Upcoming Buddy Read
H is for Hawk – Helen Macdonald (Autobiography pick)
Book Blurb:
An instant international bestseller and prize-winning sensation, Helen Macdonald’s story of adopting and raising a goshawk has soared into the hearts of millions of readers. Fierce and feral, her goshawk Mabel’s temperament mirrors Helen’s own state of grief after her father’s death, and together raptor and human discover the pain and beauty of being alive.
We’ll be discussing H is for Hawk in Episode 7 (available 30th April), so why not read along with us and share your thoughts?
Book Talk
This week we dive into the great debate: e-readers versus real books. Hannah explains why she struggles to warm to e-readers, while Nikki shares why her Kindle has become a favourite.
In this episode we chat about:
- How the experience of reading on an e-reader differs from reading a physical book
- What books – and how we display and collect them – might reveal about us
- Whether men and women approach book collecting differently
- The ever-growing “to-be-read” pile: Does it matter if we buy books we never get around to reading?
- The influence of social media and book influencers on our reading habits
- When books become more than reading material – decor, identity, or even companions
- Bookshops versus the rise of digital reading
- When Kindle Direct Publishing is the only way to access work by certain writers
We’d love to hear where you stand in the e-reader vs real books debate. Join the conversation and let us know your thoughts!
Current Reading
Hannah Reads
Seed to Dust – Marc Hamer
Hannah shares why this reflective memoir has been the perfect calming read at the end of a busy day.
The Blurb:
Marc Hamer has tended the same twelve-acre garden for decades, a secluded place few people visit, leaving him as the only one who truly knows its rhythms and secrets. Though it belongs to someone else, his relationship with the owner is both distant and quietly intimate. In Seed to Dust, Marc guides us month by month through life in the garden and beyond. Along the way we meet plants and wildlife, discover gardening folklore, and share the satisfaction of physical work. Marc also reflects on his journey from homelessness to family life, and the natural cycles of change shaping both the garden and human life.
Nikki Reads
Nobbled at Christmas – Helen Golden (Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing)
After finishing The Lamb in Episode 5, Nikki needed a palate cleanser and this light, frothy cosy crime was just the thing.
The Blurb:
At Christmas in Fenshire, the royal family’s festivities collapse when the king and queen’s beloved bulldogs, Binky and Jeeves, are dognapped. Their walker claims he was knocked out and tied up and soon a ransom demand arrives. Bea and her fiancé Rich begin investigating, with help from Daisy, their loyal dog, sharp-nosed clue finder and treat enthusiast. Suspects include a nervous staff member, a dog-supply vendor mysteriously working on Christmas Day and an overzealous royal-dog superfan. Narrated by Daisy, this cosy holiday mystery follows her as she tracks clues, comforts anxious humans and tries not to get distracted by squirrels or sausages.
She Speaks: What Shakespeare’s Women Might Have Said – Harriet Walter
Nikki has recently finished this one and loved its imaginative approach – revisiting Shakespeare through the voices and inner lives of his female characters.
The Blurb:
This imaginative book offers a fresh take on Shakespeare’s female characters. Harriet Walter creates thirty new speeches written in Shakespearean-style verse and prose, exploring what these women might have been thinking in the moments between the lines of the original plays; sometimes playful, sometimes deeply thoughtful.
The Big When – Alan Moore
Nikki initially found this novel challenging to get into, but is now fully immersed and enjoying its strange, inventive ideas and unusual style.
The Blurb:
In 1949 London, eighteen-year-old Dennis Knuckleyard works in a second-hand bookshop. While collecting books, he finds a novel that shouldn’t exist: a fictional title from another story, yet somehow real. The book comes from the Great When, a magical London beyond time where fiction and reality merge and ideas like Crime and Poetry take living form. The hidden realm must remain secret and if Dennis cannot return the book, dangerous consequences could follow. His search draws him into London’s occult underworld, encountering sorcerers, gangsters and killers. Soon, Dennis is caught in events that could threaten both the magical and ordinary Londons.
If you enjoyed the episode, please leave a comment. We’d love to hear your thoughts about any of the books or topics we discussed. And if you’re able to rate and review the podcast (it really helps others discover us), we’ll love you forever.
You can also get in touch by emailing hello@boundbybooks.co.uk