The Shepherd’s Life by 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 regions 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 Month in the Country by J.L.Carr

Reviewed by L. R. Fisher

It is unbelievably simple and delightfully slow-paced, full of Lawrence-like description of a vanished (消失的) country landscape. The focal points are a casual and peculiar friendship between two war-scarred, shell-shocked men Tom Birkin and Moon. In a book barely 100 pages long, the author not only manages to give us a story that flows like a stream, but also achieves impressive characterization, bitter feelings of war and a corresponding celebration of peace, a little suspense, and even a twist in the tail.

A Walk in the Woods by 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 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 Woods is destined to become a modern classic.

A campaign in the United Kingdom that seeks to pressure publishers to stop labeling children's books according to gender is being given a push, with leading writers and at least one newspaper expressing support.

“We're asking children's publishers to take the ‘Boys’ and ‘Girls’ labels off books and allow children to choose freely what kinds interest them.” says the statement by the Let Books Be Books campaign. The organizers of the campaign say, “Such labels send out very limiting massages to children about what kinds of things are appropriate for girls or for boys.”

On Sunday, the movement got an important advance when the newspaper The Independent announced it would no longer comment on such books, or even blog about them. "Happily, as the literary editor of The Independent, there is something that I can do about this. So I promise now that the newspaper and this website will not be reviewing any book which is aimed at just girls, or just boys. Nor will The independent's books section. " wrote editor Katy Guest.

The Guardian reports that one of Britain's biggest bookstore chains, Waterstones, as well as U. K. Children's Laureate Malorie Blackman, and U. K. Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy have also announced their support. "The campaign is attacking titles such as Usborne's Illustrated Classics for Boys, described by the publisher as a collection of action, adventure and daring-do stories suitable for boys, while its Illustrated Stories for Girls contains brand new stories about princesses and dolls, " The Guardian wrote.

But such a movement would also affect many popular and beloved books, such as the best selling The Dangerous Book for Boys. It's clear not everyone thinks removing"for boys" and"for girls"from book titles is such a good idea. Many of The Independent's readers are criticizing the newspaper's announcement that it is banning reviews of such books.

"This is just stupidity, " wrote one reader on The Independent's website. "The Independent has been an intelligent publication in my mind since I was a very young boy. So sad to see that change. "

As we grow old, we realize that we have so little time to read and there are so many great books that we've yet to get around to. Yet re-readers are everywhere around us. For certain fans, re-reading The Lord of the Rings is a conventional practice annually. One friend told me that Jane Austen's Emma can still surprise him, despite his having read it over 50 times.

New sudden clear understandings can be gained from the process of re-reading. Journalist Rebecca Mead first came across George Eliot's Middlemarch at 17. Since then, she has read it again every five years. With each re-reading, it has opened up further; in each chapter of her life, it has resonated differently. Mead evidenced the large number of ways in which really good books not only stand the test of repeat reads, but also offer fresh gifts each time we re-read them. These kinds of books grow with us.

Scientists have also recognized the mental health benefits of re-reading. Research conducted with readers in the US found that on our first reading, we are concerned with the “what” and the “why”, Second time round, we're able to better appreciate the emotions that the plot continues to express. As researcher Cristel Russell of the American University explained, returning to a book “brings new or renewed appreciation of both the great book and its readers.”

It's true that we often find former selves on the pages of old books. (if we're fond of making notes on the pages). These texts can carry us back to a time and place, and remind us of the kind of person that we were then. We're changed not only by lived experience but also by read experience-by the books that we've discovered since last reading the one in our hand.

Perhaps what's really strange is that we don't re-read more often. After all, we watch our favourite films again and we wouldn't think of listening to an album only once. We treasure messy old paintings as objects, yet of all art forms, literature alone is a largely one-time delight. A book, of course, takes up more time, but as Mead confirms, the rewards make it adequately worthwhile.