A joy to read. A book of poetry unlike any other I have come across. Magical and realistic at once. Humanist and spiritual at the same time. Insightful, majestic, soaring and yet detailed and intricate.
Where Everything is Music
Category: Anthropology
The Atheist’s Mass
2 devastating stories of faith and sacrifice from Balzac's panorama of nineteenth-century French life, La Comédie Humaine.
A Man’s Head
Maigret believes he has got the wrong man. But no one else is a suspect. And the convict is about to go to the gallows.....
Citizens
This book will give the reader an understanding of the tragedy of the French Revolution. A Revolution that failed to feed the population, a Revolution that failed to protect the population from outside invaders, and a Revolution that failed to protect the population from corruption and tyranny. A failure on all accounts.
Bon Voyage, Mr President
by Gabriel Garcia Marquez ISBN: 0-14-600035-8 First published 1992 58 pages Publisher: Penguin Books (Penguin 60's) Translated by Mondadori España Cover illustration by Rosemary Woods 5 / 5 Stars A wonderful little book. With stories short enough, and good enough, to be able to read easily in the middle of the night if you have… Continue reading Bon Voyage, Mr President
The Lion Concise Atlas of Biblical History
by Paul Lawrence ISBN: 978-0-7459-5532-2 First published: 2012 173 pages Publisher: http://www.lionhudson.com Cover image: Noam Armonn / Spaces Images / Corbis 5/5 Stars A wonderful, well illustrated, well written, well structured and narratively cohesive exploration of the geography of the Christian bible. The maps are well drawn, colourful and easy to digest. However, there are… Continue reading The Lion Concise Atlas of Biblical History
A Crime in Holland
Outsiders are viewed with suspicion in the small Dutch town of Delfzijl. Unable to speak the language, Maigret must unearth the sins at the heart of this seemingly respectable community.
Rogue Moon
A disquieting and original psychological study. Rogue Moon is the story of monstrous scientific ambition matched by human obsession.
The Madness of Nero
Nero has seized control of Rome and the crown. He is willing to destroy anyone that gets in his way. no one is safe - not even his scheming mother.
The Men Who Were Sherlock Holmes
In 1839, young army officer Cecil Hambrough was murdered, unleashing one of the most gripping court cases Victorian Britain had ever known.
Tokyo Express
by Seichō Matsumoto ISBN: 978-0-241-43908-1 First published 1958 149 Pages Publisher: Penguin Cover illustration: Japan Government Railways Poster 1937 by Munetsugu Satomi 5/5 Stars Any book with a map, you know it is going to be good. But train times and schedules? And using them to solve a crime of murder? A great story by… Continue reading Tokyo Express
Satori à Paris
by Jack Kerouac ISBN: 978-2-07-296188-5 First published 1966 Translated from the English by Jean Autret 224 pages (112 English / 112 French) Publisher: folio-lesite.fr Cover photo by Giovanni Coruzzi / Leemage 4 / 5 Stars An interesting book, about Jack Kerouac trying to find his descendants in Brittany, France. This copy is part of the… Continue reading Satori à Paris
The First World War
by A.J.P. Taylor ISBN: 978-0-140-02481-4 First published 1963 287 pages Publisher: Penguin Books Cover photograph: British soldier at Ypres (Paul Popper/Popperfoto/Getty Images) 5 / 5 Stars Very interesting book, and a very useful book if you are to visit the battlefields, cemeteries and graveyards of World War in Northern France or Türkiye. And there are… Continue reading The First World War
The Cat Who Saved Books
by Sosuke Natsukawa ISBN-13: 978-1529081480 First published 2021 217 pages Publisher: http://www.picador.com Cover illustration by Yoko Tanji Translated by Louise Heal Kawai 4 / 5 Stars Interesting book about a journey of self-discovery using the concept of a labyrinth to help guide us and the protagonist towards their goal. But on a deeper level it… Continue reading The Cat Who Saved Books
The Basque History of the World
by Mark Kurlansky ISBN: 978-0-099-28413-0 First published 1999 359 pages Publisher: vintage-books.co.uk Cover illustration by Nikolai Punin 5 / 5 Stars The story of a people that has never had its own nation-state and yet has thousands of years of history. They sailed the Atlantis, not only the Bay of Biscay. They could have found… Continue reading The Basque History of the World
History Of The Cathars
A really interesting introduction to the history of the Cathar movement.
