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Water Ways by Jasper Winn

17/12/2021 / / 2 Comments

4 out of 5 stars

A copy of this was provided free of charge from the publisher in return for an honest review.

Roads are now king. Almost everything is moved from port to warehouse, warehouse to store or most commonly now our home. Before the roads, rail was the most important way of moving people and goods around. You have to go back a long way to find the previous method of moving goods and raw materials around and that was water. It was loaded onto boats and moved along the coast or upstream as far as the river in question was navigable.

I thought the first canals to move bulk materials from place to place were cut in the 1700s, but it turns out that the first recognizable canal was made in the 1560s. This short stretch was to bypass a weir and was on the River Exe. It even had locks. For Winn, it seems to be the best place to start his exploration of the canal network, but he thinks getting a little experience on a boat would be useful. Thankfully being appointed writer in residence for the Canal and River Trust gives him plenty of contacts and he finds himself on the towpath on the Oxford Canal where he will be joining Kate Saffin for a short course narrow boating.

His travels will take him from coast to coast, through tunnels, and along towpaths on his foldable bike. He will speak to fishermen, discover why some people are now throwing magnets into the canals, spend time with a couple who provide fuels to narrowboat owners. He follows the people (nutters) who are tackling the Devizes to Westminster canoe race, joins in with the signing on a boat called the Village Butty and sinks quite a few pints with friends new and old. There is some history in here too, outlines of the brilliant engineers who designed and built the canals and the people in the 1950 and 1960s who couldn’t bear the thought of the network being filled in and worked tirelessly to save them.

I really liked this book, it brought back happy memories as I grew up very close to the Basingstoke Canal and loved cycling along the towpath. I have no recollection of ever falling in, but I am sure that I must have got the odd bootful of water occasionally. We are all supposed to be really close to a canal, but as far as I know there are no canals in Dorset. Winn has obviously fallen for the canal life too judging by this book. He writes with warm affection and a genuine interest for the places and people that he meets on his 1000 mile journey along the towpaths. I like the way he writes too, he has good attention to detail and shows how much these linear waterways mean to the people that use them for leisure, work and living. He has a light touch with humour and the maps on the endpapers are wonderful.

Extraction to Extinction by David Howe

16/12/2021 / / 2 Comments

3.5 out of 5 stars

A copy of this was provided free of charge from the publisher in return for an honest review.

Almost everything that we use or consume started in the crust of our planet in some way or other, even plants and trees are dependent on the soil. Unlike the other species that inhabit the Earth, we have learnt how to seek out and extract the materials that we can use in all manner of different ways. And we have been doing this for the past ten thousand years.

What we have achieved is just staggering too. We have extracted the metals from rock to make weapons, tools, buildings and vehicles. Rocks have been ground up to make a new substance that is the foundation of all our roads and construction industry. It reminded me of a quote from a Bill Bryson book that said: you could stand me on a beach till the end of time and never would it occur to me to try to make it into windows. We have gone from a species that had almost no impact on the places that we lived.

A lot of people have made a lot of money from these material extractions from our planet, but this wealth generation has come at a great cost to the planet. Vast mines have caused and continue to cause pollution and destruction to the places they are located. Processing these materials has been a contributing factor to the build-up of greenhouse gases too that will be a problem in the very near future. It begs the question, what are we going to do when we have used everything up?

I thought that this was a clear and concise explanation of how we have used ingenuity and skills to find numerous ways of extracting minerals and metals from the planet. We extract billions of tons of materials from the Earth each year, so much so that we are becoming our own geological time. He clearly explains the flip side to this is the rise in carbon dioxide that is contributing to climate change as well as the environmental catastrophe of vast commercial extractions to local areas. Howe’s prose is crisp and very much to the point making this a good introduction to the way that we extract and use minerals in modern life. But it is also a warning that what we are doing may not be repairable now. I thought it was well worth reading.

On Gallows Down by Nicola Chester

15/12/2021 / / 2 Comments

4 out of 5 stars

A copy of this was provided free of charge from the publisher in return for an honest review.

