Pen Hanley's Blog

What’s essential? Pandemic reading

Three outstanding books

In the early days of the pandemic a contents box on the front page of a newspaper stated:

‘WHAT’S ESSENTIAL

In France, wine

In the US, guns.’

For me, it’s books. (Hmmmm, maybe the wine comes a close second.)

Some people want to read books like Camus’ The Plague during this pandemic. If you’re the erudite Simon Schama you’ll of course be reading Thucydides’ History of the Peloponnesian War with its evocative descriptions of plague and the detrimental effect on friendship.

Not me. I don’t want to re-visit those two fine works when it’s nearly impossible to keep up with the number of wonderful new books being published, specially when keeping up with them is done after small writing and editing jobs plus the big one of writing my next novel.

Three recent books, all very different from each other, stand out for me: Bradley J. Edwards’ Relentless Pursuit (co-written with Brittany Henderson), Colly Campbell’s The Capricorn Sky, and Cole Moreton’s The Lightkeeper. Continue Reading What’s essential? Pandemic reading…