Some quick thoughts on holiday reading

 

As I said in my last post I read an awful lot of books while we were in Greece (when my attention wasn't on some of the cute cats in the area - like this little one who was very interesting in my fish dinner but not brave enough to come down!).

Some of the books have really stayed with me so here are few thoughts on them:

Love, After All by Ewald Arenz, and translated by Rachel Ward (Orenda Book) - I've loved the previous books by Arenz that have been translated by Ward but this one was really special. It is love story but one featuring older characters at complicated times of their lives. It really got under my skin and I'm recommending it (and the other 2 books) to everyone.

Whistler by Ann Patchett (Bloomsbury) - another quiet book in many ways but again it was the writing and characters that really made an impression on me. Another book featuring older characters, although Patchett writes children exceedingly well too.

Miss Buncle's Book by D E Stevenson (Persephone) - this is a book set in the inter war period where Miss Buncle has fallen on hard times and decides to write a novel in order to make some money. She doesn't think she has much imagination and so fictionalises the people and village where she lives to very amusing results. I really like the Mrs Tim books by the same author and will look for the sequels to this one.

Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke (4th Estate) - this book is one of the most hyped of the first half of 2026 and I was interested to see what it was all about. I quite liked the idea of seeing how (some) influencers actually manage to work, and it was interesting to see how the Trad Wives/Conspiracy Theorists come about but apart from that I wasn't sold on the book - even with the ending.

The Calamity Club by Katherine Stockett (Figtree) - I really liked Stockett's The Help when it came out, despite some of the backlash and criticism that came later, so I was looking forward to this one. On the whole I enjoyed it but I did find the middle section a little baggy and the ending a bit quick but I hope that Stockett does write more going forward.

Seven Lives and One Great Love by Lena Divani, and translated by Konstantine Matsoukas (Europa Editions) - as we were in Greece I wanted to read a book by a Greek author rather than a book just set in Greece by an anglophone. I found this one an interesting read - mainly because I find it funny how 'cat literature' whether in English, translated from the Japanese, or translated from the Greek, all feels very similar. It was quite a cute read but I think I need to find some other Greek authors to try as this one really could have been set anywhere in the world and very little 'Greekness' to it!

June Round Up

 

Another month gone and just under two weeks of this were spent on a Greek island doing nothing but read, rest, eat, and swim. It also means that it was a good month for books - although I did focus on reading my NetGalley backlog rather than focussing too hard on the Read the World project.

Countries I visited by book this month were Greece (a translated title and an English book), Denmark, Germany, America, Cuba, India, Cameroon, and Korea. Cuba and Cameroon were new to me.

In America I visited New York City (& State), Rhode Island, Mississippi, Massachusetts, and Ohio so a few more states are crossed off!

While away I read 18 books which is a bit crazy. Most of them were enjoyable with only one that I wanted to throw across the room in despair at its triteness. 

My favourites from the month are:

• Love, After All by Ewald Arenz (translated from the German by Rachel Ward), Orenda
• Whistler, A Novel by Ann Patchett, Bloomsbury
• Miss Buncle's Book by D.E. Stevenson, 

I was also lucky enough to get an advance reading copy of the new Victoria Hislop book which is out in September and I *loved* it but I'll save my thoughts for that until then!

Now to avoid this new heatwave and find a cool spot where I can catch up on my project reading before the deadline...

Micro Review 28 (2025)

 

Barbara Isn't Dying by Alina Bronsky, translated by Tim Mohr (Europa Editions)

I really must start writing down where I see books mentioned that I go on to request from the library - I'd certainly not have discovered this book without seeing it mentioned somewhere but I really can't remember where and so can't thank the person who first brought it to my attention.

Walter Schmidt has lived his whole life within the narrow, “comfortable” confines of traditional gender roles: he has made it to retirement without learning how to fry an egg or use a vacuum cleaner. After all, he could always count on his wife, Barbara. But when one morning she can’t get up from bed anymore, everything changes.