Nicola Chester was born in Petersfield but was always on the move because of her father’s job. Her earliest memories were of chalk downland, seen as they moved across Hampshire and into Berkshire before she moved to Pangbourne at the age of eight. It was here on this housing estate that she fell head over heels in love with nature> She was wild, free and happy in the fields alongside the houses, playing in the River Pang and water meadows.

But all my best memories, of love and family and living have been spent outdoors in nature. How can we stop fighting for this?

Another move to Greenham felt like a body part was being removed, but she soon felt at home in the natural world again as she discovered what was new around there. But it was also a realisation that not everywhere was accessible. This once common ground had been seized for the use of the RAF and it became the home of the American Nuclear force. It was also the home of the peace camp full of women protesting about the presence of these weapons of mass destruction. In the same way, she became aware of the natural world, Chester realised that land and who owned it and was granted access was a political issue.

It was an eye opening moment.

It is the natural world that is her bedrock and that enables her to cope with all that life throws at her and that she writes about in this book. We hear about the tragedies and the moments of joy, but not in a way that is overwhelming as a reader. She gets angry about the way that the landowners treat wildlife on their property and their disregard for life as they drench it in chemicals. But there are stories of hope and success too, Greenham Common can now be accessed by anyone again and it is buzzing with life around the brutal missile hangers. In this narrative, she weaves the history of the place as seen through other writers such as Richard Adam and John Clare.

A landscape doesn’t forget its stories. It wears them like lines on an old face, markings on an old body.

This is a searingly honest and open memoir of her and her families life set in the chalk downs of Wiltshire and I really liked it. Chester is a beautiful writer, she has a knack of describing what she sees in the most evocative way. But at its heart, this book is political; it is a critique of the still existing feudal system, tied houses and oppressive landowners that still dominate our country and ride roughshod over our rights and the natural world and a reminder that we need to stand up against these vested interests.

Raising Steam by Terry Pratchett

14/12/2021 / / 0 Comments

5 out of 5 stars

Dick Simnel is an engineer of some talent and with the help of his slide rule, he has developed the Discworld’s first steam locomotive, a machine that has somehow harnessed the power of all of the elements: earth, air, fire and water. It is called the Iron Girder. No one is really sure what to make of it, but when he brings it to Ankh-Morpork it piques the interest of Sir Harry King, a businessman who has made his money from the unsavoury business of waste.

Lord Vetinari, The Patrician of Ankh-Morpork, is also very interested in this device and he asks, well demands, that Moist von Lipwig, the renowned fraudster and civil servant to be his representative and the inside man inside this new industry. He is going to have his work cut out dealing with the great and the good as he persuades them to let the new railway lines over their land, but he has a deep and dodgy skill set to draw upon…

Not everyone is happy with the new railways though, some railway workers have been attacked and killed by Dwarfish fundamentalists and their terrorist attacks are getting worse. The Low King of the Dwarves is away at Quirm when there is a coup at the palace in Schmaltzberg, Überwald. Vetinari demands that the Low King is returned home to ensure political stability in the region, but even though Moist points out that the line is not complete, he is given no option to fail.

It is going to be a difficult journey, as not only are they somehow going to have to make it to Schmaltzberg, Überwald with the Low King on board, but they know they will be under attack from the rebel dwarves at some point and how they are going to get across the bridge is an audacious stunt that only Moist can pull off.

Another magnificent book from Pratchett, though you can sense cracks at the edge of the plot as the Embuggerance’s cold black fingers creep across his mind. He has purloined the plot from events in the UK when we went railway mad in the 18th century and draped it onto Discworld, where that places uneven lumps and bumps have shaped the story in his own unique way. There are lots of laugh out loud moments, as well as his own unique perspective on real-life that he sees through the prism of Discworld. Great stuff and one more to go…

Rag And Bone by Lisa Woollett

13/12/2021 / / 2 Comments

4 out of 5 stars

Think about the last thing that you threw into a bin. Was it waste that you couldn’t recycle, or was it something that someone could have taken and used again or in another way? If it is destined for landfill then there is a high chance that if it ever comes to life again if is going to be in as good a condition as when it was buried out of sight in a vast hole in the earth.

