It brought a smile to my face to see that the blurb of the book ended with “this is a rare and joyful book” while the first line of the preface was “Now that I look back, I see that I have written with some anger.” Those are such different emotions that I wonder how… Read More Book Review: The Running Hare by John Lewis Stempel
There’s no good reason why I bought this book, except that I’ve bought and enjoyed a book about the history of neighbours in England and the word “Cream Teas” is in the title. This amusingly named book is a fascinating exploration into the topic of the Britsh on holiday – both domestically and abroad. Divided… Read More Book Review: Cream Teas, Traffic Jams and Sunburn by Brian Viner
In my quest to read more books about tea, I stumbled across this one called Tea and Tourism. It’s published in 2007, so it’s a bit dated, but I hadn’t really heard of tea being paired with tourism as a concept and I wanted to find out more about it. With contributions from multiple researchers,… Read More Book Review: Tea and Tourism edited by Lee Jolliffe
We go back to one of Britain’s most fascinating dynasties (or perhaps one that has been talked a lot of in recent times, what with Henry VIII’s wives and his daughters) to look at their private lives. For some reason, I thought that The Private Lives of the Tudors would be a book about the… Read More Book Review: The Private Lives of the Tudors by Tracy Borman
I can’t quite remember how this book got onto my TBR list but I’m always down for some history (especially on subjects I never thought of before) so I borrowed A Place for Everything and started reading. If I was smarter/more hardworking, I would be writing this review in a way that the first letter… Read More Book Review: A Place for Everything by Judith Flanders
What do your clothes say about you? Do you even think that your clothes can say something? While I’m admittedly not a fashionista, I was intrigued by Dress Code, which had this promising subtitle: “unlocking fashion from new look to millenial pink.” Divided into four parts, Dress Code covers: The first part of the book,… Read More Book Review: Dress Code by Véronique Hyland
As I may have mentioned before, I am more willing to take chances on unknown books when it’s cheap. So like with Perfect Wives in Ideal Homes, I bought Jambusters based on its cover (and also its synopsis, which is one more piece of information compared to the former). And the similarities do not stop… Read More Book Review: Jambusters by Julie Summers
I borrowed and read this book around the time the 2023 World Chess Championships were held and felt quite proud to be such a topical reader for once! Even though I’ve never heard of the Lewis chessmen before this book, I was intrigued by the subtitle: “The mystery of the most famous chessmen in the… Read More Book Review: Ivory Vikings by Nancy Marie Brown
Confession: I did not actually know what this book about when I was bought it. I just knew that it was discounted and the cover made it seem rather quirky. I may have missed the part that stated “the story of women in the 1950s”. It was only when I started reading it that I… Read More Book Review: Perfect Wives in Ideal Homes by Virginia Nicholson
I have never followed the Duggars but when I heard about this book where Jinger Vuolo talks about leaving Bill Gothard’s IBLP (Institute for Basic Life Principles), I was intrigued. I have heard about Gothard’s IBLP, his predatory and probably sexually abusive relationships with the “Gothard Girls”, and I hoped that this book would expose… Read More Book Review: Becoming Free Indeed by Jinger Vuolo