Next month Brona @ This Reading Life will be hosting a Rumer Godden Reading Week to mark the author's birthday. It will take place from Saturday 4th December to Sunday 12th December 2021. Two of her books I'm thinking of reading are 'China Court' and 'The Black Narcissus.' I especially liked her novel In This … Continue reading November Notes
2021 Reading Challenges
The Power of Geography by Tim Marshall
The Power of Geography: Ten Maps That Reveal the Future of Our World was published this year (2021) and is a sequel to Prisoners of Geography which I wrote about here.In that book Tim Marshall focused on the fact that geography has played a major role in history. In this new book he explores ten … Continue reading The Power of Geography by Tim Marshall
Vesper Flights by Helen Macdonald
Helen Macdonald is a British writer, poet, naturalist and historian of science. Vesper Flights was published in 2020 and is a collection of forty-one of short essays that point the reader to ways of seeing the world from a different perspective to their own.Hard science gives us evidence of the harm that results from our … Continue reading Vesper Flights by Helen Macdonald
Crooked House by Agatha Christie (1949)
Crooked House is one of Agatha Christie’s special favourites - she said that writing it was pure pleasure and she considered this book one of her best. “I saved it up for years, thinking about it, working it out, saying to myself: ‘one day, when I’ve plenty of time, and want to really enjoy myself- … Continue reading Crooked House by Agatha Christie (1949)
Half Lives by Lucy Jane Santos
Half Lives: The Unlikely History of Radium by Lucy Jane Santos takes the reader through a cultural history of radium. As she points out, radioactivity is everywhere - in the Earth’s crust, in our homes and even in us. It is ubiquitous and that troubles us; but this was not the case in the late … Continue reading Half Lives by Lucy Jane Santos
In Order to Live by Yeonmi Park
In Order to Live is an astonishing story of endurance, courage, and love. Yeonmi Park was thirteen years old when she and her mother escaped from North Korea. In Order to Live tells their incredible story of survival, suffering, and eventual freedom. I’ve always had a fascination with the Cold War and Communism in general, … Continue reading In Order to Live by Yeonmi Park
An Episode of Sparrows
An Episode of Sparrows is another perceptive and sensitive novel by Rumer Godden. Godden’s writing is spare and unsentimental with a gritty realism, but also much beauty. In the preface to this book she wrote: 'Finally the time came when I had to tell myself miserably, “You have squandered, muddled, and wasted everything, everything from opportunity … Continue reading An Episode of Sparrows
Gentian Hill by Elizabeth Goudge (1949)
Gentian Hill is a book that is based partly on history and partly on legend. Anthony, a fifteen year old orphan, became a midshipman in the British Navy after the unexpected death of his grandmother who had brought him up after both his parents died. The British were fighting Napoleon and Anthony, only two months … Continue reading Gentian Hill by Elizabeth Goudge (1949)
The Beekeeper of Aleppo
Aleppo was a beautiful city before the civil war brought unrest and violence to Syria. The Beekeeper of Aleppo by Christy Lefteri provides a glimpse of this beauty before the civil war swept Syria with violence and destruction. Nuri was a beekeeper and his wife an artist whose paintings of rural and urban areas of … Continue reading The Beekeeper of Aleppo
20 Books of Summer Challenge
Faking this challenge - it's winter here and I probably won't be reading 20 books but these are some I'm hoping to read: 1) The Power of Geography by Tim Marshall - I really liked his previous book, Prisoners of Geography and I was given this follow-up book for Mother's Day. … Continue reading 20 Books of Summer Challenge
journey & destination 