Another year passes and another list of my favourite books from the past twelve months. I didn’t have quite as many five-star reads as normal, either from the 150 books I read. First up are some honourable mentions that I gave 4.5 stars to:

The Flitting – Ben Masters

Slow Trains To Istanbul – Tom Chesshyre

Panoramas of Lost London: Work, Wealth, Poverty & Change – Philip Davies

Venice Sketchbook: Impressions, Seasons, Encounters & Pigeons – Huck Scarry

Renaturing: Small Ways To Wild The World – James Canton

Normally Weird And Weirdly Normal: My Adventures In Neurodiversity – Robin Ince

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

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

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

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

Dilbert 2.0 – Scott Adams

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

Cage of Souls – Adrian Tchaikovsky

 

And here are my eleven five-star reads.

A Quiet Evening – Norman Lewis

Collected here, from a period of nearly five decades, are thirty-six of Norman Lewis s best articles. In each, his writing crackles with poker-faced wit and stylistic brilliance. As a witness to his times the good, the bad and the absurd he was unmatched, and his instinct for important events, and moments, was infallible. His range here includes Ibizan fishermen, an interview with Castro’s executioner, the genocide of the South American Indian tribes, a paean to Seville and his meeting with a tragic Ernest Hemingway. That meeting was a shattering experience, Norman wrote to Ian Fleming who had commissioned him, of the kind likely to sabotage ambition. Fortunately it didn’t, and the articles assembled between these covers are compulsive, hilarious, tender and beautifully written, at times deeply upsetting and always unforgettable.

On the Narrow Road to the Deep North: Journey into a Lost Japan – Lesley Chan Downer

After eight years working in Japan, immersing herself in its language and literature, Lesley Chan Downer set off in the footsteps of Matsuo Basho, Japan’s most cherished poet, to explore the country’s remote northern provinces. Basho’s pilgrimage to find the landscapes that had inspired the great medieval poets gave birth to Japan’s most famous travel book, rich in strange imagery and sometimes comic encounters along the road. In this intriguing cross-threading of journeys, perceptions and exquisite haiku, Lesley creates her own funny, loving and honest portrayal of contemporary Japan. As she walks, she finds at one and the same time a drab, post-industrial landscape of concrete and cables, but also a land still full of the old enchantments. Nights in thatched highland villages and saké-drenched poetry sessions encourage her to see for herself if any of the legendary hermit-priests still survive in the sacred mountains of the north.

 

London Made Us: A Memoir Of A Shape-Shifting City – Robert Elms

‘London is a giant kaleidoscope, which is forever turning. Take your eye off it for more than a moment and you’re lost.’
Robert Elms has seen London change beyond all imagining: the house he grew up in is now the behemoth that is the Westway flyover, and areas once deemed murder miles have morphed into the stuff of estate agents’ dreams, seemingly in a matter of months.
Elms takes us back through time and place to myriad Londons. He is our guide through a place that has seen scientific experiments conducted in subterranean lairs, a small community declare itself an independent nation and animals of varying exoticism roam free through its streets; a place his great-great-grandfather made the Elms’ home over a century ago and a city that has borne witness to epoch- and world-changing events.

 

Venice – James Morris

Often hailed as one of the best travel books ever written, Venice is neither a guide nor a history book, but a beautifully written immersion in Venetian life and character, set against the background of the city’s past. Analysing the particular temperament of Venetians, as well as its waterways, its architecture, its bridges, its tourists, its curiosities, its smells, sounds, lights and colours, there is scarcely a corner of Venice that Jan Morris has not investigated and brought vividly to life.

James Morris first visited the city of Venice during World War II. As he writes in the introduction, ‘it is Venice seen through a particular pair of eyes at a particular moment – young eyes at that, responsive above all to the stimuli of youth.’ Venice is an impassioned work on this magnificent but often maddening city.

Morris’s collection of travel writing and reportage spans over five decades and includes such titles as Sydney, Coronation Everest, Hong Kong, Spain and Manhattan ’45. Since its first publication, Venice has appeared in many editions, won the W.H. Heinemann award and become an international bestseller.

