take a small pile of books with me to read whilst there too. I like reading about a place whilst there.

Anyway, onto the book.ish coming and goings for the month of April.

Books Read

Slow Trains To Venice – Tom Chesshyre – 4

A Thousand Days in Venice: An Unexpected Romance – Marlena de Blasi – 3

Venice: A Literary Guide for Travellers – Marie-Jose Gransard – 2.5

Collected Poems – Wendy Cope – Female – 3.5

Shape Of Light: 100 Years Of Photography And Abstract Art – Simon Baker & Emmanuelle de L’Ecotais – 3.5

A Year in the Life: Adventures in British Subcultures – Lucy Leonelli – 4

Samarkand: Recipes & Stories From Central Asia & the Caucasus – Caroline Eden & Eleanor Ford – 4

The North Pole: The Hhistory Of An Obsession – Erling Kagge – 3.5

The English Path – Kim Taplin – 4

Madagascar – Gian Paolo Barbieri (Photographer), Carola Lodari – 3.5

Weathering – Ruth Allen – 2.5

Seascape: Notes From A Changing Coastline – Matthew Yeomans – 4

 

Book(s) Of The Month

Venice – James Morris – Male – 5

 

Top Genres

Travel – 13

Natural History – 6

Fiction – 6

Photography – 5

Poetry – 4

 

Top Publishers

Faber & Faber – 3

Picador – 3

Eland – 3

Summersdale – 2

English Heritage – 2

 

Review Copies Received

Welcome To Paradise – Mahi Binebine & Lulu Norman (Tr)

To Have And To Hold – Sophie Pavelle

Slow Trains Around Britain: Notes from a 4,088-Mile Adventure on 143 Rides – Tom Chesshyre

We Came By Sea – Horatio Clare

Lifelines: Finding a Home in the Mountains of Greece – Julian Hoffman

 

Library Books Checked Out

The North Pole: The History Of An Obsession – Erling Kagge

Eliot’s Book Of Bookish Lists – Henry Eliot

The Accidental Garden: Gardens, Wilderness And The Space In Between – Richard Mabey

The Corn Bride – Mark Stay+

 

Books Bought

As I have said elsewhere, I am trying to buy fewer books. So I will give totals of l the number of books that enter my house and those that leave permanently. These are the figures for April:

April Books in: 21

April Books out: 10 (The books leaving the house were sold, returned to the library or passed on to friends or charity. This number needs to be higher than the one above!!!). I kept these below:

Chesil Beach: A Peopled Solitude – Judith Stinton

A Fortune-Teller Told Me: Earthbound Travels in the Far East – Tiziano Terzani

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

Anima: A Wild Pastoral – Kapka Kassabova (Signed)

A Training School for Elephants – Sophy Roberts (Signed)

Fenwomen – Mary Chamberlin (Signed)

Cinnamon City: Falling for the Magical City of Marrakech – Miranda Innes

Tripping the Flight Fantastic: Adventures in Search of the World’s Cheapest Air Fare – Andrew Fraser

The Cerne Giant: Landscape, Gods and the Stargate – Peter Knight (Signed)

The Making of a Marchioness – Frances Hodgson Burnett

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.

Another month has appeared over the time horizon! As Terry Pratchett once said, this ins’t life in the fast lane, this is life in the oncoming traffic! Another totally over the top and ambitious TBR is below. Going on the last couple of months, I’ll read around twelve or thirteen and as some of them will be library books that aren’t on this list then a smaller number of these will get read.

 

Daily Reading

A Tree A Day – Amy-Jane Beer

An Insect a Day: Bees, Bugs, And Pollinators For Every Day Of The Year – Dominic Couzens & Gail Ashton

 

Still Reading

Handbook of Mammals of Madagascar Hardcover – Nick Garbutt

Survival of the City: Living and Thriving in an Age of Isolation – Edward Glaeser, David Cutler

Seascapes: Notes From A Changing Coastline – Matthew Yeomans

 

Themed Reads

I didn’t get to read all the art books from April, hence why they are still here, glaring at me. I did find The Constable book, though!

Banksy: The Man Behind The Wall – Will Elsworth Jones

Constable: Paintings, Watercolours and Drawings – Leslie Parris

Banksy: Wall & Piece – Banksy

Behavioural Economics Saved My Dog: Life Advice For The Imperfect Human – Dan Ariely

The Fifth Risk – Michael Lewis

Positive Linking – Paul Ormerod

 

WFMAC

I was supposed to be reading one of these a month and haven’t, hence why there are three below

The Year of Living Danishly: My Twelve Months Unearthing the Secrets of the World’s Happiest Country – Helen Russell

Along the River that Flows Uphill: From the Orinoco to the Amazon – Richard Starks

Cocaine Train: Tracing My Bloodline Through Colombia – Stephen Smith  (Not sure where this is on the bookshelves!!)

