I read more books this year than any other! Even when I was at uni and my whole degree was reading! In 2025 I finished seventy-five books this year which I would put down to two main thing. Firstly, consciously deciding to seriously cut down phone use and break the habit of mindless flicking. One thing that really helped with that is my penchant for reading at least three books at the same time so I always have one somewhere within arms reach. Secondly, my very great love of

Winter by Ali Smith (Seasonal # . 2) ⭐⭐⭐⭐ I've been wanting to read Ali Smith's seasonal quartet in the right order since I read Autumn last Autumn and it went straight to my list of best books of the year. Alas, I am a faffer so my reading of the quartet has just begun. I really like the idea of doing these as a personal 'slow read' through the year. Reading each one in the season they are set. Starting with Winter in December, I plan on continuing with Spring in March, Summ

Last week I had the pleasure of visiting my brother-in-law's family in Lagos, Nigeria which involved lots of lying by the pool in the sunshine and therefore lots of time for reading! As always with me they were a mix of genres and vibes with absolutely no continuity... Nonetheless here are my thoughts on what I read on my holiday. Then There Were None by Agatha Christie ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Apparently this is the best selling crime novel of all time and as fan of Agatha Christie's writing

Women in chaos: Gender in dystopian novels   Recently I have read (and re-read) two wonderful dystopian novels that use gender as...