Category: Book Musings (Page 3 of 32)

Anticipated Books For Spring 2026

As usual, I have scoured the catalogues for all the books that pique my attention I only managed to find 15 catalogues so far, so this may be updated as I come across others. So without further ado, here are my picks from all the books being published in the first half of next year:

 

Aurum Press

The Tattooed Hills by Jon Woolcott

 

Bloomsbury

Access Adventure: The Ultimate Book of Trails and Adventures By Wheelchair And On Foot – Debbie North

Beauty Of The Beasts: Rethinking Nature’s Least Loved Animals – Jo Wimpenny

To The Limit: The Meaning Of Endurance From Mexico To The Himalayas – Michael Crawley

The Devil’s Garden: A Wicked Medley Of Flowers, Fruits and Fungi – Peter Marren

How To Fly – Simon Barnes

The Wind Beneath the Stone: My Quest to Unearth A Piece of Ireland’s Folklore – David Keohan

Sun Country: Writing My Way Home – Howard Cunnell

 

Canongate

Hark: How Women Listen – Alice Vincent –

The Future Is Peace – Aziz Abu Sarah & Maoz Inon

Nation of Strangers: Rebuilding Home in the 21st Century – Ece Temelkuran

Homework: A Memoir – Geoff Dyer

In Search of Now: The Science of the Present Moment – Jo Marchant

Foreign Fruit: A Personal History of the Orange – Katie Goh

Alive: A Revolutionary Understanding of the Earth’s Intelligences – Melanie Challenger

One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This – Omar El Akkad

Between Two Waters: Heritage, landscape and the modern cook – Pam Brunton

Food Fight: From Plunder and Profit to People and Planet – Stuart Gillespie

At Sea – Y.M. Abdel-Magied

 

Daunt Books

Called by the Hills: A Home in the Himalaya – Anuradha Roy

Over the Water: Essays on Islands– Various

 

Doubleday

Up – Lucy Rogers

The Edges of the World – Charles Foster

 

Duckworth

The Return to the Little Kingdom: Steve Jobs, the creation of Apple, and how one company changed the world – Michael Moritz

On Thin Ice: A Journey in Siberia, and Prison in Putin’s Russia – Charlie Walker

Bread and War: A Ukrainian Story of Food, Bravery and Hope – Felicity Spector

In Green: A Journey to the End of the Land – Louis D. Hall

 

Eland

News from Tartary: A Journey from Peking to Kashmir –Peter Fleming
Saints of Sind –Peter Mayne

 

Elliott & Thompson

Farewell to Russia: A Journey through the Former USSR – Joe Luc Barnes –

All the Feels: How Technology Is Changing Our Emotional Lives for the Better – Pamela Pavliscak

Full Circle: A History of Cricket – Peter Oborne & Richard Heller

The Waterlands: Follow a raindrop from source to sea – Stephen Rutt

The Apothecary by the Sea: A Year in an Orkney Garden – Victoria Bennett

 

Faber & Faber

Wilderlands – Eloise Kane

The Dark Frontier – Jeffrey Marlow

Tales of the Suburbs – John Grindrod

Jan Morris: A Life – Sara Wheeler

 

Granta

Despite It All: A Handbook For Climate Hopefuls – Fred Pearce

The Beginning Comes After The End – Rebecca Solnit

 

Harper Collins

Wild Peaks: A Journey on Foot Through England’s First National Park – Tom Chesshyre

 

Harvill Secker

Herlands: Lessons From Societies Where Women Make the Rules – Megha Mohan

 

Headline

Elemental – Arthur Snell

My Body is a Meadow – Bethany Handley

Power Play: Video Games, Politics and the Battle for Global Influence – George E. Osborn

A History of Booksellers and the Bookshop – Jean-Yves Mollier

Grassroots – Julia Rosen

The Writer and the Traitor: Graham Greene, Kim Philby and the Great Betrayal – Robert Verkaik

The Garden Through Time – Thomas Rutter

 

Jonathan Cape

Think Like a Forest: Letters to my Children from a Changing Planet – Ben Rawlence

Goyle, Chert, Mire – Jean Sprackland

Borrowed Land: A Highland Story – Kapka Kassabova

Dog Star – Michael Symmons Roberts

 

Little Toller

The Icknield Way – Edward Thomas

The Charm of Birds – Edward Grey

Looking for Mr Schwitters – Jennifer Potter

 

Oneworld

How Queer Bookshops Changed the World – A. J. West

How Not to Save the World: Activism Without Annoying Everyone Around You – Anthea Lawson

This Land Is Your Land: On A Road Trip to Make Sense of America – Beverly Gage

Transported – Elizabeth Margulis

En Route: A Journey Round France in the Company of Great Writers – Peter Fiennes

The Art of Patience: Seeking the Snow Leopard in Tibet – Sylvain Tesson & Frank Wynne (Tr.)

