July 3, 2026 · 10:05 am

John of John – Douglas Stuart

John of John – Douglas Stuart

Someone recommended this online and I immediately downloaded the Audible book.

Here’s the blurb …

Out of money and with little to show for his art school education, John-Calum Macleod takes the ferry home to the island of Harris to find that not much has changed except for him. In the windswept croft where he grew up, Cal resumes his old life, caught between the two poles of his childhood: his father John, a sheep farmer, weaver, and pillar of their local Presbyterian church, and his Glaswegian grandmother Ella, who has kept a faltering peace with her son-in-law for decades.

While Cal wonders if any lonely men might be found on the barren hillsides of home, John is dismayed by his son’s long hair and how he seems unwilling to be Saved. As the seasons pass, everything is poised to change as the threads holding together the fragile community become increasingly entangled.

I have been having a bit of a Scottish islands thing – this novel, and the movie The Road Damce. This is my first Douglas Stuart novel, but it won’t be my last. I loved this story of religion, family, community, and forbidden love. The writing is beautiful – I particularly enjoyed all of the references to colour. John is a weaver (as well as a farmer) and he and Cal have an extraordinary eye for colour. The descriptions of the landscape and the farming practices are brilliant. It is a small, poor, very religious community with not a lot to keep the young people at home – fishing and farming. Cal is gay, openly on the mainland, but not out at home. His community is presbyterian (of the old sort) and he would be demembered if anyone knew. However, his father, who leads the singing at church, has a secret.

John, with his casual violence, would be a monster, but we see things from his point of view and can appreciate his struggle between faith and love.

This is the story of many remote communities where the living is hard, money scarce and opportunities few. Yet it is not depressing to read and in the end there is hope for a better future.

A review.

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July 2, 2026 · 2:23 pm

Land – Maggie O’Farrell

Land – Maggie O’Farrell

I am a fan of Maggie O’Farrell – Hamnet in particular, but I have read several.

Here is the blurb …

On a windswept peninsula stretching out into the Atlantic, Tomás and his reluctant son, Liam, are working for the great Ordnance Survey project to map the whole of Ireland. The year is 1865, and in a country not long since ravaged and emptied by the Great Hunger, the task is not an easy one. Tomás, however, is determined that his maps will be a record of the disaster.

The British soldiers in charge are due to arrive any day, expecting the work to be completed, but Tomás is unexpectedly sent off course by an unsettling encounter in a copse. His life, and those of his family, will never be the same again. Liam is terrified by the sudden change in his taciturn father. What was it that caused such cracks to open in Tomás and how is Liam, aged only ten, going to finish the mapping, and get them both home?

Land is a novel about separation and reunion, tragedy and recovery, colonization and rebellion. It is a story of buried treasure, overlapping lives, ancient woodland, persistent ghosts, a particularly loyal dog, and how, when it comes to both land and history, nothing ever goes away.

As spellbinding and various as the landscape that inspired it, Land is, above all, a story of survival, for our times, and for all time. 

I think this novel had a wide scope and I don’t think it all came together. Maybe it needed some of the strands removed? The story moves from ancient Ireland, to Ireland just after the Potato Blight, to Rome, to India and to Quebec. We follow Tomás, Phina and their children. There is religion (ancient and catholic), colonialisation, class, music, emigration and family relationships.

The writing is beautiful

Tomás felt his words desert him, as if they had been written in chalk and sudden rain had washed them away.

He is invaded, colonised by instant fury.

I think this would be a good movie – there is action and colour and a large cast of characters, but Hamnet is still my favourite.

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June 28, 2026 · 1:49 pm

Whistler – Ann Patchett

Whistler – Ann Patchett

I listened to this one – it is narrated by Ann Patchett!

Here’s the blurb …

When Daphne Fuller and her husband Jonathan visit the Metropolitan Museum of Art, they notice an older, white-haired gentleman following them. The man turns out to be Eddie Triplett, her former stepfather, who had been married to her mother for a little more than year when Daphne was nine. Now fifty-three, Daphne hasn’t seen Eddie for many years, not since the fateful event that changed the direction of both their lives. Meeting again, time falls away; while their relationship was brief, it had a profound impact on them both, and now that they are reunited, they have no intention of ever being separated again.

Whistler is a story about two adults looking back over the choices they made, and the choices that were made for them. It’s a story about bravery, memory, the often small yet consequential moments that define our lives, and the endless stream of loss that in time comes for us all. Beautiful in its simplicity, it is ultimately about how love endures, and how the feeling of being known by one other person, even for a short period of time, can change everything.