 

Review Books

21 Lessons for the 21st Century – Yuval Noah Harari

Your Journey Your Way: The Recovery Guide to Mental Health – Horatio Clare

Doomed Romances: Strange Tales of Uncanny Love – Joanne Ella Parsons

Welcome To Paradise – Mahi Binebine & Lulu Norman (Tr)

The House Divided: Sunni, Shia and the Making of the Middle East – Barnaby Rogerson

Lifelines: Finding a Home in the Mountains of Greece – Julian Hoffman

Wild Galloway: From the Hilltops to the Solway, a Portrait of a Glen – Ian Carter

 

Books I’m clearing

Dilbert 2.0 – Scott Adams

Armada – Ernest Cline

The Atlas of Unusual Borders: Discover Intriguing Boundaries, Territories and Geographical Curiosities – Zoran Nikolić

Tideways and Byways in Essex and Suffolk –Archie White

 

Library

The Corn Bride – Mark Stay

The Orchid Outlaw: On A Mission To Save Britain’s Rarest Flowers – Ben Jacob

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

Stone Will Answer: A Journey Guided by Craft, Myth and Geology – Beatrice Searle

 

Poetry

Raw – Patience Agbabi

 

Bookclub

A bit behind on the bookclub books so far this year and haven’t made the last two! Will borrow my daughter’s copy of Solomons’ book when she has finished it

The Last Resort – Heidi Perks

The Gentlewoman Spy – Adele Jordan

Fair Rosaline – Natasha Solomons

A bit of a delay in publishing this as we have been in Venice for a few days and it was v’nice. I did manage to read 14 books in March, a weird selection as ever and here they are:

 

Books Read

London Made Us: A Memoir Of A Shape-Shifting City – Robert Elms

Wild Embers: Poems of Rebellion, Fire and Beauty – Nikita Gill

The Garden Against Time: In Search Of A Common Paradise – Olivia Laing

Hidden Libraries: The World’s Most Unusual Book Depositories – DC Helmuth

Londoners: The Days and Nights of London Now—As Told by Those Who Love It, Hate It, Live It, Left It, and Long for It – Craig Taylor

Iceland: Small World – Sigurgeir Sigurjónsson

What An Owl Knows: The New Science Of The World’s Most Enigmatic Birds – Jennifer Ackerman

The Company of Owls – Polly Atkin

Raising Hare – Chloe Dalton

Venice Sketchbook – Tudy Sammartini

The Alternatives – Caoilinn Hughes

The Penguin Classics book – Henry Eliot

Three-Quarters Of A Footprint: Travels in South India – Joe Roberts

 

Book(s) Of The Month

Venice Sketchbook: Impressions, Seasons, Encounters & Pigeons – Huck Scarry

 

Top Genres

Travel – 7

Fiction – 6

Natural History – 5

Photography – 4

Social History – 3

 

Top Publishers

Picador – 3

Eland – 3

English Heritage – 2

Granta – 2

Canongate – 2

 

Review Copies Received

Wild Galloway: From the Hilltops to the Solway, a Portrait of a Glen – Ian Carter

 

Library Books Checked Out

Raising Hare – Chloe Dalton

The Aternatives – Caoilinn Hughes

Collected Poems – Wendy Cope

The North Pole: The History Of An Obsession – Erling Kagge

 

Books Bought

As I have said elsewhere, I am trying to buy fewer books. I will give totals of l the number of books that enter my house and those that leave permanently. These are the figures for March:

March Books in: 34

March Books out: 36 (The books leaving the house were sold, returned to the library or passed on to friends or charity. I am aiming for this number to be higher than the one above!!!)

Some of these were for selling on. I kept these below:

Homesick: Why I Live in a Shed – Catrina Davies

Iceland: Small World – Sigurgeir Sigurjónsson (Now pass on too)

Woodlands – Anne Horsfall

That Awkward Age: Poems – Roger McGough (Signed)

John Clare – John Clare Selected by Paul Farley

Slow Productivity: The Lost Art Of Accomplishment Without Burnout – Cal Newport

The Curious Life of the Cuckoo – John Lewis-Stempel (Signed)

Chasing Fog: Finding Enchantment in a Cloud – Laura Pashby

Church Poems – John Betjeman

Groundbreakers: The Return of Britain’s Wild Boar – Chantal Lyons (Signed)

Explore Everything: Place-Hacking the City – Bradley Garrett

The Race to the Future: 8,000 Miles to Paris―The Adventure That Accelerated the Twentieth Century – Kassia St Clair

A Bull On The Beach – Anna Nicholas

Greenbanks – Dorothy Whipple

On the Spine of Italy: A Year in the Abbruzzi – Harry Clifton

 

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.

