Oooh I’ve not done one of these for a while! I’ve acquired
some lovely books recently though so thought that I would share them with you:
H is for Hawk by Helen Macdonald (Vintage) This kept popping
up on people’s blogs and only ever with positive comments so thought it was
time I gave it a go.
As a child, Helen Macdonald was determined to become a
falconer, learning the arcane terminology and reading all the classic books.
Years later, when her father died and she was struck deeply by grief, she
became obsessed with the idea of training her own goshawk. She bought Mabel for
£800 on a Scottish quayside and took her home to Cambridge, ready to embark on
the long, strange business of trying to train this wildest of animals.
H is for Hawk is an unflinchingly honest account of
Macdonald’s struggle with grief during the difficult process of the hawk’s
taming and her own untaming. This is a book about memory, nature and nation,
and how it might be possible to reconcile death with life and love.
The Coffin Path, A Ghost Story by Katherine Clements
(Headline, 8th February 2018) I am a complete sucker for a good
ghost story and this one sounded perfect with Halloween coming up!
Maybe you’ve heard tales about Scarcross Hall, the house on
the old coffin path that winds from village to moor top. They say there’s
something up there, something evil.
Mercy Booth isn’t frightened. The Moors and Scarcross are
her home and lifeblood. But, beneath her certainty, small things are beginning
to trouble her. Three ancient coins missing from her father’s study, the
shadowy figure out by the gatepost, an unshakable sense that someone is
watching.
When a stranger appears seeking work, Mercy reluctantly
takes him in. As their stories entwine, this man will change everything. She
just can’t see it yet.
Genuine Fraud by E. Lockhart (Hot Key Books, 7th September) I’ve not read the previous book by this author but it got a huge
amount of praise and attention so I’m looking forward to trying this one.
Imogen is a runaway heiress, an orphan, a cook and a cheat.
Jule is a fighter, a social chameleon and an athlete.
An intense friendship. A disappearance. A murder, or maybe
two.
A bad romance, or maybe three.
Blunt objects, disguises, blood and chocolate. The American
dream, superheroes, spies and villains.
A girl who refuses to give people what they want from her.
A girl who refuses to be the person she once was.
How to Stop Time by Matt Haig (Canongate) I have read Matt
Haig’s book Reasons to Stay Alive which I thought was excellent and I wanted to
try his fiction next and this has been getting rave reviews!
Tom Hazard has a dangerous secret. He may look like an
ordinary 41-year-old, but owing to a rare condition, he’s been alive for
centuries. From Elizabethan England to Jazz-Age Paris, from New York to the
South Seas, Tom has seen a lot, and now craves an ordinary life.
Always changing his identity to stay alive, Tom has the
perfect cover- working as a history teacher at a London comprehensive. Here he
can teach the kids about wars and witch hunts as if he’d never witnessed them
first-hand. He can try to tame the past that is fast catching up with him. The
only thing Tom must not do is fall in love.
How to Stop Time is a wild and bittersweet story about
losing and finding yourself, about the certainty of change and about the
lifetimes it can take to learn how to live.
Let me know if you’ve read any of these and what you
thought, plus if you have any book recommendations then they are always
appreciated!
2 comments:
The Coffin Path sounds great :)
Thanks Nikki- have seen a few very positive reviews too!
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