26ish books 2025

24. This Motherless Land.
Apparently this is a 'powerful de-colonial retelling of Mansfield Park", but that went over my head as I am not familiar with Mansfield Park. Just as well because I liked wondering what would happen next.
I was hooked from the off with this, it's pacy and some of the characters behave really appallingly, which I enjoy.

Oh, and I got a shiny new Kindle from DH for my birthday as mine was very old and on its last legs (the Kindle...not DH). It came with 3 months free Kindle Unlimited which is great but I am finding it hard to find books I want to read on it. I think I haven't worked out how to access the books I want on KU. I did get Purple Hibiscus though which I am very much looking forward to next on my list. Any suggestions or advice on how to get the most out of Unlimited much appreciated.

Go Set a Watchman - Harper Lee.

Although I did enjoy this to a certain degree because the setting and the characters were familiar and much loved from reading To Kill a Mockingbird nearly 35 years ago, it wasn't what I expected. Having read up afterwards on the story of the writing and the publication my reaction made sense
I am glad I read it but its not what it became.

11: There Are Rivers In The Sky by Elif Shafak. There are three strands to this story, I really enjoyed it to about halfway and then largely lost interest in the main one and ended up skimming lots of it, the descriptive passages became way too long-winded. Unsatisfactory ending too.

21 - Our Endless Numbered Days - Claire Fuller I picked this up in a charity shop this morning and finished it just now! I couldn’t stop reading it. Very well written book, but really quite sad.

Oh what a shame that you can't go. I am going to look her up and hope maybe she is talking near me too

31 When The Cranes Fly South - Liza Ridźen

Well, this was a beautiful and very real account of the daily thoughts of an old man coming to the end of his life and I loved the writing and the diary style accounts from carers. But, oh boy, if like me you have cared for and been with someone as they died recently then beware, it is a raw and hard hitting read. It made me weep when it finished. I don't regret it though, it was fascinating to read these thoughts, memories and the daily lives of the person who is dying as they come to terms with their own losses.

I may need something cheery next.

In other news my lovely DH has ordered me a new Kindle for my upcoming birthday which I am very excited about. And free Kindle Unlimited for 3 months. I just noticed that Purple Hibiscus is on there so it may be on my list in the next 3 months

20 Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. Wonderful story set in Nigeria. Seen through a teenage girls eyes through a military take over while she lives with her ultra religious and very abusive father. I read her later book half of a yellow sun years ago, this is just as good. Highly recommend!

21. Map of bones by Kate Mosse. Last in the quartet of the Joubert family telling the story of the wars of religion between catholics and the then displaced Huguenots. This was good but not to the same standard and the previous 3.

@Breathmiller - Happy and sad to hear you liked All The Lives We Never Lived. I really like Anuradha Roy and she is in town to give a talk and promote the book, but I can't go......

@MargotMoon I have stuch with The Sea, the Sea and perhaps it will get more interesting? It is written as a memoir by someone that is not very likeable, and perhaps quite pompous.... So it is not difficult to read as such, it just hard to put up with sometimes, but some new characters have shown up, so I'll report back.... :-)

@LuaI’ve got The Sea, The Sea on my (very long) list of things to read. Is it very hard going?

I was really excited to read Rivers of London as I loved the concept but really hated the main character, found it all a bit blokey and sexist by the end.

Fundamentally - Nussainah Younis - loved this so much, funny one liners but also a brilliant and deep story.

Will check that one out. Thank you @Breathmiller

30 All The Lives We Never Lived - Anuradha Roy.
I think this may make one of my top reads this year. A beautifully written story of a family, responsibilty, choices we make in life . Set mostly in India pre-war/partition it tells the story of a young boy, his mother and their lives and how these times changed them. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

29 Girls by Kirsty Capes. Got the idea from here thanks to a PP. I think I enjoed this more than Careless which I read last year. I was intrigued by the characters.

23. Martha, Jack & Shanco by Caryl Lewis. 3 aging siblings living in a farm in Wales. Mainly set on the farm. Lots of conflicted feelings towards one another and their circumstances. Felt like a Mike Leigh film - small scale world, co-dependent relations, some humour, some cruelty...

17 The Lighthouse by Alison Moore

Her debut novel, long listed for the Booker Prize - and I can see why. This is a very well written, clever book that explores the loneliness of the outsider and the idea that we are bound by our past, and how this shapes us as people, as well as our future. Sad, gripping, beautiful.
A solid 4 stars out of 5.