Gone are the days where almost everything was reused or repurposed leaving almost nothing to actually be discarded. Materials such as dog poo had a value, though I don’t fancy wearing the high-value calfskin gloves that it was used to make. Even a dead cat had value, provided you knew who needed them. It sounded like a grim life collecting these sorts of things.

Lisa Woollett is a mudlark and beachcomber when she is not taking photographs of things. This desire to find the items that others have discarded is deeply embedded in her DNA. Her grandfather collected waste and rubbish in London. Not only did they collect the rubbish from people, but they could also make a reasonable living acquiring the ‘toot’ or items salvaged from the rubbish that they could sell on.

She is based in Cornwall now and we are introduced to beaches there that seem to have a knack of collecting the items that fall of container chip on a regular basis. We also join her in London to find treasures alongside the Thames before heading out to the estuary to the landfill sites that are now being breached by rising tides and stronger storms. Rubbish from 1986 that has not deteriorated in all those years, falls out of the cliffs in front of them. The names of the places she visits are quite eerie too, Slaughterhouse Point, The Shade and Deadman’s Island, to name a few.

But it is a warning too, the waste that we are casually discarding is having a huge effect on the health of the oceans and the life in the depths. It is probably too late to fix it too, but some people are trying to make a difference. I particularly liked the photos that she has of the detritus from the various locations and collated as almost art. It is still shocking though.

Even though this is a book about rubbish, it is not a rubbish book and I really liked this. It is full of fascinating nuggets of information about the things that we have discarded and into this Lisa has woven her family history into this memoir seamlessly. If you liked Lara Maiklem’s book, Mudlark then you should read this too.

Folk Magic and Healing by Fez Inkwright

10/12/2021 / / 0 Comments

3.5 out of 5 stars

A copy of this was provided free of charge from the publisher in return for an honest review.

I remember reading a meme once that said that we need water and sunlight and are in essence just a houseplant with complicated emotions. But we need plants for all manner of things, food, shelter, clothing and if you know what you are doing then can be used to heal too.

Knowing what plant can be used for what particular ailment requires years of specialist knowledge and sadly it is something that most of us have lost as we moved from the country to towns. Thankfully is not totally lost as a select few people have managed to keep the country wisdom and are now beginning to share it with us.

Whilst not as comprehensive as the 900-page behemoth, Vickery’s Folk Flora by Roy Vickery, this is a beautifully produced book. The images and layout are really nicely done and there is enough information to give you an introduction to the medicinal treatments that we have used plants for and the folklore behind some of our common species. The A to Z format means that plants can be found quickly and the prose is full of useful information.

London Incognita by Gary Budden

09/12/2021 / / 0 Comments

5 out of 5 stars

There are a lot of people living in the capital, at the last count 8 million; it is dynamic, restless and constantly changing. However, not everything is gloss and glamour. Parts of the capital don’t even feel safe any time of the day, the seedier areas can creep out the bravest souls and things that have been thought long dead, still can be found if you know where to look.

Walking was the only way to map the streets of London Incognita

Danny has been searching for the stories of London Incognita, collecting them, writing them down in a cheap journal and hoping that what he gleans will help him define his own identity. But one of those presences is aware of what he is doing, the Judderman. The first Gary, Danny’s brother knows about all of this is when Danny disappears and as he walks the streets looking for him, he realises that it is something that he may not be able to escape from either

I was no longer an outsider; instead I was part of a club I never wished to be a member of.

Some of the stories feel dreamlike, so take us into the sewers, disused railway arches a spriggan leering face is visible among the graffiti. The mudlarks hold some of the keys to the darker snapshots of London’s history and finding the flickering woman may offer a route to the place where no shadows fall…

I went into this completely blind, I hadn’t even read the blurb before. It took me a short while to realise that these are a collection of short stories that have common links, characters and themes. The thing that ties that all together into a cohesive, slightly chilling whole. It is like Neverwhere taken up another notch before they get to London below. Budden has got the balance about right, there is enough detail about the grimmer darker, seedier parts of the capital without it becoming too much and the folk horror elements reveal enough to let my imagination run wild. My favourites were Sky City and My Queen, but they were all very good indeed.

