Book review – Eva Glyn – “The Croatian Island Library”

January 19, 2026

Liz Dexter Book reviews , 1 Comment

When I signed up to do a cover reveal post for this book, after loving my first read by this author, “The Santorini Writing Retreat“, I said to Rachel of Rachel’s Random Resources, who has run all these events, that I hoped to bag a space on the eventual book tour. So I was very pleased to have the opportunity to read this new book, and I wasn’t disappointed.

Eva Glyn – “The Croatian Island Library”

(1 November 2025, Rachel’s Random Resources / NetGalley)

Ana has a new venture for her catamaran which she hopes will save her from the terrible customers of the boating holidays she’s been offering and the looming pressure of contributing her beloved boat to her parents’ oyster-harvesting business: she will be hosting a roving library which will take books around the children of the islands off Croatia. Joining her for the summer are librarian Lloyd, a widower with something slightly murky in his past, and troubled, almost-silent Natali, a brilliant young mechanic and cook with a precarious life off-boat thanks to her chaotic mother and a beloved dog, Obi. As well as these main characters we meet Ana’s best friend and ex-boyfriend, threatening to call in an arrangement they made years ago, and Baka, an elderly woman on one of the islands who takes a liking to Natali and Obi.

Will Ana learn to manage her crew? Will the people of the islands embrace the travelling library and borrow enough books to prove the library’s value? Will Lloyd face his troubled history with someone on one of the islands? Will Baka’s son ever arrive off the ferry?

Although there is some blooming romance and decisions on love and life to be made by the protagonists, this book, like the previous one by this author, is mainly about the bonds and friendships forged between them. The islands also star, and the sense of place is palpable: I have been to different Croatian islands but these ones really came to life for me. The structure of the book meant we circulated around the islands, so there was always something new happening and lots of detail about how the library developed. The war in the former Yugoslavia does feature in the book in a very natural way, as Lloyd reflects on his time there just as war broke out, but there’s not too much detail to make it upsetting to read. Oh, and I’m not breaking a rule to say that Obi remains fine throughout.

A lovely story about learning to trust and love again, about the love of books, and about following what you need to do in life. I thoroughly enjoyed it and can’t wait to read some of Eva Glyn’s back-list next.

Thank you to One More Chapter and Rachel’s Random Resources for making a copy of this book available to me via NetGalley. “The Croatian Island Library” was published on 16 January 2026, and the rest of the book tour stops can be found here:

You can find Eva Glyn on social media here:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/EvaGlynAuthor

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/evaglynauthor/

Bookbub: https://www.bookbub.com/authors/eva-glyn

Note: there is a competition to win a paperback copy of this lovely book, for readers in the UK and Ireland only. Click on the link to enter!

*Terms and Conditions –UK & Ireland entries welcome.  Please enter using the “Competition” link above. The winner will be selected at random via Gleam from all valid entries and will be notified by Twitter and/or email. If no response is received within 7 days then Rachel’s Random Resources reserves the right to select an alternative winner. Open to all entrants aged 18 or over.  Any personal data given as part of the competition entry is used for this purpose only and will not be shared with third parties, with the exception of the winners’ information. This will passed to the giveaway organiser and used only for fulfilment of the prize, after which time Rachel’s Random Resources will delete the data. I am not responsible for despatch or delivery of the prize.

Book review – Craig Taylor – “Londoners”

January 16, 2026

Liz Dexter Book reviews, Emma and Liz reads , 23 Comments

We’ve only been reading it since October, and it’s a longish book, but here’s another Emma and Liz Reads book read! (If you want to see them all, click here.) The excellent Paul from HalfMan HalfBook sent me this one after I’d been interested in his review (which I can’t find now) and I am pleased to say I have read and reviewed or otherwise dealt with all eight of the print books that came in in March 2025!

Craig Taylor – “Londoners: The Days and Nights of London Now – As Told by Those Who Love it, Hate it, Live it, Left it and Long for it”

(17 March 2025, from Paul)

It’s funny, because when I got the call from London Underground I was at a restaurant with a guy I was seeing at the time and she said, “God, I’ll hear you everywhere”. He wasn’t saying it happily. We split up after that. He has since told me he is haunted. It is scary: you’re having a bad day and you get on the Tube and there’s the voice. Poor guy. (p. 49: Emma Clarke, Voice of the London Underground)

A special book, where Taylor interviews all sorts of people who (in the main) live in London, putting down their own words with his own descriptive interpolations here and there. Grouped into shortish sections (we usually covered two per Reading session) – Arriving, Getting Around, Going Out, Leaving – we find pieces that are vaguely connected, often with echoes or complete contrasts. Only two people crop up more than once: one I won’t spoil, the other is a rather odd chap Emma noticed we’d had before, who appears three times.

We’d been worried that this book would be dated when we realised it was published in 2011; however, apart from a few things which hadn’t happened yet around building train and tube lines and a rather chilling prediction of pandemic arrangements by a crematorium worker late on in the book, it worked just fine for the two of us, Emma still living in London, me having lived there for eight years or so twenty years ago.