21: The Book About Getting Older by Lucy Pollock
Read this primarily to get a steer for my DF who has a form of dementia, but actually it got me really thinking about getting older myself.

22: Casting Off by Elizabeth Jane Howard
Like the others in the Cazalet series, just so good. I almost don't want to read the last one, I feel I need to savour it. I might save it for Christmas!

8 - Rivers of London - Was captivated and entertained, but I am unlikely to read the others.... I am in a more literary mood this year 😳

Still working on "There are more things" by Yara Fowler

Started "The sea, the sea" by Iris Murdoch. Someone please tell it gets better!!!! I am very close to giving up..... and I hardly ever DNF....

22. The River Is Waiting by Wally Lamb. I absolutely loved this, I was staying to late to read more and only reading it when I could give it time.
The central character is very unlikeable company at times, MN would be telling him to give his head a wobble and his wife to get her ducks in a row to LTB. However, he does have few redeeming features and the characters around him are well drawn.
At the start he's spiralling with alcohol and benzo addiction and I was thinking "if it's hundreds of pages of him having yet another swig from that hidden bottle I'm going to be so bored". But then, very quickly, he does something really truly utterly horrific as a result of being mashed, and the rest of the novel is the fallout. It's a difficult read in terms of subject matter and plot but an easy read in terms of writing style. There were a few unexpected twists towards the end that I didn't see coming but felt were entirely plausible.
Wally Lamb has done a lot of work with prisoners and I think it shows, it felt more true than if he'd just done a few visits and a bit of research.

Like most of his novels it does have a sub interest theme. In this case it's race related history, however it does tie in with the experiences of the characters, and without being too preachy.

1. Sleep walkers scarlett Thomas. Was ok not really what I expected and took a while to get into

16 Animals by Emma Jane Unsworth
Described as a 'Withnail & I with girls' - about two best friends and their drink / drug fuelled antics and how it affects their relationships.
An easy read, very funny in parts.
3 stars out of 5

32 - Air, John Boynes
4th in the elements series and started off great but the ending was so neat and tidy and overly sentimental. Shame. Water and Earth were utterly fantastic but Fire and Air took the shine off them a bit

28 The Ministry of Time - Kaliane Bradley

I really enjoyed this. Loved the characters and the reveal.

Can't remember when I last updated to be honest but my last few have been:

27 - The Impressionist by Hari Kunzru
Quite a long, weighty book which moves through what feels like several lifetimes of the central character. He was engaging and likeable and there's a lot of darkness but as typical with Kunzru a lot of lighthearted AND dark humour to go with it. The last section (hard to give details without major spoilers) dragged a bit and wasn't anywhere near as interesting as the first 4 5ths

28 - Bandit Queens by Parini Shroff
Not my usual read at all (even the cover would usually put me off) but a friend gave it to me and I enjoyed it much more than anticipated. A woman in a rural Indian village is abandoned by her physically abusive husband and everyone assumes she killed him. Other women start coming to her for help on how to kill their husbands - but it deals with (again using humour brilliantly) so many issues around domestic violence and hatred of women. There's a gentle love story at the periphery that doesn't get in the way and challenge to women to face the situations when we are against each other when we should be supporting each other

29 - Earth and 30 - Fire by John Boyne
we're doing his Elements series for book club, I'd previously read Water which I loved and wish was a full novel, and need to get Air read this week. Earth was fantastic, story of a footballer charged with aiding a rape. Just told from a very complicated, difficult and sympathetic standpoint (though the antagonist is pretty one dimensional) and just stunningly written. I had a bit more trouble with Fire just because what the protagonist does (again no spoilers!) feels so far fetched and erring on the side of misogyny from Boyne's POV as a male writer which was so unlike him I find and uncomfortably disappointing.

31 - Winter Garden by Kristin Hannah
Disappointing. I feel like every book I've read since the Great Alone (followed it with The Nightingale, The Four Winds and The Women) has been a little less good and The Great Alone is one of my favourites of all time. This dragged, felt like a beach read, got dark way too late when by then I'd lost any sympathy for the central characters. I finished it but might be a while before I pick up a Kristin Hannah again....

10: Nobody Walks by Mick Herron (audio). Another Slough House spin-off, beautifully written and narrated. We find out a bit more about the pre Slough House life of one of the characters with another delve into the murky goings on around spies in London.

Another Slough House book is out in Sept, with that and the Strike book it's going to be a good reading month.