Anticipated Books for Spring 2022

08/12/2021 / / 11 Comments

I have been through all of the 2022 publishers catalogues for the books they have coming out in spring that I could lay my hands on (28 so far and still a few missing too). I have extracted all the books that I really like the look of. Most are non-fiction, as you have probably come to expect by now, but there are a smattering of fiction, sci-fi and the odd poetry in this list. What has staggered me a little is there are 194 books in this list below. That is more than I normally read in a year which is ominous as there are more books to follow for the latter half of the year and I still have many others to read. The pain of a reader…

 

4th Estate

Trust the Plan: The Rise of QAnon and the Conspiracy That Reshaped America – William Sommer

 

Allen & Unwin

Dalvi: Six Years in the Arctic Tundra – Laura Galloway

 

Allen Lane

Emotional: The New Thinking About Feelings – Leonard Mlodinow

Kingdom Of Characters: The Language Revolution That Made China Modern – Jing Tsu

Worn: A People’s History Of Clothing – Sofi Thanhauser

Otherlands: A World In The Making – Thomas Halliday

How To Stay Smart In A Smart World: Why Human Intelligence Still Beats Algorithms – Gerd Gigerenzer

Regenesis: How To Feed The World Without Devouring The Planet – George Monbiot

The Playbook: Protecting The Corporation From The Risks Of Scientific Knowledge – Jennifer Jacquet

Fantastic Numbers And Where To Find Them: A Cosmic Quest From Zero To Infinity – Tony Padilla

 

Atlantic Books

The Insect Crisis: The Fall of the Tiny Empires that Run the World – Oliver Milman

In the Camps: Stories from China’s High-tech Penal Colony – Darren Byler

Masters of the Lost Land: The Untold Story of the Fight to Own the Amazon – Heriberto Araújo

Dead in the Water: Murder and Fraud in the World’s Most Secretive Industry – Matthew Campbell and Kit Chellel

Covert Action: The Global Story of Subversion, Sabotage and Secret Statecraft – Rory Cormac

The Line of Sight: How Vision Made Us Human – Andrew Parker

 

Basic Books

A Natural History Of The Future: What The Laws Of Biology Tell Us About The Destiny Of The Human Species – Rob Dunn

Hidden Games: The Surprising Power Of Game Theory To Explain Irrational Human Behaviour – Moshe Hoffman & Erez Yoeli

 

Bloomsbury

The Perfect Golden Circle – Benjamin Myers

52 Ways To Walk: The New Science And Timeless Joy Of How, When, Where And Why – Annabel Streets

Don’t Trust Your Gut: Using Data Instead Of Instinct To Make Better Choices – Seth Stephens-Davidowitz

The Trespasser’s Companion – Nick Hayes

The Great Experiment: How To Make Diverse Democracies Work – Yascha Mounk

The Catch: Fishing For Ted Hughes – Mark Wormald

Motherlands – Amaryllis Gacioppo

The Digital Republic: Taking Back Technology – Jamie Susskind

Racing Green: How Motorsport Science Can Save The World – Kit Chapman

Growing Up Human – Brenna Hassett

Forget Me Not: Finding The Forgotten Species Of Climate Change Britain – Sophie Pavelle

 

Bluemoose Books

Ghost Stories by Stu Hennigan

 

Bodley Head

Cloudmoney – Brett Scott

The Journey Of Humanity – Oded Galor

An Immense World – Ed Yong

 

British Library

The Philosophy of Curry – Sejal Sukhadwala

The Book of Book Jokes – Alex Johnson

Shadows on the Wall: Dark Tales by Mary E. Wilkins Freeman – Mary E. Wilkins Freeman

The Ghost Slayers: Thrilling Tales of Occult Detection – Mike Ashley

Our Haunted Shores: Tales from the Coasts of the British Isles – Emily Alder, Joan Passey & Jimmy Packham

The Philosophy of Whisky – Billy Abbott

 

Canongate

Time On Rock: A Climber’s Route Into The Mountains – Anna Fleming

The Unusual Suspect: The Remarkable True Story Of A Modern-Day Robin Hood – Ben Machell