The pieces are funny, melancholic, thoughtful, shallow, shocking, sometimes all at once. Some were incomprehensible to us – we could not work out what the market trader guy was on about but that’s the joy of Reading Together, that we could compare notes and confusions at the time. Ones we loved – and there were many – included the arboriculturalist and the guy who runs a restaurant and makes sure his staff all sit down and have a proper meal. A few of them had returned home or moved out of the city somewhere else and that made an interesting contrast. It was certainly always interesting.

Emma really enjoyed this one, too – we seemed to like and dislike the same characters. She knew quite a few of the bits of London I didn’t, although I wasn’t bad on any South London or Covent Garden bits as that’s where I lived when I lived there.

Just to recap for anyone new to the blog: my best friend and I sit down in our respective homes in London and Birmingham at the same time (usually on a Thursday after dinner) and read the same bit of the same book, while chatting about it on Messenger. We started in lockdown and decided to carry on. We always make sure we have several to go on our special TBR piles, which you can see on my State of the TBR posts, and are always adding more to the possibles list!

Our next book is Guy Shrubsole’s “The Lost Rainforests of Britain”, which is one of the two oldest on our now-substantial Pile.

Book review – Manish Chauhan – “Belgrave Road”

January 13, 2026

Liz Dexter Book reviews, Social justice - gender sex sexuality, social justice - race , 23 Comments

ebook cover for Belgrave Road

Wave a book at me about two newcomers to the UK making friends and falling in love and I’ll get that NetGalley request in. With its intriguing cover, this book was all I hoped and more and I could not put it down. It would be good to get this into the hands of people who rail against those who come here on small boats or who need to improve their English language skills.

Manish Chauhan – “Belgrave Road”

(16 October 2025, NetGalley)

Through their conversations, he discovered the Gujarati word for sambusa: samosa. The Gujarati word for tea – cha or chai – was similar to the Somali word: shaah. The word for shop, dukaan, was the same in both languages. In the space of a few syllables, the world began to contract around them.

We meet Mira first, flying into the UK, aged 24, married for six months already but seeing her husband for the first time in all those months, and her parents-in-law for only the third time. Everything she owns is in one small suitcase: the other two larger cases are full of gifts from her parents to her in-laws. Her husband Rajiv is as she remembered, but as they progress through a year of marriage, she realises she doesn’t know him well at all, and there’s one thing about him that would have meant she wouldn’t have married him in the first place (she does tell him this). Mira grows in confidence as she learns English with the brilliant Valerie – “I’m not here to turn you into British people. I’m here to teach you English, so that you can live well in this country. But I want you to remember who you are, where you’ve come from. That’s important.” – and gets a job in the local sweet shop, and she also meets Tahliil.

Tahliil has come to Leicester with his sister to reunite with their mum, who travelled over from their home in Somalia a lot earlier – and legally. He’s haunted by the fact that he wasn’t able to protect his sister when something awful happened to her, and is understanding when she’s paralysed at home, unable to look for a job. It’s when he gets his second job, working at a cash and carry operated by an Indian boss, that he sees Mira for the first time.

At first they make friends, talking about Tahliil’s photography, about India and Somalia, then they fall in love. But Mira must stay married for five years for her visa, and Tahliil and his sister have just got into the asylum-seeking system (and obviously shouldn’t be working, but how can he support the rest of his family?).

Although in less competent hands this could become stereotyped and didactic, there are subtleties that make that not happen. Tahliil cares for an elderly man who has some dodgy views, but realises he has a kind heart; Mira’s mother-in-law is lovely and really appreciates her; Rajiv’s cousin Rupal’s girlfriend Chantelle is (just about) accepted by the family.

Of course you hope and hope that things will work out and Mira and Tahliil’s simple dreams for a home with a garden together will come true, but this book is realistic and you don’t really dare hope for that. The ending is I think just right.

Thank you to Faber and Faber for accepting my request to read this book in return for an honest review. “Belgrave Road” is published on 29 January 2026.

Book review – Various – “Stories for Lovers”

January 12, 2026

Liz Dexter Book reviews, Social justice - gender sex sexuality , 30 Comments

The lovely people at British Library Publishing have sent me the next volume in their British Library Women Writers series and it’s another of their excellent collections of short stories (I’ve previously enjoyed “Stories for Mothers and Daughters“, “Stories for Winter and Nights by the Fire“, “Stories for Summer and Days by the Pool” and “Stories for Christmas and the Festive Season” – all still available if you like a short story!

Various – “Stories for Lovers”

(11 December 2025, from the publisher)

In the Introduction to this super volume (with no duds, as usual with these collections), Lucy Evans clarifies that the stories are included in order of the protagonist’s age / life stage – so we have some young love, returned and not, then courtships and the start of marriages, settled longer-term couples and a bit of widow(er)hood at the end. It’s an interesting way to arrange things but does make sense. It also means we can start with a bang with a Margaret Atwood story (“Hair Jewellery” which I hadn’t encountered before).

We find well-known and less-well-known authors (again, as usual), with a fab run of E. M. Delafield – Richmal Crompton (giving a deliciously different idea of love altogether) – Elizabeth Taylor in the second half of the book, but also Malachi Whitaker (Marjorie Olive Whitaker) and Ling Shuhua (translated by Nicky Harman) who I don’t think I’d met before. Stories are funny or tragic or simply keenly observed, often with that wonderful twist in the tail that more traditional short story writers give you.

