Translated from Norwegian by Becky L. CrookPublished by Penguin, 2017, 144 pages. Original version published in 2016. “Whenever I am unable to walk, climb or sail away from the world, I have learned to shut it out.“Learning this took time. Only when I understood that I had a primal need for silence was I able …
Category: Non-Fiction
Owls of the Eastern Ice—The Quest to Find and Save the World’s Largest Owl: Jonathan C. Slaght
Published by Allen Lane / Ferrar, Strauss and Giroux, 2020, 348 pages “This dishevelled mass of wood-chip brown regarded us warily with electric-yellow eyes. ... It was clearly an owl, but bigger than any I’d seen, about the size of an eagle but fluffier and more portly, with enormous ear tufts. Backlit by the hazy …
Women’s Travel Book Reviews
Have you been wondering why almost all the travel books on this site are by men? That is because, since 2013, I have been writing reviews of travel books by women for the website Women on the Road. Now that Women on the Road has been discontinued, I am moving the reviews, a few at …
Driving Over Lemons—An Optimist in Andalucía: Chris Stewart
Published by Sort Of Books, 1999, 247 pages. In 1988, Chris Stewart and his wife Ana bought an old, remote farm in Las Alpujarras in the Sierra Nevada foothills of Andalucía. This is the first book in his trilogy about living on their farm, El Valero. Chris, a former Genesis drummer, doesn’t pretend that living …
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Abid Hasan Safrani—Netaji’s Comrade-in-Arms: Compiled by Ismat Mehdi and Shehbaz Safrani
Published by Orient BlackSwan, 2023, 148 pages. “Abid Hasan Safrani...was a quiet revolutionary who kept himself out of the limelight even while being present at every vital scene and moment of the final phase of our freedom struggle...”—Sugata Bose, Foreword First of all, full disclosure: Ismat Mehdi is my aunt. So this book is personal …
Mindscapes—A Canvas of Emotions in a Special World: Neena Rao
Published by Margika—An NGO for Special Needs Children, 2022, 249 pages. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), one in four people faces challenges in the functioning of their body or mind. Many of them start experiencing these challenges— autism, for example, or a physical disability—before they are 25. However, this does not mean that …
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The Order of Time: Carlo Rovelli
Translated from Italian by Erica Segre and Simon CarnellPublished by Penguin, 2018, 214 pages. Original version published in 2017. What is time? The idea that there is a “now” throughout the cosmos, that the past is behind us and the future is open: these are ways in which we think of time. But the reality …
The Panama Papers—Breaking the Story of How the Rich and Powerful Hide Their Money: Bastian Obermayer and Frederik Obermaier
Translated from German by Simon Pare, Seiriol Dafydd, Alice Paul and Jackie Smith.Published by OneWorld, 2017, 390 pages. Original version published in 2016. In 2016, the world was rocked by the scandal known as the Panama Papers, the revelation that many of the world’s richest people—including politicians, those in the worlds of entertainment and sports, …
Alphabetical—How Every Letter Tells a Story: Michael Rosen
Published by John Murray, 2013, 431 pages. Can you imagine a world without alphabets? They are such an essential part of our lives; the letters help us form words to express ourselves and communicate with others. Take, for example, the “English” alphabet—which is what Michael Rosen’s book is about. It feels like it has been …
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Finding Me: Viola Davis
Published by HarperOne / Coronet, 2022, 293 pages. “Everybody has secrets. Everybody. I guess the difference is that we either die with them and let them eat us up, or we put them out there, wrestle with them (or they wrestle with us) until we . . . reconcile. Secrets are what swallow us.” In …
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