Buying books and reading books are two of my favourite things. I buy a lot of books, but I do read most of them. This is not a book blog, no reviews here, this is to keep me up to date on books I am reading this year, some projects and books I think might be interesting to buy in the future of which I am keeping a list.
I also have a fascination with Japanese literature, but no idea why. However, I often wonder if I am missing something by not understanding the culture or language enough and seriously considered giving up, usually when I read a book and end up disappointed. However, I have decided that I am going to learn more about Japan and see if this is the issue. I have some podcasts in mind and also a couple of anthologies of Japanese Literature.
Other genres of interest include anything with trains, gothic horror / weird, early 20th Century female writers and translated fiction.
2026
This year I am planning to continue reading the George Smiley novels in order and also read all of the Romance of the Three Kingdom books (the next reading challenge after Outlaws of the Marsh). I am also going to try again to learn more about Japan and Japanese literature and to reread some books that I remember enjoying.
August 2026 - Women In Translation Month!
I have been saving some books for this month and it is my chance to make up for not reading much translated fiction this year. My plans so far include:
The Woman Dies - Aoko Matsuda / Translated Polly Barton. This was on my book flood list - short, some very short, stories.
Diary of a Void - Emi Yagi / Translated Lucy North and David Boyd. A surprise birthday book which was definitely quirky and very enjoyable with a bit of a twist at the end..
Memoirs of a Polar Bear - Yoko Tawada / Translated Susan Bernofsky. I am so looking forward to this one, also a birthday book.
A Line in the World - Dorthe Nors / Translated Caroline Waight. This is my pick for non-fiction. It is incredibly difficult to find translated non-fiction writen by women that isn't about some sort of trauma.
The Door - Magda Sazbo / Translated Len Rix. I bought this for my husband years ago and am looking forward to reading it finally.
A Little Luck - Claudio Pineiro - a last minute choice which I really enjoyed and that had me gripped throughout. A tale of how things can easily go wrong when a spur of the moment decision goes the wrong way.
I think these should be enough to get me through as I am also finishing The Remarkable Life of Skin and reading Cold Toast by Katherine Aldridge-Morris that is a short collection of flash fiction that I bought on a whim some time ago.
Books Read in 2026
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier Spy - John le Carre 4/5
The Roman Republic (vsi) - David M Gwynn 4/5
Mystery in White - J. Jefferson Farjeon 3/5
Shadowlands - Matthew Green 3/5
Everything Will Swallow You - Tom Cox 5/5
South Riding - Winifred Holtby 3/5
Ancient Greece (vsi) - Paul Cartledge 2/5
Summit - Ed Conway 4/5
Romance of the Three Kingdoms - Vol 1 4/5
Reader on the 6.27 - Jean-Paul Didierlaurent, tr. Ros Schwarz 5/5
The Four Just Men - Edgar Wallace 4/5
Brainspotting - A.J. Lees 3/5
The Crooked Cross - Sally Carson
The Untold Railway Stories - Ed. Monisha Rajesh 4/5
Murder Underground - Muriel Doriel Hay 3/5
The Meaning in the Making - Sean Tucker 5/5
The Samurai of the Red Carnation - Denis Theriault 4/5
Women, Crusading and the Holy Land - Natasha Hodgson 3/5
The Uncorruptibles - John Hornor Jacobs 4/5
A Small Town in Germany - John le Carre 3/5
The Distinctly Competent District Councillor - Jonas Jonasson 4/5
Handmade - Anna Ploszajski 2/5
It Walks By Night - John Dickson Carr 4/5
Catch 22 - Joseph Heller 3/5
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie - Muriel Spark 2/5
The House in the Dark of the Woods - Laird Hunt 4/5
A Brief History of France - Cecil Jenkins 3/5
Death in the Tunnel - Miles Burton 3/5
You've Been Pooping All Wring - Trisha Pasricha 4/5
Romance of the Three Kingdoms - Vol 2 3/5
The Medieval Scriptorium - Sara J. Charles 3/5
The Council of Justice - Edgar Wallace 2/5
The Mist in the Mirror - Susan Hill 3/5
Castle Skull - John Dickson Carr 3/5
Jackal, Jackal: Tales of the Dark and Fantastic - Toby Ogundiran. 5/5
The Expansion Project - Ben Pester
Uncle Paul - Celia Fremlin 3/5
Monsterland - Nicholas Jubber 5/5
Father - Elizabeth von Arnim 3/5
Murder at World's End - Ross Montgomery 3/5
The Medieval Guide to Healthy Living - Katherine Harvey 4/5
A Prayer for Owen Meany - John Irving 3/5
The Red House Mystery - A.A. Milne 2/5
The Remarkable Life of Skin - Monty Lyman 4/5
Diary of a Void - Emi Yagi 3/5
A Little Luck - Claudia Piniero
July 2026
I have no real plans for July as I prepare for Women in Translation month next month.
