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 …
Continue reading Mindscapes—A Canvas of Emotions in a Special World: Neena Rao
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 …
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, …
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 …
Continue reading Alphabetical—How Every Letter Tells a Story: Michael Rosen
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 …
Published by Tin Gate, 2023, 469 pages. Sometimes so-called ordinary people lead extraordinary lives. The two people at the centre of this memoir are among these: Robert W. Norris and his mother, Kay Murphy Schlinkman. Norris writes about his life, weaving it with his mother’s, someone who influenced him deeply and with whom he formed …
Published by John Murray, 2016, 328 pages. I have always loved colour, from the time my mother gave me a set of colour pencils as a child. Colours are an essential part of our world, whether it’s the blue of a cloudless sky or the brown of the earth; the yellow signage on roads, or …
Continue reading The Secret Lives of Colour: Kassia St. Clair
Translated from Spanish by Fionn PetchPublished by Charco Press, 2020, 111 pages. Original version published in 2017. “But have we not heard this in countless songs that begin all over again after a refrain? Or when the volume gradually fades, giving the impression that the band is disappearing into the distance and the song is …
The Earth Beneath My Feet and On Sacred Ground: Andrew TerrillPublished by Enchanted Rock Press, 2021, 357 pages / 2022, 397 pages. “Finding places that called as though I belonged was one of the reasons I’d started The Walk. ... In truth, I was walking to be somewhere, not get somewhere. My goal was to …
Continue reading From Calabria, Italy, to North Cape, Norway: A Walk through Europe’s Wild Places
Published by Top Shelf, 2019, 208 pages. After the attack on Pearl Harbour by the Japanese on 7 December 1941, the US government declared that all people of Japanese origin were “enemy aliens”, including those who were US citizens. They were rounded up and incarcerated. The assumption was that their race made them “nonassimilable” and …
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