 

Particular Books

Attensity!: A Manifesto of the Attention Liberation Movement – The Friends of Attention

The Fire in the Mountain: Sicily, Etna and Her People – Helena Attlee

 

Picador

Frostlines: An Epic Exploration of the Transforming Arctic – Neil Shea

 

Profile Books

We Know You Can Pay a Million Inside the Dark Economy of Hacking and Ransomware – Anja Shortland

Land of Hot Sauce and Gravy: Notes from a Hungry Island – Ben Benton

Crossing the Wine-Dark Sea: Journeys through Ancient Literature – Emily Wilson

On the Mark: A History of Punctuation from Ancient Egypt to the Emoticon – Florence Hazrat

Hinterlands: Journeys through Europe’s Unfinished Frontiers – Hannah Lucinda Smith

Reaching for the Extreme: How the Quest for the Biggest, Fewest and Weirdest Makes Maths – Ian Stewart

Grasslands: The Intricate Life of Britain’s Hidden Habitats – John Wright

Polar War: Submarines, Spies, and the Struggle for Power in a Melting Arctic – Kenneth R. Rosen

Ancient: Reviving the Woods That Made Britain – Luke Barley

“Rogues, Widows and Orphans: When Words Go Wrong and Other Bookish Misadventures” – Rebecca Lee

 

Reaktion Books

The Point of the Needle: Why Sewing Matters – Barbara Burman –

The Wagner Group: Inside Russia’s Mercenary Army – Jack Margolin

You Want What We’ve Got: Big Tech v. Big Journalism – Jason Whittaker

Treasures on Earth: Buried Wealth in Landscape and Legend – Jeremy Harte

The Medieval Guide to Healthy Living – Katherine Harvey

Way Makers: An Anthology of Women’s Writing about Walking – Kerri Andrews (Ed)

Whispers from Celtic Seas: The True Meanings of Ancient Stories from Northwest Europe – Patrick Nunn

Stories of the Stones: Imagining Prehistory in Britain, Ireland and Brittany – Paul Robichaud

 

September Books

The Wild Within: What Plants Taught Me about Life, Recovery and Renewal – Brigit Anna McNeill

Possessions: A Memoir of Transformation in an Era of Precarity – Davina Quinlivan

Underwing: A Story of Motherhood, Loss and Wild Intuition – Jennifer Lane

Chopsy: Resistance Tales of a Working-Class Woman – Maya Jordan

Ripening: Why Women Need Fairy Tales Now – Sharon Blackie

 

The Bodley Head

Imitation Games: How the Gambling Industry Hijacked Sport – Darragh McGee

Tiny Gardens Everywhere: A History of Urban Resilience – Kate Brown

The Resilience Response: The New Science of Trauma and How We Heal Across Generations – Rachel Yehuda

 

November 2025 Review

November is a short month, but I did manage to get a fair few read in the end:

Books Read

Phantoms of Kernow – Joan Passey (Ed) – 3.5 Stars

The Future Of Travel – Daniel Maurer – 4 Stars

Help!: How To Become Slightly Happier And Get A Bit More Done – Oliver Burkeman – 3 Stars

New York Vertical – Horst Hamann – 4 Stars

Green and Pleasant Land: Best-Loved Poems of the British Countryside – Ana Sampson (Ed) – 3 Stars

Jade City – Fonda Lee – 2.5 Stars

PhotoCity New York – Guillaume Gaudet & Zora O’Neill – 3 Stars

Weather – Storm Dunlop – 3 Stars

 

Book(s) Of The Month

Upon A White Horse: Journeys In Ancient Britain And Ireland – Peter Ross – 4.5 Stars

Lone Wolf: Walking The Faultlines Of Europe  – Adam Weymouth – 5 Stars

Craftland: A Journey Through Britain’s Lost Arts & Vanishing Trades – James Fox – 5 Stars

 