 

We Came By Sea – Horatio Clare

We Came By Sea, Stories of a greater Britain is an untold story of the small boats crisis, a story which shows the best of us. It is the story of the volunteers who help thousands of refugees in Calais, of the lifeboat crews mounting one of the great search and rescue operations of all time, of an unrecognised, uncelebrated, all but unknown Britain which is giving its all to help the vulnerable and desperate. It is a journey through an unexamined nation, a nation which is as truly great and good as the people in the dinghies believe Britain to be. It is not the story we have been told, and it is a true story.

 

Ultra-Processed People: Why Do We All Eat Stuff That Isn’t Food … and Why Can’t We Stop? – Chris van Tulleken

It’s not you, it’s the food.

We have entered a new age of eating. For the first time in human history, most of our calories come from an entirely novel set of substances called Ultra-Processed Food. There’s a long, formal scientific definition, but it can be boiled down to this: if it’s wrapped in plastic and has at least one ingredient that you wouldn’t find in your kitchen, it’s UPF.

These products are specifically engineered to behave as addictive substances, driving excess consumption. They are now linked to the leading cause of early death globally and the number one cause of environmental destruction. Yet almost all our staple foods are ultra-processed. UPF is our food culture and for many people it is the only available and affordable food.

In this book, Chris van Tulleken, father, scientist, doctor, and award-winning BBC broadcaster, marshals the latest evidence to show how governments, scientists, and doctors have allowed transnational food companies to create a pandemic of diet-related disease. The solutions don’t lie in willpower, personal responsibility, or exercise. You’ll find no diet plan in this book―but join Chris as he undertakes a powerful self-experiment that made headlines around the world: under the supervision of colleagues at University College London he spent a month eating a diet of 80 percent UPF, typical for many children and adults in the United States. While his body became the subject of scientific scrutiny, he spoke to the world’s leading experts from academia, agriculture, and―most important―the food industry itself. But more than teaching him about the experience of the food, the diet switched off Chris’s own addiction to UPF.

In a fast-paced and eye-opening narrative he explores the origins, science, and economics of UPF to reveal its catastrophic impact on our bodies and the planet. And he proposes real solutions for doctors, for policy makers, and for all of us who have to eat. A book that won’t only upend the way you shop and eat, Ultra-Processed People will open your eyes to the need for action on a global scale.

 

The North Road – Rob Cowen

At the heart of this book is a highway. The A1; The Great North Road. A 400-mile multiplicity of ancient trackway, Roman road, pilgrim path, coach route and motorway that has run like a backbone through Britain for the last 2,000 years.

In this genre-defying and profoundly personal book, Cowen follows this ghost road from beginning to end on a journey through history, place, people and time. Weaving his own histories and memories with the layered landscapes he moves through, this is the story of an age, of coming to terms with time past and time passing, and the roads that lead us to where we find ourselves.

Written in kaleidoscopic prose, The North Road is an unforgettable exploration of Britain’s great highway.

 

In Search of the Perfect Peach: Why Flavour Holds the Answer to Fixing Our Food System – Franco Fubini

What makes a great-tasting tomato? Why do scarred greengages taste better? Is ‘eating local’ everything it’s cracked up to be?

The first bite of a perfectly ripe peach can be truly transformative – a joyful experience that stays with you forever. But, as Franco Fubini came to realise, flavour is a signifier of so much more than nostalgia. It has the power to change the way we grow, shop and eat – transforming the planet as well our palates.

From the citrus groves of Sicily to a knock-out taco in Mexico City, this is the story of how Franco’s pursuit of flavour led him on a journey to understand how this incredibly simple desire can lead to radical change. Having spent over two decades as the founder of Natoora, sourcing amazing flavour for some of the best kitchens and most demanding chefs in the world, Franco brings together his intimate experience of the supply chain in a book that shines a light on how flavour has dropped off our plates and how we can get it back.

