The Mysterious Mrs Hood by Kim Donovan

This was a well-documented book. The author begins the story by talking about her own personal connection to the subject, a half-sister of a grandmother who was murdered. The author then set out to find out more about the situation and collected details from newspapers and other sources to give a very detailed account of…

Tenacious Beasts by Christopher J.Preston

As I work my way through my large virtual backlog, I have read quite a few non-fiction that have taken me on different journeys. The particular book was particularly enlightening. I did not expect the Netherlands to be at the centre of a lot of the topics discussed here, and that brought the content a…

Taming the Potted Beast by Molly Williams

It is a funny book to read and enjoy as an audiobook, but surprisingly, it worked. The first half better suits the format with the author talking in depth (she is the narrator as well) about the history of indoor plants and the act of cultivation - not for consumption but for other reasons. There…

Reading the Glass by Elliot Rappaport

This is a tough book to review. When I started reading it and realised that there was no real sequence to the content, I was a little disheartened. But, given the way my own brain works, jumping from topic to topic to keep things interesting, I soon got into the rhythm of the book and…

City on the Edge by Ho-fung Hung

I must admit to a very personal connection to this topic. I lived in Hong Kong from 2015 to 2020 and was physically very close to one of the bigger protests that took place and walked through one or two demonstrations in 2019. It was a complex time and one of the reasons ( although…

A World in a Shell by Tom Van Dooren

This book is entirely focused on the snails of Hawaii and the historical and socio-political context of their existence - or, in this case, extinction as well.The author weaves the conquering of the land, the different colonization and whitewashing of the heritage, and how they tie up with something as simple as snails.There are two…

Untamed India – A Victorian Woman’s Travel Adventure by Fanny Parks

This book is a reprint of a much larger volume. I tried to get my hands on a physical copy of this version, but I have not been able to. I would not recommend the larger volume because it might be too cumbersome to get through, and that would mean missing out on the tidbits…

Still Life with Bones by Alexa Hagerty

I do not know what I was expecting from this book, but what I got was definitely not it. I do not say that it was a bad thing - just surprising. I have read forensic-related books before, but this is more about wars and the repercussions that I had no prior knowledge of than…