RLB’s weekly recommendations
Set in the early 1970’s this is a spy novel with a difference. It begins when Martha, a feisty Cambridge student, is sent packing for bringing the university into disrepute. Her gay friend Kit is a junior diplomat posted to Moscow and over a few New Year drinks they agree to a marriage of convenience. … Continue reading Book of the Week, February 2nd 2019
When we open a book and begin to read, we are transported to a world of the authors creation. Here is a novel that imagines a world where books have a stranger purpose. Hand-made and crafted with magic they can take your pain, your grief, your secrets, and can bind them, bringing freedom from the … Continue reading Book of the Week, January 26th 2019
Now nearly 90, Edith Eger is an acclaimed psychologist. In 1944 she was living in Nazi occupied Eastern Europe, a Jewish teenager with a passion for ballet and qymnastics. She was training for the Olympics until one evening there was a knock on the door. The family were transported to Aushwitz where her parents lives … Continue reading Book of the Week, January 19th 2019
With the threat of closure hanging over so many Essex libraries this is a timely novel. Set in the late 1950’s when librarianship was a ‘job with a proper future’, young Sylvia Blackwell takes up the post of children’s librarian in East Mole, a sleepy market town in rural Wiltshire. She enthusiastically sets to work … Continue reading Book of the Week, 12th January 2019
Our first pick of the week for 2019 is a short fiction of rare grace, imagination and gentle wisdom. Mary is a poor girl living in an unnamed city where rich and powerful rulers live in luxury whilst everyone else struggles. Mary is clever and bright; she makes her little patch of garden seem larger … Continue reading Book of the Week, January 5th 2019
Now here is a stocking filler with a difference. Within these pages are 40 OS maps from around the British Isles, each chosen to highlight a significant moment in history, an unusual geological feature or an area of particular cultural interest. A paragraph explaining the importance of each map is followed by a set of … Continue reading Book of the Week December 22nd 2018