What’s in it
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24 books with the same feel
Include books by the same authorNotes from a Small Island
Bill Bryson · 324 pages
After nearly two decades in Britain, Bill Bryson took the decision to move Mrs Bryson, little Jimmy et al. back to the States for a while. But before leaving his much-loved Yorkshire, Bryson insisted on taking one last trip around old Blighty, a sort of valedictory tour of the green and kindly island that had for so long been his home. The resulting book was a eulogy to the country that produced M
The Outrun
Amy Liptrot · 292 pages
When Amy Liptrot returns to Orkney after more than a decade away, she is drawn back to the Outrun on the sheep farm where she grew up. Now she finds herself standing at the cliff edge, trying to come to terms with what happened to her in England. Spending early mornings swimming in the bracingly cold sea, days tracking Orkney's wildlife - puffins nesting on sea stacks, arctic terns swooping close
Call the Nurse: True Stories of a Country Nurse on a Scottish Isle
Mary J. Macleod · 320 pages
Tired of the pace and noise of life near London and longing for a better place to raise their young children, Mary J. MacLeod and her husband encountered their dream while vacationing on a remote island in the Scottish Hebrides. Enthralled by its windswept beauty, they soon were the proud owners of a near-derelict croft house—a farmer’s stone cottage—on “a small acre” of land. Mary assumed duties
Bleaker House: Chasing My Novel to the End of the World
Nell Stevens · 256 pages
The Crofter and the Laird: Life on an Hebridean Island
John McPhee · 159 pages
The Curse of Lono
Hunter S. Thompson · 205 pages
Gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson travels to Hawaii to cover the 1980 Honolulu Marathon.
Come, Tell Me How You Live: An Archaeological Memoir
Agatha Christie Mallowan, Agatha Christie · 192 pages
Agatha Christie was already a celebrated writer of mysteries in 1930 when she married archaeologist Max Mallowan. She enthusiastically joined him on archaeological expeditions in the Middle East, providing backgrounds for novels and "everyday doings and happenings". Pre-war Syria years are remembered here, not chronologically, but in a cluster of vignettes about servants and aristocrats who pepper
Our Hearts Were Young and Gay: An Unforgettable Comic Chronicle of Innocents Abroad in the 1920s
Cornelia Otis Skinner, Emily Kimbrough · 247 pages
Two ingenues "do the Continent" pre-WWII. Skinner takes us from the innocence of youth in the 1920s to the dawn of WWII, replete with all the faux pas and fiascoes you would expect from youth taking Europe on their own in the early part of the twentieth century when innocence still existed and innuendo was unheard of. A great read.
My Shit Life So Far
Frankie Boyle · 304 pages
Ever since being brought up by The Beatles, Frankie Boyle has been a tremendous liar. Join him on his adventures with his chum Clangy The Brass Boy and laugh as he doesn't accidentally kill a student nurse when a party gets out of hand.I don't think anyone can have written an autobiography without at some point thinking "Why would anyone want to know this shit?" I've always read them thinking "I d
The Book Jumper
Mechthild Glaser · 400 pages
Amy Lennox doesn't know quite what to expect when she and her mother pick up and leave Germany for Scotland, heading to her mother's childhood home of Lennox House on the island of Stormsay. Amy's grandmother, Lady Mairead, insists that Amy must read while she resides at Lennox House - but not in the usual way. It turns out that Amy is a book jumper, able to leap into a story and interact with th
The Caliph's House: A Year in Casablanca
Tahir Shah · 362 pages
American on Purpose: The Improbable Adventures of an Unlikely Patriot
Craig Ferguson · 332 pages
In American on Purpose, Craig Ferguson delivers a moving and achingly funny memoir of living the American dream as he journeys from the mean streets of Glasgow, Scotland, to the comedic promised land of Hollywood. Along the way he stumbles through several attempts to make his mark-as a punk rock musician, a construction worker, a bouncer, and, tragically, a modern dancer.To numb the pain of failur
Stormy Petrel
Mary Stewart · 232 pages
Rose Fenemore is taking a break from her Cambridge teaching post to meet her brother Crispin on the island of Moila off the west coast of Scotland. She looks forward to a quiet holiday in a natural paradise of seabirds and wild flowers. But things do not turn out so idyllically. Her brother's arrival is delayed, and the island's peace is shattered by the appearance one night of two men seeking she
The Duchess of Bloomsbury Street
Helene Hanff · 137 pages
Castaway
Lucy Irvine · 400 pages
Recounts the adventure of a couple living on an island in the Coral Sea north of Australia. Tells what happened to them emotionally after being forced to marry by the Australian government.
An American Caddie in St. Andrews: Growing Up, Girls, and Looping on the Old Course
Oliver Horovitz · 322 pages
Oliver Horovitz had been accepted at Harvard, but he couldn't start for another year. A caddie since he was twelve and a golfer sporting a 1.8 handicap, Ollie decides to spend his gap year in St. Andrews, Scotland--a town with the U.K.'s highest number of pubs per capita, and home to the Old Course, golf 's most famous eighteen holes--where he enrolls in the St. Andrews Links Trust caddie trainee
Anything Goes
John Barrowman, Carole E. Barrowman · 256 pages
From his Glaswegian childhood and American adolescence to his starring role in the Doctor Who spinoff Torchwood, this memoir traces the life and career of actor John Barrowman. John made a name for himself with remarkable West End achievements, including an Olivier Award nomination and success in the movies The Producers and De-Lovely. Television success was also assured when Torchwood won a Best
Onions in the Stew
Betty MacDonald · 256 pages
The author describes how, along with her husband and daughters, she set to work making a life on a rugged island in Puget Sound, a ferry-ride from Seattle.
Almost French: A New Life In Paris
Sarah Turnbull · 320 pages
A delightful, fresh twist on the travel memoir, Almost French takes us on a tour that is fraught with culture clashes but rife with deadpan humor. Sarah Turnbull's stint in Paris was only supposed to last a week. Chance had brought Sarah and Frederic together in Bucharest, and on impulse she decides to take him up on his offer to visit him in the world's most romantic city. Sacrificing Vegemite f
My Life in France
Julia Child, Alex Prud'Homme · 344 pages
Julia Child singlehandedly created a new approach to American cuisine with her cookbook Mastering the Art of French Cooking and her television show The French Chef, but as she reveals in this bestselling memoir, she was not always a master chef. Indeed, when she first arrived in France in 1948 with her husband, Paul, who was to work for the USIS, she spoke no French and knew nothing about the coun