No One Round Here Reads Tolstoy: Memoirs Of A Working-Class Reader – Mark Hodkinson

How To Be Animal: What It Means To Be Human – Melanie Challenger

The Instant – Amy Liptrot

Explorer: The Quest For Adventure, Discovery And The Great Unknown – Benedict Allen

The Fire People: A Collection Of Black British Poetry – Ed. Lemn Sissay

More Fiya: A New Collection Of Black British Poetry – Ed. Kayo Chingonyi

Things I Have Withheld – Kei Miller

Blood Legacy: Reckoning With A Family’s Story Of Slavery – Alex Renton

The Secret History Of Here: A Year In The Valley – Alistair Moffat

 

Chatto & Windus

Bless The Daughter Raised By A Voice In Her Head – Warsan Shire

Nine Paths – Lexi Stadlen

Unearthed – Claire Ratinon

 

Coronet

We Need Snowflakes: In Defence Of The Sensitive, The Angry And The Offended – Hannah Jewell

A New Science Of Heaven: How The New Science Of Plasma Is Shedding Light On Spiritual Experience – Robert Temple

 

Custom House

Wahala – Nikki May

 

Doubleday

Wild Fell: Fighting For Nature On A Lake District Farm – Lee Schofield

 

Duckworth

Nice Is Not A Biscuit: How To Build A World-Class Business By Doing The Right Thing – Peter Mead

Vagabonds: Life On The Streets Of Nineteenth-Century London – Oskar Jensen

 

Elliott & Thompson

On the Scent: Unlocking the mysteries of smell – and how losing it can change our world – Paola Totaro and Robert Wainwright

A River Runs Through Me: A year and a life of salmon fishing in Scotland – Andrew Douglas-Home

A Village in the Third Reich: How ordinary lives were transformed by the rise of Fascism – Julia Boyd & Angelika Patel

Beside the Seaside: The Story of the English Coastal Town – Ian Walker

 

Europa Editions

In the Margins: On the Pleasures of Reading and Writing – Elena Ferrante Tr Ann Goldstein

The Passenger: Rome – Various

The Passenger: Ireland – Various

 

Faber & Faber

Wild Green Wonders – Patrick Barkham

The Stasi Poetry Circle – Philip Oltermann

Shadowlands – Matthew Green

Black And Female: Essays – Tsitsi Dangarembga

Iconicon – John Grindrod

Sounds Wild And Broken – David George Haskell

The Premonitions Bureau – Sam Knight

Exiles: Three Island Journeys – William Atkins

Beyond Measure – James Vincent

 

Gollancz

The This – Adam Roberts

The Flight Of The Aphrodite – S.J. Morden

Eversion – Alastair Reynolds

 

Granta

Grounding: Finding Home In A Garden – Lulah Ellender

Different: What Apes Can Teach Us About Gender – Frans de Waal

Refractive Africa – Will Alexander

Garden Physic – Sylvia Legris

The End Of Bias: How We Change Our Minds – Jessica Nordell

 

Grove Press

Endpapers: A Family Story of Books, War, Escape and Home – Alexander Wolff

 

Harvill Secker

Africa Is Not A Country: Breaking Stereotypes Of Modern Africa – Dipo Faloyin

 

Head of Zeus

Furious Heaven The Sun Chronicles 2 – Kate Elliott

Dirty Work: Essential Jobs And The Hidden Toll Of Inequality – Eyal Press

Death By Nature?: Understanding Wildlife Diseases – Ben Garrod

Water Always Wins: Going With The Flow To Thrive In The Age Of Droughts, Floods And Climate Change – Erica Gies

A Feather At The Feast: Thomas Morton, America’s First Nature Writer And Falconer – Ben Crane

 

Headline

Chivalry – Neil Gaiman

Butter: A Celebration – Olivia Potts

The Mercenary River Private Greed, Public Good: A History Of London’s Water – Nick Higham

These Bodies Of Water – Sabrina Mahfouz

 

Hodder & Stoughton

When The Dust Settles: Stories Of Love, Loss And Hope From An Expert In Disaster – Lucy Easthope