 

In the quest to make my monthly TBR shorter, it is still as long this month… So here they all are. I hope to read at least twelve of them

 

Daily Reading

A Tree A Day – Amy-Jane Beer

An Insect a Day: Bees, Bugs, And Pollinators For Every Day Of The Year – Dominic Couzens & Gail Ashton

 

Still Reading

Handbook of Mammals of Madagascar Hardcover – Nick Garbutt

Survival of the City: Living and Thriving in an Age of Isolation – Edward Glaeser, David Cutler

Three-Quarters Of A Footprint: Travels in South India – Joe Roberts

 

Themed Reads

Art this month

Shape Of Light: 100 Years Of Photography And Abstract Art – Simon Baker & Emmanuelle de L’Ecotais

Banksy: The Man Behind The Wall – Will Elsworth Jones

Constable: Paintings, Watercolours and Drawings – Leslie Parris (I need to find this!!)

Banksy: Wall & Piece – Banksy

Plus the Venice books I didn’t get to last month (and we’re visiting in AprilI

Venice – James Morris

Venice: A Literary Guide for Travellers – Marie-Jose Gransard

A Thousand Days in Venice : An Unexpected Romance – Marlena de Blasi

Slow Trains To Venice – Tom Chesshyre

 

Standford

Wild Twin – Jeff Young

The Place of Tides – James Rebanks

On the Shadow Tracks: A Journey through Occupied Myanmar – Clare Hammond

WFMAC

The Year of Living Danishly: My Twelve Months Unearthing the Secrets of the World’s Happiest Country – Helen Russell

Along the River that Flows Uphill: From the Orinoco to the Amazon – Richard Starks

 

Review Books

21 Lessons for the 21st Century – Yuval Noah Harari

Your Journey Your Way: The Recovery Guide to Mental Health – Horatio Clare

Doomed Romances: Strange Tales of Uncanny Love – Joanne Ella Parsons

Seascapes: Notes From A Changing Coastline – Matthew Yeomans

The House Divided: Sunni, Shia and the Making of the Middle East – Barnaby Rogerson

The English Path – Kim Taplin

Wild Galloway: From the Hilltops to the Solway, a Portrait of a Glen – Ian Carter

 

Books I’m clearing

Dilbert 2.0 – Scott Adams

Armada – Ernest Cline

Madagascar – Gian Paolo Barbieri (Photographer), Carola Lodari

 

Library

Samarkand: Recipes & Stories From Central Asia & the Caucasus – Caroline Eden & Eleanor Ford

The North Pole: The History Of An Obsession – Erling Kagge

Weathering – Ruth Allen

Stone Will Answer: A Journey Guided by Craft, Myth and Geology – Beatrice Searle

In Search Of Lost Frogs – Robin Moore

 

Poetry

Collected Poems – Wendy Cope

 

Bookclub

The Last Resort – Heidi Perks

The Gentlewoman Spy – Adele Jordan

 

February flew by as usual. Here is what I read and bought last month:

 

Books Read

Voyageur: Across the Rocky Mountains in a Birchbark Canoe – Robert Twigger – 3.5 Stars

the sun and her flowers – Rupi Kaur – 3 Stars

Before the Coffee Gets Cold – Toshikazu Kawaguchi, Geoffrey Trousselot (Tr) – 2.5 Stars

Cold Enough for Snow – Jessica Au – 3 Stars

The Secrets Of Flowers – Sally Page – 3 Stars

An Englishman In Patagonia – John Pilkington – 4 Stars

The Story of Silbury Hill – Jim Leary & David Field – 4 Stars

This is London: Life and Death in the World City – Ben Judah – 3.5 Stars

Panoramas of Lost London: Work, Wealth, Poverty & Change – Philip Davies – 4.5 Stars

Return to Sri Lanka: Travels In A Paradoxical Island – Razeen Sally – 2.5 Stars

In England – Don McCullin – 4 Stars

 

Book(s) Of The Month

On the Narrow Road to the Deep North: Journey into a Lost Japan – Lesley Chan Downer – 5 Stars

 

Top Genres

Travel – 6

Fiction – 5

Architecture – 3

Photography – 3

Poetry – 2

 

Top Publishers

Simon & Schuster – 2

W&N – 2

Picador – 2

Eland – 2

English Heritage – 2

 

Review Copies Received

Julia Roseingrave – Marjorie Bowen

The Restless Coast: A Journey Around The Edge of Britain – Roger Morgan-Grenville

