its-monday-reading-under-tree

I just finished the amazing Arthur & Sherlock (review to come soon) and desperately wanted there to be more. Luckily, last week I received a lovely box of wonderfulness from Katie and Iris at Pegasus Books and I couldn’t wait to dive in.


the-zoo

The Zoo: The Wild and Wonderful Tale of the Founding of London Zoo: 1826-1851 by Isobel Charman

– The founding of a zoo in Georgian London is a story of jaw-dropping audacity in the Age of Empire. It is the story of diplomats, traders, scientists, and aristocratic amateur naturalists charged by Sir Stamford Raffles with collecting amazing creatures from all four corners of the globe.

It is the story of the first zoo in history, a weird and wonderful oasis in the heart of the filthy, swirling city of Dickensian London, and of the incredible characters, both human and animal, that populated it—from Charles Darwin and Queen Victoria to Obaysch the celebrity hippo, the first that anyone in Britain had ever seen. This is a story of Victorian grandeur, of science and empire, and of adventurers and charlatans. And it is the story of a dizzying age of Empire and industrialization, a time of change unmatched before or since. –

I know very little about this chapter of London history and have found it delightfully interesting so far.

Hardcover: 368 pages
Publisher: Pegasus Books; 1 edition (April 11, 2017)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1681773562
ISBN-13: 978-1681773568


mister-memory

Mister Memory by Marcus Sedgwick

– In Paris in the year 1899, Marcel Després is arrested for the murder of his wife and transferred to the famous Salpêtrière Asylum. And there the story might have stopped.

But the doctor assigned to his care soon realizes this is no ordinary patient: Marcel Després, Mister Memory, is a man who cannot forget. And the policeman assigned to his case soon realizes that something else is at stake: For why else would the criminal have been hurried off to hospital, and why are his superiors so keen for the whole affair to be closed?

This crime involves something bigger and stranger than a lovers’ fight, something with links to the highest and lowest establishments in France. The policeman and the doctor between them must unravel the mystery—but the answers lie inside Marcel’s head. And how can he tell what is significant when he remembers every detail of every moment of his entire life? –

I am absolutely hooked. This book is addictive. 

Hardcover: 336 pages
Publisher: Pegasus Books (March 7, 2017)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1681773406
ISBN-13: 978-1681773407


What are you reading this week?

2 thoughts on “It’s Monday – What are you reading?”

    1. It’s really interesting. I knew (or thought I knew) about Raffles but didn’t realize he was connected to the zoo. And the writing style is different. It sounds almost as if it were written back then, which makes it a bit slower reading but more evocative, I think.

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