Through flavour, a better future of food suddenly becomes one in which we are not only closer to nature and to the people who grow our food, but where we are also actively building seasonal diversity back into our diets, putting nutritious food on our plates and restoring the health of our soils.

Franco Fubini offers us a deeply optimistic vision of how we, as consumers, can follow flavour to fix the food system and bring joy to our every meal.

 

Lone Wolf: Walking The Faultlines Of Europe – Adam Weymouth

In 2011, a lone male wolf nicknamed Slavc set out from Slovenia, and, tracked by a GPS collar, travelled for 2000km, before arriving four months later in Lessinia, an Italian plateau north of Verona. Finding the only female wolf for hundreds of miles around, they started a lineage now some fifty of which live on the plateau to this day, the first wolves in the Italian Alps for 150 years.

In Lessinia, Adam Weymouth follows the path of Slavc, tracing the changes facing these wild corners of Europe, where the call to rewild meets the urge to preserve culture, where nationalism and progress pull away, and where the people are travelling, too.

The result is a multifaceted account of a country caught in a moment of kaleidoscopic change, from an award-winning writer with a uniquely perceptive eye for detail.

 

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

An enchanting and illuminating exploration of the history of craftsmanship and the world’s oldest craft traditions, documenting the rapid disappearances of time-honored practices and shedding light on artisanal work in the face of massive technological industrialization by renowned Cambridge art historian Dr. James Fox.

During an age of mass manufacturing, fast fashion, synthetic materials and the unsustainable practice of companies valuing quantity over quality, a return to tradition, connection, and simplicity is essential.

Art historian and award-winning broadcaster Dr. James Fox explores the rapidly fading crafts and artisanal traditions of the world—such as coopering, basket-weaving, wheelwrighting, metalwork, and blacksmithing—that have shaped so much of our history through their alchemy of the hand-made human touch and generational wisdom.

Fox explains the history of craftsmanship in Britain, taking readers across the lands and communities that originated there, teaching them about the practices, traditions, and people at their heart. From coopers to thatchers, basket makers to bellfounders and dry wall builders, Fox tours Britain, once the workshop of the world, in search of its lost and disappearing craft traditions and the artisans trying to keep them alive including, a rush weaver who has managed to rebuild a sustainable business with her baskets and other wares, a bell foundry that uses the same practices it used in the nineteenth century, and dry wallers, building walls one piece of stone at a time that could last two centuries.

Part travelogue and part historical record, Craftland is a profoundly intimate meditation on our human cultural heritage, exploring what we lose as these traditions fade from view in the race of progress, and what we stand to gain if we bring them back.

 

And my book of the year is:

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

 

The inspirational story of a bird lover who became a nature-warrior in a David v Goliath battle to save swifts from extinction.

Nature Needs You tells the compelling story of how Hannah, without campaigning experience, funding or contacts, set out to save swifts from extinction in the UK. Her mission is to change the law and make ‘swift bricks’ mandatory so that the birds who nest in our walls will have a future in Britain. Nature Needs You delves into the highs and lows of trying to win hearts and minds, grab the news agenda with her naked Feather Speech, win Caroline Lucas and Lord Zac Goldsmith’s support, navigate meetings with Secretaries of State and debates in the Houses of Parliament, survive the trolling and midnight self-doubt and raise a petition with the requisite 100,000 signatures for a Parliamentary debate. At stake, with a decline in numbers of over 60% since 1995, are the birds who have become our symbol of summer, the swifts screaming in the skies above us.

Steeped in love for the wild, by a talented writer, Nature Needs You is a clarion call to save the nature on our doorsteps and prove that passion can be a superpower in bringing change to nature-depleted Britain. Raw, funny, self-deprecating and unstoppable in turn, this is nature writing with the pace of a thriller. Hannah is now knocking at the door of the new Labour Secretary of State for Housing, in the hope that, where Rishi Sunak and Michael Gove failed, Angela Rayner and Matthew Pennycook will save our swifts.

 

So there you have it. Have you read any of these? Let me know in the comments below.

