Category: Review (Page 8 of 132)

5 out of 5 stars

Those who follow me on the various social media networks out there will know that I buy a lot of books. Far more than I can realistically read, but they make me happy and as far as I see it, a home without books is just a house…

Robin Ince also buys a lot of books. Like hundreds of them a year. He will trawl charity and second-hand bookshops looking for anything that piques his interest. If he likes the look of it, he buys it. Knowing what my house looks like, I do wonder just what his house looks like…

This wonderful book is the account of his travels around the independent bookshops of the UK promoting one of his books and a record of the books that he finds and brings home on his tour. He reads far more fiction than I do, but he has a similar principle, if it looks interesting then he will buy it. I do this with non-fiction books…

I am a bibliomaniac.
There is no cure and I am not seeking one.

Whilst we have similar philosophies on books, I don’t think that I have ADHD like he does, but I do think that I have autistic traits hence why I can see the parallels that I have with him. He is a big fan of independent bookshops which will become very evident if you read this book, and I am too. They offer an alternative curated selection of books that reflects the interest of the bookseller, rather than me feeling that I on the receiving end of a corporate marketing machine. If you have read White Spines by Nicholas Royle, then this is a must-read for you.

4 out of 5 stars

The author provided a copy of this, free of charge, in return for an honest review.

Miscarriage is one of the big taboos in this country. Almost no one talks about it, and even though it is a fairly common occurrence, you rarely get to hear about those who have suffered. I know of one or two couples where it had sadly happened, but I am sure there are others.

As people are reluctant to talk about it, you will probably never know who in your friendship circles has suffered. If you do come to know it is probably going to be from the bereaved mother-to-be. Rarely do we hear from the father’s perspective.

In this book, Moreton takes us on his journey through the heady days of early pregnancy and the anticipation of welcoming a new individual into the world. It is also a reflective book, he delights in tracing back through various family members in the hope of understanding just what sort of person you might have been.

Even though this is a book about a tragedy, it isn’t a sad book. To me, it felt like a love letter to the child they never knew. It is the story of how they came to be and were made by the generations before. It is also a discovery for him, he learns of family secrets that were unknown until now.

For those who have gone through the grief and trauma of an event like this, this might not be the book they need, but for others, there will be some resonance in the words and art.

3.5 out of 5 stars

The publisher provided a copy of this, free of charge, in return for an honest review.

It is said that if you never want to work again, then make a hobby you love a job. I am not totally convinced by this reasoning, as I think that I would probably end up disliking it. For me, a hobby is something that you can use to escape the world and pressures of modern life. But for some people it works, though I think if Jane Cooper knew quite how things would turn out, she may have done things differently.

It began with knitting and the discovery of rare-breed wool. Further research led to a whole new world of rare breed sheep that she knew nothing about. She travelled around the country collecting fleeces from those that had rare breeds and meeting the sheep in question. And slowly but surely she fell for one of the breeds.

The one that sparked her interest was the Orkney Borerary a tiny but robust and hardy breed that can trace its heritage way back to the Vikings who first brought this breed to the islands off the Scottish coast. It is one of the few surviving breeds of primitive sheep and they are hardy and much smaller than the sheep you will see in fields.

Before long she was hooked and she wanted a flock of her own. This prompted a move from Newcastle to the islands itself and this book is her story from taking on a handful of sheep to a flock of over 100. However, her enthusiasm is infectious though and she has persuaded a number of other crofters to adopt the sheep in their flocks.

I liked this book. It is an interesting story of how someone who followed her interests and passion and ended up becoming the sole custodian of a flock of this rare breed of sheep. It has not been an easy journey, there have been setbacks, the abattoir being closed on the island by a short-sighted council being one of the challenges they have had to face. Cooper is one of those people who should be celebrated for her tenacity in keeping the Orkney Borerary alive.

3.5 out of 5 stars

The publisher provided a copy of this, free of charge, in return for an honest review.

Peter Mayne knew India well. He had grown up there and apart from a short period when he was schooled in the UK he was there until 1949 when he moved to Morocco. The partition of the country happened this time and he ended up as deputy sectary to Pakistan’s Ministry of Refugees & Rehabilitation. When serving in this position, he came to know the Paktun people whose tribal lands bridged the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan.

After a few years spent in Morocco, he wanted to head back to the region to see what it was like now and to catch up with some of his friends from the past. This book is the story of that journey.

I found it a relaxed and slow-paced travel book, but I hought that it is worth reading for a snapshot of the region in the early 1950s. He is a thoughtful and observant traveller, sensitive to the Paktun’s way of life and their outlook. He is welcomed by all the people that he meets, and manages to catch up with some friends and associates from the past. One thing that did strike me from his prose, is that the privilege and authority that he had when he was part of the occupying force is long gone. The balance has very much shifted, but that said, he is still a valued guest, even though he is subject to the whims and demands of his hosts. This power shift becomes even more evident when he keeps trying to push south into Afghanistan. Permission is eventually granted, but then he cannot find anyone to take him.