With biting humour and great warmth, Alina Bronsky writes about how Walter, nearing the end of his life, is suddenly forced to reinvent himself as a caregiver and house-husband, and become the caring partner he never was in all his years with Barbara. Little by little, Walter’s rough facade begins to crumble—and with it his old certainties about his life and family.

At the very beginning I really disliked Walter, a man so useless he can't even make a cup of instant coffee, and to be honest he remains a prickly, proud, and annoying character throughout the book. However this is one of the things that really makes this book - Walter's changes are incredibly subtle and he remains uncompromising in so many things. By the end however I was rooting for him completely and became as frustrated by the people around him as he was - no one seemed to meet him half way. And the final things we learn about him are just heart breaking.

In other hands this would have been just another book about a character with a probable autism diagnosis struggling to fit in to the world but ultimately making compromises or having a talent so that everyone suddenly loved him, but Bronsky keeps Walter whole and the book is all the better for that. 

I am struggling to articulate what captivated me so much about this book but I really did love it, but I'm very grateful that Mr Norfolkbookworm is far more capable around the house!

Micro Review 26

 

Space Invaders by Nona Fernandez, translated by Natasha Wimmer (Daunt Books Publishing) 

This was a slim book that caught my eye the last time I was exploring the Travel Writing section of Daunt Books looking for different books for my Read the World project, and I'm so pleased that it did. 

It is deceptively short as the story is really haunting me, far more than many much longer novels do!

The description which caught my attention reads:

Preoccupied by uneasy memories and visions, a group of friends look back on their childhood. Their thoughts and dreams circle one old classmate: Estrella González Jepsen, who one day simply disappeared. Estrella’s father, it transpires, was a ranking government officer implicated in the Pinochet regime. The question of what became of Estrella haunts her former friends. They catch glimpses of her braids, hear echoes of her voice, read old letters. They recall regimented school assemblies, nationalistic class performances and a trip to the beach. Growing up, they were old enough to sense the danger and tension that surrounded them but powerless to resist or confront it. They could control only the stories they told one another and the ghostly green bullets they fired in their favourite video game.

At first I wasn't at all sure what was happening, the chapters are quite short, dream like, and repetitive but I quickly realised that was the point of the book - these were children at the time of the Pinochet regime and they themselves didn't understand what was happening and even as adults their memories are fragmented and unreliable.

There is some violence in the book, but what made it stand out for more was the way the threat and fear of the era wove its way through the book and became far more telling than any political history of Chile could have been.

This is definitely one of my standout reads from the past few months, and a real sign that novellas can be far more powerful than many opuses and that in the English speaking world we should start to embrace the form.

 

Micro Review 25 (2025) / Women in Translation Month

Just a Little Dinner by Cecile Tlili, translated by Katherine Gregor. (Foundry Editions)

I read and loved Foundry Edition's first book - Brandy Sour - last year, and since then I've been looking at their beautiful covers and interesting sounding books regularly. I gave in and subscribed to the publisher's 2025 list at the start of August and from my parcel this book was the one that practically leapt into my hands screaming 'read me next'!

In tired, hot Paris at the end of August, a group of friends, who’d rather still be at the sea, meet for a dinner in one couple’s apartment.

Taking us behind the shutters of the Sixth Arrondissement, with a cast of characters that both delight and repel, fractured relationships, manipulation, bad behaviour and desperation are all laid bare in this very contemporary take on a Parisian huis clos story. 

What starts as just a little dinner ends up having monumental consequences for everyone.

The plot unfurls over just a couple of hours but is an incredibly tense read as the writing (and translation) made me feel I was an invisible person in the flat with the four characters watching the car crash of a dinner party unfold - I could smell the food and feel both the heat and the tension completely!

None of the characters is entirely sympathetic but by the end I certainly knew who I really wanted to slap and who I wanted to hug!

This is a book that will stay with me for a long time and one I really recommend. I can't wait to start more of the books that came in my parcel, that's for sure, and how nice to see the translators name on the front of the book in almost the same size type as the author's!

Micro Review 19 (2025)

 

My Pen is the Wing of A Bird - by 18 Afghan Women with various translators. (Quercus)

In my quest to read a book set in every country in the world I've quickly noticed that when it comes to countries with a violent recent history it is easy to find books by people writing only about the violence either in history/politics or fiction and far too often these come from a Western (saviour?) point of view.

