I’ve always meant to read Anne Tyler, got several in the #TBR room waiting for me, but I got sent this as a gift and thought it was a nice thin volume to start with. From the start I was drawn into Micah’s life and his desire for simplicity in it. To this end he …
An Open Book and Empty Cup
It was a delight to receive this gorgeous book and before I even started reading I was delighted in the binding as it is so luxurious, the black with gold really catches the eye and the cloth binding makes it a pleasure to hold. Once I started reading it though I could feel the passion …
The Year of the Hare
This has been languishing on my shelves ever since I started working in the bookshop. I bought it as it was one of the recommended books in part of the initial training, an exemplar, but at the time I was still reading a relatively narrow range of genres. I got the opportunity to throw it …
Bookbinding with Angela James
Today was the day of the book binding course with Angela James at the Joe Cornish Gallery in Northallerton. I had been looking forward to this for a while now and really hoping that it would go ahead as the other one I had booked on in Newcastle was cancelled as I was the only …
The Forager’s Calendar
I picked this up at one of our local shops in Barnard Castle, Oswell’s, as I always try to buy something whenever we visit and there’s usually a great little book selection about nature and the countryside. I pretty much read this in two sittings it was that fascinating, especially since we had started to …
Imperial Mud
Living in North Yorkshire for about 20 years I had always heard strange stories about ‘The Fenmen’ from Lincolnshire and none of them were very kind, and usually very derogatory. After reading this intriguing and revealing book from James Boyce the seed of this regional rivalry became very clear. Imperial Mud explores the vast regions …
The Brilliant Abyss
Though my main reading genre at the moment is speculative fiction I really love reading well-written books on science and aspects of the planet, especially nature writing. This is a well-written book, covering one of the most unexplored areas of the planet, The Deep Abyss. In the first part of the book we explore various …