Firmament: The Hidden Science Of Weather, Climate Change And The Air That Surrounds Us – Simon Clark

Escape From Siberia – Yoann Barbereau Tr Maren Baudet-Lackner

Dust: A History And A Future Of Environmental Disaster – Jay Owens

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

After They’re Gone: A Love Letter To The Lost Species Of The World – Peter Marren

 

Hurst Publishers

Another World Is Possible: How To Reignite Radical Political Imagination – Geoff Mulgan

China Unbound A New World Disorder – Joanna Chiu

No Shortcuts: Why States Struggle To Develop A Military Cyber-Force – Max Smeets

Edge Of England Landfall In Lincolnshire – Derek Turner

Work Won’t Love You Back How Devotion To Our Jobs Keeps Us Exploited, Exhausted And Alone – Sarah Jaffe

 

Icon Books

Hurricane Lizards And Plastic Squid: How The Natural World Is Adapting To Climate Change – Thor Hanson

Dear Bill Bryson: Footnotes From A Small Island – Ben Aitken

Game Theory: Understanding The Mathematics Of Life – Brian Clegg

 

Jo Fletcher

Momenticon – Andrew Caldecott

 

John Murray

The Fairy Tellers: A Journey Into The Secret History Of Fairy Tales – Nicholas Jubber

Nomads: The Wanderers Who Shaped Our World – Nicholas Jubber

Extraterrestrial: The First Sign Of Intelligent Life Beyond Earth – Avi Loeb

Futureproof: 9 Rules For Humans In The Age Of Automation – Kevin Roose

Free To Go: From Orkney To New Zealand On A Motorbike – Esa Aldegheri

Rebel With A Clause Tales And Tips From A Travelling Grammar Guru – Ellen Jovin

 

Jonathan Cape

The Treeline: The Last Forest And The Future Of Life On Earth – Ben Rawlence

Pilgrim Bell – Kaveh Akbar

Ephemeron – Fiona Benson

Dreaming The Karoo – Julia Blackburn

Birdgirl – Mya-Rose Craig

 

Little Toller

Millstone Grit – Glyn Hughes

Shalimar – Davina Quinlivan

Brother Do You Love Me – Manni Coe & Reuben Coe

The Loveliness Of Ladybirds – JC Niala

 

Maclehose

Alice’s Book: How The Nazis Stole My Grandmother’s Cookbook – KARINA URBACH Tr. Jamie Bulloch

 

Michael Joseph

Small Island: 12 Maps That Explain The History Of Britain – Philip Parker

Prized Women – Caroline Lea

The Lost Paths – Jack Cornish

One Place De L’Eglise – Trevor Dolby

 

Oneworld

A Brief History Of Timekeeping: The Science Of Marking Time, From Stonehenge To Atomic Clocks – Chad Orzel

The Elements Of Choice: Why The Way We Decide Matters – Eric J. Johnson

How Minds Change: The Science Of Belief, Opinion And Persuasion – David McRaney

The Biggest Number In The World: A Journey To The Edge Of Mathematics – David Darling and Agnijo Banerjee

 

Orion

Wild City: Encounters With Urban Wildlife – Florence Wilkinson

 

Pan Macmillan

Wild Flowers Of Britain And Ireland – Roger Phillips

The Greatest Escape – Neil Churches

Too Big To Jail: Inside Hsbc, The Mexican Drug Cartels And The Greatest Banking Scandal Of The Century – Chris Blackhurst

 

Penguin

The Voltage Effect – John A List

 

Picador

In Defence Of Witches: Why Women Are Still On Trial – Mona Chollet

The Vulture – Gerard Woodward

Tomorrow’s People: The Future Of Humanity In Ten Numbers – Paul Morland

Lurex – Denise Riley

The Greatest Invention: A History Of The World In Nine Mysterious Scripts – Silvia Ferrara

Who Are We Now? Stories Of Modern England – Jason Cowley

The Book Of Minds – Philip Ball

Sea Of Tranquility – Emily St. John Mandel

 

Profile Books

The Social Lives Of Animals: How Co-Operation Conquered The Natural World – Ashley Ward

