Non-fiction Spotlight!

Welcome to a brand new, occasional series on the blog, entitled 'Non-fiction Spotlight', featuring non-fiction books that I have been reading. Although much of my reading time is spent in the company of novels, I do very much enjoy reading a variety of non-fiction books too and I have reviewed one or two in the past here on my blog. I thought that when I do review or want to highlight a non-fiction book in the future it could be part of a sporadic feature, hence this post. 

From time to time I read biography, history, travel, health, wildlife, and other non-fiction books. I'm not sure what this feature will incorporate yet, or how often it will appear, but I have a couple of books in mind to get it started: I've recently read Welcome to Biscuit Land by Jessica Thom, so that one will be featuring next, and I hope to read Death in the Baltic by Cathryn J. Prince and The Spy who Loved by Clare Mulley soon. I have lots of other non-fiction books I've bought sitting on my to read pile that I hope to look at going forwards and mention here too.  

I'd be interested to know how much non-fiction others who primarily read fiction get through, and whether you think about it differently in terms of whether you would ever feature it on your book blog. I hope you enjoy these occasional reviews.

Non-fiction reviews

Welcome to Biscuit Land by Jessica Thom

Elijah's Mermaid - Essie Fox

Pearl, with her unusual webbed toes, was found as a baby in the river Thames, and taken to live at the brothel known as the House of the Mermaids under the watch of Mrs Hibbert who looks after her until her fourteenth birthday when Pearl realises things are going to change for her.

Twins Lily and Elijah are rescued via the intervention a kind family friend and grow up in comfort with their Grandfather in the countryside, listening to the tales he writes and dreaming of mermaids. When they visit London one day for the first time, and meet Pearl whilst there, so begins a connection that shapes their futures. 

Essie Fox has used her knowledge and research combined with imagination and an evident keen passion for this period to vividly depict varied aspects of Victorian life from the beautiful to the sordid and unusual, leading the reader on an intriguing journey involving love, betrayal, art and literature. I enjoyed this book very much; I thought the different narrative voices were compelling and the story gradually drew me in; I felt transported away to a strange, secretive place, a place full of love, betrayal and illusions, a world away. 

Published by Orion

I originally reviewed this novel for lovereading.co.uk - see my review and others here.

Thanks to lovereading and to the publisher for sending a review copy of this novel.

You can follow the author on twitter @essiefox and visit her fascinating blog The Virtual Victorian.