Favourites included “The Obstacle” by E. M. Delafield, in which a woman past her youth meets a very promising man on a train, but their connection is derailed by the obstacle of the title, and Virginia Woolf’s “The Legacy” which has an older man musing on the sudden death of his wife as he reads through the diaries he’s left with. Mary Lavin’s long “The Heart of Gold” is an excellent 30 pages spent in the life of a woman whose long-gone lover returns in much later life to claim her – but does she want to be claimed and replace another woman?

As I said above, not a dud among this excellent collection which would please any fan of the mid-to-late-20th-century short story.

Thank you so much to the British Library for sending me this book in return for an honest review. “Stories for Lovers” is published tomorrow, on 13 January, just in time to buy it for someone (or yourself) for Valentine’s Day! You can buy all the British Library Women Writers books (and more) at the British Library Shop (https://shop.bl.uk/ and this one here).

Two nonfiction reads – Dr Ryan Martin – “Emotion Hacks” and LaSara Firefox Allen – “Genderqueer Menopause”

January 10, 2026

Liz Dexter Book reviews, Social justice - gender sex sexuality , 6 Comments

Two books from NetGalley which aim to help people either generally or through a specific phase of their life.

Dr Ryan Martin – “Emotion Hacks: 50 Ways to Feel Better Fast”

(17 October 2025, NetGalley)

Dr Martin is apparently known as The Anger Professor – I hadn’t encountered him before but he has certainly been studying emotional responses for a good while. I’d sort of missed the “feel better fast” message in the subtitle and some reviewers have mentioned that it’s quite wordy and academic – certainly the hints in here can bring down an angry or anxious feeling quite quickly, but you need to know about them, think about them and practise them in advance to get the best benefit. Having said that, it was fine for me, as I appreciate knowing things are backed up by scientific / sociological studies, which is the reassurance Martin provided here.

Martin starts off with explaining what emotions are and the stages of stimulus, the effect of mood, interpretation, feeling and emotional expression, beginning with general “hacks” or processes to learn about around identifying patterns and logging moods. The section on “mood hacks” remind us of the need to eat well, sleep, manage stress, spend time in nature, etc. and these and many of the others, e.g. stopping to think about what you’re feeling, or doing breathing exercises, do require some thought and prior practice sessions.

Martin is clear that not all the hacks will be for everyone, and admits struggling with some things himself even though he’s actually written the book on it, and this self-deprecation and some well-placed moments of wry humour make it a book that’s approachable and, to my mind, easy to read, although better read in quiet contemplation than in the moment of anxiety or fired-up anger, perhaps. He’s also clear that not everyone has the luxury of time or good food, and also that the book isn’t intended for those people who have diagnoses of serious mental health conditions. I think everyone else, or even those who are struggling more, as long as reading this book wasn’t their only strategy, could benefit from one or more of these suggestions.

Thank you to Watkins Publishing for sending me a copy of this book in return for an honest review. “Emotion Hacks” was published on 6 January 2026.

LaSara Firefox Allen – “Genderqueer Menopause: Navigating Menopause for Trans, Gender-Nonconforming, Genderfluid, and Other Queer-Bodied Folx”

(28 August 2025, NetGalley)

This book has been written (by someone who is genderqueer and who is an accredited menopause coach) to help people who aren’t cis-gendered women but have lived with an ovarian system to navigate perimenopause, menopause and beyond. It should be borne in mind that anyone who has or has had an ovarian system in their body will experience menopause, whether that’s early because of gender-confirming surgery or because early menopause just happens to some people, or within the average age range in your fifties.

The book takes account of the fact that genderqueer, trans, genderfluid, nonbinary and other people are often discriminated against in healthcare settings, particularly around gendered health experiences, and that this is increased with intersectionality if the person in question is a member of another minoritised group, too. The book’s also written for allies (that’s me!) and healthcare providers who want to provide a gender-affirming menopause service.

There’s lots of detail, and although the author does mention various non-mainstream spiritual practices, she’s quick to say that readers can skim those if they need to. She also provides content warnings at the beginning of every chapter so readers can be prepared to encounter things they may find difficult, and makes sure when she recommends other resources that she explains whether they are very binary-gender-orientated and thus not so useful.

The information is US-based but clear and useful in general terms to anyone facing menopause (e.g. stating clearly it’s not recommended to be on hormonal contraception as well as HRT (which the author refers to as MHT, Menopausal Hormone Therapy), which I’ve never seen stated clearly before). She doesn’t discuss HRT/MHT not being suitable for some people (e.g. those who have endometriosis (hello!) or have had certain hormone-related cancers) but she also can’t be everything to everyone and also states she’s not giving medical advice as such.

With its kind, inclusive language, quotes from real people who have taken a survey for her and appendix for health practitioners, this is likely to be a very good resource for the genderqueer community.

Thank you to North Atlantic Publishing for providing me with a copy of this book in return for an honest review. “Genderqueer Menopause” is published on 13 January 2026.