On a recent trip to the wonderful travel section in Daunts Marylebone I was really excited to find some very different types of writing and as soon as I saw this one - written at great risk by Afghan women - I knew that I had to have it.

It is a collection of short stories about life in Afghanistan under many different rulers over the past 100 years and for me I found it really lifted a curtain into everyday lives, and showed the repeated oppression women, but to a certain extent all Afghanis, have experienced.

As with all collections there are some stories that didn't appeal as much to me, and just because this book is by women do not for an instant think that it won't show all aspects of life including some pretty graphic violent scenes.

Some stories did make me smile, others moved me almost to tears, and plenty appalled me or made me angry. 

Sadly I can't see life getting better for anyone in the country anytime soon but I hope that the authors (and translators) of this book remain safe and that the book is read widely. 

Rwanda is another book where I've not wanted to read (directly) about the Genocide in 1994 and again Daunts came to the rescue with a book by a Rwandan author focussing on the traditional legends of the country which I'm looking forward to reading a lot.

Micro Review 18 (2025)

 

The Eights by Joanna Miller (Penguin Books Ltd.)

Wow! What a book. I can't remember the last time I stayed up past midnight because I just *had* to finish a book.

Set just post WW1 this book follows the residents of corridor 8 at St Hugh's College, Oxford as they start their university studies. They are among the first cohort of women students to be granted full student status and who will be awarded their degrees fully at the end of their course.

The four women, like all students in halls of residence, couldn't be more different but a bond is forged between them and they become close friends as their first year unfolds. All of them have secrets and past traumas to overcome - but none of these feel unreal or too modern and I just felt like I was a fly on the wall of 1920s Oxford.

The legacy of both the suffrage campaigns and World War One loom large and you really feel just how the impact of the latter in particular affected everyone in some way or another.

I see this book as a wonderful female centric companion to In Memoriam by Alice Winn, and also to Pip William's Bookbinder of Jericho  and even Jessica Swale's play Blue Stockings.

One thing Miller does so well is to bring in real life people into the story without it feeling like a name drop or research being crowbarred in to the plot - the story is just brilliant and I think it is another that will end up on my 'best of' lists at the end of the year. I really hope that it does well and appears on lots of prize lists!

Many thanks to Net Galley and Penguin for my advance copy of this novel

Micro Review 17 (2025)

 

The Wager and the Bear by John Ironmonger (Fly On the Wall Press)

Greenland has been in the news a lot lately but not because of the polar bears or anything similar - just politics, and thanks to map projections it also features large on my map where I'm marking my reading journey so it was fortuitous that I saw lots of people talking about this book recently.

The Wager and the Bear starts gently with a slightly drunk student confronting his local MP in a Cornish pub regarding climate change. The MP is a real climate sceptic and Tom, the student, is more passionate about the planet especially when confronted with inaccurate statistics from the MP. The pair's conversation is being filmed and live streamed on social media however and what starts as a drunken bet becomes a bête noir for both characters as they spend the next 50 years crossing paths in the UK and Greenland as they try to persuade each other of their view points.

To say more about the book will spoil it for readers but I found it a very clever read, and far more effective at showing that climate change is real than a lot of other cli-fi novels and drier non fiction books. 

I recognise a lot of the arguments used in the book and having a time frame that does encompass a human life span (rather than generation spanning apocalyptic novels) really added an extra dimension to this book. While it starts in the here and then moves forward in time it always felt very real and not too fantastical or presenting of an unreal possible future.

There is a lot of humour in the book, as well as genuine peril and I found it a thoroughly absorbing read that I've already recommended to others.

Micro Reviews 15 and 16 (2025)

 

Agent Zo by Clare Mulley (Orion Publishing) & The CIA Book Club by Charlie English (HarperCollins)

Thanks to the Women's Prize for Non Fiction list I picked Agent Zo up from the library recently and was immersed in her (and Poland's) story of the Second World War and after. 

