If Cities Could Speak

Photo by CHUTTERSNAP on Unsplash 2020 was the Year of the Rat according to the Chinese zodiac, and it’s certainly been the year of the rat for me. In English we call avid readers ‘bookworms’, named after the creepy crawlies that munch their way through precious paperbacks and hefty tomes alike. But in Spanish the term is ‘ratón de biblioteca’, which technically means library mouse but hey, it’s close enough. My point is I read a lot in 2020, and I wanted to share my 10 favourite books with you in case you’re in need of some inspiration for your 2021 reading lists (and also to refresh my memory since it was a long year).  Non fiction Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari I realise I’m late to the party, but this book is an absolute eye-opener. Harari takes the reader on a journey through the history of our species, looking at the cognitive revolution, the agricultural revolution, the unification of humankind and the scientific revolution in turn. He’s a brillian...

Photo by  Umesh Gopinath  on  Unsplash I’ve always said I’d like to have a holiday at home, frittering away my precious annual leave on a week of curling up on the sofa with a good book, pottering around the house and repotting my overgrown aloe.  In what should have been the run up to my trip to Morocco, I debated whether to cut my losses and cancel my days off or to finally take that trip of a lifetime to my living room.  I opted for the latter. 10 glorious days of uninterrupted peace in my East London flat.  If you’re faced with an impromptu staycation too, perhaps you’ll find some ideas here. And if nothing else, another two minutes of lockdown will be over by the time you finish reading. Food Eating is usually a huge part of my holidays – hunting down the nearest bakery in the vicinity for my morning pastries, overindulging in pretty much any local treat (usually cheese), and getting that familiar warm feeling from the first sip of...