The Water Book

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It was easy to read (if not digest) and so short it would only take most readers a couple of hours to finish. It doesn't delve deep enough into the subject nor does it reach any conclusions. It was an interesting short read that Boyne readers will most definitely appreciate and for those who have never read any of his work previously it would be a good introduction. From my small experience with Boyne's other books, you can tell that there are some subjects that he likes to talk about, and he does so elegantly. These include LGBT communities, sexism, religion and the church and how communities work in general. This novella sees Boyne return to what I consider his greatest strengths - meditative and moving drama shot through with lovely moments of humour.

Alok Jha is one of the brightest young science writers around...He belongs to a select band of science communicators, and knows his science at a deep level and can put it across." Peter Forbes, The Independent. The whole business of the twelve apostles has always bothered me, the hard-nosed maleness of their clique, the decision from the start to exclude women from their number. Most became saints, I think, but did that prevent them from leering at the women who served their food, or making vulgar remarks about girls they noticed on the streets?” It’s about more than the water just being there’ ... swimmers at Hampstead Heath ponds. Photograph: Hollie Fernando/Getty Images Experience blue space vicariously ... the research vessel MV Alucia in Antarctica, as seen on Blue Planet II. Photograph: BBC Natural History UnitWilson-Lee’s point is that we all need to be a bit more De Góis and a bit less De Camões. Employing prose as luscious as it is meticulous, Wilson-Lee shows us the world through De Góis’s eyes, a wonderful tapestry that includes Ethiopians and Sami, Hieronymus Bosch (he owned three of the master’s fever-dream paintings) and elephants that can write in dust with their trunks. In 1531 De Góis was hugely affected by an audience he had with Martin Luther in Wittenberg when the great man’s wife served him hazelnuts and apples. There was a point to the meal’s simplicity that went beyond grandiose self-denial. Luther believed that the obsession with international capitalism, which brought spices and other exotic delicacies pouring into Europe, was pointless and wasteful. Shopping locally and growing your own (Mrs Luther had a very nice kitchen garden) was the righteous way to go. Op het eiland gaat alles wel heel ouderwets. Alsof er eigenlijk na 1950 niks veranderd is of zo. Willow komt er tot rust. Ze heeft deze periode nodig om te verwerken wat er is gebeurd. Ze stelt zich de vraag of ze écht van niks wist of dat ze er onbewust blind voor was. Dat ze niet zag wat er misschien wel gewoon onder haar eigen dak gebeurde. Dat haar man niet die persoon kon zijn. Maakt haar dat medeplichtig, zoals de rest van de wereld denkt? The quirks and habits and secrets of good old H2O were crying out to have a book written about them. That said, it had to be written by the right person… Fortunately, the job went to Tristan Gooley… His tales recount wisdom gathered on the ground (literally), often by trial and error, and his joy at discovering something almost makes you feel you did the work yourself… The book doesn’t just cover the rural sections of the waterfront: urban dwellers get a look-in too. “ The Spectator

John Boyne is a master of the mind. He can put himself in someone else’s shoes, whether it’s a soldier in WW1 or, in All the Broken Places, an 80-year-old woman whose little brother was the protagonist of the The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas. His characters are always real and always memorable. This 54-year-old woman is no exception – he understands her mind, her strengths and her weaknesses. From award-winning writer Edward Wilson-Lee, this is a thrilling true historical detective story set in sixteenth-century Portugal.Giulio Boccaletti makes a strikingly original and persuasive case that the history of human civilization can be understood as a never-ending struggle over water. Boccaletti’s command of a vast range of material, across time and space, is astonishing.” —Nicholas Lemann, Joseph Pulitzer II and Edith Pulitzer Moore Professor of Journalism, Columbia University. Willow remains stand-offish with the locals to ward off closer exchanges, but some of them are fairly persistent; she believes they don’t know who she is, but later learns that she’s not as anonymous as she thought. She spends her time sleeping, going for long walks, watching nature, listening to small-minded locals, swimming, reflecting on what has happened and if she should have seen it.