Tag: non fiction

UEFA European Women’s Championship

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The UEFA European Women’s Championship’s are well underway and this tournament will go down in history for breaking many records.  The Lionesses have been front and centre of these achievements, securing the competition’s biggest win, a record they had set themselves by beating Scotland 6-0 to open the 2017 group stage.  Along with total goals scored, most goals in a half and most goals scored in a group stage this has truly been a historic campaign for women’s football, now more so than ever after their brilliant 2-1 win over Spain in extra time. 

The fans have played their part too.  The record crowd at Old Trafford that watched England defeat Austria surpassed the previous record by more than 27,000 spectators.  An attendance 68,871 smashed the previous record of the 41,301 fans attending the 2013 final between Germany and Norway in Solna, Sweden. The new benchmark looks set to go on 31 July, with the Wembley final already sold out.

With women’s football and women’s sport in general receiving additional coverage and interest, the National Literacy Trust have put together a reading list which showcases the best of what your library has to offer with a collection which focuses on sport and amazing stories from popular sporting figures.  Take a look and see how many you can read – maybe you can break some of your own reading records along the way.

UEFA Women’s EURO 2022 | National Literacy Trust

Jaz Santos vs. the world by Priscilla Mante
The first in a new series about a group of unlikely friends who come together to make their own girls’ football team, proving to everyone that they should be taken seriously.

Marta : from the playground to the pitch by Charlotte Browne
Marta is the best footballer in the history of the women’s game. The Brazilian has jaw-dropping flair and skill. She has scored more World Cup goals than any other player, and has won FIFA World Player of the Year six times. But pure talent alone was never enough – this book tells the story of how Marta chased her dreams with determination and a never-give-up attitude, to earn the right to be called the best player ever.

How to be extraordinary : real-life stories of extraordinary humans! by Rashmi Sirdeshpande
Could you be EXTRAORDINARY? This book will inspire you with the real-life stories of extraordinary people, showcasing a total variety of personalities and talents. Whoever you are, and whoever you want
to be, read about the extraordinary stories of these 15 people, and decide how YOU will be extraordinary too!

Our beautiful game by Lou Kuenzler
A hundred years before the Lionesses, Lily Parr, Alice Woods and their teammates were proudly playing their beloved, exciting and skilful game. As men were sent to fight in the war, women and girls took their place in munitions factories. Football became a favourite pastime and, before long, they were creating all-female sides and playing public matches to sell-out crowds, overshadowing men’s football. Despite drawing crowds of 50,000, women’s football was outlawed by the Football Association in 1921, who deemed it ‘unsuitable for females’. This is the incredible story of these amazing women.

Rocky by Tom Palmer
A struggling student and brilliant footballer, Rocky Race is many things, but to most people she’s just Roy Race’s little sister. It’s not much fun, especially as Melchester Rovers head to the League Cup Final. Rocky’s sick of everyone knowing her through Roy, she’s had enough of school, and she’s even started having panic attacks. Now it’s up to Rocky to find her own way – as a person and a player – and she’s going to need all her grit and determination to do it…

LGBT+ History Month – February 2022

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Hello there! My name is Jordan. I’m currently a Library Assistant at Winchester Library and today I’m guest-writing for the blog to talk to you about LGBT+ History Month.

Throughout February, Hampshire Libraries will be celebrating and spotlighting LGBT+ history and culture, as well as recognising the achievements of LGBT+ pioneers from all fields of life. LGBT+ History Month started in 2005, and is supported by a network of various charities, organisations, and schools.

This year’s theme is ‘Politics in Art’, with the aim of highlighting the importance of art and artistic expression in furthering LGBT+ rights and challenging injustice. It is easy to forget that only a few decades ago, creating art that was outside the norms of society would have been heavily censored and criticised, and continues to be this way for many parts of the world today.

Despite this, there were many bold pioneers. Artists such as Keith Haring generated awareness and activism about AIDs in the 1980s. Poets such as Audre Lorde spoke of gender and sexuality in an era where such topics were not widely accepted.