This was a lovely story – no one had evil intent – it was about ordinary people doing the best they could. It’s about family, forbidden love, sibling relationships, and societal expectations. I do like to read a story where the author is kind to the characters – shows multiple sides so we can understand their behavior.

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June 15, 2026 · 11:15 am

Mrs Osmond – John Banville

Mrs Osmond – John Banville

Is that not a great cover? This is a continuation of Henry James’ Portrait of a Lady. I read Portrait of a Lady years ago – I think it’s my favourite Henry James novel – so this sounded intriguing. I was always disappointed that Isabel married Gilbert Osmond.

Here’s the blurb …

Isabel Archer is a young American woman, swept off to Europe in the late nineteenth century by an aunt who hopes to round out the impetuous but naive girl’s experience of the world. When Isabel comes into a large, unexpected inheritance, she is finagled into a marriage with the charming, penniless, and–as Isabel finds out too late–cruel and deceitful Gilbert Osmond, whose connection to a certain Madame Merle is suspiciously intimate. On a trip to England to visit her cousin Ralph Touchett on his deathbed, Isabel is offered a chance to free herself from the marriage, but nonetheless chooses to return to Italy. Banville follows James’s story line to this point, but Mrs. Osmond is thoroughly Banville’s own: the narrative inventiveness; the lyrical precision and surprise of his language; the layers of emotional and psychological intensity; the subtle, dark humor. And when Isabel arrives in Italy–along with someone else –the novel takes off in directions that James himself would be thrilled to follow.

As I wrote earlier, it has been a while since I read anything by James, but the prose style of this novel feels Jamesian. We have the old characters; Madame Merle, Pansy, Aunt Lydia, Ralph Touchett (just in passing), and Henrietta Stackpole. The settings range from London, Paris, Florence and Rome – quite the Grand Tour.

No spoilers, but I was happy with how this ended.

I do think you need to have read A Portrait of a Lady before tackling this one, but, if you have, then I highly recommend this one.

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June 14, 2026 · 3:46 pm

Slough House – Mick Herron (Slough House #7)

Slough House – Mick Herron

I accidentally skipped this one – I realised while reading Bad Actors, so I have gone back to listen to it.

Here’s the blurb …

A year after a calamitous blunder by the Russian secret service left a British citizen dead from novichok poisoning, Diana Taverner is on the warpath. What seems a gutless response from the government has pushed the Service’s First Desk into mounting her own counter-offensive – but she’s had to make a deal with the devil first. And given that the devil in question is arch-manipulator Peter Judd, she could be about to lose control of everything she’s fought for.

Meanwhile, still reeling from recent losses, the slow horses are worried they’ve been pushed further into the cold. Slough House has been wiped from Service records, and fatal accidents keep happening. No wonder Jackson Lamb’s crew are feeling paranoid. But have they actually been targeted?

With a new populist movement taking a grip on London’s streets, and the old order ensuring that everything’s for sale to the highest bidder, the world’s an uncomfortable place for those deemed surplus to requirements. The wise move would be to find a safe place and wait for the troubles to pass.

But the slow horses aren’t famed for making wise decisions.

I am always completely horrified by the machinations between people who are meant to be on the same side. Lady Di in particular.

Lamb was awful, Catherine Standish sensible and resolute, Dander impulsive, River heroic, Roddy as useless and useful as ever, and Louisa and Lech just trying to get by. The pace is fast, and some of their ‘on their feet’ thinking is hilarious (Lech describing a dead person as pretending to be a corpse for sexual reasons). The descriptions are great, and this one is very current.

I think there is only one more to go – Clown Town.

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June 10, 2026 · 1:34 pm

All the Devils are Here (Gamache #16) – Louise Penny

All the Devils are Here – Louise Penny

I love Gamache novels. I am restricting myself so I don’t run out.

Here’s the blurb for this one …

On their first night in Paris, the Gamaches gather as a family for a bistro dinner with Armand’s godfather, the billionaire Stephen Horowitz. Walking home together after the meal, they watch in horror as Stephen is knocked down and critically injured in what Gamache knows is no accident, but a deliberate attempt on the elderly man’s life. 

When a strange key is found in Stephen’s possession it sends Armand, his wife Reine-Marie, and his former second-in-command at the S ret , Jean-Guy Beauvoir, from the top of the Tour d’Eiffel, to the bowels of the Paris Archives, from luxury hotels to odd, coded, works of art. 

It sends them deep into the secrets Armand’s godfather has kept for decades. 

A gruesome discovery in Stephen’s Paris apartment makes it clear the secrets are more rancid, the danger far greater and more imminent, than they realized. 

