Birthday Books!

I have recently celebrated my birthday and, as always, the generous gifts from my family included a lot of books.

There is a great mix of genres there. The Widow and The Breakdown are modern thrillers that caught my eye.

I am, I am, I am is Maggie O’Farrell’s memoir - even though I only read my first O’Farrell book last month I knew I wanted to read this straight away! I mean, who has seventeen brushes with death to reminisce about?!

Ancestors in Our Genome is an up-to-date account of what we currently believe about human evolution, focusing on all we’ve learned through being able to sequence genomes. My degree is in Biological Anthropology, which was basically human biology but looking specifically at our evolution. My husband gave me this book as there have been a lot of developments in this area since I graduated nine years ago and he knows I like to use my brain from time to time.

*The Shooting Party *and Larry’s Party are books I put on my wishlist thanks to the excellent blog of the author Sophie Duffy. She is currently blogging her way through her list of 100 women novelists who she has enjoyed reading. She is only on number 26 and I’m sold on most of the books already. These ones - by Isabel Colegate and Carol Shields - particularly appealed to me.

Not pictured is the non-fiction book I’m currently reading. I am reading a novel, The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt, based on so many recommendations, but although I am enjoying it, it is nearly 900 pages long so I couldn’t resist starting a non-fiction book alongside it. Last night I started Ben Blatt’s Nabakov’s Favourite Word is Purple. This books is so absolutely written for me - a mixture of literature and statistics - that I can’t help but find it marvellous. There will be more blog posts on it soon!

Have you read any of these books? What did you think?