While we 'know' that Britain went to war in 1939 because of the Nazi invasion of Poland after this event very little made of Poland's war - a paragraph or two about the Warsaw Uprising maybe and possibly a mention of the horrific massacre at Katyn but that's about it. Once the Iron Curtain fell Poland disappears again until the rise of Solidarity and eventually the fall of Communism.

Agent Zo really fills in the gaps as well as adding so much more detail. In focussing on the work of the women's resistance movement we get a new view of war and perhaps a more honest look at the treatment of women in the SOE movement.

What was most shocking about this book was the way that Poland was treated towards the end of the war by 'Allies' and how this fed into the second half of the twentieth century and how Poland became one of the most repressive Communist states.

Which leads on nicely to English's The CIA Book Club which while it does cover some of the same history as Zo focuses far more heavily on the 1980s in Poland and how the CIA helped the resistance movement in Poland (and their supporters in the West) keep the dreams of freedom alive via the printed word.

This book wasn't quite as engaging as Agent Zo and at times read more like a thriller than an exploration of how powerful words are. However as some of the same people from Zo appear in this book it felt very much like a surprise sequel. It also rounded out the time covered in Mulley's book briefly - once Agent Zo had more or less retired - and showed how Communism in Poland was overthrown.

While both of these books cover the past there is a lot that the current world could learn from reading these - especially how carving up a nation without including that country in the negotiations - is a very bad idea with longer lasting repercussions than are even dreamt of.

If you only want to read one book about Polish history then I would have to say go for Agent Zo, but The CIA Book Club really does add to that story. 

Micro Review 13 & 14 (2025)

 

Books About Books - my kryptonite.

I love books about books - whether its the history of books and publishing, the history of printing, author biographies, collated book reviews, and of course books that fall under the broad 'bibliotherapy' heading.

2025 has started strongly in this field with the wonderful Just My Type that I reviewed a little while ago and then two splendid books about reading journeys.

The first was Read Yourself Happy by Daisy Buchanan (DK) - which is  an interesting more modern approach to a bibliotherapy book. Buchanan would pick an emotion and then share details of her life to explain the choice and talk about the books she read to help with these times. What made it more than a typical self help bibliotherapy book was the personalisation and also the inclusion of all sorts of books - there was no hint of  'good' or 'worthy' books being prioritised, just books from all genres and times that gave Buchanan solace and then some similar books that might also work.

It is a book that can be read from cover to cover like any non fiction book, but is also one that you can dip in and out of as and when the mood strikes.

The second book is Bookish by Lucy Mangan (Vintage) and this is a much more of a straightforward autobiography from the author but told via the books she was reading at each stage of her life. Very much like her previous book (Bookworm) I felt like I was looking in a mirror as I was reading (at least up to the last quarter anyhow). So many of Mangan's life choices and career moves match my own and we were definitely reading a lot of the same books through the late 1990s and in to the 2000s. In fact I'm pretty sure that at some points we must have been in the same second-hand bookshops around Norfolk fighting over the same titles!

Mangan's life has diverged from mine more now, and by the end of it I was moved to tears several times - and also green with envy at her home book-nook. I also have another huge stack of titles to revisit at some point.

Micro Review 11 (2025)

 

The Prosecutor by Jack Fairweather (Ebury Publishing)

While I have read a few books in the past couple of weeks most of them have been ok but nothing more, with one that needs a lot more thinking about before I write about it. There was also the awkward coincidence of me starting Pope Francis' autobiography on my tea break only to hear he'd been hospitalised by the time I had my lunch break...

However Jack Fairweather's The Prosecutor was a book that I found as gripping as any novel and one that taught me so much on a topic that I thought I'd possibly exhausted.

The book is all about Fritz Bauer, a gay Jewish German legal man who after surviving the Holocaust was horrified at the cursory way 'de-Nazification' took place in West Germany and how many prominent Nazis regained their positions in society - and government. He wasn't just horrified however - he decided to do something about it, including helping track down Eichmann and ensuring he faced justice. He also managed to challenge the specific wording of German Law so that he could actually put perpetrators of the horror on trial.