Top Genres

Travel – 19

Fiction – 13

Poetry – 11

Natural History – 11

Science Fiction – 10

 

Top Publishers

Faber & Faber – 7

Simon & Schuster – 6

Penguin – 6

Bloomsbury – 5

Picador – 4

 

Review Copies Received

We Are All Adrift – David Banning & Iain Sharpe

 

Library Books Checked Out

Help!: How To Become Slightly Happier And Get A Bit More Done – Oliver Burkeman

Fiesta: A Journey Through Festivity – Daniel Stables

Rope: How A Bundle Of Twisted Fibres Became The Backbone Of Civilisation – Tim Queeney

The Future Of Agriculture – Sarah Bearchell

Craftland: A Journey Through Britain’s Lost Arts & Vanishing Trades – James Fox

Common People: A Folk History Of Land Rights, Enclosure And Resistance – Leah Gordon & Stephen Ellcock

 

Books Bought (Or Sent by Friends)

As I have said elsewhere, I am trying to buy fewer books. So I will give totals of the number of books that enter my house and those that leave permanently. These are the figures for this month:

Books in: 15 I kept these below:

High Caucasus: A Mountain Quest in Russia’s Haunted Hinterland – Tom Parfitt

Night Life: Walking Britain’s Wild Landscapes after Dark – John Lewis-Stempel

The Book of Bogs: Stories from a Yorkshire Moor and other Peatlands – Anna Chilvers & Clare Shaw

Monsterland: A Journey Around the World’s Dark Imagination – Nicholas Jubber

Books out: 17 (The books leaving the house were sold, returned to the library or passed on to friends or charity. I am aiming for this number to be higher than the one above!!!).

So are there any from that list that you have read, or now seeing them, now want to read? Let me know in the comments below.

December 2025 TBR

My final TBR of 2025 was supposed to be a short one as I only have 7 books to go on the Good Reads Challenge. But I think that I am going to go over… So here is the not quite so short list for books to read this month:

 

Daily Reading

A Tree A Day – Amy-Jane Beer

An Insect a Day: Bees, Bugs, And Pollinators For Every Day Of The Year – Dominic Couzens & Gail Ashton

 

Still Reading

Handbook of Mammals of Madagascar Hardcover – Nick Garbutt

Cage of Souls – Adrian Tchaikovsky

 

#20BooksOfSummer (Ha!)

The Cruel Stars – John Birmingham

Sunfall – Jim Al-Khalili

Revenger – Alastair Reynolds

Shadow Captain – Alastair Reynolds

The Old Drift – Namwali Serpell

 

WFMAC

The Year of Living Danishly: My Twelve Months Unearthing the Secrets of the World’s Happiest Country – Helen Russell

Along the River that Flows Uphill: From the Orinoco to the Amazon – Richard Starks

 

Review Books

Small Earthquakes: A Journey Through Lost British History In South America – Shafik Meghji

21 Lessons for the 21st Century – Yuval Noah Harari

Your Journey Your Way: The Recovery Guide to Mental Health – Horatio Clare

Slow Trains Around Britain: Notes from a 4,088-Mile Adventure on 143 Rides – Tom Chesshyre

Return of the Ancients: Unruly Tales of the Mythological Weird – Katy Soar  (Ed)

Little Ruins – Manni Coe

We Are All Adrift – David Banning & Iain Sharpe

 

Books I’m Clearing

A Butterfly Journey: Maria Sibylla Merian Artist and Scientist – Boris Friedewald & Stephan von Pohl (Tr)

Scoff: A History of Food and Class in Britain – Pen Vogler

Russians Among Us – Gordon Corera

Free: Coming of Age at the End of History – Lea Ypi

The Owl Service – Alan Garner

 

Library

Nature Needs You: The Fight To Save Our Swifts – Hannah Bourne- Taylor

The Uninhabitable Earth: A Story of the Future – David Wallace-Wells

Sticky: The Secret Science of Surfaces – Laurie Winkless

The Future Of Agriculture – Sarah Bearchell

The Accidental Garden: Gardens, Wilderness And The Space In Between – Richard Mabey

 

Poetry

Poetry on the Buses – Valerie Belsey & Candy Neubert (Ed)

 

So are there any from that list that you have read, or now seeing them, now want to read? Let me know in the comments below.

October 2025 Review

A bit of a slower reading month in October, didn’t get through as many as I had hoped, as we were up and down to Stevenage a couple of times to see my daughter as she settles into her PhD placement. But I did get eleven books rea,d including one that I have had on my never-ending TBR for months!

