Exploring the depths of the Earth, in this sequel to The Old Ways: A Journey on Foot (2012) Robert Macfarlane takes the reader on a journey through Greenland's glaciers, Arctic sea-caves, and Bronze Age burial chambers to reveal a hidden underground network which connects us to our past, present, and future.
Recommendation
Recommendations from
Elif Shafak
Elif Shafak is an award-winning British-Turkish novelist. Grown up between France, Turkey, Spain, Jordan and Germany, she received a PhD in political science, taught at universities across Turkey, the UK and the US, and is an honorary fellow at St Anne’s College, Oxford. She has published novels as well as nonfiction, and her work has been translated into over fifty languages. She is also an advocate for women’s rights, LGBTQ+ rights and freedom of expression, and is a founding member of ECFR (European Council on Foreign Relations).
2
Invisible Women
By Caroline Criado Perez
Through meticulously collected data across government policy, medical research, technology, workplaces, urban planning, and media, Caroline Criado Perez exposes the pervasive and systemic discrimination women face in their daily lives. An urgent and essential reading which sheds light on how biased data consistently excludes women.
3
Charles Dickens: A Life
By Claire Tomalin
This critically acclaimed biography reveals Charles Dickens as a complex and divided figure. Described as 'by far the most humane and imaginatively sympathetic account yet for the general reader' by Amanda Craig, this book is a must-read for every Dickens' fan.
4
All The Light We Cannot See
By Anthony Doerr
In this powerful novel, set against the backdrop of WW2, the lives of Marie-Laure, a blind French girl who fled to Brittany with her father after the Nazi occupation of Paris in 1940, and Werner, a German orphan boy whose talent with radios catches the attention of the Hitler Youth, intertwine in occupied France.
5
Family Matters
By Rohinton Mistry
When Nariman Vakeel, a seventy-nine-year-old Parsi widower afflicted by Parkinson’s disease and haunted by his past, finds his condition deteriorating, he is forced to move in with his daughter Roxana, her husband Yezad, and their two children. These new and challenging circumstances push Yezad, already plagued by financial worries, to devise a scheme of deception which will lead to disastrous consequences.
6
East West Street
By Philippe Sands
In this moving and gripping book, Philippe Sands sets off on a quest to uncover his own family's painful past whilst investigating the origins of international human rights at the Nuremberg trial. Prompted by an invitation to deliver a lecture in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv, this book is both profoundly personal and unearths the universal truth behind the foundations of international law.
7
The Silk Roads
By Peter Frankopan
In this gripping book about geopolitics, Frankopan explores continents and centuries to investigate the factors which influenced culture and the economy throughout history, revealing how our Eurocentric accounts have led to a narrow understanding of the world around us.
8
Alice’s Adventures In Wonderland
By Lewis Carroll
Children's book.
On an ordinary summer's afternoon, as she sits on the riverbank with her sister, Alice notices something quite odd: a talking white rabbit, clothed and holding a pocket watch, running past her. Curious, Alice follows him down a rabbit hole, and tumbles down into a strange world, full of even stranger characters.
9
The Neverending Story
By Michael Ende
Children's book.
As the young Bastian Balthazar Bux runs from some bullies, he ends up into an antiquarian book store, where a book called The Neverending Story catches his attention. Unable to resist, he steals the book and hides in the school's attic to read it. He will find himself the hero in an enchanted world on the verge of destruction
10
Fairy Tales
By Hans Christian Andersen
Children's book.
The fairy tales of Hans Christian Andersen are amongst some of the best known and most beloved of all times, including 'The Ugly Duckling', 'The Little Mermaid', 'The Emperor's New Suit', and 'The Red Shoes'. Captivating, brilliantly narrated, and imbued with complex morality, these stories have enchanted children and adults alike for generations.
11
The Hobbit
By J R R Tolkien
Children's book.
Bilbo Baggins enjoys a quiet life in his comfortable home, away from danger and adventure. Until the day the wizard Gandalf enlists his services as a burglar on an expedition to raid the treasure-hoard of Smaug the dragon. Tolkien's novel is a timeless classic.
12
A Wizard Of Earthsea
By Ursula K. Le Guin
Children's book.
Ged 'Sparrowhawk' was born with a great power. Taken as an apprentice by the mage Ogion, he is told about the 'equilibrium', and how magic can upset the natural order if used improperly. But he will end up summoning a shadow which only he can drive away, and his quest will lead him to the farthest corner of Earthsea.