As well as Bauer's story we hear how former Nazis were reintegrated into the higher echelons of government, how they formed the backbone of West Germany and how the Western powers let this happen. It also covers the slow way that Germany was forced to face the atrocities of the Holocaust, but also shows how the seeds of denial (which are sadly growing once more) were sown.

I've read a lot about East Germany in the period 1945-1961 but this was the first book covering West Germany and once more it just shows how the victors get to rewrite history - I found the book chilling but fascinating and I really recommend it when it is published tomorrow.

Many thanks to Ebury for providing access to an advance copy of the book via NetGalley

Thoughts on the Women's Prize for Non Fiction Longlist 2025

 

With the way the world is going right now haunting news sites early in the morning doesn't seem to be the best way to start the day, however on Weds 12th I was doing just that as I waited for the Women's Prize to announce their non fiction longlist.

As my reading round-up showed - last year 42% of my reads were non fiction.  I've looked at this list more closely I can say that 51% of these books were written by women so it was inevitable that I'd be waiting for this announcement quite closely.

There are 16 books on the long list and of these I've read just three - which shows that I probably missed a lot of good books in 2024! The ones I have read are in purple below.

Anne Applebaum – Autocracy, Inc.: The Dictators Who Want to Run the World – Allen Lane (PRH)

Eleanor Barraclough – Embers of the Hands: Hidden Histories of the Viking Age – (Profile Books)

Helen Castor – The Eagle and the Hart: The Tragedy of Richard II and Henry IV – Allen Lane (PRH)

Neneh Cherry – A Thousand Threads  (Fern Press (PRH))

Rachel Clarke – The Story of a Heart – (Abacus (Hachette))

Chloe Dalton – Raising Hare  (Canongate Books)

Jenni Fagan – Ootlin  (Hutchinson Heinemann, Century, (PRH))

Lulu Miller – Why Fish Don’t Exist: A Story of Loss, Love and the Hidden Order of Life  (ONE, Pushkin Press)

Clare Mulley – Agent Zo: The Untold Stories of Fearless WW2 Resistance Fighter Elżbieta Zawacka  (Weidenfeld & Nicolson (Hachette))

Rebecca Nagle – By the Fire We Carry: The Generations-Long Fight for Justice on Native Land  (William Collins (HarperCollins))

Sue Prideaux – Wild Thing: A Life of Paul Gauguin (Faber )

Helen Scales – What the Wild Sea Can Be: The Future of the World’s Ocean (Grove Press, Atlantic Books) 

Kate Summerscale – The Peepshow: The Murders at 10 Rillington Place  (Bloomsbury Circus (Bloomsbury))

Harriet Wistrich – Sister in Law: Fighting for Justice in a System Designed by Men  (Torva, Transworld, (PRH))

Alexis Wright – Tracker  (And Other Stories)

Yuan Yang – Private Revolutions: Coming of Age in a New China (Bloomsbury Circus (Bloomsbury))


Part of the reason why I have read so many non fiction books by women that aren't on this list is because I read indiscriminately - publication dates don't really matter to me, I just want to read books that appeal or that are recommended to me, so often new books do pass me by until they appear on lists like this!

From the longlist I've instantly reserved 4 books from the library, and added a couple of other ones to my 'might get round to some day' list - there are a few that just don't appeal at all but it might be that if they make the shortlist (announced in March) I am tempted to try them.

I don't think that I am even going to attempt to read the entire long (or short) list as a challenge but this is definitely a list that has added a lot of books to my TBR piles.




As an aside books published between 1st April 2024 and 31st March 2025 were eligible for the prize and here are a few of the books that I've read which fit this criteria and that I am sad didn't make the cut:

• Between Two Rivers: Ancient Mesopotamia and the Birth of History by Dr Moudhy Al-Rashid (Hodder & Stoughton)
• Broken Threads by Mishal Husain (Fourth Estate)
• Catland: Feline Enchantment and the Making of the Modern World by Katherine Hughes (Harper Collins)
• A Mudlarking Year: Finding Treasure in Every Season by Lara Maiklem (Bloomsbury)
• Poet, Mystic, Widow, Wife: The Extraordinary Lives of Medieval Women by Hetta Howes (Bloomsbury)



 

Micro Review 9 (2025)

 

Just My Type by Simon Garfield (Profile Books)

Last year I read two of Garfield's shorter books about specific fonts and found them fascinating and so I knew that I had to put his longer book about them on my Christmas list - thankfully Father Christmas let my parents know and Just My Type was under the tree for me in December!