 

Books Read

Letters to the Earth: Writing Inspired by Climate Emergency – Various – 4 Stars

Nevernight – Jay Kristoff – 3 Stars

Doomed Romances: Strange Tales of Uncanny Love – Joanne Ella Parsons – 3 Stars

Never Had A Dad – Georgie Cudd – 3 Stars

The Ponies At The Edge Of The World: A Story of Hope and Belonging in Shetland – Catherine Munro – 3.5 Stars

Sea Bean: A Beachcombers Search for Magical Charm – Sally Huband – 4 Stars

I Wandered Lonely As A Cloud – Ana Sampson (Ed) – 3 Stars

Stone Lands: A Journey Of Darkness And Light Through Britain’s Ancient Places – Fiona Robertson – 4 Stars

The Spymasters: How The CIA’s Directors Shape History And The Future – Chris Whipple – 3 Stars

The Shipping Forecast – Meg Clothier – 3.5 Stars

 

Book(s) Of The Month

Dilbert 2.0 – Scott Adams – 4.5 Stars

 

Top Genres

Travel – 17

Fiction – 12

Natural History – 11

Poetry – 10

Science Fiction – 10

 

Top Publishers

Faber & Faber – 7

Simon & Schuster – 6

Penguin – 6

Bloomsbury – 5

Picador – 4

 

Review Copies Received

The Future Of Travel – Daniel Maurer – Melville House

The Longest Walk Home: The Epic 2,000-Mile Escape Of A WWII POW, In His Own Words – Ray Bailey With David Wilkins – Quercus

The Haunted Library: Tales of Cursed Books And Forbidden Shelves – Tanya Kirk (Ed) – British Library Publishing

All the Fear of the Fair: Uncanny Tales of Circus and Sideshow – Edward Parnell (Ed) – British Library Publishing

 

Library Books Checked Out

To Catch A Spy: How The Spycatcher Affair Brought Mi5 In From The Cold – Tim Tate

Upon A White Horse: Journeys In Ancient Britain And Ireland – Peter Ross

There Will Be Headwinds: Kayaking The Northwest Passage – Mark Agnew

Lone Wolf: Walking The Faultlines Of Europe – Adam Weymouth

 

Books Bought (Or Sent by Friends)

As I have said elsewhere, I am trying to buy fewer books. So I will give totals of l the number of books that enter my house and those that leave permanently. These are the figures for this month:

Books in: 10 I kept these below:

The Wild Garden – William Robinson

Folklore And Witchcraft in Dorset and Wiltshire – John C. Chadwick

Books out: 27 (The books leaving the house were sold, returned to the library or passed on to friends or charity. I am aiming for this number to be higher than the one above!!!).
So are there any from that list that you have read, or now seeing them, now want to read? Let me know in the comments below.

November 2025 TBR

The usual massively ambitious TBR for this month is below, though now the clocks have gone back, staying in and reading seems like the best plan.

 

Daily Reading

A Tree A Day – Amy-Jane Beer

An Insect a Day: Bees, Bugs, And Pollinators For Every Day Of The Year – Dominic Couzens & Gail Ashton

 

Still Reading

Handbook of Mammals of Madagascar Hardcover – Nick Garbutt

Phantoms of Kernow – Joan Passey (Ed)

Weather – Storm Dunlop

 

Themed Reads

PhotoCity New York – Guillaume Gaudet & Zora O’Neill

New York Vertical – Horst Hamann

 

Plus if I can get to these:

Survival of the City: Living and Thriving in an Age of Isolation – Edward Glaeser, David Cutler

Banksy: The Man Behind The Wall – Will Elsworth Jones

The Fifth Risk – Michael Lewis

Constable: Paintings, Watercolours and Drawings – Leslie Parris

Scoff: A History of Food and Class in Britain – Pen Vogler

Feeding the Machine: The Hidden Human Labour Powering AI – James Muldoon, Mark Graham & Callum Cant

When the Rivers Run Dry: Water – The Defining Crisis of the Twenty-first Century – Fred Pearce

The Uninhabitable Earth: A Story of the Future – David Wallace-Wells

 

#20BooksOfSummer (Ha!)