Art in all its forms has the power to inspire, educate and provoke. There is a rich history of defiantly challenging oppressive attitudes with the power of the written word. However, I feel art also fosters a sense of community. Art draws us together and provides space to see society – and ourselves – reflected in it. Underground zines allowed oppressed LGBT+ communities to communicate and be themselves during the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s. Even today, book clubs allow all types of people to relax and feel safe while talking about their favourite novels.

On a personal level though, art helps us make sense of ourselves and where we fit in. It’s so important for art to reflect everyone in society, and while it hasn’t always been the case, in recent years I’m really proud that a wider range of diverse books are being printed and finding their way into libraries.

For a young teenager exploring their sexuality and finding the strength to come out, to the older person wishing to read about the history they lived through, Hampshire Libraries has a range of books available to read and reserve, either in branch or on BorrowBox, our eBook and eAudiobook service.

We have produced a book list, featuring a range of talent whatever you’re looking for. Below are a couple of my personal selections, but I encourage you to look through the whole list and find the book for you!

To reserve the books below from our catalogue, just click on the book image.

My recommended books are:

  • Pride: The Story of the LGBTQ Equality Movement by Matthew Todd
    Pride documents the milestones in the fight for LGBTQ equality, from the victories of early activists to the passing of legislation barring discrimination, and the gradual acceptance of the LGBTQ community in politics, sport, culture and the media. Rare images and documents cover the seminal moments, events and breakthroughs of the movement, while personal testimonies share the voices of key figures on a broad range of topics. Pride is a unique celebration of LGBTQ culture, an account of the ongoing challenges facing the community, and a testament to the equal rights that have been won for many as a result of the passion and determination of this mass movement.
  • Queer Intentions: A (Personal) Journey Through LGBTQ + Culture by Amelia Abraham
    Combining intrepid journalism with her own personal experience, in Queer Intentions, Amelia Abraham searches for the answers to these urgent challenges, as well as the broader question of what it means to be queer right now. With curiosity, good humour and disarming openness, Amelia takes the reader on a thought-provoking and entertaining journey. Join her as she cries at the first same-sex marriage in Britain, loses herself in the world’s biggest drag convention in L.A., marches at Pride parades across Europe, visits both a transgender model agency and the Anti-Violence Project in New York to understand the extremes of trans life today, parties in the clubs of Turkey’s underground LGBTQ+ scene, and meets a genderless family in progressive Stockholm.

  • On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong
    This is a letter from a son to a mother who cannot read. Written when the speaker, Little Dog, is in his late twenties, the letter unearths a family’s history that began before he was born. It tells of Vietnam, of the lasting impact of war, and of his family’s struggle to forge a new future. It serves as a doorway into parts of Little Dog’s life his mother has never known – episodes of bewilderment, fear and passion – all the while moving closer to an unforgettable revelation.

  • The Whispers by Greg Howard
    Before she disappeared, Riley’s mama used to tell him stories about the Whispers, mysterious creatures with the power to grant wishes.
    Riley wishes for lots of things. He wishes his secret crush Dylan liked him back. He wishes the bumbling detective would stop asking awkward questions. But most of all he wishes his mother would come home . . .
    Four months later, the police are no closer to finding out the truth – and Riley decides to take matters into his own hands.
    But do the Whispers really exist? And what is Riley willing to do to find out?
  • The Henna Wars by Adiba Jaigirdar
    When Nishat comes out to her parents, they say she can be anyone she wants – as long as she isn’t herself. Because Muslim girls aren’t lesbians. Nishat doesn’t want to lose her family, but she also doesn’t want to hide who she is, which only gets harder once Flávia walks into her life.
    Beautiful and charismatic, Flávia takes Nishat’s breath away. But as their lives become tangled, they’re caught up in a rivalry that gets in the way of any feelings they might have for each other.
    Can Nishat find a way to be true to herself… and find love too?

Earth Matters

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Scientists are observing changes in the Earth’s climate in every region and across the whole climate system, according to the latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Report.

The Earth’s climate is changing, and the role of human influence on the climate system is undisputed, yet the report also identifies the role of climate change in intensifying specific weather and climate events such as extreme heat waves and heavy rainfall events for the first time.

Stabilising the climate will require strong, rapid, and sustained reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, and net zero CO2 emissions, challenges delegates are meeting to discuss at the COP26 climate talks in Glasgow at the end of this month.

