I picked up this book because I’d recently visited the Scottish Highlands, and I was in the mood for a classic murder mystery set in that landscape. And indeed, some…
Up the Junction by Nell Dunn
This was an interesting little Virago book that lifts the lid on 1960s factory girls in London through a series of short stories. Expect trauma delivered staccato style and sleek characters…
1930s Literature: Reading Books from (& about) the Age of Anxiety
There’s something about the 1930s that keeps pulling me back as a reader, in a way that’s almost subconscious. It’s a dynamic decade: suspended between wars, thick with anxiety, experimentation,…
Queer Yearning in Books: Novels & Memoirs about Desire
If you’re looking for queer books that sit with yearning, identity, community, and the messiness of being human: here are some that have really stayed with me. Romance is present…
Festive Reads: Seasonal Reads for Christmas Time
If you’re after festive reads that go beyond pure cheer: books that sit somewhere between warmth and darkness, comfort and unease, here are some seasonal favourites that really worked for…
Scottish Literature: Books by Scottish Authors
If you’re looking to read more Scottish books or books by Scottish authors, here’s a small but mighty pile I’ve really enjoyed recently. There’s a lot of history here, a…
Under the Jaguar Sun by Italo Calvino
This collection of short stories has an interesting history: it was meant to be part of a larger collection of stories, The Five Senses, where each story was connected to…
Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi
A stunning debut from 2016, this vast multigenerational epic starts in the 18th century in the Asante kingdom, and follows the descendants of one woman. You have one family line…
Reflections in a Golden Eye by Carson McCullers
This aesthetic Penguin Archives edition was a really lovely read thanks to the beautiful prose of McCullers. This narrative was first published in 1941: it’s a classical tragedy set in…
Felicia’s Journey by William Trevor
A new discovery for me, Trevor won the Whitbread three times and was shortlisted for the Booker prize five times, so I am clearly late to the game! He comes…
Memento Mori by Muriel Spark
I’ve been on a bit of a Muriel Spark binge, and Memento Mori is a great classic one to read! It’s a thriller that examines death and ageing, but in…
Naiset joita ajattelen öisin by Mia Kankimäki, trans. Douglas Robinson
This book was a bit of a publishing sensation when it came out in Finland 2020, and it’s been translated as: The Women I Think about at Night: Traveling the…
Naiset joita ajattelen öisin, kir. Mia Kankimäki
Ajattelin kirjoittaa muutaman ajatuksen tästä kirjasta myös suomeksi! Kuuntelin tämän vasta nyt äänikirjana Otavalta, mutta kirjan maine ja aihe olivat tuttuja jo ennestään. Kirjaa oli helppo seurata, ja se toimi…
Fish Swimming in Dappled Sunlight by Riku Onda
The premise of the book states that this is a story about two people, spending the night together (awake) in an empty apartment before they say goodbye, and both of…
Cursed Bread by Sophie Mackintosh
This book is a bit of a head-fuck, and not necessarily in a bad way. It’s the kind of book that leaves you low-key thinking, what the actual fuck is…
A is for Arsenic: The Poisons of Agatha Christie by Kathryn Harkup
I read this after finding out about it on the Swinging Christies podcast and it was fun to switch things up with this relatively scientific non-fiction read about potions! Arsenic,…
Sunburn by Chloe Michelle Howarth
A sultry book about first love, desire, and growing up in a small Irish community. What happens in your bones and your heart when you’re with a person? If there’s…
Anne Boleyn: 500 Years of Lies by Hayley Nolan
This was my first non-fiction read of 2026 and I really enjoyed starting the year with this breezy and opinionated perspective on the much mythologised and maligned Anne Boleyn. I’ve…
Spirits of the Season: Christmas Hauntings, edited by Tanya Kirk
This was my final read of 2025, and it was a really enjoyable one. This collection brings together a superb selection of classic ghost stories from writers such as E….