Soon the whole family is caught up in a web of lies and deceit. In order to find the truth, Gamache will have to decide whether he can trust his friends, his colleagues, his instincts, his own past. His own family. 

For even the City of Light casts long shadows. And in that darkness devils hide.

I wondered, after I finished the last book, how things would progress with Jean-Guy and Annie in Paris. But I didn’t need to worry because the action moved to Paris!

This book has a lot going on – conspiracy theorists would be in seventh heaven, but, as per usual, I liked the relationships (particularly between Armand and Daniel), not to mention the Paris scenery. The crime is complicated and many people are involved in solving it – it gets very tense at times. Who can be trusted? And why does Stephen have two nickels glued together? And how can Daniel afford a new appartement and to send his girls to an elite Parisian private school?

It’s so good! And now I need to pause before reading/listening to the next one.

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June 1, 2026 · 12:33 pm

The Things We Never Say – Elizabeth Strout

The Things we Never Say – Elizabeth Strout

I love Elizabeth Strout novels – my favourite is Olive Kitteridge, so I pre-ordered this one.

Here’s the blurb …

Artie Dam is a man with a secret. He spends his days teaching history to high schoolers, expanding their young minds, correcting their casual cruelties, and lending a kind word to those who need it most. He goes to holiday parties with his wife of three decades, makes small talk with neighbours, and, on weekends, takes his sailboat out on the beautiful Massachusetts Bay. He is, by all appearances, present and alive. But inside, Artie is plagued by feelings of isolation. He looks out at a world gone mad—at himself and the people around him—and turns a question over and over in his mind: how is it that we know so little about one another, even those closest to us?
 
 And then, one day, Artie learns that life has been keeping a secret from him, one that threatens to upend his entire world. Once he learns it, he is forced to chart a new course, to reconsider the relationships he holds most dear—and to make peace with the mysteries at the heart of our existence.
 
 With exquisite prose and profound insight, Elizabeth Strout captures the way grief reverberates through decades, the comfort found in deep friendships and the freedom that comes when we break free of our secrets. The Things We Never Say is a stunning new novel from one of our most acclaimed observers of the human heart.

Artie is a good guy in a world gone mad – the election is looming in the US, is it possible that ‘that man’ will be re-elected? He thinks he wants to be gone, but not in a way that would be distressing for others. Then there is a boating incident and he realises that he, in fact, wants to live (this is not the secret). He has a profound impact on two of his students, and develops a relationship with the man who saved him from drowning, is close to his son, but distant from his wife. He is a good man trying to navigate his way in the world – the new principal chastises him for saying ‘boys and girls’ (it’s demeaning and some might not identify as boy or girl).

The dialogue is fabulous – very natural sounding.

I think it would be nice to get this story again, but from Evie’s point of view. Let’s just say the reader (or this reader) doesn’t warm to her.

A review

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May 30, 2026 · 4:40 pm

Yesteryear – Caro Claire Burke

Yesteryear – Caro Claire Burke

This novel is apparently all the rage at the moment. Anne Hathaway has bought the film rights and I believe it is a TikTok sensation. I listened to it.

Here’s the blurb …

A traditional American woman, a beautiful wife and mother who sells her pioneer lifestyle of raw milk and farm-fresh eggs to her millions of social media followers, suddenly awakens cold, filthy, and terrified in the brutal reality of 1855—where she must unravel whether this living nightmare is an elaborate hoax, a twisted reality show, or something far more sinister in this sensational debut novel.

My name was Natalie Heller Mills, and I was perfect at being alive.

Natalie lives a traditional lifestyle. Her charming farmhouse is rustic, her husband a handsome cowboy, her six children each more delightful than the last. So what if there are nannies and producers behind the scenes, her kitchen hiding industrial-grade fridges and ovens, her husband the heir to a political dynasty? What Natalie’s followers—all 8 million of them—don’t know won’t hurt them. And The Angry Women? The privileged, Ivy League, coastal elite haters who call her an antifeminist iconoclast? They’re sick with jealousy. Because Natalie isn’t simply living the good life, she’s living the ideal—and just so happens to be building an empire from it.

Until one morning she wakes up in a life that isn’t hers. Her home, her husband, her children—they’re all familiar, but something’s off. Her kitchen is warmed by a sputtering fire rather than electricity, her children are dirty and strange, and her soft-handed husband is suddenly a competent farmer. Just yesterday Natalie was curating photos of homemade jam for her Instagram, and now she’s expected to haul firewood and handwash clothes until her fingers bleed. Has she become the unwitting star of a ruthless reality show? Could it really be time travel? Is she being tested by God? By Satan? When Natalie suffers a brutal injury in the woods, she realizes two things: This is not her beautiful life, and she must escape by any means possible. 