Tickets For The Ark: From Wasps To Whales – How Do We Choose What To Save? – Rebecca Nesbit

Strandings: Confessions Of A Whale Scavenger – Peter Riley

How To Live With Each Other: An Anthropologist’s Notes On Sharing A Divided World – Farhan Samanani

Tenants: The People On The Frontline Of Britain’s Housing Crisis – Vicky Spratt

Everybody Hertz: The Amazing World Of Frequency, From Bad Vibes To Good Vibrations – Richard Mainwaring

Geography Is Destiny: Britain’s Place In The World, A 10,000-Year History – Ian Morris

Chums: How A Tiny Group Of Oxford Tories Took Over Britain – Simon Kuper

Mathematical Intelligence: What We Have That Machines Don’t – Junaid Mubeen

The Celts: The Fall And Rise Of An Idea – Simon Jenkins

 

Quercus

The Chaos Machine: The Inside Story Of How Social Media Rewired Our Minds And Our World – MAX FISHER

 

Reaktion Books

Hope and Fear: Modern Myths, Conspiracy Theories and Pseudo-History – Ronald H. Fritze

Polling UnPacked: The History, Uses and Abuses of Political Opinion Polls – Mark Pack

 

Sandstone Press

The Year the World Went Mad: A Scientific Memoir – Mark Woolhouse

 

Saraband

Ring Of Stone Circles – Stan L Abbott

North Country – Karen Lloyd

 

Summersdale

Riding Out – Simon Parker

The Best British Travel Writing Of The 21St Century – Jessica Vincent

 

Tor

Eyes Of The Void – Adrian Tchaikovsky

The Kaiju Preservation Society – John Scalzi

 

Two Roads

An Atlas Of Endangered Animals – Megan McCubbin

Devorgilla Days A Memoir Of Hope And Healing – Kathleen HartWindswept: Walking In The Footsteps Of Remarkable Women – Annabel Abbs

 

Viking

How The World Really Works: A Scientist’s Guide To Our Past, Present, And Future – Vaclav Smil

A Black Boy At Eton – Dillibe Onyeama

This Way To The Universe: A Journey Into Physics – Michael Dine

Birds And Us: A 12,000 Year History, From Cave Art To Conservation – Tim Birkhead

 

Vintage

Pharmacopoeia – Derek Jarman

 

W&N

The Cure For Sleep – Tanya Shadrick

Control: The Dark History And Troubling Present Of Eugenics – Adam Rutherford

Spring Tides: A Story From A Small Island – Fiona Gell

The Ballast Seed: A Memoir Of Motherhood, Nature And Staying Afloat – Rosie Kinchen

 

Wellcome Collection

Dark And Magical Places: The Neuroscience Of How We Navigate – Christopher Kemp

This Book Is A Plant: How To Grow, Learn And Radically Engage With The Natural World – Various

Am I Normal: The 200-Year Search For Normal People (And Why They Don’t Exist) – Sarah Chaney

 

William Collins

The Sloth Lemur’s Song: Madagascar from the Deep Past to the Uncertain Present – Alison Richard

Origin Africa – Jonathan Kingdon

Black Holes – Brian Cox & Jeff Forshaw

Enough: The Violence Against Women and How to End It – Harriet Johnson

Where The Seals Sing – Susan Richardson

In Search Of One Last Song – Patrick Galbraith

To Cure All Ills – Camper English

Platypus Matters – Jack Ashby

How To Speak Whale – Tom Mustill

Where My Feet Fall – Duncan Minshall

The Social Machine – Justin Hampston-Jones

Nazi Billionaires – David de Jong

 

Any that take your fancy? And are there any that you know about that you think that I should know too? Let me know in the comments below.

November 2021 Review

07/12/2021 / / 2 Comments

November came and went really quickly as it always does and now we are headlong into the season of good cheer, oversized credit card bills and eating too much. If you were to look carefully you might still see a religious festival in there somewhere, but maybe not… Anyway, you’re here for the books. I hope. I only managed to get through 13 last month and I am not sure why, some books that I would have normally read in a day or so took three or fours days. However, it was a good month for reading with two books of the month and I even managed t do a whole week of reviews for an author, Dervla Murphy.