 

 

 

I finished 150 books in 2024, same as  2023. I did reach my Good Reads Target again for the 13th year.  Here are my stats for the last year’s reading. He is a word cloud from all the titles:

My total pages read was  44087 (1006  more pages than last year! (or the same length as Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell), and my monthly average of books was 12.5. This broke down into these monthly totals:

January – 15

February – 12

March – 14

April – 13

May – 14

June – 12

July – 14

August – 14

September – 12

October – 11

November – 11

December – 8

 

Author Splits

Male – 96

Female – 54

Ethnic Minority – 14 (My target was 12)

 

Sources

Review – 32

Library – 55

Own – 59

Borrowed – 4

 

Genre

Non-Fiction – 111

Fiction – 27

Poetry – 12

 

 

Random Stats

Longest Book: Evolution – Stephen Baxter – 761 pages

Shortest Book: The Man Who Planted Trees – Jean Giono – 46 pages

The total cost of the books I read was £2355.72 (Helped by one £47 and one £50 book)

 

Most Read Author

My most read author was Ana Sampson; I read three the books she had edited. Autors that appeared more than once were Henry Eliot, Oliver Burkeman, Rupi Kaur and Tom Chesshyre

 

Stars Awarded

5 Stars – 12

4.5 Stars – 13

4 Stars – 49

3.5 Stars – 30

3 Stars – 32

2.5 Stars – 11

2 Stars – 3

1.5 Stars – 0

1 Star – 0

 

 

Storygraph Wrap Up

I am Storygraph now, and here is my 2025 Wrap up

 

Genres

I use a spreadsheet to keep track of the types and genres of books that I read. These are detailed below:

Travel – 19

Natural History – 15

Fiction – 13

Science Fiction – 12

Poetry – 12

Photography – 7

Memoir – 6

Social History – 6

Landscape – 5

Architecture – 5

Environmental – 4

Art – 4

Humour – 3

Prehistory – 3

Mental Health – 3

Miscellaneous – 3

Gardening – 3

Weather – 2

Politics – 2

Geology – 2

Fantasy – 2

Food & Drink – 2

Britain – 2

Craft – 2

Technology – 2

True Crime – 2

Spying – 1

Behavioural Economics – 1

Food – 1

History – 1

Navigation – 1

Books – 1

Future – 1

Economics – 1

Maps – 1

 

Publishers

These are the number of books read by each publisher. Amazingly I read books from 84 different publishers, only four less than last year. Six of the top ten were independent publishers compared to five in 2024 so that is a slight improvement