In recognition of the COP26 climate conference in Glasgow, we have created the ‘Earth Matters’ collection of fiction and non-fiction books, eBooks and eAudiobooks, to compliment our existing Earth Heroes environmental collections for children and young adults.

Fiction books

Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood

Set in the not-too-distant future, in the aftermath of a catastrophic event that has wiped out human civilization as well as most humans, Oryx and Crake is a novel about the pitfalls of genetic modification.

Walkaway by Cory Doctorow

In a world wrecked by climate change, Hubert, Seth and Natalie turn their back on the world of rules, jobs and ‘walkaway’ into the empty lands – lawless places where predators, human and animal flourish. Their journey brings them into contact with the initial pioneer ‘walkaways’ who are building a post-scarcity utopia.

The Overstory by Richard Powers

Nine strangers, each in different ways, become summoned by trees, brought together in a last stand to save the continent’s few remaining acres of virgin forest. ‘The Overstory’ unfolds in concentric rings of interlocking fable, ranging from antebellum New York to the late-20th-century Timber Wars of the Pacific Northwest and beyond, revealing a world alongside our own – vast, slow, resourceful, magnificently inventive, and almost invisible to us.

Flight Behaviour by Barbara Kingsolver

On the Appalachian Mountains above her home, a young mother discovers a beautiful and terrible marvel of nature. As the world around her is suddenly transformed by a seeming miracle, can the old certainties they have lived by for centuries remain unchallenged?

The Fifth Season by N K Jemisin

The first book in the award-winning Broken Earth trilogy, Essun must pursue the wreckage of her family through a deadly, dying land. Without sunlight, clean water, or arable land, there will be war for the basic resources necessary to get through the long dark night, but Essun does not care if the world falls apart around her. She’ll break it herself, if she must, to save her daughter.

The Drowned World by J. G. Ballard

This fast-paced narrative by the author of ‘Crash’ and ‘Empire of the Sun’ is a stunning evocation of a flooded, tropical London of the near future and a foray into the workings of the unconscious mind.

Non-Fiction books

How to Save Our Planet by Professor Mark Maslin

How can we save our planet and survive the 21st century? How can you argue with deniers? How can we create positive change in the midst of the climate crisis? Professor Mark Maslin has the key facts that we need to protect our future. ‘How to Save Our Planet’ is a call to action, guaranteed to equip everyone with the knowledge needed to make change.

Silent Spring by Rachel Carson

Silent Spring is Rachel Carson’s bestselling, passionate exposure of the effects of the indiscriminate use of chemicals. She describes how pesticides are applied to farms, forests and gardens, with scant regard to the consequences.

We Are the Weather by Jonathan Safran Foer

Climate crisis is the single biggest threat to human survival. And it is happening right now. We all understand that time is running out – but do we truly believe it? And, caught between the seemingly unimaginable and the apparently unthinkable, how can we take the first step towards action, to arrest our race to extinction? We can begin with our knife and fork. With his distinctive wit, insight, and humanity, Jonathan Safran Foer presents the essential debate of our time as no one else could, bringing it to vivid and urgent life and offering us all a much-needed way out.

Earthshot by Colin Butfield

The Earthshot concept is simple: Urgency + Optimism = Action. We have ten years to turn the tide on the environmental crisis, but we need the world’s best solutions and one shared goal – to save our planet. The Earthshots are unifying, ambitious goals for our planet which, if achieved by 2030, will improve life for all of us, for the rest of life on Earth, and for generations to come. This book is a critical contribution to the most important story of the decade.

The Garden Jungle by Dave Goulson

The Garden Jungle’ is about the wildlife that lives right under our noses, in our gardens and parks, between the gaps in the pavement, and in the soil beneath our feet. Dave Goulson explains how our lives and ultimately the fate of humankind are inextricably intertwined with that of earwigs, bees, lacewings and hoverflies, unappreciated heroes of the natural world.

How to Repair Everything: A Green Guide to Fixing Stuff by Nick Harper

Not everything has built-in obsolescence – as this fantastically handy guide to fixing everyday objects proves! Whether you need to repair a strap on a favourite handbag or mend a leak in a washing machine, this book is packed full of tips and tricks of the trade for the person who likes to do-it-yourself.

