September 2011 Archives

Andrea Levy's telling of slavery in Jamaica, spanning the decades in the middle of the 19th century when Great Britain abolished slavery across its empire.

Amazon.co.uk link: The Long Song - Andrea Levy

"In the minutes before sleep, a shadowy melancholy descends: the bewilderment when something long awaited has gone."

A very personal account of Colin Thubron's pilgrimage to Mount Kailas; a slighter, but deeper, volume than usual.

Read it if you're going to do the kora: you'll gain an understanding not simply of the physical demands, but also the spiritual significance of this mountain for Buddhists, Hindus, Jain and Bon. I wish I had.

It's also made me want to reread A Stranger in Tibet: The Adventures of a Zen Monk, Scott Berry's account of the life and travels of Kawaguchi Ekai, a Japanese zen monk who travelled to Tibet in the opening years of the 20th century. Kawaguchi is mentioned a lot in Colin Thubron's account, and he (Kawaguchi) also lived in Marpha, Nepal, for a while - we passed his house on the Annapurna Circuit.

Amazon.co.uk link: To A Mountain In Tibet - Colin Thubron

Running out of reading in Walton, I picked up this West Wing-esque political blockbuster. A page turner, but the main female character sits uneasily with me.

Amazon.co.uk link: Favourite Son - Steve Sohmer

Interconnected short stories, riffing off Ovid's Metamorphoses, and Joss Wheadon's Buffy the vampire slayer.

Marvellous.

Amazon.co.uk link: Not The End Of The World - Kate Atkinson

"Inspired" by the life of the wife of Charles Dickens - although you can happily read this book on Victorian morals, marriage and literary London life in ignorance of that fact.

Amazon.co.uk link: Girl In A Blue Dress - Gaynor Arnold

The Kellaway family migrate from rural Dorsetshire to Georgian Lambeth, finding their feet and making new friends amidst the factories and fields of the south London suburb, as the French revolution raises tensions and rabbles whilst Astley's circus brings excitement and danger closer to home.

Amazon.co.uk link: Burning Bright - Tracy Chevalier