Star rating, given when I have finished the book:

*Hated it **Didn’t much like it ***Enjoyed it ****Loved it *****Perfection

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26.09.20: Thérèse Raquin for book club. What a book!! Zola is an amazing writer, though I have only read 3 or 4 novels, and not yet read Germinal. I have also read Rain by Melissa Harrison – four walks in different parts of the English countryside in different seasons. Wonderful.

Star rating: Thérèse Raquin: ***** Rain: ***

03.09.20: Now reading The Pull of the River by Matt Gaw, which I picked up a while back then got sidetracked onto other things (story of my reading life), but am now giving it full attention. I have only read about 20 pages, but it’s beautiful so far…I have high hopes. I tend to read fiction and nature writing, as this reading record will no doubt show. Finished 25.09.20 – a wonderful book, and I will miss Matt Gaw as a companion.

Star rating: ****

28.08.20: I am a third of the way through Weather by Jenny Offill. It’s amazing…I love a book where you have to work a bit, after two easy (but enjoyable!) reads. Beautiful writing, a work of art. I am also half way through Bird Therapy by Joe Harkness, about how discovering bird watching has helped his mental health – it’s very practical and inspiring, even in terms of just watching the birds in my back garden. I love anything that encourages us to connect more with nature.

Star rating: Weather: **** Bird Therapy: ****

21.08.20: I am about half way through Animal Lovers by Rob Palk. Narrator Adam is married to Marie, and adores her, but right at the start she leaves him to join a camp set up to stop the badger cull. He tells us that Marie saved his life, and refers to a time of recuperation – I have now discovered what that’s all about. It’s funny and poignant and frankly a bit odd, both light and serious at the same time, and I am enjoying it.

Star rating: ***

15.08.20: I am currently reading Middle England by Jonathan Coe. Set around the Brexit referendum in 2016, it’s funny, captures well a very particular time in Britain, and, reading a few years on from the vote, it’s very interesting to think back and see what’s happened. It’s also just a darn good read, with a cast of varied characters, male and female, and an accessible style of writing.

Star rating: ***

[I need to credit the Nick Cave photo: if you know who took it, please let me know!]