My darling Mum died in October 2017 after a short illness. Such stark words to describe so very enormous a loss. As she put it herself though, we all survive the most appalling things, things […]
Mum's Books
A journey through my Mum's library, reading, reviewing and gifting forward her beloved books
HOWARD SPRINGS – A Quarantine experience.
I saw an article recently in one of the Australian newspapers that described two weeks in the Howard Springs quarantine facility as being like ‘a holiday’…I’m going to disagree politely and describe it instead as […]
90. ‘The Midnight Library’ by Matt Haig – on day 3 of quarantine
I had seen so many people reading this book that I bought it as a ‘plane’ read for my flight home to Australia – in fact as I write, I am on Day 3 of […]
89. ‘Anna Karenina’ by Leo Tolstoy
I’m not reading this again – I have done so at least twice… although, if it doesn’t get snapped up, I may well keep it in reserve for re-reading during the compulsory fortnight of hotel […]
88. ‘The Story of the British Isles in 100 places’ by Neil Oliver
First published in 2018, this delightful book is not from Mum’s library, but it is certainly one that would have appealed to her enormously. Before her retirement from teaching, and before we lost my fabulous […]
87. ‘go set a watchman’ by harper lee… plus a copy of ‘mockingbird’
Back in April 2020, I reviewed and gifted forward Mum’s copy of ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’. Such a fine novel, first published in 1960 and one which firmly holds a place as a ‘must read’ […]
86. ‘the death zone’ by matt dickinson
A while ago I posted about the surprising quantity of mountaineering books I had found in Mum’s books, astonished to find so many volumes about a subject I had no idea she was interested in. […]
85. ‘Fraud’ by Anita Brookner
Written in 1992, and read by Mum in 1998, this is a short, and yet perfectly formed novel. The cast of characters is small and almost entirely female; the author captures both the breadth and […]
84. ‘Wild Swans’ by Jung Chang
This is an extraordinary book, one that really is hard to put down, and certainly hard to forget. I remember reading it back in the early 90’s when it was first published, and being deeply […]
83. ‘Rebecca’ by Daphne du maurier
‘Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again.’ A sentence I shall never forget, the opening line to one of the greatest, in my opinion anyway, books ever written. I love all her books, […]
82. ‘Ten Cities that made an empire’ by Tristram Hunt.
A rather brilliant non fiction volume from Mum’s bookshelves – like me, Mum was always fond of a good history book, and this is no exception. The premise is to tell the story of the […]
