Reading challenge

This month my local library service has launched a reading challenge for adults that has me intrigued. Now, I've always struggled with reading books because I have to - prize winners and the latest "best-thing-since-... " tend to pass me by until all the hype dies down and unlike many librarians I've never felt comfortable with joining a reading group for personal reading although I've helped launch and pick books for many in my time and know they bring a lot of joy and satisfaction to many people.

It's probably my own control freak tendencies kicking in but I also tend to think - so many books, so little time, why force yourself to finish something just because? Having said that, contrary creature that I am, I do like a recommendation, a "have you tried" or an "I like this and thought it might appeal". In fact some of my favourite reads of the year have come via your blogs, twitter recommendations and the like - so thank you to everyone who takes the time to list what they've read, review it or even just add a picture of their bookshelves to their posts.

So what's intriguing about this challenge? It doesn't give you a list of specific books but of themes or starting points - a book set somewhere you have never been, a book you've lied about reading, a book that starts with a crime and so on for 25 different possibilities including the super-odd, a book the cat would approve of!  As a down-side it looks like a lot of the chatty activity will be going on on Facebook and I don't play with Facebook but they have a blog and twitter too. So, as I seem to be reading a lot anyway at the moment I think I'm going to have a play. I'll keep track on here using the label "Library reading challenge 2019"and post links to anything shared on their site that I think others might like.

Watch this space....

Book Review - Diane Setterfield - Once upon a river

"A dark midwinter’s night. The Swan, an ancient inn on the banks of the Thames. The regulars are entertaining themselves by telling stories when the door bursts open on an injured stranger.

 In his arms is the corpse of a drowned child.

Hours later the dead girl stirs, takes a breath and returns to life. Is it a miracle? Is it magic? Or can it be explained by science?

And who exactly is the little girl? As news spreads of the child who drowned and lived again, three families come to claim her, and the stories of three lost girls (and a missing pig) come to light. In the background is the river itself: powerful, unknowable, lifegiving and lifetaking.

There is talk of a ferryman who appears to those who get into trouble on the river … But at the Swan Inn, is anything ever just a story?"

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Yet again I can't remember where I saw this mentioned but I am so glad I added it to the wish-list. Once upon a river is a beautifully-crafted tale that weaves in and out of the lives of people living along the river and the mysterious tale of the girl who died but didn't that emerges over the course of a year. At turns fabulous and ethereal yet it also feels firmly rooted in the everyday lives of farmers, villagers and innkeepers, villains and gentlefolk. Re-counting both the cruelty and kindnesses that ordinary people visit on each other, it has been a wonderful read. There is blackmail, murder and kidnap here but there is also love, redemption and hope. The river is at the heart of everything and the story twists and turns along it, pulling you very willingly with it. It is most definitely set in the past and has that rooted feel of a story that could have been told around all manner of Winter firesides for a very long time. As you may have guessed, Once upon a river has really resonated with me and will be something I'll want to savour for a while before moving on to another story.

Borrowed as an e-book from the library app so no pretty cover pictures to share I'm afraid but a link to the author's website is here and the ISBNs for those that prefer to hunt that way: Ebook: ISBN 9781473555815; Paperback ISBN 9780857525659.

This is the author's third novel and I will definitely be looking at the other two - The thirteenth tale and Bellman & Black - but maybe not straightaway.

Book review - John Lewis-Stempel - The wood - the life and times of Cockshutt Wood

"A wood is different to a forest. A wood is wild, but not so wild it is frightening. You cannot get physically lost in a wood, only spiritually and imaginatively absorbed." from the Preface.

This morning I finished reading John Lewis-Stempel's  - The wood. I've seen his writing recommended in several places and thought it was time to dip my toes. A diary based on his last year living with a mixed woodland as part of his farm in Herefordshire it's peppered with beautiful haunting imagery, practical observations, wry humour, poetry, quotations and even the odd recipe. This is wood managed in the old way - livestock is grazed here, "pests" shot and usually eaten, wood and other crops harvested and room made for nature in a practical part-of-everyday life way. It is not a woodland left to run wild, it's not a playground, it is a core part of his life.
There is joy, sadness, beauty and cruelty - after all nature does it all and this is a diary. I enjoyed the style of the writing and found it really easy to follow which was unexpected as I'm not a huge non-fiction reader by habit. The vegetarian in me wasn't offended by the hunting or husbandry descriptions - the writing is just too matter-of-fact, this is how it is, for that kind of nonsense to creep in. I also learned things in that gentle way you do when the writing is easy and facts generously shared - I didn't realise we call people crabby because of the tartness of the crab apple or that a shrew only lives for a year, I didn't know about tree hay used to supplement animal feed nor that grey squirrels will eat baby birds and eggs.

I'd also never heard this beautiful poem of Rudyard Kipling's set to music before but was inspired to see if it had on reading it in the midsummer entries:

This is a thoroughly recommended read and I think I might be heading off to find others of his soon.


There are no pictures of the book itself as I borrowed this one from my local library using their free Ebook service and as it is Libraries Week this week I thought they deserved a plug. Warwickshire use Borrow Box for Ebooks and Eaudio and I've found it really easy to use, wherever you are I'm sure  your local libraries will have similar services to supplement the traditional print ones as well as so much else going on so why not check it out?

(Disclaimer: I worked for Warwickshire Libraries until my diagnosis but that's by the by!)

Want to find a copy of the book?
Ebook ISBN:9781473542532
Print ISBN:9780857524584