A few of my favorite books of 2025.

Beyond thrilled to see Chloe Dalton’s RAISING HARE included among the NYT’s best books of the year. It’s been amazing to watch this book work its way into people’s hearts in the same way it did mine. @pantheonbooks.bsky.social www.nytimes.com/2025/11/24/b...

Donated to @deepvellum.bsky.social, @transitbooks.bsky.social, @coffeehousepress.bsky.social, @catranslation.bsky.social, and more today. Join me, buy a book, read a book, tell a small press you love them 🤍

Happy Independent Bookstore Day to all who celebrate!

New on the blog today, I've written about STONE YARD DEVOTIONAL by Charlotte Wood. I loved this unsettling, slow-burning narrative about loss, grief, forgiveness, guilt and death - one of the best contemporary novels I've read in recent years. #BookSky 💙📚 jacquiwine.wordpress.com/2025/04/15/s...

March reads, in two parts.

I wrote about @veryhotmomm.bsky.social's remarkable new book, but I also go into why MrBeast and James Patterson do not fucking need $10 million from publishers. www.themarisreview.com/the-maris-re...

We're so pleased to share the news that @chloedalton.bsky.social's RAISING HARE has been shortlisted for the @womensprize.bsky.social for Non-Fiction (spons. @findmypast.bsky.social) #WomensPrize Huge congratulations to Chloe! Discover the shortlist: womensprize.com/prizes/women...

“…responsibility and inspiration to keep pushing forward, in the spirit of the women who never permitted horror or regress or warnings from leadership to stop their own relentless drives toward a more just future.” — by Rebecca Traister rebeccatraister.substack.com/p/triangle-d...

Waiting to be shelved…

on this St. Patrick's Day 2025, I'm sending warm wishes to all from the west coast of Ireland, hope to all who are struggling, and solidarity with all who are fighting for justice.

🧵If I could read Helen Garner all day every day, I’d regard it as a life well-lived. I revere all her writing, but it’s her non-fiction I return to most and, to distil it further, for me it’s her diaries that show her to be the absolute killer writer that she is. 1/4

NBCC member Heller McAlpin reviewed a balm for our times, Chloe Dalton’s "Raising Hare," for The Christian Science Monitor:

‘One doesn’t become a witch to run around being harmful, or to run around being helpful either, a district visitor on a broomstick. It’s to escape all that — to have a life of one’s own, not an existence doled out to one by others.’ — Sylvia Townsend Warner #InternationalWomensDay

February reads!

From One Day, Will Have Always Been Against This by Omar El Akkad

This is an absolute gut-punch of a book about the slaughter in Gaza and the hypocrisy of the west. Will be reviewing soon in Big Issue, @canongate.co.uk

Delighted to share the news that @chloedalton.bsky.social's RAISING HARE has been longlisted for the 2025 @womensprize.bsky.social for Non-Fiction! Congratulations Chloe! @findmypast.bsky.social View the full longlist here: womensprize.com/prizes/women...

I’m very late to the party here, but absolutely loved this one. The perfect book to read while in winter hibernation mode ❄️

January reads! Not pictured: Gliff by Ali Smith, and Taiwan Travelogue by Yáng Shuāng-zǐ.

We're excited to announce the shortlist for the 2024 NBCC Award for Autobiography! Congratulations to all of the finalists.

"From Grimm she graduated to the works of Dickens. The moral universe was unveiled. So eager was she to join this upward movement towards the light that she hardly noticed that her home resembled the ones she was reading about: a superficial veil of amusement over a deep well of disappointment."

I absolutely loved this novel which references the works of Susan Sontag, Annie Ernaux, Samuel Beckett, and Simone de Beauvoir in a gorgeous meditation on time, projects and the performance art of Tehching Hsieh.

I cannot recommend this book enough: AEDNAN by Linnea Axelsson, trans. by Saskia Vogel. It’s an epic about the last century of Northern Sámi life in Scandinavia told by generations; it’s a gorgeous, sweeping, tragic story of forced assimilation but also cultural reclamation, spoken in many voices

THE 25 BEST FILMS OF 2024 A video countdown vimeo.com/1046284152

It’s here. www.vulture.com/article/neil...

Currently reading ❄️

So in all the discourse over how men don't read, I've noticed something weird. All the articles about this issue say that there are multiple studies showing women account for 80% of fiction sales. But none of them link to the studies — just to each other. www.vox.com/culture/3929...

A few favorites from 2024. Here’s to another year of similarly wonderful books! 📚

2025 is looking pretty good at Pantheon ✨🏛️ (If you loved H is for Hawk, Raising Hare is a must-read!)

Thrilled to see @manjula.bsky.social’s beautiful and moving THE LAST FIRE SEASON on the NBCC long list. It may be set amid California’s worsening wildfires but in its mourning for a planet made increasingly unrecognizable by climate change, it speaks to us all. www.bookcritics.org/2024/12/17/2...

Hooray for @manjula.bsky.social!! So incredibly well deserved. Pick up a copy of The Last Fire Season in time for the holidays!

Library book sale finds.

Heather Ann Thompson’s forthcoming book could NOT be better-timed

As of yesterday booksellers at The Strand are on strike. Solidarity with them. Don’t cross the picket line, even virtually.

Spending the weekend with an old friend.

It’s corny but whenever I begin to despair about what 2025 might bring, I remind myself of the books. Here are some new ones.

Small Business Saturday bookstore gems 💕📚

Next up nonfiction: MEDICINE RIVER by Mary Annette Pember (coming in April), on the abuse and legacy of Native American boarding schools in the U.S.

I don’t always have good news to share first thing in the morning BUT… IT’S BOOKS WE LOVE DAY!!!!! apps.npr.org/best-books/#...

It’s been an excellent week of reading.

Pantheon pride moment! If you’re needing a reminder of the power of art and human connection in times of disaster, preorder Susanna’s gorgeous debut novel, out in May.

If you're looking for a #Christmas gift for anyone interested in #art, may I suggest THUNDERCLAP by @lauracummingart.bsky.social. This mesmerising, beautifully written book weaves together elements of memoir & art appreciation in the most beguiling way! 💙📚 jacquiwine.wordpress.com/2024/01/23/t...

yes. I remember the chilling world Ogawa depicts, but also the imperative of resistance and kindness. I may need to reread –thanks Pam.

A nice surprise to find this on the remainder table at Book Culture. Adding to my holiday reading stack!

Hello to all new followers. Backlisted is the podcast that gives new life to old books, co-hosted by @iammilliam.bsky.social and @johnmitchinson.bsky.social. Browse our shelves of 200+ episodes at backlisted.fm. We are also on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Patreon etc. PS. Our guests choose the books!

Elspeth Barker (1940–2022) was born #OTD, 16 Nov Maggie O’Farrell called Barker’s classic O CALEDONIA “one of those books you proselytize about… I once decided to become friends with someone on the sole basis that she named [it] as her favourite book” A 🎂🧵 1/3 lithub.com/maggie-ofarr...

If you find paintings by the Dutch Masters at all soothing/tear-jerking/awe-inspiring, highly recommend this gem.