You can also find these books on our BorrowBox shelf: Earth Matters | Hampshire Library Service – BorrowBox.

Books and me: on my shelves

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Events officer at Hampshire Libraries, Jeremy Cole, talks about sci-fi, the human condition, and challenging our reading habits.

Where’s your favourite place to read?

My perfect reading spot would probably be in a park on a sunny day, but it really depends on the context of what I’m reading. When I’m reading a fiction book with lots of world-building, I like to be fully absorbed in it so I read at home where I can immerse myself in that world. I love to listent to non-fiction audiobooks too, particularly on the train. However, I have done a nine-hour train journey to Cornwall and − even though I loved the book I was listening to − I got to a point where I was absolutely saturated with listening. I had to switch to music the rest of the way, which for me is an equally good way to pass the time.

But if I’m in the throes of a new book, I really will read wherever I can. Especially if there’s a strong narrator in the story, I want to stay with the characters and keep the world fresh in my mind.

How do you read?

I listen to a lot of non-fiction audiobooks on BorrowBox, but when it comes to fiction the narrator can be a huge deal breaker for me. It needs to be the right reader. Comedy books are perfect for that. I loved listening to Alan Partridge read his own autobiographies, particularly We Need to Talk About Alan and Nomad. The problem with this is you end up laughing to yourself in public.

In terms of speed, I have to admit that I have been a plodder in more recent years. I’m a completionist, so I’ll keep going even if I’m not hugely loving it. A few books have taken me a really long time to read because of that. With non-fiction though, I’ll dip in and out because the chapters can often read fine in isolation.

What are you reading at the moment?

Recently I’ve started reading a book series some people might have heard of. It’s about a boy called Harry Potter. I remember first becoming aware of it when I was studying my A-levels. My English teacher tried to get it added to the syllabus, but she said she was laughed out of the office.

I resisted getting involved until quite recently. When I was at university, I remember seeing people going to the cinema dressed up with their wands, I was thinking “this is nonsense I don’t want any part of this”. But I was won over by the movies and the magical universe it depicted. I wanted to know more about the characters and universe in depth, I love world-building in books.

With non-fiction, I’ve recently been reading Jon Ronson. I’m reading Them at the moment, but I started with The Psychopath Test. After watching a true crime series on TV, I had this sort of naïve curiosity about what people were capable of. Jon Ronson has this brilliant ability to weave a narrative out of his experiences. He almost makes himself the main character as he meets people with vastly different outlooks on the world.

Reading Patterns

Sci-fi has always been a big part of my reading. The characters are bumbling, ordinary, and relatable. They often just want to clock off work early, but they’re thrown into these extraordinary situations. I think reading about a fantasy world through characters like that can be a brilliant way to learn about the difficult issues in our own world.

The library is an amazing place to work though, you don’t need to go looking for recommendations when they’re all around you. Books will just pass between your hands and something interesting will catch your eye. It’s a great way to discover something to read naturally.

First love, best loves

Probably much younger than I should have been, I started watching Red Dwarf which led me to the novelisations. They were surprisingly good with fleshed out characters and as a thirteen-year-old they made for great reads. From there I fell into Douglas Adam’s Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. I had this chunky collection of all the novels in one book which I read over and over. I loved that dead-pan humour about the human condition, that idea of being a part of something huge that you don’t really understand.

At uni, I had a friend who was a big movie buff and we had this sort of cultural exchange. Music was my huge burning passion, and he grew up with movies as his. I had mainly watched comedies up until then, but he insisted I watch Blade Runner. I ended up reading the book it was based, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, and I’ve read a lot of Philip K. Dick since.  I loved the film and I think it was brilliant in that it took a small slice of the book and just let you sit in that. But the book had all these other elements in it about the character’s personal life and addiction to mood-determining technology.