Faber & Faber – 7

Bloomsbury – 6

Penguin – 6

Simon & Schuster – 6

Canongate – 4

Eland – 4

Picador – 4

Batsford – 3

British Library Publishing – 3

Elliott & Thompson – 3

Granta – 3

Head of Zeus – 3

Michael O’Mara Books – 3

Oneworld – 3

Profile – 3

Summersdale – 3

W&N – 3

4th Estate – 2

Andrew McMeel Publishing – 2

Bantam Press – 2

Century – 2

Chelsea Green – 2

English Heritage – 2

Harper Collins – 2

Harvill Secker – 2

Hutchinson Heinemann – 2

Little Toller – 2

Lonely Planet – 2

Orbit – 2

Profile Books – 2

Unbound – 2

Vintage – 2

William Collins – 2

Abacus – 1

Allen Lane – 1

Basic Books – 1

BBC Books – 1

Bonnier Books – 1

Books by Boxer – 1

Calon Books – 1

Carcanet – 1

Cassell – 1

Chroma Editions – 1

Cornerstone – 1

Didier Millet – 1

Ebury Press – 1

Fitzcarraldo Editions – 1

Frances Lincoln – 1

Gecko Press – 1

Gollancz – 1

Green Books – 1

Harper Voyager – 1

Headline – 1

Ian Henry Publications – 1

John Murray – 1

Jonathan Cape – 1

Jonglez Publishing – 1

Kyle Books – 1

Little, Brown – 1

Macmillan – 1

Manilla Press – 1

Melville House – 1

Mondadori – 1

Monoray – 1

Pan – 1

Portfolio – 1

Rider – 1

Robinson – 1

Salt – 1

Saraband – 1

Seren Press – 1

Sphere – 1

Taschen – 1

Tate – 1

Tauris Parke – 1

teNeues – 1

Thames & Hudson – 1

The Bodley Head – 1

The Bridge Street Press – 1

Trapeze – 1

Viking – 1

Virago – 1

Whittles Publishing – 1

Witness Books – 1

Of all the 150 books that I have read in 2025, these are the ones that had covers that I liked the most. They are in no particular order and my favourite is at the bottom.

 

I like doing these as it gives me time to reflect on what I have and (mostly) haven’t achieved over the past twelve months. I can see what is working and what isn’t. It is often why certain things stay the same if you look back at previous years’ intentions.

I call them intentions as they are not hard and fast rules to stick by, but rather a framework of reading and enjoying it, rather than obsessively trying to reach often unachievable targets. I have reduced the number of books I read last year and will be sticking to the same target of 150. I had regularly read at least 190 a year from 2013 to 2023, and it had become a bit of a bind. Whereas reading 150 is much more manageable. And less stressful.

My rule of thumb is: Read whatever takes your interest, don’t be told what to read. If you have been recommended something and don’t like it, then stop. Make your own reading journey. Not everyone can like the same book, and as strange as it sounds, everyone reads a slightly different book!

Blogging

As I have said many times in the past, I have always tended to think of myself as a reader who blogs rather than strictly a book blogger. I tend to have pretty niche reading interests, which may reflect my much lower following, too. I have never been that fashionable, so I will keep doing what I am doing.

Review Books

I am forever grateful for every single review copy that I receive. I am making a concerted plan to work through all of the review books that I have been sent and much reducing the number that I request still further. That said, I would be delighted to receive some of the books that were on my anticipated list (here). However, it is not a deal breaker, books that I really want to read I can get from the library or buy if necessary. I am hoping to read and review at least 60 books next year from my spreadsheet!

My Own Books

I am still adding in detail to the catalogue of books that I own and this will carry on in the coming year. We had put our house on the market back in September with the intention of moving to a slightly smaller property, which would be more accessible for my daughter. It didn’t happen for a variety of reasons, so I will try again next year. This meant that I had to get rid of a lot of books, and this will continue as, if I am honest, it had got slightly out of hand… The intention is to get nearer to 2000 books, but we’ll see!

I started in 2024, detailing the number of books that came into the house and the number that left. The intention was that the outgoing number should be higher than the incoming. Mostly this worked, and I will be continuing this habit in 2026. For 2025 the numbers were this:

Total In:

Total Out:

Library Books

I have reduced the number of library books that I have out on both cards and have got the number down to 30 now. I am intending on lowering this to around 10 per card in 2026. I am not going to stop using the library, they are essential for communities and having a space that anyone can use without having to pay any money, and by continuing to use them they stay open. Oh, and the author gets paid a little every time you borrow a book of theirs. A win-win as far as I am concerned.

 

Reading Plans

I am fairly happy with the mix of books that I am reading at the moment. I feel that I got the balance right between travel writing and natural history books last year, but as these make up the bulk of my collection, I want to read more of them. I also have some other intentions detailed below, that, whilst not set in stone, I would like to achieve.

Female Authors

I am going to keep my target of reading women authors at 40% for 2026.

Ethnic Minority Authors

I had my target set to 12 last year, and I am going to set the same again for 2026. Slowly more ethnic minority authors are being commissioned in the genres that I like reading, but it is sadly still too few.

Science Fiction & Fantasy

Aiming to read twelve books over the course of the year. Science fiction is good for expanding the mind and as Terry Pratchett says: Fantasy is an exercise bicycle for the mind. It might not take you anywhere, but it tones up the muscles that can.

 

Fiction

I don’t read or buy a huge amount of fiction, but I do have a lot around that I have acquired or been sent. I have a pile of the Tales of The Weird Fiction to read so those will count for this.