Two interesting actors’ memoirs – Alison Steadman – “Out of Character” and Kathy Burke – “A Mind of my Own”

January 8, 2026

Liz Dexter Book reviews, Get the hardbacks off the shelves, Read The Darn Hardback, Reading challenges, Social justice - class, Social justice - gender sex sexuality , , 19 Comments

They’re of different generations but they’re both fabulous actors and have produced excellent, readable memoirs. Both books also fall under my “Read the Darn Hardback” challenge, with Steadman’s paperback being out before I found the hardback in The Works and no information available on a paperback for Burke’s book. I bought Alison Steadman’s “Out of Character” at a huge discount and it was part of a bumper crop of 23 books acquired in May 2025 – out of those, I have now read and reviewed three and passed two along (one after using it to beef up a review I was writing). Kathy Burke’s “A Mind of My Own” only arrived in November 2025 and I’ve now read and reviewed two out of the nine acquired that month.

Alison Steadman – “Out of Character”

(09 May 2025, The Works)

Acknowledged as being written with Fiona Lindsay on the title page, this book has a great structure, starting with an initial musing on who the “real” Alison is before going into an early morning routine which is echoed by the return home at the end of the book. In the middle we get a fairly standard chronological narrative, taking us from her early years right through to the final Christmas special of Gavin & Stacey being commissioned.

Steadman is very erudite, interrogating her process of getting into the skin of an “other woman” who she’s playing – I didn’t realise how much she’d worked with Mike Leigh and she’s fascinating on the process of creating his characters and stories, but she’s also a keen birdwatcher and talks about that quite a bit, which is lovely. She’s also very open about worries and experiences in her work while remaining discreet about her private life, and is careful to thank people and credit them for help given (including her colleagues at the probation office she worked at before she went to drama school, who clubbed together to buy her textbooks).

Lots of photographs and really a lovely read.

Kathy Burke – “A Mind of My Own”

(26 November 2025, from Annabel)

Kathy Burke is another one who makes sure to thank those who have helped her and is careful about giving too many details of her private life. She also makes it clear that she didn’t work with a ghost writer (and she is a writer herself, after all), and finishes the book as she approaches the age of 40 rather than bringing it right up to date. While both women are working-class and grew up without much, Kathy’s story is much more traumatic, living with an alcoholic dad and raised by her older brothers and various kind neighbours after her mum died when she was 18 months old, with an option to go into a children’s home when one of her brothers leaves home and a sudden realisation at 16 that the people around her were also all poor. She doesn’t play it for sympathy in the slightest and is wry about how she did play on some things as a kid, but it’s all pretty grim and we really cheer for her when she finds acting and begins to succeed.

The chapters are mostly short and punchy, taking us through chronologically and deftly weaving people through it who come and go in her life as well as those who she befriends and keeps forever. She’s very honest about her learning over how to name people of global majority communities and with multiple heritages, taught by her sister-in-law, and you have to admire her for talking about stuff she could have left unsaid. I also love it when she says “I wasn’t interested in looking for further ways to not pay my fair share” when talking about her accountant and financial advisor. We leave Kathy having decided to abandon acting for directing for a while, only doing things that are her choice and on her terms: she appreciates she’s fortunate to be able to do this, and again, something I admire her for.

Another excellent read with a good selection of photographs!

Dean Street Press December 2025 Round-up Post

January 5, 2026

Liz Dexter DeanStreetDecember, Reading challenges , 25 Comments

It’s been our fourth year reading books republished by Dean Street Press, the indie publisher devoted to finding and republishing good fiction and non-fiction! Thank you to everyone who took part. I haven’t spotted any more reviews this year so far, so rounding things up now – if I haven’t recorded your review, please get in touch with a link and I’ll add it!

I set things up in this post with all the detail and then I created this Main Post where I recorded all the reviews that people submitted with links to their review.

What did we read?

As usual, I was incredibly pleased at the number of reviews that were submitted – thank you everyone! We …

  • Read books by 27 authors
  • Read 46 different titles
  • Wrote 49 reviews of those titles

Susan Scarlett was the most popular author, and a few books had double reviews. Twenty-one different reviewers took part, four more than last year, which is absolutely lovely! Robinwalter once again read most with ten and I came second with eight!.

We read seven more different authors and one fewer title and contributed five fewer reviews than last time.

Thank you to everyone who joined in, and a big thank you to Dean Street Press for republishing (or publishing for the first time) these lovely books, and Scott from Furrowed Middlebrow for finding all his imprints’ books, which certainly featured heavily in my selection!

Are we doing it again in 2026?

Well, I have three Furrowed Middlebrow titles in paperback received for my birthday in 2025 that I didn’t get round to, plus a few e-books still, so if there’s interest, yes!

Book thoughts – Iris Murdoch – “Under the Net”

January 3, 2026

Liz Dexter Book reviews, Iris Murdoch in my 50s , , 56 Comments

One hardback and three paperback copies of Iris Murdoch Under the Net on a flowery background

In advance of the next Iris Murdoch Society Conference but one (see below for info on my plans for the next one), and because I like to do this in every decade of my life, I’m reading all of Iris Murdoch’s novels in order, again. The last time I did this, in 2017-2019, I ran a big readalong project, and the time before, I read them with a group of friends: this time is more of a solo effort, just to allow myself to have a think about how I find them as I move into my 50s (and age past a lot of the main characters!). So I’m going to write more notes than recaps of the novels: if you want the deeper dive, please take a look at the Readalong post and comments for this one. My earlier review on here from 2008 is here.