I am fascinated by the traditional wife movement. Does it exist anywhere outside of the United States? And I have often thought that those perfect online lives must hide mess and mayhem.

Natalie is not a sympathetic character and a very unreliable narrator. Just like her posts on social media she is telling us a different story. She moves from an amateur doing everything herself to having two nannies, a producer, and multiple farm workers (all kept hidden from the cameras). All appears well in her world until her husband has an affair with the producer. There is an altercation – she can bring them down with her knowledge of behind the scenes.

Natalie then finds her self back in 1855 and finds life without hidden modern conveniences is very unpleasant. How does she end up back in 1855? Is it time travel?, a reality TV show, is she mad?, in a coma? From this point the narrative shifts backwards and forwards between the past and present day Yesteryear Ranch. How it is resolved is very good – in my opinion, no spoilers.

There is a great review at The Guardian

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May 24, 2026 · 1:39 pm

You Dreamed of Empires – Alvaro Enrigue

You Dreamed of Empires – Alvaro Enrigue

The theme for my ‘serious’ book club is ‘Translation’. I already had this in my pile, it was recommended in a list somewhere.

Here’s the blurb …

One morning in 1519, conquistador Hernán Cortés entered the floating city of Tenochtitlan – today’s Mexico City. Later that day, he would meet the emperor Moctezuma in a collision of two worlds, two empires, two languages, two possible futures. Cortés was accompanied by his nine captains, his troops, and his two translators: Friar Aguilar, a taciturn, former slave, and Malinalli, a strategic, former princess. Greeted at a ceremonial welcome meal by the steely princess Atotoxli, sister and wife of Moctezuma, the Spanish nearly bungle their entrance to the city. As they await their meeting with Moctezuma – who is at a political, spiritual, and physical crossroads, and relies on hallucinogens to get himself through the day and in quest for any kind of answer from the gods – the Spanish are ensconced in the labyrinthine palace.

Clearly both the Spanish and the Mexicans (Aztecs?) are blood thirsty people. There was human sacrifice, the rending of humans into fat to polish boots, and capital punishments (‘Take yourself to the palace guards and tell them to kill you privately’). There wasn’t a sympathetic character – except, maybe, Atotoxli, or Caldera.

The settings were magnificent, and the characterisations were great – the conversations with everyone trying not to say anything or saying the truth but with a double meaning

As the emperor bade him farewell, still in Greek, he said he’d been told that Cortés had been to the temple with his men and it hadn’t gone well; just now he was busy with the Tlaxcalteca in Iztapalapa and the Texcoca in the middle of a civil war, but in two or three days they would go together to the temple so that Cortés could see the house of the emperor’s gods and the Caxtilteca would be treated as his guests deserved.

And what do they deserve?

It has a very fable, mythic feel to it. And the ending with the hallucinogens, what’s true what’s not? Is there a blue person?

And I researched the different characters and Tenochtitlan, so I feel that I have learnt something as well.

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May 22, 2026 · 3:15 pm

The Society of Literary Marauders – Sasha Wasley

The Society of Literary Marauders – Sasha Wasley

Miss A and I saw this at Boundless Books. And we were sold at ‘Austen for our times’!

I ended up listening to it – it was beautifully narrated by Eleanor Howell.

Here’s the blurb …

At Oxford University, 1928, four young women make a secret pledge: ‘I hereby undertake to take and read any book kept away from nice young ladies.’

They’ve come from unlikely corners of the British Empire: brickworker’s daughter Annie, wealthy flapper Ridley, refined Parsi aristocrat Dorelia and disheartened schoolteacher Norma. They call themselves the Society of Literary Marauders and the price of entry is having stolen a book.

Their illicit meetings rapidly become a lifeline in a world where knowledge is power, and women are fed lies and half-truths. They start with small misdemeanours – getting their hands on banned books, stealing back historical records claimed by the men’s colleges. But over time, they become aware of a true literary injustice – and they slowly formulate a plan to put this historical wrong to right…

This was very enjoyable. I loved all of the Oxford references, and all of the Western Australian references. The letters to Annie from her mum and Alf were hilarious. And Kit? What a fabulous character.

I have to admit that I thought Annie’s dislike of Kit went on a bit long (here I am talking about the characters like real people).

It was clearly well-researched, but that was just background to a good story.

Here is an interview with Sasha Wasley

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