Author: Peter Hopkirk Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ This is a book about various people who tried to reach Tibet, largely in the late 1800s to early-mid 1900s. Tibet is a famously isolated country. There was a lot of intrigue surrounding it as well as a lot of fascination, especially in the West with the mythical aura around... Continue Reading →
Author: Romesh Gunesekera Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️ This was my May pick for my Around the World Book Tour, and this is the book I chose for Sri Lanka. In this book, set in 1960s Ceylon, we follow Kairo, a pre-teen boy who meets an older boy called Jay who he immediately feels a connection with. As... Continue Reading →
Author: John Bryan Starr Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ I don’t need to point out the importance of China in the world today. It’s the second most populous country in the world, one of the richest (by overall GDP), arguably the most influential in East Asia and one of the most instrumental in the rest of the world,... Continue Reading →
Author: Sujatha Gidla Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ The word outcast is used to refer to those who have been rejected by society or a social group. It literally means outside of caste, which is the social hierarchy in which many in India have lived and still live. Previously known as untouchables and now usually referred to officially... Continue Reading →
Author: Antonia Bolingbroke-Kent Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ This is the second book on India I’ve read for my Around the World Book Tour, and I liked it much more than the first one. For me, good travel writing not only gives an account of the author’s journey, but puts the place they’re travelling to into context. The... Continue Reading →
Author: Monisha Rajesh Rating: ⭐️⭐️.5 Although Rajesh’s parents are Indian, she grew up mostly in the UK (apart from a brief two-year stint where her family returned to India during her childhood), so she’d never explored the country much beyond visiting relatives and such, so, partially inspired by Jules Verne’s Around the World in 80... Continue Reading →
Author: Sean McMeekin Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ This book is a very thorough look into the Russian Revolution, tracing the movements and interactions of all the significant players, including the imperial family, the various governments, the Bolsheviks and the military. Having never studied Russian history in much detail, the Russian Revolution has always been one of those... Continue Reading →
Thoughts on the non-fiction books I finished in January
Author: Andrey Kurkov Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️ This is a series of diaries written by Andrey Kurkov, a Russian-Ukrainian writer (ethnically Russian but identifying as Ukrainian). The time it covers spans the end of 2013 through the beginning of 2014, around the time Russia annexed Crimea and pro-European protesters started to gather in the Maidan in Kiev.... Continue Reading →
Author: Tim Tate Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ If it’s not obvious from my rating, I thoroughly enjoyed this book. And if you read the book, you’ll understand why I constructed that first sentence the way I did. That being said, this book reads like a novel, but it’s a true story about a Polish secret service officer,... Continue Reading →
The Kat Bite 