I suppose it’s going to be a bit like doing grounded theory research, where you ruminate over stuff as you do it and come up with the theory from the thinking, rather than having a theory first then working to it. Or something. I’m thinking about some themes here and then also links to my life and way of being, as I increasingly realised last time how I had gained a lot of myself from these books. And I will see what other themes emerge.

While you’re reading this, and before I launch into my Thoughts, for the upcoming Iris Murdoch Society Conference in August 2026, I’m doing a bit of research on Iris Murdoch Professionals and their Iris Murdoch Reading – the questionnaire is here and if you haven’t filled it in already and work with / study / write obsessively about Murdoch, you are most welcome to join in.

Iris Murdoch – “Under the Net”

(19 Jan 1995)

The picaresque, France-obsessed novel about a wanderer who treads lightly upon the world, which I still think somehow magically acts as an overture to the rest of Murdoch’s work: the only main theme that’s not present is stones, but everything else is here. How? This is probably why people get into the set of novels as a set, an oeuvre, not just the individual ones.

Thoughts on themes

Painted ladies / ageing hags

I wonder if there’s something to look into in her portrayal of women. Do they neatly divide into painted ladies / ageing hags / women who aren’t described at all? Here, it’s Madge who creates herself according to the trend and powders and foundations herself, Anna is ageing, and Mrs Tinckham isn’t really described but just *is*.

Madge:

Her prettiness lies in her regular features and fine complexion, which she covers over with a peach-like mask of make-up until all is as smooth and inexpressive as alabaster. Her hair is permanently waved in whatever fashion is declared to be the most becoming. It is a dyed gold. Women think that beauty lies in approximation to a harmonious norm. The only reason why they fail to make themselves indistinguishably similar is that they lack the time and the money and the technique. (p. 10)

Anna:

She was plumper and had not defended herself against time. There was about her a sort of wrecked look which was infinitely touching. Her face, which I remembered as round and smooth as an apricot, was become just a little tense and drawn, and her neck now revealed her age. The great brown eyes, which once opened so blandly upon the world, seemed narrowed, and where Anna had used to draw a dark line upward at their corners the years had sketched in a little sheaf of wrinkles. Tresses of hair which had escaped from the complex coronet curled about her neck, and I could see streaks of grey. I looked upon the face that I had known so well and now that for the first time I saw its beauty as mortal I felt that I had never loved it so dearly. (p. 37)

Sudden revelations

The sun began to rise over my intellectual landscape and I saw at last, in an outburst of clarity, the real shape of that which had before so obscurely compelled me to what had seemed to be a senseless decision … (p. 183)

This made me think of Effingham stuck in the bog in “The Unicorn” – is there one of these moments in each book?

What’s changed in my reading this time?

I think I’m becoming less and less tolerant of IM’s male narrators. I’m sure I must have thought Jake was terribly glamorous when I first read this (probably in my teens). But now, well, he seems a bit like Charles Arrowby in “The Sea, The Sea”, casting ideas onto women without really knowing them. In plot details, I remembered there being more in the cold cure clinic and less in Paris. I was confused by Hugo Belfounder not being a watchmaker in the beginning, but I remembered the Mr Mars stuff and the hospital scenes very clearly.

What has stayed the same?

As above, I remembered the film set and Mr Mars stuff. I still absolutely love the precision with which IM lays out buildings and flats and describes the processes of things. The themes we picked out in the 2008 reading are still there underpinning everything (women’s hair, men with huge faces, masks, swimming/water, writers (failed), writing the great work that will explain everything, chasing a woman in white through a landscape) and fortunately I still love the writing, the plot, the characters, even though my preferences might have changed.

Links to my life and way of being

Not much in this one, apart from the film studios being located on the New Cross Road, near where I lived for a while.

OK, it might be these posts are only interesting to Iris Murdoch afficionados, I don’t know. If it’s disappointed you, go back to one of the earlier links and read a proper review. Back next month with the next one!

State of the TBR – January 2026

January 1, 2026

Liz Dexter Book confessions, Book reviews, DeanStreetDecember, Doorstoppers in December, Read The Darn Hardback, Reading challenges, State of the TBR, TBR challenge 2024 , , , , , 35 Comments

Given that we’ve had the first of the double Books Incoming months, I’m happy with my progress with my TBR shelves compared to last month. I took 10 print books off the main shelf in October. I didn’t take any of the oldest books off the shelf (mainly because it was Dean Street December month) and read NONE from the 2024 TBR project (8 to go now at my stretch goal finish so I STILL didn’t do it but I’ll keep recording to the bitter end!).

I had no NetGalley review books to read so those fall out of the equation. I took 10 books off the TBR, plus I moved two to the Liz and Emma Read Together pile as I’d bought copies for Emma! I read eight books for my own Dean Street December (if you’re still reading for this, you have until the end of Sunday 4 January to submit your reviews!), six out of the possible nine print books and two out of the possible five e-books, and finished three for Doorstoppers in December, one from my original list, one on Kindle and one by chance!

The Liz and Emma Read Together books are in a separate pile (middle shelf, to the left) because they don’t form part of the TBR project. The pile on the top right is review books and a loaned one that mustn’t get subsumed by the general TBR.

I completed 19 books in December (all but one reviewed!). I am part-way through two more plus my Reading with Emma book and the ongoing big one. I acquired 12 NetGalley books this month, and my NetGalley review percentage has dropped another percentage point to 94%, and four Kindle books.