 

Library Books Checked Out

The Penguin Classics book – Henry Eliot

What An Owl Knows: The New Science Of The World’s Most Enigmatic Birds – Jennifer Ackerman

Slow Productivity: The Lost Art Of Accomplishment Without Burnout  – Cal Newport

The Garden Against Time: In Search Of A Common Paradise – Olivia Laing

Return to Sri Lanka: Travels In A Paradoxical Island – Razeen Sally

Hidden Libraries: The World’s Most Unusual Book Depositories – DC Helmuth

 

Books Bought

As I have said elsewhere, I am trying to buy fewer books. So I will give totals of the number of books that enter my house and those that leave permanently. These are the figures for February:

February Books in: 27

February Books out: 13 (The books leaving the house were sold, returned to the library or passed on to friends or charity. I am aiming for this number to be higher than the one above!!!)

Some of these were for selling on. I kept these thirteen below:

 

Birdgirl: Discovering the Power of Our Natural World – Mya-Rose Craig

My Kenya Days – Wilfred Thesiger

Cheerful Weather for the Wedding – Julia Strachey

Granta 94: On The Road Again – Where Travel Writing Went Next – Ian Jack (Ed)

Birds of Passage: Henrietta Clive’s Travels in South India 1798-180 – Nancy Shields (Ed)

Why I Write – George Orwell

The Ridgeway: Europe’s Oldest Road – Richard Ingrams

How To Fish – Chris Yates

Touch the Sky – Tess Burrows (signed)

Rain – Melissa Harrison

This Volcanic Isle: The Violent Processes that forged the British Landscape – Robert Muir-Wood

Haramacy: A Collection of Stories Prescribed by Voices From the Middle East, South Asia and the Diaspora – Zahed Sultan & Tara Joshi (Ed)

Africa Solo: My World Record Race from Cairo to Cape Town – Mark Beaumont (signed)

 

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.

 

Having said last month that I want to make these short, this month’s is even longer! Oops. Some of these are quite short to be fair, but here they are

Daily Reading

A Tree A Day – Amy-Jane Beer

An Insect a Day: Bees, Bugs, And Pollinators For Every Day Of The Year – Dominic Couzens & Gail Ashton

 

Still Reading

Handbook of Mammals of Madagascar Hardcover – Nick Garbutt

Londoners: The Days and Nights of London Now—As Told by Those Who Love It, Hate It, Live It, Left It, and Long for It – Craig Taylor

Survival of the City: Living and Thriving in an Age of Isolation – Edward Glaeser, David Cutler

London Made Us: A Memoir Of A Shape-Shifting City – Robert Elms

 

Standford Shortlist

Wild Twin – Jeff Young

The Place of Tides – James Rebanks

On the Shadow Tracks: A Journey through Occupied Myanmar – Clare Hammond

 

World From My Armchair Challenge

The Year of Living Danishly: My Twelve Months Unearthing the Secrets of the World’s Happiest Country – Helen Russell

 

Review Books

21 Lessons for the 21st Century – Yuval Noah Harari

Your Journey Your Way: The Recovery Guide to Mental Health – Horatio Clare

Doomed Romances: Strange Tales of Uncanny Love – Joanne Ella Parsons

The Company of Owls – Polly Atkin

Three-Quarters Of A Footprint: Travels in South India – Joe Roberts

Seascapes: Notes From A Changing Coastline – Matthew Yeomans

 

Themed Reads

Venice Sketchbook: Impressions, Seasons, Encounters & Pigeons – Huck Scarry

Venice – James Morris

Venice: A Literary Guide for Travellers – Marie-Jose Gransard

A Thousand Days in Venice : An Unexpected Romance – Marlena de Blasi

Slow Trains To Venice – Tom Chesshyre

Venice Sketchbook – Tudy Sammartini

 

Books I’m clearing

Dilbert 2.0 – Scott Adams

Armada – Ernest Cline

Madagascar – Gian Paolo Barbieri (Photographer), Carola Lodari

 

Library

What An Owl Knows: The New Science Of The World’s Most Enigmatic Birds – Jennifer Ackerman

Hidden Libraries: The World’s Most Unusual Book Depositories – DC Helmuth

Samarkand: Recipes & Stories From Central Asia & the Caucasus – Caroline Eden & Eleanor Ford

Slow Productivity: The Lost Art Of Accomplishment Without Burnout – Cal Newport

The Garden Against Time: In Search Of A Common Paradise – Olivia Laing

In Search Of Lost Frogs – Robin Moore

 

Bookclub

The Last Resort – Heidi Perks

 

Poetry

Wild Embers: Poems of Rebellion, Fire and Beauty – Nikita Gill