This has been a brilliant book to dip in and out of during tea breaks as it is split into lots of short chapters about fonts, design and printing in general with these interspersed with event shorter chapters on specific fonts.

As the daughter of a printer, someone who used to be really into calligraphy, and an avid consumer of the printed word I can't understand why it has taken me over 10 years to discover this book but better late than never! I can also imagine the 'fun' that the typesetter had incorporating all of the different fonts (sometimes in the same sentence) in to the text and still managing to keep the book legible.

As with any book that goes into such detail there are going to be some bits that weren't quite so interesting but these were few and far apart in this one and I am now looking forward to a visit to the St Bride's Print Foundation that a friend and I have booked for late spring.

As an aside the BBC aired a wonderful programme recently all about how the modern printing process works and it made a brilliant companion watch to this book, and this is currently still available to watch on the BBC iPlayer

Micro Review 8 (2025)

 

Poor Girls by Clare Whitfield (Bloomsbury Books)

I had this book marked as a February release and so had been saving it for a New Year read but I think that in fact this was published in 2024 - oops!

It was the premise of this book that drew me in - set just post WW1 and all about how the girls and women who'd had freedom and money during the war thanks to their work settled back in to an ungrateful society.

1922. Twenty-four-year-old Eleanor Mackridge is horrified by the future mapped out for her – to serve the upper classes or find a husband. During the war, she found freedom in joining the workforce at home, but now women are being put back in their place.

Until Eleanor crosses paths with a member of the notorious female-led gang the Forty Elephants: bold women who wear diamonds and fur, drink champagne and gin, who take what they want without asking. Now, she sees a new future for herself: she can serve, marry – or steal. 

I raced through the first part of the book which covered this return to society but then found my reading slowed down as Eleanor leaves home and joins the London gang. In this part I found that there were a few 'information dumps' from Whitfield as she explained how the gang worked and they didn't flow as well for me. Some of the actions and descriptions were also a bit too dark for me - I'm a real coward in my reading and viewing!

Overall I'm glad I read this book, it is always good to try new things and I liked the social history aspects a lot but rather than more crime/thriller books like this one I'd rather read the non-fiction books that formed the research for the novel!

Micro Review 3 (2025)

 

The Artist by Lucy Steeds (John Murray Press)

Wow - two weeks into 2025 and I am still keeping on top of my vague bookish resolution with another review of a NetGalley book that will be published in January! I think that I will need a lie down soon...

As can be seen from my best of lists from 2024 I do like a novel that is based around art/music and in general the ones that aren't biographical work the most for me. I enjoyed Hamnet and The Painter's Daughters but I do spend too much time looking up the 'real' details to fully lose myself in these books.

The Artist could be about any of the artists working pre or post WW1 in France but is all based around a completely fictional artist - however it is obviously written by someone who knows a lot about art as it feels utterly real. I felt I could see, smell and touch every item described in the book and as I was reading it I am sure that I felt the hot Provencal summer sun beating down on me, even in a Norfolk winter.

It was refreshing to read a book that is set in France in the 1920s for it not to carry on into a WW2 setting, and the flashbacks to WW1 were beautiful and definitely opened up a new seam of history for me. 

There are a few twists and mysteries in the book but they aren't the point of the narrative as such and even when 'real' people pop up in the story it feels organic and appropriate.

The Bookseller has tipped this as one of the debuts of the year and I have to agree - it is published on 30th January and really recommend it! 2025 is really shaping up as a good book year. 

Many thanks to the publisher for providing me with an advance copy via NetGalley

Micro review 1 (2025)

 

Homeseeking by Karissa Chen (Sceptre)

Wow! What a start to the 2025 reading year - if it continues like this I am really excited to see what else is coming!

