Rebecca M. Douglass, Author

Reviewing this fascinating memoir today. Title: The Electricity of Every Living Thing: A Woman's Walk in the Wild to Find Her Way Home Author: Katherine May Publication Info: Trapeze, 2018. 285 pages (Kindle edition) Source: Library Publisher's Blurb: In anticipation of her 38th birthday, Katherine May set out to walk the 630-mile South West Coast Path. She wanted time alone, in nature, to understand why she had stopped coping with everyday life; why motherhood had been so overwhelming and isolating; and why the world felt full of expectations she couldn’t meet. She was also reeling from a chance encounter with a voice on the radio that sparked her realisation that she might be autistic. And so begins a trek along the ruggedly beautiful but difficult path by the sea that takes readers through the alternatingly frustrating, funny, and enlightening experience of re-awakening to the world around us… The Electricity of Every Living Thing sees Katherine come to terms w...

Title: The Summer Before the War   Author: Helen Simonson; read by Fiona Hardingham Publisher: Random House Audio, 2016 (original hardback by Random House, 2016, 496 pages). Source: Library digital services Publisher's Blurb: East Sussex, 1914. It is the end of England’s brief Edwardian summer, and everyone agrees that the weather has never been so beautiful. Hugh Grange, down from his medical studies, is visiting his Aunt Agatha, who lives with her husband in the small, idyllic coastal town of Rye. Agatha’s husband works in the Foreign Office, and she is certain he will ensure that the recent saber rattling over the Balkans won’t come to anything. And Agatha has more immediate concerns; she has just risked her carefully built reputation by pushing for the appointment of a woman to replace the Latin master. When Beatrice Nash arrives with one trunk and several large crates of books, it is clear she is significantly more freethinking—and attractive—than anyone believes ...