My Reading Life: February 2026

A book for every county in Ireland! This is a fabulous resource from Cathy at 746books 746books.com/2026/03/03/a...

#ReadingWales26: The Icarus Ascent by Mike Lewis On 14 July 1865, eight men set out to become the first to conquer The Matterhorn, one of the highest summits in Europe. Only three of them made it back alive. The expedition was put together in haste by two British mountaineers — Edward Whymper and…

bookjotter.com/2026/03/01/my-year-of-reading-welshly-by-alex-johnson-readingwales26/ #ReadingWales26 #Dewithon26 #ReadingWales #Dewithon #Books @shedworking.bsky.social @bookertalk.bsky.social @katheastman.bsky.social @calonbooks.bsky.social

Reading Wales Month 2026 is Here It’s 1 March today — a cause for celebration in Wales as we mark St David's Day, our patron saint's day. Google has joined in the festivities with a dragon themed Google Doodle on their home page. If you live outside the UK you might not see this, so here's it is.…

Commonwealth by Ann Patchett — the stories we tell Ann Patchett's 2016 novel Commonwealth hangs on the idea that one impulsive moment causes ripples through two families that will play out over several decades. The novel opens at a christening party one summer's day in 1960s California. It's a hot…

Victorian Psycho by Virginia Feito — Daring Gothic Fiction Virginia Feito turns Gothic literature on its head with Victorian Psycho, an outrageously bonkers novel about revenge. The central character of the novel is a governess, a familiar figure in Victorian literature. Sometimes they're the…

Top Ten Tuesday: Books for Armchair Travellers The topic this week for Top Ten Tuesday is "Books for Armchair Travellers." Since I haven't ventured overseas for at least five years I'm going to keep my list within the borders of the United Kingdom. Let's start in the north with Scotland. 1. The…

The Dream by Émile Zola — fairy tale meets realism When I think about Émile Zola, my mind is filled with characters whose lives are blighted by poverty, vice and alcoholism. Most of the Zola novels I've read so far are all about the bleakness of life in late nineteenth century France, its people…

Classic Club Spin #43 Lands On a French Classic The Classics Club Spin delivered number .... ... thus giving me the chance to read La Cousine Bette (Cousin Bette)  by Honoré De Balzac. Published in 1847 which is roughly when the novel is set, Cousin Bette is about a middle-aged woman who plots the…

The Classics Club: Spin#43 it's time for another round of the classic club spin and this time I'm hoping to get something from Wales or Ireland

The Silence in Between is based on a true story of a mother separated from her baby when the border between West and East Berlin was closed in 1961. bookertalk.com/the-silence-...

Time to start digging into your TBR shelves for Welsh authors. WalesReadingMonth starts soon. Join in with our buddy reads or just pick your own Welsh author. Details on the blog today #ReadingWales26 #Welshauthors #Wales

Books to Look Out For in March 2026: Part One alifeinbooks.co.uk/2026/02/book...

It's time to start raiding those TBR shelves for Welsh authors. ReadingWalesMonth starts March 1. Join our buddy reads or pick your own book/s. Details on the blog today. #ReadingWales26 #welshauthors #welshfiction #Wales

Reading Wales Month 2026 — The Countdown Begins Reading Wales Month will be back for its ninth year in March, giving readers around the world a chance to celebrate literature from this Celtic nation. If you've ever wondered if there is more to Welsh writing than Dylan Thomas and Roald Dahl, then…

The Silence In Between by Josie Ferguson — legacy of war The Silence in Between was inspired by a true story of a mother separated from her baby when the border between West and East Berlin was closed in 1961. In Josie Ferguson's version, the separation of mother and child is used as a jumping off…

What I’m Reading : Episode 62, January 2026 "What I'm Reading" is my contribution to the WWW Wednesday meme run by Sam from Taking On a World of Words. The Ws represent three questions: What are you currently reading? What did you recently finish reading? What do you think you’ll read next? What…

Top Ten Tuesday: New-To-Me Authors Discovered in 2025 For Top Ten Tuesday this week I've been refreshing my memory about the authors I read last year for the first time. There were 19 of them, but only some of them interested me enough to want to read more of their work. Here are my 10 most…

Tell Me Everything by Elizabeth Strout — Stories We Tell It took me a while to warm to Tell Me Everything by Elizabeth Strout. It's the most recent instalment of her 'Lucy Barton' series set in Maine. As that's what I thought it was going to be, so I was thrown by a statement right at the…

2026: No Goals, Just Good Intentions This week’s Top Ten Tuesday topic is all about Goals for 2026. If I stuck strictly to that topic, this could turn out to be my shortest post of all time. Why? Because I've decided that my one and only goal for 2026 is not to have any goals. Some bloggers seem…

Paperbacks to Look Out For in February 2026: Part One alifeinbooks.co.uk/2026/01/pape...