One of my (unofficial) New Year Resolutions is to try and read the books that NetGalley give me access to much closer to publication day so that when I love them I can talk about them instantly and this was rewarded by the first two novels I've read this year.

Homeseeking is a sweeping following the lives of two people - Suchi and Haiwen who meet as children in 1930s Shanghai and then thanks to world events are separated. They meet occasionally through the decades until the (almost) present day when there is time to tell their full life stories.

I don't want to say much more about the plot because discovering how their lives unfold organically is what gives the book its emotional punch.

The way Chen weaves the two characters together is very clever and I don't think that I've come across a book told in this way, or at least told so well in this way, for a long time and it really helped move the story through time in an organic way.

The author's notes at the beginning of the book are essential to readers to explain why the protagonists seem to change name but apart from that there is very little extraneous historical research dumped in to the novel. Chen gives just enough details for you to follow world events and politics that influence the plot but never dumps huge chunks of history - if you are interested then there's plenty of other books/information out there to give more information and the works used for research are all given at the end of the novel. 

I've already recommended this book personally to several people and I really hope they enjoy it - I'm just glad I read it now and didn't save it for a summer holiday read.

Books of the Year (and related thoughts) for 2024

 

2024 Reading Round Up.

Well another year passes and once more it has been book-filled with a mix of reading for projects and pleasure... while I have read about the same number of books as for the past few years fewer have leapt out at me as potential books of the year.

While I am still enjoying trying all of the Japanese and Korean books in translation that are breaking through to the UK market I might be reaching saturation point when it comes to ones set in cafes or restaurants with cats... I also noticed that lots of books set in the former East Germany (and covering reunification) crossed my reading path in 2024. I would like to read more nature writing/travel books by women so will be actively searching them out in 2025.

Before I share my reads of the year some statistics...

• 65% of books have been by women, or with women listed as the lead author.
• 58% of the books I've read have been fiction 
• 42% non fiction 
• 21% of my reads have been in translation
• 8% of the books were written with a children or YA audience in mind (probably the least I've ever read in this genre)

Narrowing the books down to a top 10 proved impossible and instead I have 24 books for 2024.

Fiction

El Hacho by Luis Carrasco (Epoque Press)

Berlin Duet by S W Perry (Atlantic Books)

The Instrumentalist by Harriet Constable (Bloomsbury)

The Glassmaker by Tracy Chevalier (Harper Collins)

The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley (Hodder and Stoughton)

Brandy Sour by Constantia Soteriou, tr. Lina Protopapa (Foundry Press)

The Silence in Between by Josie Ferguson (Transworld Press)

One Grand Summer by Ewald Arenz, tr. Rachel Ward (Orenda Books)

Lula Dean's Little Library of Banned Books by Kirsten Miller (Harper Collins)

Le Fay by Sophie Keetch (Oneworld Publications)

There Are Rivers In The Sky by Elif Shafak (Penguin Books)

Letters from the Ginza Shihodo Stationery Shop by Kenji Ueda, tr. Emily Balistrieri (Bonnier Books)

The Lover of No Fixed Abode by Carlo Fruttero & Franco Lucentini, tr. Gregory Dowling (Bitter Lemon Press)

Non Fiction

High Caucasus by Tom Parfitt (Headline Publishing Group)

The Vanished Collection by Pauline Baer de Perignon, tr Natasha Lehrer (Bloomsbury)

Alice's Book by Karina Urbach, tr. Jamie Bulloch (Quercus Publishing)

Broken Threads by Mishal Husain (Harper Collins)

Cull of the Wild by Hugh Warwick (Bloomsbury)

A Ride Across America by Simon Parker (Duckworth Books)

The Place of Tides by James Rebanks (Penguin Books)

What I Ate In Once Year by Stanley Tucci (Penguin Books)

A Cheesemonger's Tour de France by Ned Palmer (Profile Books)

Sapiens: A Graphic History vol. 1 by Yuval Noah Harari & David Vandermeulen, illus. Daniel Casanave (Vintage)

Slow Trains to Venice by Tom Chesshyre (Octopus Publishing Group)

I am slightly surprised that in the end that slightly more than half of my top reads are by men, when compared to the overall ratio but pleased that a quarter of my best books were in translation. I've also tried to read more from independent publishers this year and I think that this is reflected in my top reads too.