The Cruel Stars – John Birmingham

The Solar War – A.G. Riddle

Cage of Souls – Adrian Tchaikovsky

Jade City – Fonda Lee

The Old Drift – Namwali Serpell

 

WFMAC

The Year of Living Danishly: My Twelve Months Unearthing the Secrets of the World’s Happiest Country – Helen Russell

Along the River that Flows Uphill: From the Orinoco to the Amazon – Richard Starks

 

Review Books

Small Earthquakes: A Journey Through Lost British History In South America – Shafik Meghji

21 Lessons for the 21st Century – Yuval Noah Harari

Your Journey Your Way: The Recovery Guide to Mental Health – Horatio Clare

The Future Of Travel – Daniel Maurer

Slow Trains Around Britain: Notes from a 4,088-Mile Adventure on 143 Rides – Tom Chesshyre

Return of the Ancients: Unruly Tales of the Mythological Weird – Katy Soar (Ed)

Little Ruins – Manni Coe

 

Books I’m Clearing

Russians Among Us – Gordon Corera

Free: Coming of Age at the End of History – Lea Ypi

 

Library

Upon A White Horse: Journeys In Ancient Britain And Ireland – Peter Ross

Lone Wolf: Walking The Faultlines Of Europe – Adam Weymouth

Nature Needs You: The Fight To Save Our Swifts – Hannah Bourne- Taylor

Sticky: The Secret Science of Surfaces – Laurie Winkless

Craftland: A Journey Through Britain’s Lost Arts & Vanishing Trades – James Fox

 

Poetry

Green and Pleasant Land: Best-Loved Poems of the British Countryside – Ana Sampson (Ed)

 

Book Club

It is a crime thriller this month, so I’m passing on it…

 

So are there any from that list that you have read, or now seeing them, now want to read? Let me know in the comments below.

 

September 2025 Review

Another month passes and and few more books read and cleared. Not as many as August though… This was the past months reading and stats below:

 

Books Read

Forgotten Churches: Exploring England’s Hidden Treasures  – Luke Sherlock – 3 Stars

This Motherless Land – Nikki May – 3 Stars

Eliot’s Book Of Bookish Lists – Henry Eliot – 3 Stars

Tyger Tyger Burning Bright: Much-Loved Poems You Half-Remember – Ana Sampson (Ed) – 3 Stars

Evolution – Stephen Baxter – 2 Stars

Red Moon – Kim Stanley Robinson – 3.5 Stars

The Bridge – Janine Ellen Young – 4 Stars

Robot: The Future of Flesh and Machines – Rodney A Brooks – 2.5 Stars

Rise of the Robots: Technology and the Threat of a Jobless Future – Martin Ford – 3.5 Stars

God Is An Octopus: Loss, Love and a Calling to Nature – Ben Goldsmith – 3 Stars

 

Book(s) Of The Month

The Whispers of Rock: Stories from the Earth – Anjana Khatwa – 4 Stars

Church Going: A Stonemason’s Guide To The Churches Of The British Isles – Andrew Ziminski – 4 Stars

 

Top Genres

Travel – 17

Fiction – 11

Natural History – 11

Science Fiction – 10

Poetry – 9

 

Top Publishers

Faber & Faber – 7

Simon & Schuster – 6

Bloomsbury – 5

Penguin – 5

Picador – 4

 

Review Copies Received

The Wayfarer’s Weird: Wild Tales of Uncanny Rambles – Weird Walk

The Tiger Skin: And Other Tales of the Uneasy by Violet Hunt – Violet Hunt & Melissa Edmundson (ed)

Hafren: The Wisdom of the River Severn – Sarah Siân Chave

An Unnatural History of Britain: A Journey In Search of Our Non-Native Species – Kevin Parr

 

Library Books Checked Out

Lost Gods of Albion – Paul Newman

Stone Lands: A Journey Of Darkness And Light Through Britain’s Ancient Places – Fiona Robertson

 

Books Bought (Or Sent by Friends)

As I have said elsewhere, I am trying to buy fewer books. So I will give totals of l the number of books that enter my house and those that leave permanently. These are the figures for this month:

Books in: 10. I kept these below:

Moonlight Express: Around the World By Night Train – Monisha Rajesh

Overnight: Journeys, Conversations and Stories After Dark – Dan Richards

111 Place In Dorset That You Really Shouldn’t Miss – Jenni Bell & Karen Heaney

Madagascar: The Eighth Continent: Life, Death and Discovery in a Lost World – Peter Tyson

 

Books out: 41 (The books leaving the house were sold, returned to the library or passed on to friends or charity. I am aiming for this number to be higher than the one above!!!).