Factfulness
by Hans Rosling with Ola Rosling and Anna Rosling Rönnlund ISBN: 978-1-473-63749-8 First published 2018 329 pages Publisher: sceptrebooks.co.uk Designed by Steven Seighman 5 / 5 Stars A truly ground-breaking book. Momentous in its scale and purview. The world has developed faster than you can imagine. That is the first take-away. The second is that… Continue reading Factfulness
How I learned to understand the world
Hans Rosling was a public health educator, speaking at conferences and events across the world. When he found out he had cancer he immediately started the process of gathering his notes and starting an autobiography, which was published after his death in 2017.
Off the Map
by Alastair Bonnett ISBN: 978-1-78131-257-5 First published 2014 310 pages Publisher: Aurum Press / aurumpress.co.uk Cover image: Egbert L. Viele, David Rumsey - Historical Map Collection 4/5 Stars Interesting book about 'Lost Spaces, Invisible Cities, Forgotten Islands, Feral Places, and What They Tell Us About the World'. There are some sad stories, Twayil Abu Jarwal,… Continue reading Off the Map
Lost Capital of Byzantium
by Steven Runciman ISBN: 978-1-84511-895-2 First published 1980 144 pages Publisher: Tauris Parke Paperbooks Cover image: Hagios Nikolaos, Mistra Cover image by Vanni/CORBIS 5/5 Stars Take a trip into the past, into the last flourish of the Byzantine culture. The last cultural outpouring of a people that traced their lineage back through thousands of years,… Continue reading Lost Capital of Byzantium
The Sicilian Vespers
by Steven Runciman ISBN: 978-1-107-60474-2 First published 1958 356 pages Publisher: Cambridge University Press Cover image by Savushkin Cover design by Andrew Ward 4/5 Stars Easter 1282 a rebellion broke out on the island of Sicily against the rules of the French overlords. Within a short period all the French on the island of Sicily… Continue reading The Sicilian Vespers
Blitzed
Drugs in Nazi Germany By Norman Ohler ISBN: 978-0-141-98316-5 First published 2015 281 pages Publisher: Penguin RandomHouse UK 5/5 Stars A rather remarkable book, translated from the German by Shaun Whiteside. This book focuses on the pharmacological underpinnings of the Third Reich. With the ascent of the Nazi Party to power in 1933, recreational drugs… Continue reading Blitzed
12 Rules for Life
12 Rules for Life by Jordan B. Peterson ISBN: 978-0-241-35164-2 First published 2018 368 pages Publisher: Allen Lane, an imprint of Penguin Books Cover design by Lisa Jager 3/5 Stars 2 / 5 Stars downgraded upon review 1 / 5 Stars downgraded upon sequel release. A interesting read, spanning religion and mythology and psychology and… Continue reading 12 Rules for Life
The Kingdom of Acre
A History of the Crusades III : The Kingdom of Acre By Steven Runciman ISBN: 978-0-241-29877-0 First published 1954 401 pages Publisher : Penguin Classics Cover illustration: Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris 6/5 Stars A wonderful end to the trilogy of books written about the crusades. The attention to detail and fast pace reminded me of Stieg… Continue reading The Kingdom of Acre
The Women Who Got Away
by John Updike ISBN: 978-0-141-03293-1 First published 1953-75 106 pages Illustration by Victoria Sawdon Cover design by David Pearson Publisher: penguinclassics.com 4/5 Stars A collection of short stories by one of America's most important authors of the 20th Century, John Updike. Sexually explicit, tasteful, intriguing, realistic, poignant, Updike never stands in judgement of his characters.… Continue reading The Women Who Got Away
GOD IS NOT GREAT
How religion poisons everything By Christopher Hitchens ISBN: 978-1-74175-572-5 First published 2007 341 pages Publisher: http://www.allenandunwin.com 3.5/5 Stars An interesting read.
The Boxer Rebellion
The events of 1900 laid the foundations for a modern state and any analysis of modern China must first look book at the events of 1900.
The Family From One End Street
By Eve Garnett ISBN: 978-0-141-35550-4 303 Pages Publisher: puffinbooks.com Cover illustration by Eve Garnett 5/5 Stars A wonderful book of the Rosie and Josiah Ruggles and their 7 children. A dustman and a laundry woman making a life and a family among the working class of England. Each chapter concentrates on an adventure of one… Continue reading The Family From One End Street
Tally’s Corner
A Study of Streetcorner Men By Elliot Liebow ISBN: 978-0742-528963 166 pages Publisher: http://www.rowmanlittlefield.com Cover photo: AP/ Wide World Photos Cover design by Jeffrey W. Talley 6/5 Stars An anthropological study, written in a literary style. At its root this is a story, a story rooted in a moment, the year 1967 in Washington D.C. (It… Continue reading Tally’s Corner
The Eclectic Book Review 