On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft by Stephen King
Never have read any of his books, this was maybe a weird way to start, but this honest take on a writer’s life is one that’s been on my shelves…
A Highland Christmas by M.C. Beaton
M.C. Beaton, aka Marion Chesney, is originally from Glasgow, so it was quite interesting to read her perspective on the Highlands, especially as I’m currently staying here myself. It added…
The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding by Agatha Christie
First coming out in 1960, I’ve enjoyed hearing about this short story collection on the 1960s Agatha Christie podcast The Swinging Christies, so it made for a great seasonal &…
Mrs. S by K.Patrick
This is a sultry summery novel, a weird one to read at the end of the year, but one that I found myself enjoying a lot! Good prose and premise…
Dumb Witness by Agatha Christie
What a fun Hercule Poirot story this was! From 1937, we have a “Victorian” lady who is being visited by younger relatives. They want her money, but she’s not going…
Transformations by Anne Sexton
The collection consists of retellings of fairy tales, and it’s hard not to think of something like Angela Carter’s The Bloody Chamber while reading it. There’s a similar sense of…
Ariel by Sylvia Plath
This is first time I’ve properly sat down and read Ariel as a complete collection, and I wasn’t surprised by how immediately it clicked for me and how much I…
Not to Disturb by Muriel Spark
This was such a great little book! My second Muriel Spark of recent times, this is the sort of book where you just sort of let the story and the…
The Haunted Hotel by Wilkie Collins
This is a fun and engaging read. It feels very Victorian, very Collins, very seasonal sensation somehow! This is a fireside fright told by the flickering fire with a hot…
Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner
Another November/December non-fiction book that I really, really enjoyed reading. I found this memoir deeply touching and raw. It’s a gritty memoir in the sense that it looks at grief…
Lady L by Romain Gary
Lady L was a really great little novella in the great Penguin Archive editions I love, and I’m surprised I hadn’t picked it up sooner. It begins as a seemingly…
Witchcraft: A History in 13 Trials by Marion Gibson
This was a really fascinating non-fiction read. I started this in November and finished in early December, and it completely held my interest. Pictured: the book in Lancaster Castle, in…
I Who Have Never Known Men by Jaqueline Harpman, trans. Ros Schwartz
Honestly, I was surprised by how quiet and peaceful this novel felt to me. I think all the marketing around “women trapped in cages” and the dystopian label had led…
Muumilaakson marraskuu (Moominvalley in November) by Tove Jansson
A very apt final book from November, I loved reading in Finnish again. I started the year reading Tove’s childhood autobiography in Finland, so it felt apt to be ending…
Misunderstanding in Moscow by Simone de Beauvoir
This short novella by the brilliant Simone de Beauvoir was a bit of a strange one for me. On the one hand, I really enjoyed the depth of the story…
A Pocket Full of Rye by Agatha Christie
I read A Pocket Full of Rye during a pretty stressful time of year, and as always, Christie delivered as a comfort read. This Miss Marple novel has a particularly…
Hallowe’en Party by Agatha Christie
I really enjoyed reading this book, and pairing it with the corresponding “Swinging Christie’s” @christie_time podcast episode about it made the experience even more interesting, plus I also watched the recent Kenneth…
Seashaken Houses by Tom Nancollas
I bet I’m not alone in my endless fascination for lighthouses… I have this fantasy of staying in one and curling up with a good read while the sea lashes…
Hurricane Season by Fernanda Melchor trans. Sophie Hughes
This book is so visceral that it almost leaves a taste in your mouth: the metallic taste of blood most likely…. Violent and taut, it’s a book that is nevertheless…
Seascraper by Benjamin Wood
Such a beautiful short book: I am glad I listened to the hype on this one. A book about youthful hopes and dreams, it’s also an elegiac tale about changing…
The Promised Party: Kahlo, Basquiat & Me by Jennifer Clement
This beautiful, articulate, and feverish memoir traces a Mexico City childhood and a New York city youth during an era that was iconic for both cities. Jennifer grows up down…
By the Pricking of My Thumbs by Agatha Christie
This book made for a cozy, seasonal experience: all mystery, atmosphere, and a touch of the uncanny with a soupçon of the ridiculous. I actually think the Tommy and Tuppence…
Surge by Jay Bernard
Surge by Jay Bernard is a haunting yet deeply life-affirming collection of poetry. It responds to the tragic events of the 1981 New Cross Fire in London: a birthday party…
The Blank Wall by Elisabeth Sanxay Holding
This is such an intriguing and quietly powerful mid-century murder novel. Despite having inspired hit film adaptations and earning praise from Raymond Chandler, it still seems to have flown under…
Sceptred Isle: A New History of the Fourteenth Century by Helen Carr
This was my first non-fiction read of November: a delve into the Plantagenets. This “new” narrative of 14th century England and the British Isles very much focuses on Kings and…
The Fishermen by Chigozie Obioma
This was an intense but good read, Shakespearean/ mythical in its portrayal of sibling conflict and prophecy in an Igbo family. We’re in Akure in the 1990s and Ikenna, the…
Julian of Norwich: A Very Brief History by Janina Ramirez
This slim little book was an interesting historical and philosophical look at the Revelations written by a medieval anchorite, Julian of Norwich. Little is definitively known about her, but she…
A Clergyman’s Daughter by George Orwell
This is a more obscure Orwell read, one that he himself and critics found lacking, but I really enjoyed this. Dorothy is daughter of a curmudgeonly Anglican rector, and the…
After Leaving Mr Mackenzie by Jean Rhys
This is a bleak novel about precarious survival in big cities, perfect for this time of year. Despite the bleakness, the beautiful prose of Rhys carries you through this narrative…
Liza of Lambeth by W. Somerset Maugham
Continuing the grand tradition of a Victorian doctor writing books: this book was written by Maugham right after finishing his medical studies. It’s his first book published in 1897. This…
A Separation by Katie Kitamura
Taut and engaging, this reminds me of the sparse and emotionally direct prose of Rachel Cusk and Deborah Levy, with a thriller edge. Really glad I picked this up to…