Notes from a Small Island

Sue put me on to Bill Bryson’s work and I’m glad she did. He cracks me up. This book chronicles seven weeks touring England by rail and by foot. It is not a reverent tour, though when he does enjoy something he will gush. Mostly he’s poking fun, often at himeself, in a cheeky manner. The set up for his stories does have a predictable rhythm, two steps to the left, one to the right, a delicate pause...

New York, the novel

Sent by Virginia for Christmas, by Rutherfurd, the author of The Forest, Sarum, London etc. Easy reading but lots of history.

Sharpe’s Company

A series of books about a British private, sergeant, lieutenant, captain etc. Richard Sharpe fighting in the early 1800s against Bonaparte and chums. Just finished the third book (in the order written, but not chronological) I listened to the first two from Audible.com Randy got me started on this saga knowing that we both enjoyed the Horatio Hornblower story. It’s a log of fun but I’m beginning to...

The Year of the Flood

The Oryx and Crake for women. I do like her later books better than the earlier, although A Handmaid’s Tale is probably still my favorite. This one is tough to crack into, but is speeding up. I’m still haunted by a reference in O&C about the mutated chicken-nobs. It sends shivers down my spine. I hope not to find them here too.

Time Traveller’s Wife

Started and finished in one day. Could not put it down, caught from the very first pages. Having seen the previews for the movie I had Eric Bana in my head the whole time…. not a bad thing, I’ll admit. Everyone who knows me, knows that I generally abhor time travel, and this book had its moments where I said out loud “hey…waitaminute…that can’t be right…”. And there...

Brave New World

I’m posting this after having finished. Far too bizarre to comment. (In dreamy hypno therapy tones…”I’m sure glad that I’m not a Delta or an Epsilon”)

An Edible History of Humanity

The history of food. Agriculture – humanity’s worst mistake ever, so the author tells us. We were better off as foragers with more free time, less labour, better health, taller, stronger, etc. etc. And corn (George’s people call it maize). Did we shape it over the years to suit us better? Or did corn take advantage of humans so it could leave Mexico and cover the entire planet? Food as a weapon-...

Survival of the Sickest

Subtitled: “A Medical Maverick discovers why we need disease” Interesting (why do we have diabetes? To keep us alive during an ice age) until it reached the mitochondria and jumping dna code and my brain went “huh?” Semi aquatic ancestors made our nostrils face down…. did you know that?

Lucy Maud Montgomery – The gift of wings

Biography that ‘looks far beyond her own published journals’. There was a lot of stress in this woman’s life – loopy husband, crooked publisher, lazy sons. It’s amazing she was able to write what she did.

The Big Year

A tale of Man, Nature, and Fowl Obsession Following several birdwatchers attempting a “Big Year” where they race to spot more birds than the next guy. Some catalogue with cameras… (the birdwatcher) joined the circle around the bird and put his camera in. He took his camera out. He put his camera in and clicked it all about. He got his Yellow Rail and he turned himself around. That, he thought, is...