 

Poetry

I am aiming to read one poetry book a month this year again.

 

Literary Awards

Last year I didn’t so well reading some of the shortlisted books from my favourite prizes, so would like to get back to that if I can. A reminder of some of my favourite prizes:

Stanford

Wainwright

Royal Society

Baillie Gifford

Arthur C Clarke

I would like to read some of the winners from other prizes too, including:

The Republic Of Consciousness Prize

Rathbones Folio Prize

Women’s Prize for Fiction

Jhalak Prize

The Portico Prize

 

Challenges

I have concluded that challenges are great but they can distract me from reading the backlog that I have. So I only take part is these two at the moment. One of my own and one hosted by other bloggers.

The World From My Armchair Challenge

My ongoing challenge is to read a travel book set in, or that passes through every country, sea and ocean in the world. (See post here).
I had twelve books lined up to read and read a grand total of three. Three!! I just got carried away reading other things. There will be an update on a blog post sometime in the first part of the year (promised it last year and didn’t do it – sorry). I have even worked out how to do maps in Excel to add a graphic element to this.

20 Books of Summer

This used to be run by Cathy of 746 books, but she has passed the responsibility on to Annabel at AnnaBookBel ( ) and Emma at Words and Peace.  I normally sign up to read 20 books and will do so again this summer. I didn’t manage to read all the 20 books in 2025. Ho Huum. I am going to stick to the 20 Books of Summer as I use that to clear a particular genre. I read fiction in 2024 and science fiction in 2025. Haven’t thought about the plan for 2026 yet.

 

Other Bookish Stuff

Cataloguing Books

I am still cataloguing books and have a small number to locate that are in the odd pile that I haven’t got too. The total number of books peaked at about 2700 and am now around 2400. Still lots more to pass on or sell, and this could take some time…

Spreadsheets

I wrote about this back in 2023 here. I drafted a post and even typed it up and never published it! Partly because life got in the way a bit, but also because I had some further ideas that I wanted to develop and am still doing that little by little. My main master sheet works so much better than before!

Bookshelves

I wrote a blog post showing all my shelves here. I had intended on redoing this, then we had the idea to move, and I thought that would be a good time to redo it. Both things never happened…

Planning Matrix

This got developed a little bit further, and I have some other ideas that I want to work on to see if that will improve what I want I have in mind, but it is nudging towards a database rather than a spreadsheet. Not sure I have the time to do that at the moment though!

Literary Festivals

I am intending on going to the Sherborne Travel Writing Festival and the Shaftesbury Reading The Land festival this year. And maybe some others, as I now don’t have holiday restrictions in my current job. Maybe I’ll see you there?

What aims or intentions do you have for next year? Let me know in the comments below or post a link to your post on your blog.

December was a slower month for reading, which works as I had a lot of other things on.  I ended up finishing eight books and then made a start on some chunky books to finish in January. I finished the daily read books too, I don’t mind reading these, and I am not intending to read any books like these for 2026. I have got into the habit of reading a week’s worth of entries on a Sunday, and that works fine for me.

Ended up getting a small pile of review books too ( thanks, Helen) that I will slot into the reading plan over the next couple of months. Anyway, here they all are:

Books Read

We Are All Adrift – David Banning & Iain Sharpe – 4 – Stars

The Accidental Garden: Gardens, Wilderness And The Space In Between – Richard Mabey – 4 – Stars

Handbook of Mammals of Madagascar Hardcover – Nick Garbutt  – 4 – Stars

A Tree A Day – Amy-Jane Beer – 4 – Stars

An Insect a Day: Bees, Bugs, And Pollinators For Every Day Of The Year – Dominic Couzens & Gail Ashton – 4 – Stars

Poetry on the Buses – Valerie Belsey & Candy Neubert (Ed) – 3 – Stars

Cage of Souls – Adrian Tchaikovsky  – 4.5 – Stars

 

