The Shepherd's Lifeby James Rebanks

Reviewed by Helena

No lyrical, romantic account, but a hard-bitten, dull and down-to-earth story of a family, a community and an environment. A story of cycles—of seasons, years, people, generations, stretches back centuries.

A story of farming which only exists now in the remoter, wilder region of the UK, where the land is too hard and the environment too harsh for farming to be an "agribusiness". Where success, survival of farms, their sheep are dependent on knowledge passed down through generations and shared between farmers and shepherds in a small, close-knit and mutually-dependent community. A story of people hefted to their land every bit as much as their sheep are hefted to their fells.

A Walk in the Woodsby Bill Bryson

Reviewed by T. Bently

Having read all of Bill Bryson's travel books, this was the last one left. I hadn't read this because I had been told it was one of his weakest one. But I decided, through no other reason that I needed a hit of Bryson, to read it. People couldn't have been more wrong. From the very beginning of assessing the feasibility, arranging for Katz to accompany him to the purchasing of his equipment and the purchasing of “a large knife for killing bears and hillbillies”, Bryson is at his absolute best. His cute eye-is a wise witness to this beautiful but fragile but fragile trail. His encounters along the trail and Katz anti-social, childish antics(滑稽动作) make the first 150 pages more than a laugh-out-loud-hike. I couldn't have been more surprised. An adventure, a comedy, and a celebration,A Walk in the Woodsis destined to become a modem classic.