Book 3 - Sinead O'Connor "Rememberings"

Sinead O'Connor "Rememberings" (Penguin)






Rememberings by Sinead O'Connor is one of the most heartfelt memoirs I have read. I don't simply mean that she opens up, I think most memoirists do to some extent, but that she "talks" to us as if it matters that she conveys what she was thinking and what she thinks now. This memoir is truly for her happiness and our understanding. I'm not sure she cares, nor that she should, whether every reader agrees with her perspectives, but she tries very hard to make sure we can understand her actions as well as she does.

This is very conversational, both in tone and structure. In the same way, a very long discussion with a friend can meander back and forth this book does so as well. Not to a distracting or detrimental extent though it does take a few chapters to catch on to her authorial voice. After that, it is almost like sitting in the room listening to her.

All of the moments in her life that are famous, or infamous, are covered, as well as some extraordinary lesser-known moments. Knowing how she grew up will offer the reader some insight into why she has approached some of these moments as she did.

I would recommend this to both fans of hers as well as readers who just like memoirs. This will read a little different from most but your effort will be rewarded.

Book 4 - Annie Proulx "Fen, Bog And Swamp"

Annie Proulx "Fen, Bog And Swamp" (Fourth Estate)








A lifelong environmentalist, Annie Proulx brings her wide-ranging research and scholarship to the subject of wetlands and the vitally important yet little-understood role they play in preserving the environment — by storing the carbon emissions that greatly contribute to climate change. Fens, bogs, swamps, and marine estuaries are the earth’s most desirable and dependable resources, and in four stunning parts, Proulx documents the long-misunderstood role of these wetlands in saving the planet.

Taking us on a fascinating journey through history, Proulx shows us the fens of 16th-century England to Canada’s Hudson Bay lowlands, Russia’s Great Vasyugan Mire, America’s Okeefenokee National Wildlife Refuge, and the 19th-century explorers who began the destruction of the Amazon rainforest. Along the way, she writes of the diseases spawned in the wetlands—the Ague, malaria, Marsh Fever—and the surprisingly significant role of peat in industrialization.

A sobering look at the degradation of wetlands over centuries and the serious ecological consequences, this is a stunningly important work and a rousing call to action by a writer whose passionate devotion to understanding and preserving the environment is on full and glorious display