April’s book selection

April’s books include two popular biographies and a murder mystery novel. 

Find out about each one below and remember to email your choice.

The Salt Path

by Raynor Winn

Just days after Raynor learns that Moth, her husband of 32 years, is terminally ill, their home is taken away and they lose their livelihood. With nothing left and little time, they make the brave and impulsive decision to walk the 630 miles of the sea-swept South West Coast Path, from Somerset to Dorset, via Devon and Cornwall.

Carrying only the essentials for survival on their backs, they live wild in the ancient, weathered landscape of cliffs, sea and sky. Yet through every step, every encounter and every test along the way, their walk becomes a remarkable journey.

The Salt Path is an honest and life-affirming true story of coming to terms with grief and the healing power of the natural world. Ultimately, it is a portrayal of home, and how it can be lost, rebuilt and rediscovered in the most unexpected ways.

Recommendations for The Salt Path

The prize-winning, Sunday Times bestseller from the million-copy bestselling author

 Bring nature into your home with the inspiring true story of hope and the healing powers of the natural world, in one of the most talked about books of the decade

FROM THE MILLION-COPY BESTSELLING AUTHOR

‘This is what you need right now to muster hope and resilience . . . a beautiful story and a reminder that humans can endure adversity’ 
Stylist

A beautiful book, it really lives up to the hype . . . an enjoyable, gentle yet moving read’ Pandora Sykes on The High Low

THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER, WINNER OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY LITERATURE CHRISTOPHER BLAND PRIZE & SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2018 COSTA BIOGRAPHY AWARD & WAINWRIGHT GOLDEN BEER BOOK PRIZE 2018

GUARDIAN BEST BOOKS OF SUMMER

‘A beautiful, thoughtful, lyrical story of homelessness, human strength and endurance’ Guardian

‘Mesmerising. It is one of the most uplifting, inspiring books that I’ve ever read’ i

‘The most inspirational book of this year’ The Times

‘Luminescent. A literary phenomenon’ Mail on Sunday

 

Wavewalker

by Suzanne Heywood

Aged just seven, Suzanne Heywood set sail with her parents and brother on a three-year voyage around the world. What followed turned instead into a decade-long way of life, through storms, shipwrecks, reefs and isolation, with little formal schooling. No one else knew where they were most of the time and no state showed any interest in what was happening to the children.

Suzanne fought her parents, longing to return to England and to education and stability. This memoir covers her astonishing upbringing, a survival story of a child deprived of safety, friendships, schooling and occasionally drinking water… At seventeen Suzanne earned an interview at Oxford University and returned to the UK.

From the bestselling author of What Does Jeremy Think?Wavewalker is the incredible true story of how the adventure of a lifetime became one child’s worst nightmare – and how her determination to educate herself enabled her to escape

Recommendations for Wavewalker

THE INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER

TIMES BEST MEMOIR OF 2023

‘Grippingly vivid and pacey’ THE TIMES

‘A seven-year old girl on a seventy-foot yacht, for ten years, over fifty thousand miles of sailing’ SIMON WINCHESTER

‘An astonishing almost day-by-day account of [a] hazardous journey and its legacy’ TELEGRAPH

‘This is a story of an epic childhood journey, so exciting and so shocking it is hard to know whether you’re reading about a dream or a nightmare… Wavewalker is thrilling, horrifying, beautifully written – I couldn’t put it down’ ED BALLS

‘A classic memoir of childhood. This is a book that every parent should read to consider the consequences of their midlife crises, and every child should read to learn how to deal with impossible mums and dads, as well as boils and barnacles’ Mail on Sunday 5*

‘An electrifying story about an extraordinary childhood, and Heywood tells it with remarkable clarity and assurance . . . an engrossing book that pitches the reader into the highs and lows of a young life spent in the “Wavewalker School of the Sea”’TLS

 

The Last Devil to Die

by Richard Osman

Shocking news reaches the Thursday Murder Club.

An old friend in the antiques business has been killed, and a dangerous package he was protecting has gone missing.

As the gang springs into action they encounter art forgers, online fraudsters and drug dealers, as well as heartache close to home.

With the body count rising, the package still missing and trouble firmly on their tail, has their luck finally run out? And who will be the last devil to die?