 

So are there any from that list that you have read, or now seeing them, now want to read? Let me know in the comments below.

 

August 2025 Review

Well that was quite a month in lots of ways… See Books Bought at the end to see why. I did manage to read 14 in the end as we had lots going on at home, include my daughters major surgery and making the decision that we need to move house for various reasons. Anyway, you’re here for the books and this is what I read last month:

 

Books Read

Sixty Harvests Left: How to Reach a Nature-Friendly Future – Philip Lymbery – Environmental – 4 Stars

The Man Who Planted Trees – Jean Giono, Harry Brockway (Ill) & Aline Giono – Fiction – 3 Stars

A Wilder Way: How Gardens Grow Us – Poppy Okotcha – Gardening – 3 Stars

What Is Your Cat Really Thinking? – Sophie Johnson & Danny Cameron – Humour – 2.5 Stars

Trees In Winter – Richard Shimell – Memoir – 4 Stars

Our Oaken Bones: Reviving A Family, A Farm And Britain’s Ancient Rainforests – Merlin Hanbury-Tenison – Natural History – 3.5 Stars

Neurodivergent, By Nature: Why Biodiversity Needs Neurodiversity – Joe Harkness – Navigation – 4 Stars

Abandoned Churches: Unclaimed Places of Worship – Francis Meslet – Photography – 3.5 Stars

The Peace Of Wild Things – Wendell Berry – Poetry – 3 Stars

The Three Body Problem – Ci Xin Liu – Science Fiction – 3.5 Stars

A Second Chance at Eden – Peter F. Hamilton – Science Fiction – 3.5 Stars

The Postal Paths: Rediscovering Britain’s Forgotten Routes – And The People Who Walked Them – Alan Cleaver – Social History – 4 Stars

 

Book(s) Of The Month

Under A Metal Sky: A Journey Through Minerals, Greed and Wonder – Philip Marsden – Geology – 4.5 Stars

The Laundromat: Inside the Panama Papers Investigation of Illicit Money Networks and the Global Elite – Jake Bernstein – True Crime – 4.5 Stars

 

Top Genres

Travel – 17

Fiction – 10

Natural History – 10

Poetry – 8

Science Fiction – 7

 

Top Publishers

Faber & Faber – 7

Picador – 4

Simon & Schuster – 4

Canongate – 4

Bloomsbury – 4

Eland – 4

 

Review Copies Received

Little Ruins – Manni Coe

 

Library Books Checked Out

Night Train To Odesa: Covering The Human Cost of Russia’s War – Jen Stout

A Wilder Way: How Gardens Grow Us – Poppy Okotcha

Postal Paths: Rediscovering Britain’s Forgotten Routes – And The People Who Walked Them – Alan Cleaver

Church Going: A Stonemason’s Guide To The Churches Of The British Isles – Andrew Ziminski

Landscape, Monuments and Society: The Prehistory of Cranborne Chase – “John Barrett, Richard J. Bradley & Martin T. Green (Ed)”

 

Books Bought (Or Sent by Friends)

As I have said elsewhere, I am trying to buy fewer books. So I will give totals of l the number of books that enter my house and those that leave permanently. These are the figures for August:

August Books in: 13

August Books out: 229 (!!!!!) (The books leaving the house were sold, returned to the library or passed on to friends or charity. I am aiming for this number to be higher than the one above!!!). I kept these below:

Spring – Michael Morpurgo

Slow Boat to Uragruy – Andrew Tunstall

 

So are there any from that list that you have read, or now seeing them, now want to read? Let me know in the comments below.

September 2025 TBR

Another month rolls by and another totally unrealistic TBR appears! No idea how many of these I’ll get through, but I hope at least 15!

