Summer is the time when educators might be lucky enough to curl up with a good book that is not work related. So here are some of my favourite books I recently read. Most will have something of interest to people who travel and work in different countries. Happy reading!
Blue Latitudes: Boldly Going Where Captain Cook Has Gone Before by Tony Horwitz is the nonfiction tale of two epic exploration voyages. The first is that of James Cook, who left England without GPS, any technology or even maps, and sailed off into an unknown world of dangerous oceans, climates and unfamiliar cultures. The second story, woven skillfully in between, is the contemporary journey undertaken by the Australian author as he retraces Cook’s footsteps and follows in his wake. He visits every Cook memorial site and museum, even meets descendants of those who met the famous explorer who changed our world forever. The intertwined story is often hilarious and has many unexpected details. It is a great, well researched read by a Pulitzer price winning author with a sense of humour and adventure.
ISBN 978-0312422608, Picador Publishing
The Penguin Lessons by Tom Michell is a great read. It was written in 2015, I ‘discovered’ it in 2025 and loved it. And shortly after I read it, it appeared in cinemas as a movie. As is often the case, this book was better than the movie, even though it was enjoyable to watch. But the book offers the reader a chance to live inside the head of a young man, ready for adventure and for his first teaching job overseas. He gets hired, leaves England and embarks on his teaching career in Argentina in the ’70’s. But Tom is more keen on travel and exploring the country than being stuck in a classroom. During one of his first breaks, he rescues a penguin from an oil spill. What do you do with a penguin? Tom ends up smuggling it into his room at the posh, all boys boarding school where the penguin lives in hiding. But not for long. Eventually, the feisty bird becomes a favourite with boys and staff alike and leads them to new adventures and challenges. A great, nonfiction read!
ISBN 978-0718181635, Michael Joseph Publisher
The Nine Lives of Charlotte Taylor by Sally Armstrong is a fascinating read about explorers, pioneers and settlers and the early formation of Canada as we know it today. Using a seamless blend of fact and fiction, the story of Charlotte Taylor is based on the real life of the author’s great-great-great-grandmother who, in 1775, at the age of twenty, flees her English country home to boarded a ship to Jamaica with her lover, the family’s black butler. Soon after reaching shore, Charlotte’s lover dies of yellow fever, leaving her alone and pregnant in Jamaica. In the sixty-six years that follow, she finds refuge with the Mi’kmaq First Nation of what is present-day New Brunswick. Eventually Charlotte becomes a feisty homesteader, survives three husbands, has nine more children and a lifelong relationship with an aboriginal man. A book that sheds a realistic light on the period of first contact between white settlers and Canada’s original inhabitants – an important part of Canadian history in the form of a fascinating novel.
ISBN 978-0679314059, Vintage Canada
Margriet Ruurs is the author of 40 books for children and an avid reader. She is currently taking bookings for Author Visits to International Schools during the 2025/26 school year.
