The January Man: A Year of Walking Britain by Christopher Somerville

When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi

 
At the age of thirty-six, on the verge of completing a decade’s worth of training as a neurosurgeon, Paul Kalanithi was diagnosed with stage IV lung cancer. One day he was a doctor making a living treating the dying, and the next he was a patient struggling to live.

I loved the overall message of the book - make life as meaningful as you can in the time you have.

At times the book felt quite clinical, although the part written by his wife post his death was written from the heart! 

It never felt a self-pitying but is beautifully written and insightful. 

The Book of Barely Imagined Beings: A 21st-century Bestiary by Caspar Henderson

The Brain: The Story of You by David Eagleman

 
It is quite a basic book, only scratching the surface of neuroscience. But if you are looking for a well written & accessible introduction into the brain it is great way to start.

Howards End is on the Landing: A year of reading from home by Susan Hill

Reaching Down the Rabbit Hole: Extraordinary Journeys into the Human Brain by Allan Ropper and Brian David Burrell

I read this because I'd heard it serialised on radio 4 but, although I really wanted to like this book because I am interested in Neuroscience - I didn't!
I found this book patronising in tone and very self-congratulatory - possibly because it was American but I had expected it to be more like Oliver Sacks' writing!

Wildwood: A Journey Through Trees by Roger Deakin

I loved this book with its descriptions of the people who love trees and have let their lives be shaped by the woods around them. Some of these are artists, such as Margaret Mellis who fashions collages out of driftwood or David Nash who creates large scale sculpture in wood.

Deakin gives a glimpse as well into the relationship between mankind and the woods on a global scale in his travels, from New South Wales to Kazakhstan.

The chapters are very diverse in subject matter, while still being linked by the overall theme of wood/trees. 

It is beautifully written, deeply insightful and dotted with captivating anecdotes!

SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome by Mary Beard

This is the story of how Rome grew, covering 1000 years of Roman history;
giving the reader a feel for what it was like to live in Rome at the different times.

A general history book of over 500 pages can be a slog, but SPQR is fast moving!

The book is instead a precise explication of what it is we know about specific selected events in Roman history, what it is we do not know, and why we do or do not know.

I enjoyed the book and the way it organised its topics in Chronology and the way dealt with political aspects of Rome and at the same time intergrated ordinary life for Romans and their subjects both rich and poor.  

The author also makes an interesting distinction between "learning from the Romans" vs. "engaging with the Romans history"
Rome was built. Mary Beard’s sweep of events goes beyond the consuls, senators, generals and emperors to cover the lives of their spouses, the middle class, the poor, and the slaves.

Adventures in Human Being by Gavin Francis

 

This is an anatomy book for a non-medical audience that talks about the human body in highly accessible manner, with minimal jargon and many medical stories.  It starts with your head and ends where else at your feet  
I loved the parts where Francis described his patients and the quirky facts about our organs and body parts that are "insider info" not common knowledge. 

He tried to combine other disciplines to the chapters which sometimes made the chapters feel disjointed. 

It is not a long book and some chapters left me wanting more detail.

Notes from Walnut Tree Farm by Roger Deakin

I loved this book. It is full of close observation of the countryside and its seasons.

The notes range from quite short observations, or thoughts of a few sentences to the occasional longer account over a page or so of some peculiar adventure or happening. All of the notes are taken from exercise books that Deakin kept during his last 6 years, being put together for this book posthumously. He died in 2006 and most of the notes are about his home of 30 years in Suffolk, living, working on and exploring the land and countryside of his farm.

It contains such beautiful words - Deakin's lovely evocations of place and mood builds up a gorgeous and very alive portrait of where he lived and the passage of the seasons.

it was a shame though that the editors combined the 6 years that the authors notes covered into one just one, rather than allowing the changes in thoughts appear as the years passed as it lead to somewhat disjointed reading.

The Green Road Into The Trees by Hugh Thomson

 
Thomson undertakes a walk the Ichnield Way, an ancient path. He starts in Abbotsbury in Dorset, at the far end of the Fleet, and crosses Dorset and Wiltshire continually passing hill forts, barrows, mound, stone circles and other glimpses of prehistoric and bronze age life in this country. The journey takes him across the country to Norfolk where he end his walk at the place where Seahenge was excavated from.

I quite enjoyed it, as it combined interesting subjects, history and travel, and the writing is effortless to read.

I enjoyed less the personal bits he added; about his divorce, and of friends past.