First up is a book about the much-overlooked Index that is often at the back of the books that I read. I do use them occasionally, but mostly not. How they came about is quite fascinating, but this did feel a bit like an academic paper to be honest.

I am not a great fan of gothic fantasy, but was fortunate enough to receive this from the publisher, so I thought that I would give it a go. It is a fictionalised account of some real events and people that took place in Ireland in 1914. It is not bad book overall and it you love this type of book it will be right up your street.

As a species we are defined by what we discard. Every other one on the planet manages to ensure that everything is useful and can be consumed or used by everything up and down the food chain. In this book, Lisa Wollett tells the story of her family and their work collecting rubbish and ties it in with a strong environmental message. Though it was really good for a ‘rubbish book’…

The very word witch is enough to strike horror into the minds of some people, but in the very readable book, Jennifer Lane takes us through her year as a witch and some of the rituals that she uses to maintain her balance with the natural world.

In a similar vein, Fex Inkwright uses all sorts of plants to heal and perform folk magic. This is her guide to the mysteries of plants and it is a beautifully produced book.

100 Poets is a really good introduction to the work of a large number of different poets. I have several now that I want to read, but I did think that it was lacking more modern poets.

I would highly recommend this book by Tharik Hussainif you want to expand your reading to see Europe in another light and understand what a melting pot of people, cultures and religions that it has been for hundreds of years. It is about his trip around the Balkans learning how the Muslims of Europe are living today and as he has his family along too, it is a refreshingly different travel book.

Dervla Murphy turned 90 in November and as a mini tribute to her, I wrote a little piece here and reviewed five of her books, four of which I read in November. Each of these books below tells us a lot about her as well as the places that she travels to. I can recommend all of them.

   

   

 

My two books of the month could not be any different. First is London Incognito, a sideways look at our capital peering through the gaps where some people would rather you wouldn’t look..

My second is by the master, Terry Pratchett, his take on a crime that is unforgivable with the usual cast of characters.

   

Any that take your fancy here? Or have you read them before? Tell me what you think about them in the comments below

December 2021 TBR

06/12/2021 / / 2 Comments

December is flying by already. This was supposed to come out a few days ago, but last week was Dervla Murphy week on the blog, hence why this is delayed.

So this month is a much shorter TBR. I have 10 books to go on my Good Reads Challenge of 190 books for the year and then I want to start getting ahead for next year by reading some of the monsters that I have around the house. So these are the final books of the year below. I have two seasonal / Christmassy books in the pile and then a list of the big books that I am hoping to make some inroads too. The only spanner in the works is library reservations as when I went to renew last time four others were reserved, so they have gone on the list…

 

The Shepherds Crown – Terry Pratchett

The Intimate Resistance – Josep Maria Esquirol Tr. Douglas Suttle

Extraction to Extinction –  David Howe

Troubled Water – Jens Mühling Tr. Simon Pare

The Art Of More – Michael Brooks

River Kings – Cat Jarman

Treasure Of Folklore: Seas And Rivers – Dee Dee Chainey & Willow Winsham

Nests – Susan Ogilvy

 

Christmas Books

Mistletoe Winter – Roy Dennis

Sunless Solstice – Ed. Lucy Evans & Tanya Kirk

 

BIG Books

The Sea Is Not Made Of Water – Adam Nicholson

Finding the Mother Tree – Suzanne Simard

Mordew – Alex Pheby

Putin’s People – Catherine Belton

The Border  – Erika Fatland Tr. Kari Dickson

Elephant Complex: Travels In Sri Lanka – John Gimlette

Lotharingia – Simon Winder

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

Concretopia – John Grindrod

The Night Lies Bleeding –  M.D. Lachlan

Opened Ground Poems 1966 – 1996 – Seamus Heaney

Survival of the City – Edward Glaeser & David Cutler

The Metal Heart – Caroline Lea

Britain Alone – Philip Stephens

The Germans and Europe – Peter Millar

Tweet Of The Day – Brett Westwood & Stephen Moss

Women On Nature – Katherine Norbury

Any here that you have heard of or that take your fancy?

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