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 …
Book Review
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 …
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 …
In Praise of the Garrulous
A wonderfully, garrulous account of language and its development, but also a warning on where our language could go if we aren’t careful. Love of words, sounds and the full gamut of the English language is sung out loud here, and that song is a rallying cry for those who also love the language as …
The Swallowed Man
Whilst on Furlough 1.0™ I kept seeing this bandied about Twitter and was fascinated by the concept, but the main draw was the stunning cover I kept seeing flashed up on screen. Imagine my delight when I returned to work for that month holiday from lockdown to find it there in the staff room waiting …