 

Daily Reading

A Tree A Day – Amy-Jane Beer

An Insect a Day: Bees, Bugs, And Pollinators For Every Day Of The Year – Dominic Couzens & Gail Ashton

 

Still Reading

Handbook of Mammals of Madagascar Hardcover – Nick Garbutt

The Whispers of Rock – Anjana Khatwa

 

Themed Reads

Feeding the Machine: The Hidden Human Labour Powering AI – James Muldoon, Mark Graham & Callum Cant

Rise of the Robots: Technology and the Threat of a Jobless Future – Martin Ford

Robot – Rodney A Brooks

Plus If I can get to these:

Survival of the City: Living and Thriving in an Age of Isolation – Edward Glaeser, David Cutler

Banksy: The Man Behind The Wall – Will Elsworth Jones

The Fifth Risk – Michael Lewis

Constable: Paintings, Watercolours and Drawings – Leslie Parris

Scoff: A History of Food and Class in Britain – Pen Vogler

 

#20BooksOfSummer

Red Moon – Kim Stanley Robinson

The Cruel Stars – John Birmingham

The Solar War – A.G. Riddle

Cage of Souls – Adrian Tchaikovsky

The Bridge – Janine Ellen Young

 

World From My Armchair

The Year of Living Danishly: My Twelve Months Unearthing the Secrets of the World’s Happiest Country – Helen Russell

Along the River that Flows Uphill: From the Orinoco to the Amazon – Richard Starks

 

Review Books

Small Earthquakes: A Journey Through Lost British History In South America – Shafik Meghji

21 Lessons for the 21st Century – Yuval Noah Harari

Your Journey Your Way: The Recovery Guide to Mental Health – Horatio Clare

Doomed Romances: Strange Tales of Uncanny Love – Joanne Ella Parsons

Phantoms of Kernow – Joan Passey (Ed)

Return of the Ancients: Unruly Tales of the Mythological Weird – Katy Soar  (Ed)

 

Books I’m clearing

Sky – Storm Dunlop

Dilbert 2.0 – Scott Adams

Russians Among Us – Gordon Corera

Free: Coming of Age at the End of History – Lea Ypi

 

Library

God Is An Octopus: Loss, Love and a Calling to Nature – Ben Goldsmith

The Spymasters: How The CIA’s Directors Shape History And The Future – Chris Whipple

Eliot’s Book Of Bookish Lists – Henry Eliot

Church Going: A Stonemason’s Guide To The Churches Of The British Isles – Andrew Ziminski

Forgotten Churches: Exploring England’s Hidden Treasures  – Luke Sherlock

 

Poetry

Tyger Tyger Burning Bright: Much-Loved Poems You Half-Remember – Ana Sampson (Ed)

 

Book Club

This Motherless Land – Nikki May

 

So are there any from that list that you have read, or now seeing them, now want to read? Let me know in the comments below.

July 2025 Review

July came and went fairly quickly. We were on holiday and then my daughter had major foot surgery, so we have had a bit of a stressful time!  It is my birthday back then, and got given a book token! Though I won’t be spending this anytime soon (see at the bottom of this post). Anyway, this is what I read in July:

 

Books Read

On The Roof:  A Thatcher’s Journey – Tom Allan – 3.5 Stars

Borderland: A Journey Through The History Of Ukraine – Anna Reid – 3.5 Stars

Words From The Hedge: A Hedgelayer’s View Of The Countryside – Richard Negus – 4 Stars

Hedgelands: A Wild Wander Around Britain’s Greatest Habitat – Christopher Hart – 4 Stars

Letters to Camondo – Edmund de Waal – 4 Stars

Tickbox – David Boyle – 3 Stars

The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right – Atul Gawande – 3 Stars

After Beethoven – Alison Brackenbury – 3 Stars

Broken Stars: Contemporary Chinese Science Fiction in Translation – Ken Liu – 3.5 Stars

The Wall – John Lanchester – 4 Stars

The Warehouse – Rob Hart – 4 Stars

Ten Birds That Changed The World – Stephen Moss – 3.5 Stars

 

Book(s) Of The Month

Of Thorn & Briar: A Year With The West Country Hedgelayer – Paul Lamb – 4.5 Stars

How to Lose a Country: The Seven Warning Signs of Rising Populism – Ece Temelkuran – 4.5 Stars

 

Top Genres

Faber & Faber

Canongate

Picador

Simon & Schuster

Eland

 

Top Publishers

Travel

Fiction

Natural History

Poetry

Social History

 

Review Copies Received

Small Earthquakes: A Journey Through Lost British History In South America – Shafik Meghji

Everything Will Swallow You – Tom Cox

 

Library Books Checked Out

Forgotten Churches: Exploring England’s Hidden Treasures  – Luke Sherlock

Nature Needs You: The Fight To Save Our Swifts – Hannah Bourne-Taylor

On The Roof:  A Thatcher’s Journey – Tom Allen

Trees In Winter – Richard Shimell

Under A Metal Sky: A Journey Through Minerals, Greed and Wonder – Philip Marsden

Our Oaken Bones: Reviving A Family, A Farm And Britain’s Ancient Rainforests – Merlin Hanbury-Tenison