Under the Spotlight: 26 Questions from The Classics Club 1. When did you join The Classics Club? How many titles have you read for the club so far? Share a link to your latest classics club list. I joined the Classics Club in 2012. I confess that it took me a lot longer than the "required" five…

The List by Yomi Adegoke — social media frenzy Celebrity culture and the power of social media to make and break reputations is the subject of Yomi Adegoke's 2023 debut novel. The issue is seen through the perspective of social media darlings and Michael, AKA “the king and queen of #BlackLove”.…

Top Ten Tuesday: Favourite Books Read in 2025 This week's Top Ten topic set by That Artsy Reader Girl) is "the best books I read in 2025". I often have trouble getting to 10 books that match the prompt but this week it was hard to limit myself to just ten. One thing that struck me about my list is…

TBR Book Jar Lucky Dip — January 2025 I neglected my TBR Book Jar last year but this is a new year so it's a good opportunity to get back into the habit of using it to help guide my decision on what to read next. For the benefit of anyone new to this blog, the idea of my TBR book jar is to select…

Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell — friends united Cranford was a huge disappointment when I first read it some ten years ago. I was expecting the same hard hitting social commentary found in North and South. Instead, I found some rambling stories about a bunch of elderly female residents who seemed…

My Life in Book Titles 2025 In keeping with tradition in this final month of the year, here is my version of the My Life in Book Titles tag (or is a meme?). The idea is to answer a series of questions using the titles of books read in 2025, making sure not to use the same title more than once.…

While away a few minutes on the Penguin Books quiz. www.penguin.co.uk/discover/art... Could have kicked myself for forgetting the name of the Great Gatsby character but still ended up with 18 out of 24 so not a bad score.

The Glassmaker by Tracy Chevalier — life goes on Tracy Chevalier entered new territory with her eleventh novel The Glassmaker. As in all her previous novels, it has a vividly explored historical setting and a strong female protagonist. What's different is Chevalier's use of a time-shifting…

Seascraper by Benjamin Wood – one man and the sea Seascraper is a gem of a novel; the kind that you really hope will win the Booker Prize. Sadly, though the 2025 judges deemed it worthy of longlisting, Benjamin Wood's novella never made the shortlist let alone walk away with the ultimate accolade.…

Top 10 Books with Snowy Settings If the meteorologists have got their calculations right, the UK will be hit by a snow barrage this weekend. Forecasts like this always get people excited because we so rarely get snow in the UK (Scotland excepted) but I prefer to read about it rather than…

My Reading Life: November 2025 This update comes to you via the brain fog of a winter cold. There is precious little sign of it being "the season to be merry" in the BookerTalk household right now with both of us competing to win the coughing and sniffling heats. Fortunately for you there are no…

Near Distance by Hanna Stoltenberg #NovNov25 The fractured relationship between a mother and daughter is laid bare in Hanna Stoltenberg's award-winning debut work. This relationship is seen entirely from the perspective of the mother Karin, a restless creature who seems more of a spectator in life…

Top 10 Favourite One Word Book Titles It's been a long while since I last did a Top Ten Tuesday list. Some weeks I couldn't get enthused by the topic but this week I thought sounded easy enough. It's a freebie which meant I could pick any topic that took my fancy. Hah! I had so many options I got…

Review round up: Eliza Henry Jones & Peter James Time for another batch of short reviews. The two novels I'm reviewing in this post contain elements such as folklore, witches, fantasy and ghosts for example, that seldom feature in my reading. If I do end up with a book like this, then it's either…

No Highway by Nevil Shute — #ClassicsClub No Highway was published in 1948 at a time when little was known about metal fatigue. This is what causes microscopic cracks to appear in structures and cause sudden, complete failure. Shute's novel imagines a scenario where questions are raised about the…

Spell the Month in Books: November 2025 The prompt this month for Spell the Month in Books — hosted by Jana of  Reviews from the Stacks — is Nostalgia. The Cambridge Dictionary defines nostalgia as "a feeling of pleasure and also slight sadness when you think about things that happened in the…

Cities Without Palms by Tarek Eltayer #NovNov25 Searching the bookshelves for something suitable for Novellas in November I came across Cities Without Palms, a 1992 novella by Sudanese-born author Tarek Eltayer. It's a work of fiction about a journey born out of desperation, disease and famine.…

Double Trouble— Reviews of Jane Harper & Louise Penny My review back log gets longer by the week. In an effort to catch up I'm going to batch a few together. First on the scene are two crime novels by authors whose work I've read in the past. Force of Nature by Jane Harper I've endured many a…

My Reading Life: October 2025 It's a truth universally acknowledged the commercial world views the end of October as the signal to begin the annual madness known as C. Everywhere I turn there are exhortations for me to get a move on and order my "festive food"; buy my party frock and start…

Paperbacks to Look Out For in November 2025  alifeinbooks.co.uk/2025/10/pape...

Rules of Civility by Amor Towles — when opportunity comes knocking Amor Towles's debut novel Rules of Civility landed on my bookshelves as a result of recommendations from several bloggers. I'd already read — and loved — his later novel A Gentleman in Moscow so I didn't actually need much…

Heap Earth Upon It by Chloe Michelle Haworth: Truth will out alifeinbooks.co.uk/2025/10/heap... #HeapEarthUponIt

An exciting list - and 3 are high on my radar. Am I allowed to give side-eye to one of them @danhartland.bsky.social?

On my blog today, my review of the brilliant new book by Antti Tuomainen transl. David Hackston pub @orendabooks.bsky.social The Winter Job. annabookbel.net/the-winter-j...

On the Beach by Nevil Shute — the way the world ends On The Beach was published at a time when the increasing tension between the United States and the Soviet Union made nuclear war seem a distinct possibility. So real was the fear that the US began drawing up civil defence plans to prepare…

Classic Club Spin #42 Lands On Nevil Shute The Classics Club Spin delivered number .... ... thus giving me the chance to re-read a novel published in 1948. No Highway by Nevil Shute is perhaps best avoided by anyone about to board a plane. The plot centres on Theodore Honey, an aircraft engineer…