Incomings

I acquired quite a lot of print books in December, thanks to review copies from lovely publishers, bookshop and poetry events and a sudden inspiration and, of course Christmas. I’ll share my Christmas lovelies in all their glory first:

On the left, my BookCrossing Not So Secret Santa gift from Julia included two bars of indulgent 80% cocoa chocolate and an electric candle lantern, as well as books by Tessa Hadley, Joanna Kavenna and Susan R. Barry. On the right, on Christmas Day itself I opened books from Persephone and by Patrick Barkham, Deb Chachra and Paul Wood, as well as a jigsaw of my favourite Eric Ravilous painting, a book-themed cushion and some book vouchers and a crocheted Christmas tree (which is on the mantelpiece and I forgot to photograph). Matthew and I give each other blocks of money in our accounts or on a spreadsheet, and I recently spent last birthday’s money on a new running watch. Hooray for wishlists and kind friends!

Here are all those books in full:

The publisher Summersdale had got in touch about one book and when I respectfully turned it down, asked me if I’d like anything else recent of theirs, so I asked for any by Tom Chesshyre, as I know other people who like his books, and they very kindly sent me three, his new one, “Slow Trains Around Britain” (which I will be reviewing for Shiny New Books), “Slow Trains to Istanbul” and “Lost in the Lakes”. We went to a poetry / songs set to tunes on early instruments show by Attila the Stockbroker and he had a new book out, “A Lifetime of Football Writing”. I’m not a big football fan but I would read anything he writes, plus he put it out with a Finnish publisher and in support of Tampere FC who have gone fan-owned like his own club did, and I have strong work connections with Finland, so … Then, another lovely review copy, the new British Library Women Writers volume and another of their excellent short story collections, “Stories for Lovers”.

One last The Heath Bookshop event of the year, and it was an excellent one-man-show by Marc Burrows showcasing his book, “Mistletoe and Vinyl” about UK Christmas Number Ones. Continuing the Christmas theme, our Bookcrossing Not So Secret Santa yielded three wish-list books, Tessa Hadley’s “The London Train” (I’m told she’s an heir to Iris Murdoch), Joanna Kavenna’s “Zed” (this seems sci-fi-y, but it was on my wishlist for a reason, I’m sure) and Susan R. Barry’s “Dear Oliver: An Unexpected Friendship with Oliver Sacks”. Then Ali kindly gave me “The Third Persephone Book of Short Stories” with so many stories in that I haven’t already read!

Emma came up with Patrick Barkham’s “The Butterfly Isles” about his search for all the British butterflies, Deb Chachra’s “How Infrastructure Works” which is about road and rail and telecoms, etc., and Paul Wood’s “London is a Forest” which describes long trails of wooded walks through the capital – all for Reading Together (see our Pile above, once we’ve balanced and made sure we have the same ones we’re going to have to pause on the buying for a year or so!). Finally, Ali saw on our friend Meg’s social media that she’d acquired Kate Mosse’s “Feminist History for Every Day of the Year” and as we’ve just done “Black History for Every Day of the Year” we succumbed and both bought a copy to read this year!

Moving on to ebooks, I won 12 NetGalley books in December and I acquired four more in the Kindle sale.

I saw an advert on Facebook for Sally Page’s “New Beginnings for Christmas” and found it was a sequel to her to “The Book of Beginnings” and a Christmas book, so I had to buy that for 99p and read it on Christmas Day. And there were music memoirs by Jarvis Cocker, “Good Pop, Bad Pop”, and Miki Berenyi from Lush, “Fingers Crossed” (she also featured in the Billy Childish biography) in the sale so it had to be done. Rebecca Romney’s “Jane Austen’s Bookshelf” I saw on Brona’s Books’ blog and then there it was in the sale, so that was acquired, too.

On to NetGalley and I have tried to be more intentional in my requesting, which probably translates to more nonfiction and less genre fiction. But I did request and win a lot. Kallie Emblidge’s “Two Left Feet” (published February) is a YA gay football novel which will maybe help combat the terrible homophobia in the football world. Ela Lee’s first novel “Jaded” was interesting so I jumped at “Minbak” (Mar), which covers three generations of South Korean women, partly in London. Ebony Reid’s “Trapped Life” (Apr) is published by Merky Books (Stormzy’s Penguin imprint) and is a nonfiction narrative of young Black men on a London estate.

I selected Caroline James’ “The Arctic Cruise” (Jan) from Rachel’s Random Resources’ offerings because I enjoyed her “The Cruise Club” and requested Caroline Flournoy’s “The Wilderness” (April), about four Black women over the course of a 20-year friendship, after seeing it recommended by my friend Thomas Le, who reads very diversely and interestingly. Cathy Kelly is an author I always pick up, so I leapt at her “The Island Retreat” (Feb).

“Attensity” by The Friends of Attention (Jan) is about the need to form a movement of radical attention that will combat the lack of attention promoted by tech companies, etc. Margaret Drabble has a collection of “essays, stories and memoir”, “The Great Good Places” out in April and in May for light reading I will have Katie Holt’s bookshop romance, “The Last Page”.

