Tag Archives: nonfiction

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Book reviews of The Language of Trees and The Bedlam Stacks

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I have recently read The Language of Trees: How Trees Make Our World, Change Our Minds and Rewild Our Lives by Katie Holten and The Bedlam Stacks by Natasha Pulley. I borrowed both of them from the library.

The Language of Trees

Cover of The Language of Trees

The Language of Trees: How Trees Make Our World, Change Our Minds and Rewild Our Lives by Katie Holten

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

In The Language of Trees, Katie Holten has produced an anthology of writing about trees. At first I found the green print a little difficult to read. There is an alphabet made up of the silhouettes of trees beginning with each letter of the alphabet. At least part of each article has also been printed in the tree alphabet, so there is less reading than would appear from the number of pages. Pieces by well-known authors such as Robin Wall Kimmerer, Robert Macfarlane and Robert Powers appear as well as many other authors, who were previously unknown to me. There are stories from around the world, including creation stories and reports of research. Robin Wall Kimmerer’s article considers how languages develop differently depending on the culture of the speakers.
It is a book to enjoy a little at a time.

The Bedlam Stacks


The Bedlam Stacks by Natasha Pulley

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


The Bedlam Stacks is the third novel by Natasha Pulley that I have read. The others were The Watchmaker of Filigree Street and The Lost Future of Pepperharrow. These books are all in the same series, although I wasn’t aware of that when I chose to read The Bedlam Stacks. It is an exciting adventure story set in the past. There is travel with the main protagonist on a quest to find a rare plant in Peru. There is mystery, fantasy and interesting observations about language. The backstory of the watchmaker is revealed.
This is a page-turner.


View all my reviews on Goodreads. All my reviews on my blogs are here.


Once again I am taking part in the Blogging from A to Z in April Challenge. Would you like to join in? If you do, it could help me win a guest blogging spot!

Details of how A to Z Bloggers may win a guest blogging spot by referring newcomers to the challenge. they must create at least 5 challenge posts in April.
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Books I read early in 2026

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This post consists of reviews of two nonfiction books – Our Woodland Birds by Matt Sewell and So you’ve Finished Writing. Now What? by Fay Rowland. (I am currently preparing for the Blogging from A to Z in April Challenge and working on other writing projects, so my posts here are less frequent than last year.)

Our Woodland Birds: A Nature Lover's GuideOur Woodland Birds: A Nature Lover’s Guide by Matt Sewell
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Our Woodland Birds is a delightful book with stylised pictures of birds perching on identified trees. There is a small amount of helpful text. I read it in the library, while I had some spare time. Most of the birds included may be seen or heard in Britain, but some are occasional visitors. There is some humour in the descriptions. All the birds are pictured in a section at the end, with check boxes for bird spotters to complete, if they so wish.
I’ll be looking out for other books by Matt Sewell.


So You’ve Finished Writing. Now What?: A beginner’s guide to getting your words out there.So You’ve Finished Writing. Now What?: A beginner’s guide to getting your words out there. by Fay Rowland
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

In So you’ve Finished Writing. Now What? Fay Rowland covers all the stages from finishing writing an article, a book or any other piece of writing to its publication as the best it can be.
Various aspects of editing are discussed in Section A. Section B is about the various ways it is possible to publish or have one’s writing published. All the technical terms are explained in section C, the Glossary.
There are literary references and a great deal of humour making this a very readable book. It is also a handy reference guide.

View all my reviews on Goodreads

All my reviews (on Sue’s blogs and Goodreads) are here.

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Reviews of three books I read in June

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The title of this post shows that I haven’t kept up-to-date in reviewing the books I have read this year!

The three books in this post are by traditionally published authors. Two are fiction and the third is nonfiction. They are The Boleyn Inheritance by Philippa Gregory, The Wind knows my Name by Isabel Allende and Seeing Voices by Oliver Sacks.

The Boleyn Inheritance by Philippa Gregory

Cover of the paperback copy of The Boleyn Inheritance Picture is of a woman in Tudor costume. Text is the title, From the author of The Other Boleyn Girl and the author's name.

The Boleyn Inheritance was a purchase from a charity stall on a railway station after learning I had a long wait due to a train being cancelled. After reading it I donated it to a charity shop.

I had previously read two books by Philippa Gregory, which I have reviewed on this blog. One, The Queen’s Fool, was later in the series than the Boleyn Inheritance, which is about two of the wives of Henry VIII.

The Boleyn Inheritance features two very different wives. The first is Anne of Cleves and the second Catherine Howard. They were his third and fourth wives. The first was a foreigner with little knowledge of English and the ways of the country and court. The second was a very young lady-in-waiting. Life at court is described in great detail with some explicit scenes. The book is well-researched and well-written. Although it is part of a series it is not necessary to read the earlier books.

The Wind knows my Name by Isabel Allende

Cover of the hardback edition of The Wind Knows My Name The Global Bestseller, author's name, endorsement and title. Illustration is a pattern of exotic birds and flowers repeated three times and in mirror image, Yellow, orange and greenish shades on black

I borrowed this novel from a distant branch of the county library. I hadn’t heard of the author previously, but the title and the endorsement by Khaled Hosseini (Allende is a grand storyteller) encouraged me to borrow it. Isabel Allende writes in Spanish. The Wind knows my Name was translated by Frances Riddle. This novel explores the theme of children, who are taken away from their home countries, growing up outside their birth families. Some of the situations included are not well-known (at least to me!). The different ways that the children reacted to the problems that their enforced exiles caused are sensitively written. The various strands of the story hang together well.

Seeing Voices by Oliver Sacks

Cover of Seeing voices. Two hands are pointing upwards making a shape. The background is aqua. the author's name appears in white. The title and From the best-selling author of the Man who mistook his wife for a hat are in small black type.

I read Seeing Voices via the Borrowbox app on my phone. It is about how deaf people communicate and includes a history of education of deaf people in the USA. Reading it on Borrowbox was far from ideal as there were many footnotes, which I couldn’t easily access. Many case studies were included, giving insight into how deaf people can be taught and what happens if they are not. There was much interesting material, but I found it difficult to read. American sign language and special schools for deaf children are considered. It took me three weeks to finish reading it.