 

Books Bought (Or Sent by Friends)

As I have said elsewhere, I am trying to buy fewer books. So I will give totals of l the number of books that enter my house and those that leave permanently. These are the figures for June:

July Books in: 21

July Books out: 23 (The books leaving the house were sold, returned to the library or passed on to friends or charity. I am aiming for this number to be higher than the one above!!!). I kept these below:

 

Yemen: Travels in Dictionary Land – Tim Mackintosh-Smith

Plot 29: A Love Affair With Land – Allan Jenkins

Sunrise on the Southbound Sleeper: More Great Railway Journeys from the Daily Telegraph – Michael Kerr

Don’t Mention the War! : A Shameful European Adventure – Stewart Ferris & Paul Bassett

I Came, I Saw: An Autobiography – Norman Lewis

 

We are aiming to move at some point, and I have several books to clear to get it down to a manageable level. Sarah wants me to have books on bookcases, not in piles all over the place, so I will be getting rid of lots. I have about 20 Persephone’s that I have decided that I am never going to read, so if you’re interested, then they are available for £10 inc postage

 

So are there any from that list that you have read, or now seeing them, now want to read? Let me know in the comments below.

 

August 2025 TBR

A bit late with posting as we have been away to Jersey, and then my daughter has had major foot surgery, so I have been otherwise occupied!

Random list again this month, aiming to read as many of these as I can.

 

Daily Reading

A Tree A Day – Amy-Jane Beer

An Insect a Day: Bees, Bugs, And Pollinators For Every Day Of The Year – Dominic Couzens & Gail Ashton

 

Still Reading

Handbook of Mammals of Madagascar Hardcover – Nick Garbutt

Handbook of Mammals of Madagascar Hardcover – Nick Garbutt

Survival of the City: Living and Thriving in an Age of Isolation – Edward Glaeser, David Cutler

Banksy: The Man Behind The Wall – Will Elsworth Jones

The Fifth Risk – Michael Lewis

Constable: Paintings, Watercolours and Drawings – Leslie Parris

Scoff: A History of Food and Class in Britain – Pen Vogler

 

#20BooksOfSummer

Red Moon – Kim Stanley Robinson

The Cruel Stars – John Birmingham

The Solar War – A.G. Riddle

Cage of Souls – Adrian Tchaikovsky

The Bridge – Janine Ellen Young

 

WFMAC

The Year of Living Danishly: My Twelve Months Unearthing the Secrets of the World’s Happiest Country – Helen Russell

Along the River that Flows Uphill: From the Orinoco to the Amazon – Richard Starks

 

Review Books

Small Earthquakes: A Journey Through Lost British History In South America – Shafik Meghji

21 Lessons for the 21st Century – Yuval Noah Harari

Your Journey Your Way: The Recovery Guide to Mental Health – Horatio Clare

Doomed Romances: Strange Tales of Uncanny Love – Joanne Ella Parsons

Neurodivergent, By Nature: Why Biodiversity Needs Neurodiversity – Joe Harkness

The Whispers of Rock – Anjana Khatwa

 

Books I’m clearing

The Peace Of Wild Things – Wendell Berry

Dilbert 2.0 – Scott Adams

The Man Who Planted Trees – Jean Giono, Harry Brockway (Ill) & Aline Giono

Russians Among Us – Gordon Corera

Free: Coming of Age at the End of History – Lea Ypi

 

Library

The Laundromat: Inside the Panama Papers Investigation of Illicit Money Networks and the Global Elite – Jake Bernstein

Sixty Harvests Left: How to Reach a Nature-Friendly Future – Philip Lymbery

Trees In Winter– Richard Shimell
Our Oaken Bones: Reviving A Family, A Farm And Britain’s Ancient Rainforests– Merlin Hanbury-Tenison
A Wilder Way: How Gardens Grow Us– Paoppy Okotcha
Postal Paths: Rediscovering Britain’s Forgotten Routes – And The People Who Walked Them– Alan Cleaver

 

Poetry

Meridian – Nancy Gaffield

 

So are there any from that list that you have read, or now seeing them, now want to read? Let me know in the comments below.

 

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