Another big part of my reading has been music biographies. As an amateur musician who has played in a few bands, I love to read about the background of the people in bands and the stories that shaped their songs. The reality that those three famous songs from The Smiths were all written by a 22-year-old in one afternoon was incredible to read about. Songs That Saved Your Life and Revolution in the Head are more about the personalities and the culture that gave birth to the songs. I’ve recorded and written music, but I don’t know music theory really. I admire music theorists, but it isn’t the way I look at music. I like to think I’m a logical person but with music, I love that it can be instinctive.

Overlooked delights

Recently I’ve been thinking about books that maybe I have overlooked. I would describe myself as a feminist but looking back I can see that a lot of my favourite authors were men, and that many of the characters were men as well. I think reading is about exploring the human experience and it would be a shame to keep that so close to home. I’ve started with The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin but I really want to challenge myself to read wider.

As Events Officer at Hampshire Library Service, Jeremy develops exciting programmes of events for the public. Jeremy was talking with Isaac Fravashi.

Homelands – A Celebration of the British Isles

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What will your adventure be? With our long-awaited freedom finally on the near horizon, and the opportunity to travel overseas still limited, there has never been a better time to explore and celebrate The British Isles.

With increasing awareness of the importance of nature and the benefit of being outside, many of us have made time to enjoy our natural environment. From rugged coastal regions, dramatic downs, rolling farmland, idyllic islands, wild waterways, picturesque seaside towns and magnificent landscapes, it cannot be denied that the British Isles offers something for everyone.

This selection of books has been collected under the heading of Homelands to celebrate our great British Isles through its varied landscapes and histories. We hope that this collection, which will be in some libraries and available on BorrowBox too, will inspire you to make your own voyage of discovery. Highlights of the collection include:

The Wild Places by Robert Macfarlane
In this inspiring and bewitching book Macfarlane embarks on a series of journeys in search of the wildness that remains in Britain and Ireland. At once a wonder voyage, an adventure story and a work of natural history, this text also tells a story of friendship and loss, mixing history, memory and landscape in a strange evocation of wildness and its importance.

The Wild Silence by Raynor Winn
Nature holds the answers for Raynor and her husband Moth, who after walking 630 miles homeless along the Salt Path, found a home in the coastline. Life beyond the Salt Path awaits, but the sense of home is illusive and returning to normality is proving difficult – until an incredible gesture by someone who reads their story changes everything: a chance to breathe life back into a beautiful but neglected farmhouse in the Cornish hills – rewilding the land and returning nature to its hedgerows becomes their new path. Along the way, Raynor and Moth learn more about the land that envelopes them, find friends both new and old, and embark on another windswept adventure when the opportunity arises.

Waterlog by Roger Deakin
Roger Deakin set out in 1996 to swim through the British Isles. The result a uniquely personal view of an island race and a people with a deep affinity for water. Swimming in the sea, rock pools, rivers and streams, tarns, lakes, lochs, ponds, lidos, swimming pools and spas, from fens, dykes, moats, aqueducts, waterfalls, flooded quarries, even canals, Deakin gains a fascinating perspective on modern Britain. Detained by water bailiffs in Winchester, intercepted in the Fowey estuary by coastguards, mistaken for a suicide on Camber sands, confronting the Corryvreckan whirlpool in the Hebrides, he discovers just how much of an outsider the native swimmer is to his landlocked, fully-dressed fellow citizens. Encompassing cultural history, autobiography, travel writing and natural history, Waterlog is a personal journey, a bold assertion of the native swimmer’s right to roam, and an unforgettable celebration of the magic of water.

The Frayed Atlantic Edge by David Gange
After two decades exploring the Western coast and mountains of the British Isles, the historian and nature writer David Gange set out to travel the seaboard in the course of a year. This coastline spans just eight-hundred miles as the crow flies, but the complex folds of its firths and headlands stretch more than ten-thousand. Even those who circumnavigate Britain by kayak tend to follow the shortest route; the purpose of this journey was to discover these coastlines by seeking out the longest. Travelling by kayak, on foot and at the end of a rope, Gange encounters wildcats, basking sharks, and vast colonies of seabirds, as well as rich and diverse coastal communities.

The Homelands collections will tour the county, starting their journey in the following libraries: Andover, Basingstoke, Chandlers Ford, Fleet, Gosport, Petersfield, Totton and Winchester. You can also place reservations for any of the titles in the collection.