Bookshelf corner: December reading list

Hello dear reader(s) and welcome back to the blog! Can you believe it’s already December? It’s finally properly cold here in the Northern Hemisphere, snow is here in those parts that do get snow and you can just feel the festive mood in the air. 🙂 Since it’s cold outside and it’s getting darker earlier you naturally want to stay home where it’s nice and warm. And since you’re already at home why not make yourself a cup of tea/coffee/something a bit stronger 🙂 (hey, I don’t judge 😀 ), find a comfy place to curl up and read something. I’ve mentioned in my previous chatty post that I’m making a reading list for December. Now that it’s finally finished I’m going to walk you through it. Let’s get cracking!

To make this easier and because I like lists that make sense 😀 I’m doing this one alphabetically by author. First up is Peter Frankopan and his 2 new books: the Croatian illustrated edition Putovi svile: Nova povijest svijeta – an adaptation of his incredibly popular and masterfully written The Silk Roads: A New History for a New World. Also known as the book that dramatically affected my life, academical writing and thinking about history and the world in general. I acquired this illustrated edition at Interliber – Croatia’s largest book fair, and according to the Croatian publisher (Školska knjiga) the book is aimed at primary school children. Do you think that stopped me from buying and reading said book? Nope. If anybody asks I bought it for my niece and nephew 🙂 but they’re 5,5 years old and I don’t really think I can cram history into their reading life (jet). But if anybody has any tricks and tips how to do just that I’ll lend you my ears. 😀 The New Silk Roads: The Present and Future of the World the sequel to the afore mentioned masterpiece The Silk Roads, is also on my reading list for this month. Although, by the looks of it, this one deals more with contemporary history (not my favourite period) I’m excited about this one and looking forward to reading it.

However, before I jump in the world of The New Silk Roads I’ve got to refresh my memory. 🙂 Therefore, I’ve already started reading Putovi svile, and I’m hoping that I’ll finish it and write a review by the end of next week. It’s doable, the book is only 130 pages long, unlike the original that’s just 650-ish pages long and has the bane of everyone’s existence in it – endnotes. *fingers crossed* On a side note, a funny thing happened last night when I went to get my tea and I left Putove svile on the coffee table. My Mum was flicking through the book when I got back and she’s looking back at me and asks: “Are you reading this?” I told her that I was, and that I just started it. And she looks at me all excided like a kid before her first day of primary school and asks: “Can I read this? Is this for me?” My Mum doesn’t read history books much, and she was so excited about this one, and I cannot describe how happy I was that she was interested to read something that changed my life! She’s going to enjoy this, I can tell. 🙂

The second author on the list is historian and consultant for the Horrible Histories show Greg Jenner with the book A Million Years in a Day: A Curious History of Daily Life. If the concept and summary of the book wasn’t interesting and exciting enough: “This is a history of all those things you always wondered – and many you have never considered. It is the story of our lives, one million years in the making.” the little blurb stating “From the chief nerd to BBC’s Horrible Histories” should have everyone running to the stores/libraries to get this book, because we all know that show is pure gold! Gold I tell ya! Also the wee illustrations at the beginning of every chapter are so hilariously cute! Regarding the book itself I’m anticipating that this one will see a lot of commute from work to home (because it’s small and light, but packs a punch I can feel it in my old as Jesus bones 😀 ) and I also have a hunch that this one will be visiting a lot of my friends. 😀 And by visiting I mean that I’m going to enthusiastically, but politely, shove this book in their faces and be like: I know you’re not obsessed with history as I am, but please read this book its bloody brilliant! Thank you! 😀

Barbara Nadel’s Inspector Ikmen series of crime novels set in contemporary Istanbul are meant to be my fun break from the history books I’ve chosen to read this month. The series itself consist of 20 books, and currently I’m on book number 4. Usually I finish crime novels pretty quickly, it takes me a day or two unless I’m stretching it, or I’m reading multiple books at once. However, I don’t think I’ll finish the whole series this month, so it’s very likely that I’ll just transfer whatever I don’t read this month into the next year. Although I tend to avoid reviewing, or in this case giving a brief overview, of the books in a series before I finish the whole thing, since this is chatty post and not a dedicated review I’ll touch on a few things that I like about the series so far. The cast of characters are quirky and fun, additionally I like seeing inspector Ikmen’s family dynamics as well as family relationships of the rest of the characters. It’s kind of refreshing to see average, more or less functional family dynamics of detectives and police officers, rather than the screwed up family relationships and characters we tend to get in many crime novels. Likewise it’s fascinating to see how Nadel managed to incorporate Istanbul’s colourful history into her books and how those echoes can be recognised if you know what you’re looking for. 🙂

The last book on this month’s list is Lilia Zaouali’s Medieval Cuisine of the Islamic World: A Concise History with 174 recipes. A perfect book to read for the holiday season. 😀 This one definitely goes on the S. A. Chakraborty made me get this list! 😀 If you didn’t know Shannon is the author of the City of Brass, the 1^st book of her epic fantasy Daevabad series set in the 18^th century Middle East. She’s a sweetheart and along with doing an amusing and brilliantly fun retelling of 1001 Nights on her Twitter feed @SAChakrabooks, she also recreates medieval Islamic dishes and posts the recipe and photos there. She mentioned this book in a few of her threads so I decided to get it, because who can resist medieval cuisine! It’s a book about food and everybody loves food! 😀 I’ll be reading this one in the comfort of my living room, because Lord knows I’ll get hungry while I’m reading this. 😀 I’m excited to read this one too, although I’m not sure if I’ll be recreating the recipes. Firstly, I’d have to translate the recipe to Croatian, then I’d have to see if I can get the necessary ingredients here in Croatia and finally I’d have to calculate the required amount I’d need, because everything is given in ounces, cups and tablespoons. Good Lord in heaven! Why can’t people just use the SI system like everyone else instead of cups and tea spoons and whatnots I’ll never know…

Finally we’ve come to the end of my December reading list. As you probably noticed from the text I’m really happy with my choices and I’m excited to start reading. Do you have a reading list for December? Do you even make reading list or do you abhor them? Have you read anything from my list, or are you planning to? Let me know in the comments down below or you can find me on Twitter @NarratriceNesssa. Whatever you may read I hope you’ll have a pleasant and fun December! Until next time dear reader(s)!