The Body by Bill Bryson

Bill Bryson ( https://www.penguin.co.uk/authors/101/1017933/bill-bryson.html and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Bryson) is a well known and loved author in the UK. Born and brought up in Des Moines, Iowa, Bryson has made England his home for most of his adult life. He came to prominence in the UK with the publication of Notes from a Small Island (1995), an affectionate but satirically

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Living at the End of the World by Marina Benjamin

Turbulent times stimulate vivid imaginations. With two egotistical buffoons (Trump and Johnson) proving every minute that they are catastrophically unfit for high office, tensions in the Middle East rising, Russia rattling its sabre, the Chinese building up massive armed forces, Islamic terrorists at large, Jerusalem re-established as the Capital of Israel, the environment trashed by

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The Woman in the Window by A.J. Finn

American novelist Dan Mallory (a.k.a. A. J. Finn) (https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/feb/15/unreliable-narrators-questions-the-truth-leo-benedictus) has a complex relationship with the truth according to recent reports. This notoriety has not prevented his 2018 thriller ‘The Woman in the Window’ becoming a bestseller. Thrillers have the capacity to absorb our attention, allowing us to forget, temporarily, the grim details of everyday life.

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The Uninhabitable Earth by David Wallace-Wells

It’s been hot in Scotland over these past days in July of 2019. ( https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2019/jul/24/uk-records-hottest-day-of-year-and-could-hit-new-high-of-39c ) High temperatures of this sort in The Upper Ward induce a febrile and mordacious mood. So we can say our weather’s been nothing to do with with climate change or global warming. Nothing to do with human activity. Nothing

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Lost and Wanted by Nell Freudenberger

Nell Freudenberger (https://nellfreudenberger.net/about/) is a young novelist from New York, living in Brooklyn. Her fiction has been receiving much praise recently. You may wish to see if the Lanark cognoscenti think it’s justified.   Her 2019 novel Lost and Wanted is a thoughtful and entertaining tale about friendship, and the forces which both bind and

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Underland by Robert Macfarlane

Robert Macfarlane (https://www.english.cam.ac.uk/people/Robert.Macfarlane/ ) and (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Macfarlane_(writer)) has won more literary prizes than he can shake a stick at. His central theme is the relationship, and mutual shaping forces, between humans and the natural world. Notable works are Mountains of the Mind (2003), The Wild Places (2007), The Old Ways (2012), Landmarks (2015) and The Lost Words (2017). Underland is

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Jessica’s Girl by Josephine Cox

Josephine Cox (http://www.josephinecox.com/) has a lot to smile about. Having sold over 15 million copies of her heartwarming fiction, this saga author has made a fortune and brought joy to countless readers.(https://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/fameandfortune/5131523/Josephine-Cox-fameand-fortune.html)   Many believe the acme of her artistic achievement to have been Jessica’s Girl (1993), a novel of such staggeringly formulaic conformity as

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