His lyrical writing style immersed me in the place; I felt the heat as he did, sat alongside him on the bus journeys as they bumped along the roads and watched the ‘Jawanan’ dance through his eyes. They were most happy people, content with their lot but were so difficult to lead. Their independence had been hard won and they weren’t going to let any country usurp that. I thought that this was well worth reading and a reminder that I must read his Moroccan book.

3.5 out of 5 stars

The publisher provided a copy of this, free of charge, in return for an honest review.

I don’t mind insects, they have an essential purpose in the world, whether it is pollinating, feeding vast numbers of other species or even clearing all the crap that everything leaves behind. I generally don’t find bugs creepy, but some people do, and this is the inspiration behind all these authors’ stories.

This is the list of stories included:

The Sphinx • Edgar Allan Poe • (1846)
The Blue Beetle: A Confession • A. G. Gray, Jun. • (1857)
The Mummy’s Soul • Anonymous
After Three Thousand Years • Jane G. Austin • (1868)
A Dream of Wild Bees• Olive Schreiner • (1888)
The Moth • H. G. Wells • (1895)
The Captivity of the Professor • A. Lincoln Green • (1901)
The Dream of Akinosuke • Lafcadio Hearn • (2007)
Butterflies • Lafcadio Hearn • (1904)
Caterpillars • E. F. Benson • (1912)
An Egyptian Hornet • Algernon Blackwood • (1915)
The Wicked Flea • J. U. Giesy • (1925)
The Miracle of the Lily • Clare Winger Harris • (1928)
Warning Wings • Arlton Eadie • (1929)
Beyond the Star Curtain • Garth Bentley • (1931)
Leiningen Versus the Ants • Carl Stephenson • (1938)

None of these stories terrified me, I am glad to say, but there was the odd one that made me shudder, in particular Caterpillars. I thought some were better than others, with my favourite being Beyond the Star Curtain, with The Captivity of the Professor coming a close second.

It is a great little collection that these editors have uncovered from the vaults of the British Library. I liked the intro for each of the authors and a potted history of each story, and even better, it was just before the story, so no flipping backwards and forwards. The stores are as diverse as the insects portrayed. Not all of the stories portray the insects as enemies of us, but those stories are in there if you fancy being creeped out a bit.

4.5 out of 5 stars

The publisher provided a copy of this, free of charge, in return for an honest review.

What we are doing to the planet has been well documented elsewhere by numerous scientists and authors. They and others are battling against vast corporations and sympathetic governments who have a vested interest in keeping us using fossil fuels. Sadly, the disinformation campaign is working, in that the urgency to do something about the problem is diluted. As the erratic weather starts to impact more and more people’s lives, then tougher questions are starting to be asked of our politicians.

One of the effects of climate change is rising sea levels. A lot of it will come from melting glaciers, but water when it is warmer will expand adding to the issue. These changes will affect millions of people around the planet. Rees wants to visit some of the places where populations are most at risk from the rising waters and also to discover the locations of past flood myths and see for himself the now sunken landscapes.

It is a journey that will take him to New Orleans to witness for himself the wreckage that Hurricane Katrina left behind. He visits Italy to scuba dive over a live caldera (!!!) and to view the Roman remains. But he doesn’t also visit real places, this is a symbolic journey, so Atlantis is visited through the mythological landscapes too.

To remind us that this is not a problem that is going to affect sun-drenched islands in the Pacific, he heads to Dungeness close to where he lives to see the stumps of fossilised trees that were submerged 3500 years ago. It is called Noah’s Wood as people once thought that it was inundated in the biblical flood.

It is a stark reminder that we are an island nation and that we will be affected by these changes too.

I haven’t read many of Rees’ books, though I do have all of them. One of them, Unofficial Britain, was my book of the year in 2020. This is an equally engaging travelogue. He has researched his subjects well and he has a keen eye for detail, something no doubt from his psychogeography experiences, where the tiny details do matter.

But this is a book about the future; a future that is rising sea levels, extreme weather events and land lost to erosion and storm surges. It is a future that worries Rees and to be perfectly frank, worries me to. Well worth reading and I can highly recommend it.

4 out of 5 stars

The author provided a copy of this, free of charge, in return for an honest review.

Fiona Stocker had already moved halfway around the world from the UK to Australia. However, the life they had made there in the city of Brisbane, was becoming a little jaded and they felt that owed their daughter a chance at a slower pace of life.

They had heard good things about Tasmania and a trip out there reinforced those messages. It didn’t take long to find a property that they liked the look of and as a bonus, it came with five acres of land. They made the decision there and then, and set in motion the move to Tasmania.

Soon after they moved in, her husband acquired some alpacas, an animal that he had always fancied keeping, but as he was developing his new cabinet-making company, it fell to Fiona to look after them along with a toddler and a fast-growing bump, would soon be their second child. It did take a while, but slowly they began to settle into their new home and community.

