Watery books for Christmas

Shelfie book pile ©2022LisaLeQuelene

 

 

I hope everyone had a lovely break over the holiday season. I was very lucky to receive a lovely pile of watery and blue books for Christmas and I can't wait to get started on them. Before I can tuck in though I have to finish a most wonderful book that I got for my birthday - more on that one later....

ISBN 9781848224766

 

 

First up is Kurt Jackson's Sea - as you may know I have been a fan of his work for years and used to coincide trips to Cornwall with exhibitions of his at the Lemon Street Gallery back in the day. I can't wait to visit the Kurt Jackson Foundation Gallery in St. Just - hopefully in summer. Now I have, of course, had a sneaky peek and it looks like another visual delight of his signature paintings. I was really pleased to see some of the more recent surfer paintings included as well as a couple of my old favourites.

ISBN 9780008294779

 

 

I read Adam Nicolson's 'Sea Room- An island life in the Hebrides some time ago and enjoyed it immensely and am really looking forward to this one. The author is wonderfully descriptive, painting images in the mind. There are also some gorgeous illustrations by Kate Boxer to enjoy. The end papers to this edition are delightful white line drawings of shells - I'm a sucker for beautiful endpapers, they make a book even more special.

ISBN 9780198834571

During the first lockdown and attempting home-schooling my son and I would get through the lessons set, some days doing bits from the next days job list in the hope we could finish the weeks work by Thursday. This meant that we could have 'Fun Friday' woop! I picked a topic that would interest us both and we learnt all about the Vikings. It was good fun and without him realising he learnt quite a bit about history and geography. We made 'Viking bread', built a longship, weapons and jewellery out of cardboard and whatever was to hand and read lots of Norse mythology which for him led to some very creative storytelling. It fascinated the both of us until it was time to return to school.

For me the interest has continued and I am slowly working my way through different books of myths and sagas. The Poetic Edda translated by Carolyne Larrington looks like it will be a great read and very accessible. I'm particularly interested in finding out more about Ran, Aegir's wife a giantess of the sea. If anyone can point me in the direction of information about her, I would be grateful as she has captured my imagination and I can only find a couple of references to her.

ISBN 9781786891211

 

 

 

This book has been on my wish list for quite some time so will look forward to diving deep into it over the coming weeks. It will be interesting to read something from a female perspective. It seems to cover a lot of ground from mythology and folklore to history, art, religion, literature and the natural world.

ISBN 9780375708138

The final book might not be as watery but what a wonderful subject! It is one that I read a quote from on another blog, though for the life of me I can't remember which one. I did make a note of it and popped it straight on my 'to find out more about list'. Intriguing and not an author that I have come across before. As you know I have a thing about books on colour and look forward to finding out more about one of my all time favourites.

So we may be heading towards the lighter days now but as Winter proper is still to get through I am well prepared with reading material to be inspired by and to travel with from somewhere warm, dry and hopefully with a hot cup of coffee. 

 

 

Have you read anything good lately? Is there anything that you would recommend? Maybe something I should add to my 'to find out more about list'? Do tell...