What Siam is reading November 2014
So this week a book that I’ve been very excited about has finally found it’s way to me, this book is filled with positivity and inspiring quotes. It’s been put together by the two most beautiful and...
View ArticleDouble Cross by Ben Macintyre
A Peruvian girl about town, a fiercely nationalistic Polish fighter pilot, a dog obsessed temperamental French-woman, a Serbian playboy, and a Spaniard with a terrible marriage and a degree in chicken...
View ArticleFall in Love with Life by Donna Higton
I have to confess right from the start that not only have I followed Donna Higton’s blog posts for years, but I also saw a first draft copy of this book before it was published, so when the opportunity...
View ArticleI Am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up For Education And Was Shot By The Taliban...
I don’t read autobiographies. Not usually anyway. They tend to be bloated, overblown, self absorbed and entirely boring. I really don’t think I care about the childhood of yet another TV celebrity,...
View ArticleHistorical Shelfie!
It’s been a little while since the last shelfie we’ve shared, and as I have a sparkly new set of shelves, I thought I might indulge today. I’ve actually got much more space for books than I used to...
View ArticleReasons to Stay Alive by Matt Haig
GWhen author Matt Haig was 24 years old he could not imagine he would ever write this book. Suffering from severe depression, he stood on a cliff in Ibiza and contemplated killing himself. The pain of...
View ArticleWhat Should A Clever Moose Eat? by John Pastor
What Should A Clever Moose Eat? is not the usual sort of book we review here but we’re an open-minded bunch, and there is no reason to not enjoy non-fiction books just as much as fiction books. After...
View ArticleDo No Harm by Henry Marsh
I read this heartwarming, funny and heartbreaking book three weeks ago and I can’t stop thinking about it. I delayed writing the review as I was so blown away by this wonderful book that I felt it...
View ArticleWhen Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi
At 36 years old, Paul Kalanithi was going through a turbulent time in his life. After years of dedication, hard work and long hours, he was just about to complete his neurosurgery residency. But the...
View ArticleThe Deluge by Arthur Marwick
Published in 1965, Arthur Marwick’s famous (amongst History students at least!) thesis on the changes wrought by the First World War on British society is a prime candidate for Throwback Thursday. It...
View ArticleOne of Us – The Story of a Massacre and its Aftermath by Asne Seierstad
On 22 July 2011, five years ago yesterday, Anders Behring Breivik detonated a bomb in Oslo’s government buildings killing 8 people then massacred 69 teenagers attending a political summer camp. This...
View ArticleReading on the cheap – how do you do it?
I love reading but it would be an expensive hobby if I indulged myself and bought all the new hardback releases I hanker after. However, I am saved from my greed because I often feel overwhelmed in a...
View ArticleA Country of Refuge Edited by Lucy Popescu
“But history teaches us that our greatest wrongs, crimes against humanity and genocide, arise from cultures where hatred has become part of the air citizens breathe,” writes 2016 Man Booker Prize long...
View ArticleBetween the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates
Coates is a New York correspondent for The Atlantic, and based on his personal and working experience he has written this award-winning book about the concept of race and its construction as the dark...
View ArticleBad Feminist by Roxane Gay
This book is flawed but heartfelt, and although I have to acknowledge those flaws I want to say straight away that I totally recommend Roxane Gay’s writing to you as it is full of humour and honesty. I...
View ArticleNegroland by Margo Jefferson
This award-winning memoir published earlier in the year documents a Pulitzer prize-winning journalist’s early family life and later personal history. She shows how her inner conflicts were generated by...
View ArticleBlack History by People Who Lived It
For this feature for Black History Month I wanted to read the most authentic stories I could, and so I researched into the most powerful arguments that had been made by former slaves for abolition so...
View ArticleThe View from the Cheap Seats: Selected Non-Fiction by Neil Gaiman
If I were asked to formulate a list of my favourite authors (which I constantly imagine I am, normally whilst pretending I’m being interviewed after winning some kind of award), Neil Gaiman would...
View ArticleMental Health & Creativity, The Hidden & The Celebrated
A couple of things come together recently that have inspired my writing of this small piece. The first is that in the last few weeks the UK Government has been discussing it’s plans for dealing with...
View ArticleHello, Is This Planet Earth? By Tim Peake
‘It’s impossible to look down on Earth from space and not be mesmerised by the fragile beauty of our planet.’ I’m pretty sure in this day and age that everyone has heard of Tim Peake- first British...
View Article