Kassabova, Kapka (2024) Anima: A Wild Pastoral. Cape.
In Kassabova’s final book in her Balkan quartet we experience the ancient activity of transhumance – the seasonal movement of herds of sheep, with shepherds, horses and dogs, in search of summer pasture. Anima tells of Kassabova’s time with some of the last pastoralists in Europe, on the flanks of the Pirin Mountains, southwestern Bulgaria. The remarkable interdependent life of humans, dogs, grazing animals and the natural world has been pushed to the brink. From the reaving of the communist era and the introduction of hard borders, urbanisation and mechanisation to the demands for endless growth, nomadism and pastoral life has all but disappeared. A brutal and inspirational testimony. A beautiful book.
Rating: 5/5
Hoyle, Maria (2024) A Very French Affair: A Memoir of Adventure, Amour and a Little Madness. Allen & Unwin.
The subtitle says it all! At the age of 63 Aucklander Maria Hoyle leaves her daughters, her dog and her friends to go to live with a new partner in a mill in rural France. This is an adventurous tale of adapting to life in a new country, with all its frustrations and joys, and of the challenges of living with a stranger, but above all it is an accolade to bravado. A celebration of grabbing life’s possibilities whatever your age. Refreshing.
Rating: 3/5
Robeyns, Ingrid (2024) Limitarianism: The Case Against Extreme Wealth. Allen Lane.
How much is too much? Robeyns advocates for a world in which no one is super-rich – that there is a cap on the amount of wealth any one person can have, and her solution is limitarianism. No one deserves to be a millionaire. Neoliberal capitalist ideology has seen the poor get poorer and the rich get richer, and at the same time we have seen a degradation in our natural environment and in our democracies. Limitarianism offers the opportunity to create a new economic system and a better world. Robeyns provides a raft of ideas to limit extreme wealth, along economic, political and ethical lines. Persuasive.
Rating: 4/5
Segal, Francesca (2024) Welcome to Glorious Tuga. Chatto & Windus.
Veterinarian and herpetologist Dr Charlotte Walker has taken up a fellowship on the remote tropical island of Tuga de Oro, in the South Atlantic, to study the endangered gold coin turtle. But she finds island life much more than she bargained for as she slowly becomes enmeshed in the life of the island’s eccentric inhabitants. In a tale bursting with heaps of gentle and heart-warming human and animal drama, we are reminded about the power of love, belonging, and of coming home. Delightfully imagined. Loved it!
Rating: 4/5
Johnson, Gill (2024) Love from Venice: A Golden Summer on the Grand Canal. Hodder & Stoughton.
In 1957, at the age of twenty-five, Gil Johnson rebelled, gave up her job at London’s National Gallery and travelled to Venice to take up an English nannying role with the aristocratic Brandolini family. Drawing on personal reminisces she shares her remarkable seven-months living with a super-wealthy family in an elegant newly restored palazzo overlooking the Grand Canal, including daily excursions to Lido beach, trips to the family’s residences and to St Moritz. This is a charmingly nostalgic memoir of the post-war halcyon age before mass tourism. A literary debut by a nonagenarian, inspired by the discovery of letters in 2015. A love letter to Venice.
Rating: 4/5
Clinton, Hillary Rodham (2024) Something Lost, Something Gained: Reflections on Life, Love and Liberty. Simon & Schuster.
Written prior to the 2024 Trump victory this is a candid ‘conversation’ with Hilary Clinton in which she shares her views on friendship, faith, politics, activism and moving forward. This is also a memoir about grievance (and entitlement) from a woman whose whole life has been about civic responsibility, but with her glory days now behind her. This book is largely set in the past with an an attempt to paint an optimistic future, however in reading you can only but feel despondent.
Rating: 3/5
Stapley, Marissa (2024) The Lightning Bottles. Simon & Schuster.
Jane and Elijah bond and fall in love via music-focused chat rooms and letters. Jane travels to Seattle to be with Elijah and the duo form the Lightning Bottles band. They become famous in the 90’s grunge-music scene and are beset by family tragedy, addiction, legal battles, unbounded ambition, misogyny and conflict. Then at the height of their fame Elijah disappears, presumed dead. Jane after suffering a virulent backlash from fans sets out to chase clues that indicate that her husband may still be alive. This rise and fall story, told in flashbacks, is a tale of the toxic nature of celebrity with a touch a mystery and romance. Long-winded. Persevered but disappointing.
Rating: 2/5
7:30 Bookclub 