Translated from French by Robin MackayPublished by Polity Press, 2021, 450 pages. Original version published in 2021. In a nation-wide referendum on 23 June 2016, the British voted, by a slim majority, to leave the European Union. The process of leaving the EU was long-drawn-out and complicated. Like many people outside the UK, I developed …
Continue reading My Secret Brexit Diary—A Glorious Illusion: Michel Barnier
Published by Jonathan Ball Publishers, 2021, 256 pages. “I am not a lion whisperer. I am an ordinary wilderness guide who has simply grasped some small part of the great wisdom of wild animals and the wilderness, and learnt a little about how to share this with other humans. As a guide, I share wild …
Continue reading Black Lion—Alive in the Wilderness: Sicelo Mbatha with Bridget Pitt
Photo: GaudiLab via Shutterstock For the past nine years, I have been reviewing travel books by women for the website Women on the Road. When I first started, I realized that almost all the travel books I had read until then were by men. For me, this opened up an entire new world of incredible …
Continue reading Travelling the World: A Woman’s Perspective
Published by Hutchinson, 2016, 368 pages. “No dark fate determines the future. We do. Each day and each moment, we are able to create and re-create our lives and the very quality of human life on our planet. This is the power we wield. ... “We are sharing what two friends, from very different worlds, …
Review by Kristine GouldingPublished by Random House, 2021, 304 pages. The Anthropocene—a term that I had to Google when first faced with it—is the current geological age in which human activity has profoundly shaped the planet and its biodiversity. This book comprises a series of essays that reviews different parts of the human experience, on …
Continue reading The Anthropocene Reviewed—Essays on a Human-Centred Planet: John Green
Published by Pan Books, 2019, 398 pages. “I didn’t have a clue what I wanted to do, or even what I could do. I knew I could sing and play piano, but I clearly wasn’t pop star material. For one thing, I didn’t look like a pop star, as evidenced by my inability to carry …
Translated from Italian by Stash LuczkiwPublished by Harvill Secker and HarperOne, 2020, 137 pages. Original version published in 2018. The Snow Leopard, Peter Matthiessen’s book about his trip to the Dolpo region in the Himalayas, was published in 1978. It is a blend of travelogue, philosophy and nature writing. Almost four decades later, in 2017, …
Continue reading Without Ever Reaching the Summit: Paolo Cognetti
2021, 287 pages. “In pure mime, the artist has to depend entirely on his body on an empty stage to create an atmosphere around him, plus the characters he depicts, to tell the story without any dialogues, music, or songs, and without any external aids like props and decorations. He has to fill the stage …
Review by Susan T. LandryPublished by Penguin Random House, 2022, 400 pages. Forgive me for starting with a brief digression before I tell you about Worn by Sofi Thanhauser. There is a connection. Last summer, July 2021, I read All That She Carried by Tiya Miles, which was a literal eye-opener. She tells the story …
Continue reading Worn—A People’s History of Clothing: Sofi Thanhauser
Published by Vitasta Publishing, 2021, 148 pages. Nayana Goradia started her career writing short, catchy articles for newspapers. Her book is a collection of these articles—which appeared in a column called The Middle—in Indian newspapers such as The Statesman, The Times of India and The Hindustan Times. Her book also contains excerpts from Fly Me …
Continue reading The Middle—A Story of Love, Life & Laughter: Nayana Goradia
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