Growing up in the 60s and early 70s, on a working class estate on the south edge of Edinburgh that was gradually being abandoned, where all the traditional industries that sustained the community had disappeared, it was difficult to see myself in the children’s fiction of the era. I eventually found Kes but that was …
Biography
Vesper Flights
Helen Macdonald. Vintage. (272p) ISBN 9780099575467 I’ve just returned to work after almost nine months of furlough and decided to use the walk to and from work as an opportunity to listen to audiobooks now that I’m enjoying them. Vesper Flights by Helen Macdonald was the first of my walking books, and I’ve been saving …
Hungry
Grace Dent. HarperCollings. (304p) ISBN 9780008333188 I was lucky enough to get an advanced reading copy of Hungry from Hachette and was so pleased when it arrived almost the next day. It was going to be my whole reading for a whole weekend and I was going to savour it to the full, taking bite-sized …
Little Leaders: Bold Women in Black History
Vashti Harrison. Penguin. (96p) ISBN 9780241346846 Another great addition to the short history type books that are being developed on a lot of different subjects but especially so on women who’ve been hidden from history. As the name states this book is about black women in history, mainly from the 18th century up until recent …
Women in Science: 50 Fearless Pioneers Who Changed the World
Rachel Ignotofsky. Hachette. (128p) ISBN 9781526360519 I asked for a reading copy of this as I was intrigued by the cover art work, it looked so beautiful. I am also highly interested in shining a light on women that have been hidden from history, either through the roles that they were allowed to have in …
Lost Japan
Alex Kerr. Penguin. (256p) ISBN 9780141979748 This was a random pickup mainly because I had been reading a lot of translated Japanese literary fiction when I bought this, and like all books I had it kicking around the house for quite a while before I eventually got around to reading it. Alex takes us on …