I think that my absolute favourite book of the year is Tracy Chevalier's The Glassmaker although if you ask me tomorrow this could change to The Silence in Between or The Place of Tides!

Timely reading

 

Florence: Ordeal by Water by Kathrine Kressman Taylor (Manderley Press)

Until I read Still Life by Sarah Winman a few years ago I'd not heard of the horrific 1966 flood that devastated Florence. Since reading that I've wanted to know more about the true events that inspired the fiction and have been eagerly awaiting this to be published.

It was fascinating, heart stopping read and then heart warming in how quickly so many people came to the city's rescue.

However the book took on a new poignancy as while I was reading it the dreadful news about the floods in Spain broke. As we learned more about this catastrophe it became clear that nothing seems to have changed in the way of flood warnings - and in fact the floods of 2024 were far more deadly despite all of our modern technology.

It is always hard to recommend a book about a tragedy but this book was fascinating, and in the end hopeful, so if you're interested in Florence, art, disaster recovery or just diaries from the 1960s this book is for you - and perhaps all city/disaster planners who live near rivers...

Micro review 6 (2024)

 

Paws & Portals by Ellie Warren (Curiosity Killed the Bookworm)

Sometimes what you need to read is a gentle, fun book that takes you right away from the real world and that is just what Paws & Portals  did for me this past (very) wet weekend.

This is a book set in a world which feels familiar - it is a reasonably technically advanced and (on the surface)  a tolerant society, all be it one where the power is drawn from ambient magic and no one quite understands how...

Then things start going wrong and Daisy, along with intern Lima, are sent out of the city into Ruhann where the Ratatoskr (the squirrel like race pictured on the cover) live and have noticed that the natural world is falling out of balance.

The book is a cosy fantasy (despite the inclusion of werewolves and vampires) with a very well conceived quest forming much of the plot. 

The book can be read as a metaphor for how we are reliant on technology that we don't understand, how we are ruining the environment, and how we have more in common with people who aren't quite like us than we have differences but at its heart it is just a cracking magical adventure story.

There's very gentle hints at romance in the story, but again the messages contained here are also very gentle - this isn't an addition to the new wave of 'spicy romance/fantasy' novels.

Last year I was recommended the T K Kingfisher book The Wizard's Guide to Defensive Baking - another fun fantasy book that I didn't expect to love as much a I did, and I think Paws & Portals is this year's surprise summer read. 

I really hope that Ellie does write more in this world as I want to know what happens next to these characters but that is because I loved them so much and not because the book was left on a cliff hanger.

Micro review 5 (2024) - so far out of my comfort zone I can't even see it!

 

Kammy: My Unbelievable Life by Chris Kamara (Pan Macmillan)

I've written before about how I often read for various projects which introduce me to books I'd never normally reach for, and sometimes this is great and sometimes not so good.

This time I was asked to read Kammy and I had no idea who he is - or was as I didn't even know if he was still alive!

It turns out he was a reasonably famous footballer turned presenter/pundit and while I wasn't expecting to find anything to enjoy in this book I found myself racing through it because it was so engaging!

Kammy has told his story to a very good ghost writer/co author and a fascinating book is the result. Kudos to Kammy for acknowledging Colin Young so openly too.

It mixes autobiographical chapters (in mostly chronological order) with chapters about more recent times and the result for a non football fan was that the book never got too bogged down in details about football matches as you knew there'd be a focus switch in a few pages.

The 'modern' part of the story is about Kammy's struggles with mental and physical health and he does this in such an open and engaging way that I think this book can do a lot to break down stigmas around both.

I'm still not a football fan but as happened back in 2021 (when I challenged myself to read all of the World Book Night titles) I I really enjoyed a book about the sport - I must remember to not dismiss books by footballers!