It’s the first of September, and outside the rain is absolutely pouring down, making it hard to believe that summer was ever anything but a dream. But August was long and full of leisure time (even though I spent two weeks learning French in Brittany), so books got read:

Factfulness (Rosling) – funny, erudite, eye-opening. Everything you could want from a book. The fact that the author wrote it on his death bed just makes it more poignant. 5/5

La Tapisserie de Bayeux (Lemagnen) – explaining what goes on in the famous tapestry (that isn’t really a tapestry) in French and English, this is an excellent primer for history buffs. 4/5

Trésors d’Océans (Mourot et al) – too limited in scope, while trying to be too many things. Not a treasure at all. 2/5

Servants (Lethbridge) – a look below stairs, charting the lives of the oft overlooked people that were so quintessential to English society. It’s somewhat higgledy-piggledy but interesting. 4/5

Ordinary Men (Browning) – the story of a group of German policemen who were thrust into the Endlösung, and how they reacted when faced with the prospect of killing thousands of Jews. 3.5/5

And there we are. Eclectic as always, but a good tally overall. Bring on autumn, with long evenings in front of the fireplace…!