The publisher kindly offered me Christie Barlow’s “No. 17 Curiosity Lane” (Feb), the fifth in her Puffin Island series, which of course I said yes to (and may well read this month as I can’t resist) and then I have two more nonfiction titles. “Super Nintendo” by Keza McDonald (Feb) is a history of the gaming firm (and while I don’t play many games, even I know several of their characters) and Zakia Sewell looks at the alternative spirit of Britain still found today in “Finding Albion” (Mar).

Outgoings

I took 14 print books to our local Oxfam Books this month.

So that’s 19 books read and 30 books in (but 1 of those already read, so really 29!) for December, and 14 print books in and 14 out.

Currently reading

I’m currently reading my first ebook for Rachel’s Random Resources for this month, Eva Glynn’s “The Croatian Island Library”, and Emma and I are rattling through Craig Taylor’s “Londoners” which we’re absolutely loving. I have a mini-challenge on the go, “Read the Darn Hardbacks”, which involves me making sure I read hardback books before they come out in paperback: as I have none in that situation this month, I am picking off the ones that have already come out (most of the books acquired second-hand or with no paperback) so Alison Steadman’s memoir, “Out of Character” is now on my bedside table. And I’m continuing with Henry Eliot’s “The Penguin Modern Classics Book” which I WILL read.

Coming up

My print TBR includes the three most pressing review books, “Davina Quinlivan’s “Possessions”, the newest Tom Chesshyre, “Slow Trains Around Britain” and the BL “Stories for Lovers”.

Then my Read the Darn Hardbacks continue with Richard Negus’ “Words from the Hedge” (Unbound, no PB), Dean Atta’s “Person Unlimited” (bought in the Bookshop sale because the paperback had just come out) and Susan R. Barry’s “Dear Oliver” (backlist book bought from my wishlist). I also plan to read my next Iris Murdoch, “The Flight from the Enchanter”. If I get all of these read I will do another Chesshyre and something from the start of my TBR.

Not too many NetGalley books although I might start February’s if I belt through these:

So, Dr Ryan Martin’s “Emotion Hacks” might help me to feel better fast, “Genderqueer Menopause” by Lasara Firefox Allen will help me to be a better ally to Queer people of my age, “The Arctic Cruise” and “The Croatian Island Library” (already started but including it made the image neater) are both for Rachel’s Random Resources, “Attensity” we’ve discussed above and Manish Chauhan’s “Belgrave Road” has an intriguing plot of two people from different countries and cultures being thrown together in the UK and falling in love.

With the ones I’m currently reading, I have four books to finish and one to continue, and thirteen other books to read, which is doable, I feel.

How was your November reading? What are you reading this month? Are you doing any book challenges for the month – Dean Street December or Doorstoppers in December?

Book stats and best books of 2025

December 31, 2025

Liz Dexter Book reviews, Reading challenges , 51 Comments

Lots of people have already posted their books of the year but I like to wait to make sure I don’t read an amazing book in the last week of the year, and to make sure my stats are correct. I took part in Readindies, Kaggsy and Simon’s two Year Weeks, 20 Books of Summer, Nonfiction November (which I helped to run), Women in Translation Month, Novellas in November, Dean Street December (which I ran) and Doorstoppers in December. I failed in my TBR 2024 challenge again but I don’t have many books to go now!

Reading stats for 2025

I kept a spreadsheet recording various aspects of my reading again this year, and here are the same details from last year, with more and more archive material! Now, I want to say here that I realise I read a ridiculous number of books this year. I have been searching my heart (life) to work out why and I can say that it must be down to a) I read nine Moomins novels and seven Three Investigators, all short, b) Matthew was away for a lot of weekends earlier in the year sorting out his parents’ house for sale (they are still very much with us, just living in a care home), c) I had an Achilles injury and then Covid which cut down significantly on my running and gym visits, so I had more time. I don’t ever read with quantity as an aim, but just like everyone else, for fun, companionship, escape and learning.

In 2025, I read 243 books (198 in 2024, 187 in 2023, 187 in 2022, 185 in 2021, 159 in 2020) books, of which 134 (99, 103, 109, 86, 83) were fiction and 108 (99, 84, 78, 99, 76) non-fiction with one a mixture. 155 (110, 125, 121, 116, 94) were by women, 76 (76!, 48, 54, 62, 56) by men, n2 (0, 3, not recorded before) just by non-gender-binary people, 8 (9, 8, 8, 5, 8) by women and men (multiple authors), 1 (3, 3, 4, 2, 1) by a mix of male, female and non-gender-binary people and one by an agender person (not recorded before).

Where did my books come from?

As usual, the majority were from NetGalley at 110 (73 in 2024, 75 in 2023, 65 in 2022, 47 in 2021) – Charity shop 23 (19, 3, 9, 9) – Bookshop physical independent 22 (24, 33, 2, 6) (and The Works 4) – Gift 22 (40, 20, 38, 27) – Bookshop online new 18 Amazon, 2 Bookshop.org all physical (13, 9 print, 4 ebooks (24 / 12 print, 12 ebooks, 23 in 2022) and second hand 4, 2 Amazon, 2 Awesome (3, 3, 3, 41 in total 2021) – Publisher 19 (20, 22, 24) – Own 0 (5, 14, 20) – Bookshop physical 24 (33, 2, 6) – Author 8, author 4, author copy 4 (0, 2, 2, 4) – Bookcrossing 1 (1, 1, 0, 2) – Subscribed 3 (4, 0, 5, 1) – Publisher crowdfunder 2 (0 ever) – Bookshop independent secondhand 1 (0 recorded) – Bought direct from publisher 0 (1, 0) – Own (reread) 1 (0).

