Revisiting a book and opinion

 

Comet In Moominland by Tove Jannson /Translated by Elizabeth Portch (Puffin Books)

Over the weekend I got in to a discussion about the Moomins with some other readers - and they seemed surprised that I find them freaky and scary. Others joined in the conversation and wondered if (like in their partner's case) I was actually thinking of the 1980s cartoon rather than then books.

As I've loved lots of Jansson's other work for adults I did wonder if perhaps it was the cartoon that had scared me so I did go back and read one of the Moomin books.

I can now say that while I also don't like the cartoons I also don't like the books - for some reason they do just give me the bad type of goose bumps when I'm reading.

The plot idea behind Comet in Moominland was really interesting and probably the first brush a lot of readers have with sci-fi  but even that couldn't save it for me. 

It was a quick read, and a good escape from the weekend's bad weather but I won't be reading the rest - however after reading Jansson's Notes from an Island earlier in the autumn I do wholeheartedly recommend that!

Timely reading

 

Florence: Ordeal by Water by Kathrine Kressman Taylor (Manderley Press)

Until I read Still Life by Sarah Winman a few years ago I'd not heard of the horrific 1966 flood that devastated Florence. Since reading that I've wanted to know more about the true events that inspired the fiction and have been eagerly awaiting this to be published.

It was fascinating, heart stopping read and then heart warming in how quickly so many people came to the city's rescue.

However the book took on a new poignancy as while I was reading it the dreadful news about the floods in Spain broke. As we learned more about this catastrophe it became clear that nothing seems to have changed in the way of flood warnings - and in fact the floods of 2024 were far more deadly despite all of our modern technology.

It is always hard to recommend a book about a tragedy but this book was fascinating, and in the end hopeful, so if you're interested in Florence, art, disaster recovery or just diaries from the 1960s this book is for you - and perhaps all city/disaster planners who live near rivers...

Non Fiction November

 

A monthly challenge that I can get behind!

I keep setting myself laudable reading goals/challenges and then failing miserably to keep to them but Nonfiction November is right up my reading alley!

It is supposed to be a month where you try something nonfiction if it isn't a genre you often read but for me it is an excuse to think about the non fiction books I've read all year, as well as the ones from November.

Keeping detailed reading journals through various apps (I'm paranoid that one might vanish and I'll lose all the data)* I can see that so far this year 42% of the books I've read have been nonfiction and so I really don't need a dedicated month to appreciate the genre so I looked a bit deeper in to the types of book I go for...

The majority are biographies or autobiographies, and within those nature and travel writing make up a large proportion, and following this come the books about books, but like most of my reading its really hard to pin down what is 'my type' of book as I'll try most things, except true crime!

In November standout non fiction so far has been:

What I Ate in One Year (and related thoughts) by Stanley Tucci - this was a wonderfully gossipy diary from Tucci, heavily focussed on food, drink and travel so just my thing. There were a fair number of recipes dotted through it too and I made note of several of them!

A Cheesemonger's Tour de France by Ned Palmer - I've often said that my 'last supper' would be really good quality French bread, butter and cheese and this book really helped me create the cheese board aspect of the meal. I also liked the pairing suggestions of what to drink with the cheese, and which areas of France I should add to my travel list so I can try the food in the setting it was made for. 

Sapiens: A Graphic History Volume 1 which is adapted from Yuval Noah Harari's book and illustrated by Daniel Casanave and David Vandermeulen. I'd tried Sapiens before and got a bit bogged down in it but this way of story telling really broke the big ideas down. I think Mr Norfolkbookworm got bored of just how often I was bringing up things I'd learned from it - however it did give us lots to talk about while we were our walking... I'm looking forward to reading the next two parts immensely.

There's still a third of the month left so I am sure I'll read more non fiction in November but it is good to stop and thinking about what I'm reading - it will help when it comes to writing those best of the year posts in a few weeks!

*this did happen to one app I really liked and while I have a paper reading journal too I've not always marked books by genre and so looking back at them I'm sometimes not sure what books were about!