He is also funny and opinionated which means he probably upset a lot of the people who read this... if fact he has included a rejection letter at the end of the book where the rejector lists everybody he manages to insult. Had me chuckling, a really good letter.

Rain: Four Walks in English Weather by Melissa Harrison

The author actively sought out the rain and drizzle on her four walks around Wicken Fen in the Winter, near a village in Shropshire in the Spring then the Darent Valley during the summer and a damp Dartmoor in Autumn.

She is able to convey the finest detail of her surroundings without a single wasted word of prose. I like the way she pulls snippets and facts into the narrative whilst still keeping it personal and familiar. In each of the walks the rain falls and she describes the sights, sounds and feelings of being there. I found it all charming from the quotes about rain from the past, the folklore on thunder and lightning, and then I learned some facts I never knew about ants and birds among other creatures.

 However, there is ONLY four walks covered and only 88 pages of actual book.

A Short History of England by Simon Jenkins

   

It's a concise illustrated brief history of England (not Britain) since the beginning of times (after the Romans left) to the present, quite up-to-date, considering.

It helped me to give some order to my weak understanding of British history

Due to the conciseness it feels more like a list of names and dates, simply listing the names of kings, the dates of battles, and occasionally makes a comment on the culture or economy of the time.

City of Thorns: Nine Lives in the World's Largest Refugee Camp by Ben Rawlence

 


I found this to be a gripping insight into the lives of people living in a refugee camp.

This is a huge culture shock, and I think that was ultimately the point. I had no idea this refugee camp existed, let alone that it is the largest ever. I had no idea there were so many disadvantaged people, with limited resources and an expansive population boom.
However, at times it was confusing to read as it jumps from person to person, and I had a hard time separating what was an overall review of current events and what was specific to one person's circumstances.

Human Universe by Professor Brian Cox and Andrew Cohen

 
The book helps the non-physics graduate catch up with hard science - it is a
fascinating and enjoyable read about mind-boggling facts and discoveries relating to our universe.

Cox and Cohen look at five basic questions - where are we? are we alone? who are we? why are we here (not meaning why some man in a beard decided to put us here but what are the conditions that enabled our existence) and, the weakest section, what is our future?

 

Down To The Sea In Ships: Of Ageless Oceans and Modern Men by Horatio Clare

t is a fascinating book to read as Clare gets to the heart of the shipping industry and the people that run these ships.

 

It covers almost everything the layman could want to know about container ships and how they operate in two sections: To the East and West and North. 

The two sections cover different size ships and the lives of the crews at sea while also throwing in the different pay rates for Filipinos and other nations, women at sea, how the author and the seamen feel about their ships and the work they do, hazards of the work and the two World Wars. 

All this in 348 pages making for a very interesting read.

Creating learning without limits by Mandy Swann

“I create the conditions and they do the learning.” 

This book reports on a school that challenged the thinking of fixed ability and grouping children by their ability. 
It focused on giving children a role in devleoping their learning by suggesting how they could learn, what they wanted to learn and how much support they would need to get there.
It reiterated how important it is to give children ownership of their work and to work for a purpose.

This book is very readable and not heavy on the theory. It left me wanting to go and watch the process in action.

Ebola: The Natural and Human History by David Quammen

 

This is a very easy read telling of the medical and biological features of Ebola in a non-hysterical manor.

It is a small book that covers a lot concisely, with enough detail of what we know and what we need to know.  I am looking forward to reading the longer book, Spillover, where this formed a chapter.

The Magic Apple Tree by Susan Hill

A book read for the book club, although I later found my Mum had read it when she was my age and did so because her dad had read it and recommend it.

I like how it was organised into seasons with when to plant what and how to avoid neighbours you don't want to talk, although there are some random recipes which I felt made me lose the flow of the narrative.
It tells the story of everyday life in a small country community.

I am not sure why her apple tree was magical. 

Me, Myself and Us by Brian Little

 

This book provides a well-grounded introduction to the "Big Five" personality dimensions (Conscientiousness, Agreeableness, Neuroticism. Openness and Extroversion). Understanding these tendencies in ourselves and others can provide valuable insights into behaviour, helping us to be realistic in our expectations, to avoid misinterpreting the behaviours of others, and to recognize that environments and settings interact with personality to influence actions.

 A good introduction to the subject of personality subject.

There was a number of  anecdotes and examples used to illustrate the personality factors. 

It allows for reflecting, questioning, and learning about ourselves and others we interact with. 

There’s no groundbreaking research, and the book is not a self-help manual.