Having settled into your restricted lifestyle while outside, all hell seems to be raging, here’s another selection of books to keep you occupied. I’ve read and enjoyed them all, some I’ve bought, others are courtesy of my local library. I enjoy going to the library as I can make a random selection of titles to borrow and find out new authors to try. I often choose a book that the librarians have set out apart from the rows of books on the shelves or a book that has been recently returned. Or I simply reach out my hand and grab one from a shelf. It makes for an interesting reading selection.

A bookshop is a different matter; a long browse is essential unless I know specifically what I’m looking for. Often an assistant will approach clutching a book and saying that I must read it. That can be a good choice though I have had some that I didn’t really enjoy, usually because it’s not a genre I read much of. Or appreciate.

And Amazon? Mixed feelings. Yes, my books are on sale there but often their prices mean that the author’s cut of the profits is minuscule. But it’s convenient for the buyers and it does send my books out to a much wider audience.

Anyway, to my next selection:

The Memory Tree by Linda Gillard features a beech tree which holds secrets. Ann finds a box hidden in the trunk after the tree is brought down in a storm. What is in the box leads her on a quest to find out more about the family who lived there, antecedents of Connor who comes to help her. What were the family secrets that his grandmother tried to destroy and what part did the First World War play in events?

Things in Jars by Jess Kidd. A Victorian detective, Bridie Devine, is tasked with recovering a stolen child. But this is no ordinary child but a freak of nature, destined to be put on show for the delectation of the public. Kidd mixes Irish myths and the macabre and even romance in an entertaining story difficult to put down.

Bill Bryson’s The Body: a Guide for Occupants is just what you need to read at present. It’s an entertaining and informative trip around the body and its constituent parts starting at the outside and working its way in. What stands out through, is the body’s amazing capability to recover from all we throw at it as well as its complex and ingenious systems which are built in. I was left amazed that we can function as well as we do, given the many things that could potentially go wrong. Written in his usual unique style, the amount of research he has done is impressive.

The Binding by Bridget Collins is about books and the power they have. Except in this story, they are used as repositories for unhappy, difficult memories that you would wish to forget. These books with their secrets must be kept hidden but are they? Emmett Farmer is an apprentice bookbinder learning his trade only to discover that one of the books is about him. But why? What is it that he has chosen to forget?

And something completely different. Wendy Mitchell was diagnosed with early dementia which changed her life. She had to give up work and became dependent on her daughters for help. But she persisted and through her difficulties became a spokesperson for dementia sufferers everywhere. Somebody I Used to Know tells her story and her fight to have dementia better understood and treated. There is life after such a devastating diagnosis. She blogs most days at https://whichmeamitoday.wordpress.com/

Enjoy your reading! What books would you like to recommend?