Suspected of crime, Hugo runs away from home but find himself in the midst of a train crash - which he himself reflects must be a sign of divine retribution. What at first seems a simple cat-and-mouse hunt where Hugo leads our veteran detective Dominguez on an increasingly tangled chase, turns out to have some … Continue reading Urgent Matters – Paula Rodriguez
Our Neighbor, The Red Planet
Among the space titles I've read in the last few years, The Red Planet: A Natural History of Mars stands out with its approach. Rather than being about the adventures of human exploration, this book is grounded in geology and astrophysics to tell the origin story of the red planet. Mars is the protagonist, humans … Continue reading Our Neighbor, The Red Planet
Small Bodies of Water – Nina Mingya Powles
Small Bodies of Water is a collection of personal essays on being mixed-race, swimming, food, family, but most of all water. This takes the shape of literal bodies of water - seas and land edges, ponds, swimming pools, but also the water within a human body, manifestations of the mind - waves turning, weightlessness, space, … Continue reading Small Bodies of Water – Nina Mingya Powles
Nature Protection in Action: A Scurry of Squirrels by Polly Pullar
I habitually go searching for new nature writing, and one area I have been paying particular attention to is books on squirrels. You would think such an enigmatic beloved woodland creature featured in at least as much books as foxes do, alas you would be wrong. So when I heard A Scurry of Squirrels was … Continue reading Nature Protection in Action: A Scurry of Squirrels by Polly Pullar
The Eternal Season of Summer
My favourite sentence in a nature book belongs to J. A. Baker: 'The hardest of all to see is what is really there.' It particularly resonates for me in the discrepancy between the surface appearance and the actual state of nature. You could walk into a wood on a summer's day, pretty and green, and … Continue reading The Eternal Season of Summer
An I-Novel – Portrait of a Japanese immigrant
Minae Mizumura's most recent book to appear in an English translation, An I-Novel, captures a single day in 1980s America from the perspective of a Japanese immigrant. Twenty years have passed since her family moved from Japan to the US, and when the book opens she has come to the decision that she will return … Continue reading An I-Novel – Portrait of a Japanese immigrant
Spirals of Psychosis | Inferno – Catherine Cho
Inferno by Catherine Cho is another excellent example of mental illness centered memoirs to come out in the last few years. Closely following the birth of her son Cato, Catherine Cho went traveling to the US with her husband and child to visit family and friends. Some three months after Cato’s birth she falls into … Continue reading Spirals of Psychosis | Inferno – Catherine Cho
Written in Bones – Sue Black | Forensic Science and what it can tell us about human stories
Written in Bone is a chronological journey through the human body, one skeletal piece at a time. Sue Black, a forensic anthropologist, explores the different parts that make up our anatomy - in the ways that biology, history and forensic knowledge intersect. With each part explored we gain a deeper understanding into its place in … Continue reading Written in Bones – Sue Black | Forensic Science and what it can tell us about human stories
REVIEW: Untold Night and Day – Bae Suah
Bae Suah's Untold Night and Day is a hard book to read, and perhaps even harder to write about. It's hard not in terms of subject but structurally - because by its very essence, it's not a story in the singular nor is it linearly told. Instead, as the translator Deborah Smith puts it, the … Continue reading REVIEW: Untold Night and Day – Bae Suah
Nature Sciences, Gothic Mysteries, and Tree Growth | The Lie Tree – Frances Hardinge
On my quest to read my own damn books (a.k.a. the books I own and keep ignoring for any other book coming my way) I decided to give The Lie Tree by Frances Hardinge a listen through the audiobook, narrated by Emilia Fox. It was a great decision, if I do say so myself. The … Continue reading Nature Sciences, Gothic Mysteries, and Tree Growth | The Lie Tree – Frances Hardinge
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