THE FOURTH NOVEL IN THE RECORD-BREAKING, MILLION-COPY BESTSELLING THURSDAY MURDER CLUB SERIES

‘As charming and funny as always but SO MOVING’ Marian Keyes

Great read: Confederates in the Attic

Most of us enjoyed Horse by Geraldine Brooks, and Confederates in the Attic is an excellent book by her late husband. Although the subject matter can be weighty at times, at heart the book is a fascinating road trip with a journalist’s eye for exposing humanity’s varied motivations with a thoughtful soft touch.  It’s insightful and very humorous. Another of my 2023 Christmas reads. Happy to lend. Jen.

The book’s blurb is:

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • A Pulitzer Prize-winning war correspondent takes us on an explosive adventure into the soul of the unvanquished South, where Civil War reenactors, battlefield visitors, and fans of history resurrect the ghosts of the Lost Cause through ritual and remembrance.  

“The freshest book about divisiveness in America that I have read in some time. This splendid commemoration of the war and its legacy … is an eyes–open, humorously no–nonsense survey of complicated Americans.” —The New York Times Book Review

For all who remain intrigued by the legacy of the Civil War—reenactors, battlefield visitors, Confederate descendants and other Southerners, history fans, students of current racial conflicts, and more—this ten-state adventure is part travelogue, part social commentary and always good-humored. 

When prize-winning war correspondent Tony Horwitz leaves the battlefields of Bosnia and the Middle East for a peaceful corner of the Blue Ridge Mountains, he thinks he’s put war zones behind him. But awakened one morning by the crackle of musket fire, Horwitz starts filing front-line dispatches again this time from a war close to home, and to his own heart.

Propelled by his boyhood passion for the Civil War, Horwitz embarks on a search for places and people still held in thrall by America’s greatest conflict. In Virginia, Horwitz joins a band of ‘hardcore’ reenactors who crash-diet to achieve the hollow-eyed look of starved Confederates; in Kentucky, he witnesses Klan rallies and calls for race war sparked by the killing of a white man who brandishes a rebel flag; at Andersonville, he finds that the prison’s commander, executed as a war criminal, is now exalted as a martyr and hero; and in the book’s climax, Horwitz takes a marathon trek from Antietam to Gettysburg to Appomattox in the company of Robert Lee Hodge, an eccentric pilgrim who dubs their odyssey the ‘Civil Wargasm.’

Written with Horwitz’s signature blend of humor, history, and hard-nosed journalism, Confederates in the Attic brings alive old battlefields and the new ‘classrooms, courts, country bars’ where the past and the present collide, often in explosive ways.

Raynor Winn: Award winning adventures

I came across Winn’s books by chance last Christmas, and they looked interesting. I soon realised they were absolute gems being well written, perceptive, fun, positive, and adventurous. I loved them! Very highly recommended!

Winn’s three books (so far – I hope she writes more) are:

  • The Salt Path
  • The Wild Silence
  • Landlines

If you love travel, wildlife, and the great outdoors you might enjoy these. Happy to lend.

Jen

Find out more about them in these media stories –

The Guardian:

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/aug/23/beyond-the-salt-path-it-felt-abnormal-to-live-in-a-village-among-other-people-raynor-winn

Penguin books:

https://www.penguin.co.uk/articles/2021/05/raynor-winn-interview-salt-path-wild-silence-author

 

Author talk: Bonnie Garmus

If you’d like to attend Bonnie Garmus’s author talk during the Sydney Writer’s Festival you’re in luck as there are still tickets.

The information is reproduced below:

Due to overwhelming demand, we are thrilled to announce a second event with Bonnie Garmus next May! Catch Bonnie Garmus on Sunday 26 May at 2pm to hear about her runaway hit Lessons in Chemistry and to chat science, sexism and success in your sixties. Tickets are on sale now and make the perfect holiday gift. Head to our website to book your tickets before they sell out (again)!
Bonnie Garmus: Lessons in Chemistry
Saturday 25 May 2024, 5.30pm SOLD OUT
Sunday 26 May 2024, 2pm ON SALE NOW
Sydney Town Hall
The Facebook link is: https://www.facebook.com/SydWritersFest/videos/1123801125273825/?extid=CL-UNK-UNK-UNK-AN_GK0T-GK1C&mibextid=Nif5oz