Book(s) Of The Month

Nature Needs You: The Fight To Save Our Swifts – Hannah Bourne- Taylor – 5 – Stars

 

 

Top Genres

Travel – 19

Fiction – 13

Natural History – 13

Science Fiction – 12

Poetry – 12

 

Top Publishers

Faber & Faber – 7

Bloomsbury – 6

Penguin – 6

Simon & Schuster – 6

Picador – 4

 

Review Copies Received

Tea and Grit: A Bicycle Journey along the Silk Road – Helen Watson

Bird of Ill Omen: The Gothic Tales of Catherine Crowe – Catherine Crowe & Ruth Heholt (Ed)

Possessed: A Lost Novel of the Occult – Rosalie Synton & Edward Synton

Trees Ancient and Modern: Woodland Cultures and Conservation – Charles Watkins

The Sound Atlas: A Guide to Strange Sounds across Landscapes and Imagination – Michaela Vieser And Isaac Yuen

The Medieval Scriptorium: Making Books in the Middle Ages – Sara J. Charles

Readers for Life: How Reading and Listening in Childhood Shapes Us – Sander L. Gilman and Heta Pyrhönen (Ed)

 

Library Books Checked Out

Three Rivers: The Extraordinary Waterways That Made Europe – Robert Winder

Make Time: How To Focus On What Matters Every Day – Jake Knapp, & John Zeratsky

The Starling: A Biography – Stephen Moss

Muslim Europe: A Journey in Search of a Fourteen Hundred Year History – Tharik Hussain

 

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: 25 I kept these below:

Heart of the Country – James Ravilious & Robin Ravilious

False Calm – Maria Sonia Cristoff

Wild Air: In Search Of Birdsong – James Macdonald Lockhart

Where Are the Fellows Who Cut the Hay?: How Traditions From the Past Can Shape Our Future – Robert Ashton

Ley Lines of Wessex – Roger Crisp

Tea and Grit: A Bicycle Journey along the Silk Road – Helen Watson

Bird of Ill Omen: The Gothic Tales of Catherine Crowe – Catherine Crowe & Ruth Heholt (Ed)

Possessed: A Lost Novel of the Occult – Rosalie Synton & Edward Synton

Voices Of The Old Sea – Norman Lewis

Shaking Hands With Death – Terry Pratchett

Books out: 24 (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.

 

Was I correct in thinking that 2025 passed after about 8 months? Or is it that I am getting much older and therefore time speeds up? Answers to the usual address!

I had intended to start off with a shorter monthly TBR, but I haven’t updated my template yet (It is still on the to-do list…) so this month’s is equally long as ever. And here they all are:

 

Finishing off from 2025

The Cruel Stars – John Birmingham

The Old Drift – Namwali Serpell

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

The Owl Service – Alan Garner

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

 

Stanfords Shortlist

False Calm – Maria Sonia Cristoff

 

Review

Warrior: The Biography of a Man with No Name – Edoardo Albert with Paul Gething

The Sound Atlas: A Guide to Strange Sounds across Landscapes and Imagination – Michaela Vieser And Isaac Yuen

Tea and Grit: A Bicycle Journey along the Silk Road – Helen Watson

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

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

 

Books I’m Clearing

Russians Among Us – Gordon Corera

Philip K. Dick: In His Own Words – Philip K. Dick & Gregg Rickman

Chris Hoy: The Autobiography – Chris Hoy

On the Road Bike: The Search for a Nation’s Cycling Soul – Ned Boulting

 

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

 

Library Books

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

Sticky: The Secret Science of Surfaces – Laurie Winkless

The Life-Changing Magic of Numbers – Bobby Seagull

Here Comes the Fun: A Year of Making Merry – Ben Aiken

 

Poetry

Meridian – Nancy Gaffield

 

Bookclub

The Ghosts of Merry Hall – Heather Davey

 

#20BooksOfSummer (Still going…)

Sunfall – Jim Al-Khalili

Revenger – Alastair Reynolds

Shadow Captain – Alastair Reynolds

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.

 

 

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