The Northern Lights seem to have spread over much of the country – powerful and beautiful in equal measure.
One of the greatest joys of the bookshop is its consistency – the gentle and steady ebb & flow through each day offers a calming aspect to life. Bookselling is work which adds quality to time spent rather than taking it away – even despite the busy’ness of it all. Those foundations of calmness and consideration, on which the shop is built, we try to apply to our work online. Despite the internet becoming a vibrant and exciting extension to the shop (it’s like having another Market Square in which to meet), we still try to keep those values we hold dear in a world which is constantly evolving. Our recent changes in how we pack and despatch our orders will hopefully be imperceptible, of course there are a few inevitable creases, but they get ironed out as we continue to refine and improve the experience for all our friends and customers whom we meet in this virtual Market Square.
The striking images of yesterday evening’s Northern Lights seem to have spread over much of the country – powerful and beautiful in equal measure. The author of Moby Dick, Herman Melville, like many of his age, was also a poet as well as novelist. His work ‘Aurora Borealis’, written at the end of the American Civil War, used the power of the Northern Lights as a metaphor for the war itself, raging through the night and then dissipating at the break of dawn. With hope, this verse is as relevant today as it was over 150 years ago.
Aurora Borealis by Herman Melville
What power disbands the Northern Lights
After their steely play?
The lonely watcher feels an awe
Of Nature’s sway,
As when appearing,
He marked their flashed uprearing
In the cold gloom –
Retreatings and advancings,
(Like dallyings of doom),
Transitions and enhancings,
And bloody ray.
The phantom-host has faded quite,
Splendor and Terror gone
Portent or promise – and gives way
To pale, meek Dawn;
The coming, going,
Alike in wonder showing –
Alike the God,
Decreeing and commanding
The million blades that glowed,
The muster and disbanding –
Midnight and Morn.
Reading is a moreish hobby for many of us, so when the Guardian reviews a book as “a novel that was written for pleasure,” you can bet that it will stir intrigue. The Ministry of Time is Kaliane Bradley’s debut: an electrifying, heady combination of sci-fi and romance, where history collides with the future. Commander Gore must work with his ‘bridge’, a civil servant assigned to the back-from-the-dead explorer, on the science of time travel. But when the true nature of these tests are revealed, and love begins to blossom, can history be rewritten?
Equally outlandish, but amazingly true, The Light Eaters by Zoe Schlanger delves into the topic of plant intelligence: electricity, communication, and movement occurs in plants just like it does in animals and Schlanger tells the fascinating stories of these similarities.
In fiction, the gang spring back into action in the fourth installment of Richard Osman’s wildly successful series; in The Last Devil to Die, an antiques dealer is dead, a mysterious package is missing, and there’s fraud afoot. There’s some new voices on the scene: Rachel Cosyn’s poignant Gone to Pieces is a story about a middle-aged mother who would rather run away to France than confront her dwindling mental health; Soula Emmanuel is the latest writer to emerge from Ireland with Wild Geese, in which Phoebe runs into an old flame from before an international move and a gender transition; and Oisin McKenna grapples with the hot topics of youth in England: queerness, class, parenthood, and friendship.
In biography, Yuan Yang’s Private Revolutions raises important points about suppression in China, depicted through the lives of four young women who refused to conform to society. In travel writing, Stuart Maconie shows us the diversity of history, people, and culture in The Full English; and you may not have heard of a bothy before, but after reading Kat Hill’s tale of these wild huts, you may want to put on your hiking boots and seek one out. In sport, Immortals of British Motor Racing charts the highs and lows of racing legends, including Jackie Stewart and Lewis Hamilton.
For readers 9+, Tom Percival, author of the Big Bright Feelings picture books, delivers a novel that looks at child poverty; in this empathetic story, friendship and understanding are crucial to helping someone who doesn’t quite fit in. And for little ones, I Spot a Snail is a joyful lift-the-flap book of fun facts about creepy crawlies.
As always, if there’s something you need help with, or a book you need ordering, please call or email us!
From Sophie
Click on any of the book covers below for more info.
The full newsletter with links to books – including this week’s Signed Editions – can be HERE