I thought that this was a very enjoyable book, she writes with a bone-dry wit about the life they are having there. It did seem strange to be reading about a family life set in this part of the world having read so many travel books of people beginning a new life in Europe, it is a very different finding that the garden has wallabies, venomous snakes and huntsmen spiders. Not sure I am keen on the latter two…

If there was one flaw, I think each chapter has been adapted from her blog, they reflect the piece written at that time and it didn’t feel like there was a cohesive narrative at certain points in the book. That said, these snapshots of family life and the way that they settled into their new life is an engaging read.

4 out of 5 stars

The publisher provided a copy of this, free of charge, in return for an honest review.

The police when investigating a crime follow the process of finding the evidence, interviewing witnesses and finding the perpetrators. But sometimes it isn’t that simple, there are crimes that happen that not even the police can explain.

Well, not all the police, there are records of crimes that have been kept by a police officer in the West Midlands that defy any rational explanation. Drunks that had been going missing from Digbeth and no one had a clue where they had gone. There was then a robbery at an off licence and the trail of clues led the police an unexpected resolution.

A suicide in a hostel seems a regular enquiry with a relatively straightforward conclusion. That is until there is another suicide at the same place. It doesn’t seem to be a coincidence, rather there is something malevolent in the place, but he really doesn’t know what it is…

An investigation into why children were behaving badly and stealing small things leads him to a derelict railwayman’s cottage and it is here where he confronts the thing that is causing the crime wave. The body of a prostitute is discovered behind a bin. They discover her street name is Tanya, but nobody knows who she really is. Following the one lead up, will take him right to the ragged edge of his sanity.

My favourite story is Wake Up In Moloch, a story questioning whether machines are capable of being evil. A death is caused by a sculpture and they follow up the leads. Nothing cam be found though until a second death demands a full bomb squad response and then he has some leads that will take him to a factory where he hopes to get an answer.

I must admit I rarely read horror, I am too much of a scaredy cat. But reading this didn’t really feel like horror. Even though it isn’t hugely scary, there are some unpleasant bits and some quite unnerving moments. I would say that every story gave me a sense of unease with its folk horror elements and post-industrial landscapes. There is quite a lot of psychogeography in here which is great and it felt like a mashup between Edgelands by Paul Farley and Michael Symmons Roberts and London Incognita by Gary Budden. It had a Rivers Of London vibe too, a policeman who can see things that others can’t, but this is but much much darker. If you like your fiction with a darker grimmer edge, then this would be right up your street. You might not want to look behind though…

4 out of 5 stars

The publisher provided a copy of this, free of charge, in return for an honest review.

This is a fascinating account of a working-class Scottish woman. Like others of that time, she had a really tough life. She was born in 1833 and had began work at the age of nine in domestic service. She became a fishwife, and after a tragedy at sea, she lost a number of male members of her family. It was to rob her of her sanity and she ended up in the Cornhill Asylum. She was encouraged to write her memoirs in pencil and that bundle of papers became this book.

She was a strong woman and didn’t have any tolerance for the airs and graces of the aristocracy, often calling them out on certain matters. She was frequently told that she was speaking above her station, but thankfully that didn’t stop her at all. She held similar opinions of those with a lot of religious power too, most of these people were more concerned with how the were perceived in the eyes of others and had no intention of actually putting their Christian teaching into practice.

She details how the feudal system still worked at that time. The lairds would take a portion of every catch, just because they could. The whole of society was heavily in favour of the aristocracy but as that faded in importance, their lives were then ruled by capitalists, who only cared about profits and little else. Because of the heavy skewing of the system, she and may others spent a lot of time in debt and poverty.

The loss of her family members was too much to cope with and she ended up in asylum. It was here where she learnt who her true friends were and those who now shunned her because of where she had ended up. It made her already tough life, just that little bit harder. She was allowed out after a while, but was readmitted again having been declared insane. And yet it seemed to suit her, the pressures of outside life had gone, but she worried about the children and grandchildren that she had left behind.

I would say this is essential reading for anyone interested in the social history of this country and in particular Scotland. What is quite terrifying is that even though was have come on over a century or more, some of the same restrictions that hold the working class and poor in that position, are still in place today. The great and the good (ha) still have more power and wealth at the expense of wider society. I thought that the editing of the notes was really good. Fraser steers us in understanding about the time that these were written and the wider historical context, whilst letting her voice come through clearly.

4 out of 5 stars

The publisher provided a copy of this, free of charge, in return for an honest review.

I have always had a thing about Yew trees. They are such a long-lived tree and the places that they are located often show that they have had some significance to people over the past two millennia or maybe even longer. They are a strange tree too, evergreen, but not conifers, almost every part of them is poisonous to mammals, and yet they can save lives.

This book all about them is a mix of science, folklore and cultural history of this unique species of tree. Each chapter covers one element of the tree and the subjects vary from Ancient Yew to Political Yew, Metaphysical Yew to Social Yew. It is crammed full of facts about these trees and pretty much all of them are fascinating.

I thought that this was engrossing and really well-written. Hageneder has researched the subject thoroughly and more importantly, has got the right balance between imparting knowledge and the narrative story of the Yew. If you have even the slightest interest in this species then I can highly recommend it.