The number of charity shop reads demonstrates the return to charity shop shopping post-lockdown, the Amazon buys were mainly bought pre-The Heath Bookshop opening and bookshop.org starting up.

Where were they set and written?

Most books by far as usual were set in the UK at 99 (84 in 2024, 99 in 2023, 86 in 2022, 94 in 2021, 99 in 2020) with the US second at 38 (42, 27, 30, 44, 24) and then from 36 (27, 23, 33, 24, 12) other countries (some a combination of a few) plus fantasy worlds and the whole world, which accounted for 24 (24 in 2024!) of the total.

143 (110, 129, 111, 112, 121) authors were British and 43 (49, 33, 34, 54, 26) American, the others from 29 (26, 18, 26, 13, 9) other countries or a mix with Finnish (Tove!) and Japanese authors top of the rest of the world.

Who published them?

I read books by 116 (103 in 2024 80 in 2023, 80 in 2022, 87 in 2021, 76 in 2020) different publishers/imprints the most common being Penguin, then Boldwood and Bloomsbury, HQ (all three courtesy of NetGalley in the main) and good old Dean Street Press.

When were they published?

I read most books published in 2025 at 121 (83 from 2024 in 2024, 78 from 2023 in 2023, 74 from 2022 in 2022, 60 from 2021 in 2021, 39 from 2020 in 2020), which is down to Shiny and NetGalley again. As is my pattern, I read more books from 2023 than 2024, which is down to me reading my TBR in acquisition order! I read books from 43 (41 in 2024, 33 in 2023, 51 in 2022) different years, with all decades in the 20th and 21st centuries apart from the 1910s represented and the oldest from 1907.

How diverse was my reading?

On to diversity of authors and themes. 64.61% (63.64% in 2024, 60.43% in 2023, 67.4% in 2022, 73% in 2021, 79.25% in 2020) of the authors I read were White (as far as I could tell), with 33.33% (34.34%, 35.3%, 28.9%, 26.5%, 19.5%) people from Global Majority and Indigenous populations and 2.06% (2.02%, 4.3%, 3.75%, 0.5% 1.26%) multiple authors in a mix of White and Global Majority authors. The UK is apparently 82% / 18% so I was pleased to keep my author diversity count at about the same once again this year.

Out of the 243 (198, 187, 187, 185, 159) books I read, I assigned a diversity theme to 129 of them (97/198 in 2024, 94/187 in 2023, 82/187 in 2022, 74/185 in 2021, 43/159 in 2020), just over half, so 86 (63, 71, 45, 50, 21) about race, 13 (11, 10, 6, 17, 8) LGBTQI+ issues and 14 (16, 11, 17, 3, 10) covering both, 4 (0, 0, 1, 2, 3) solely disability and 2 (4, 1, 2, 1) race, LGBTQI+ and disability, 2 (1, 0, 2, 1, 0) primarily about class, 2 (0) on class and LGBTQI+, 2 (0) on race, LGBTQI+ and disability, and 2 (0, 2, 1, 0) race, LGBTQI+, disability and class. This doesn’t meant such themes didn’t come up in other books, just that they weren’t the main theme. I read again intersectionally this year, and more books covering disability issues, which is all to the good. And I think I’m going to group intersectional books together next year as that’s a fiddly paragraph!

So really, things have stayed the same – women-author-heavy, concerned with people’s lives different from my own, diverse and intersectional, modern and back-list – and that’s how I like it!

Best books of 2025

I read 243 books this year. I couldn’t choose fewer than 13 of each of Fiction and Nonfiction, in a good reading year, so here in order of date of reading:

Best fiction

Yeon Somin – The Healing Season of Pottery

Anne Tyler – Three Days in June

Garrett Carr – The Boy from the Sea

Tove Jansson – (all of) the Moomin books

Kit de Waal – The Best of Everything

John Moore – The Waters Under the Earth

Leila Mottley – The Girls who Grew Big

Kasim Ali – Who Will Remain?

Winnie M. Li – What We Left Unsaid

Deborah Brasket – When Things Go Missing

Souvankhan Thammavongsa – Pick a Colour

Romilly Cavan – Beneath the Visiting Moon

Susan Scarlett – Love in a Mist

Best non-fiction

Mini Aodla Freeman – Life Among the Qallunaat

Christ Fitch – Wild Cities

Tourmaline – Marsha

Curtis Chin – Everything I Learned I Learned in a Chinese Restaurant

John Grindrod – Concretopia

Christopher Somerville – Walking the Bones of Britain

Paul Baker – Fabulosa!

Jeremiah Moss – Feral City

Michael Hann – Denim and Leather

Stephen Moss – The Accidental Countryside

Lucy Webster – The View from Down Here

Neil Price – Children of Ash and Elm

David, Yinka and Kemi Olusoga – Black History for Every Day of the Year

It’s interesting that five of these books I bought at The Heath Bookshop or went to events around them (having already read them from NetGalley).

A great year of reading again and I’ll be working my way through everyone else’s best-ofs for the foreseeable future. Hope you all have an excellent 2026 of books!

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