The Medieval Guide to Healthy Living - Katherine Harvey. Continuing this which was my Solstice gift. I enjoyed it a lot and it has lots of ideas to go back to later and reread.
A Prayer for Owen Meany - John Irving. I read this years ago and wanted to reread it. Picked up in a charity shop, I did enjoy it, it is an odd book, and I am still not sure why it exists.
The Remarkable Life of The Skin - Monty Lyman. I bought this on Kindle five years ago when it was on offer and, although I had started it before, I hadn't finished it.
The Red House Mystery - A.A. Milne. I had this on Kindle and it had been mentioned as a sort of inspiration for some of the more recent Japanese Locked Room Mysteries - but it was reasonably obvious who did it, and some of the motivation and even how to be honest.
June 2026
I am always hopeful that I will read a lot in June because I have two weeks of holiday and, if the weather is too hot or too wet I don't usually want to leave the house. So these are my plans at least for now, although, as ever, subject to change.
Monsterland - Nicholas Jubber. This was a Christmas present, I enjoyed the book about Fairy Tales and I very much enjoyed this one too.
Castle Skull - John Dickson Carr. Just to get it off my shelves if I am honest. It was OK, far fetched, but I didn't guess who did it or how.
The Expansion Project - Ben Pester. This was from the Book Flood. I wanted to savour it and so have been saving it for my annual leave and I wasn't disappointed in it.
Mist in the Mirror - Susan Hill. I like her books, except the Detective Books. This was from a charity shop and looks like it had been drowned at some point. I enjoyed it, she is good at creating spooky atmospheres and leaving things a bit ambiguous at times.
Uncle Paul - Celia Fremlin. I had wanted to read this since I saw it reviewed on a book blog I followed and found it in a sale at the local bookshop. But I was quite disappointed in it. Although she is very good at the details of social situations it was a bit rubbish in terms of the ending particularly.
The Medieval Guide to Healthy Living - Katherine Harvey. The Solstice History Book choice from Intellectual Husband.
Murder at World's End - Ross Montgomery. Another present and a modern take on a cosy crime. Very enjoyable, but for once I had worked out who was the murderer and why, but not all of the details.
May 2026
May has kind of appeared from nowhere leaving me a bit surprised and without any plans, other than finishing off the couple of books I have on the go. But, here are the planned books at least.
Death in the Tunnel - Miles Burton. It has a murder on a train in a locked carriage. What more do I need to say, and I do need to make some shelf space for the anticipated flood of books that my birthday might bring. It was an OK read, I worked out one of the two involved in the murder, but not the full motivation.
Romance of the Three Kingdoms - Vol 2. I am reading one volum a quarter and don't want to leave it to the last minute. This one had a little more subterfuge in it and fewer characters, so it was a little less confusing. I did find it a bit hard going at times though.
Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 - Cho Nam Joo. I am trying to get through my Kindle catalogue of unread novels and this has been waiting for five years now.
The Medieval Scriptorium - Sara J. Charles. This was a joint gift to ourselves, on one of my favourite topics - Medieval Manuscripts - hopefully it will be interesting and will kick start me back into the world of paleography.
For some lightish relief after the epic that is the Three Kingdoms I decided to read another in the Four Just Men series because they are so far fetched and quite short that they are easy to read when Ia m tired.
April 2026
Books planned for or read in April, although this is changeable as I haven't got many plans this month.
The Distinctly Competent District Councillor - Jonas Jonasson. This was a nice book and I decided to read it after a less than good week. It was the book given to me for the Vernal Equinox celebrations. I read it in one evening, and I loved it - it was the right book at the right time.
Catch 22 - Joseph Heller. This is my choice for the 1961 book week. I read it many years ago and it is sitting on the shelf so I reread it. It was hard going to start with but enjoyable by the end - it doesn't leave you with a very high opinion of US Airmen in the second world war though.
Handmade - Anna Ploszajski. I started this in March, having picked it up from the bookshop in a sale. It wasn't very good, and was mostly about the author and very little about any of the makers.
It Walks By Night - John Dickson Carr. One I have had my eye on for ages and then it was in a very cheap job lot of books by the same author so I bought it and enjoyed it. I guessed about a third of the mystery.
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie - Muriel Spark. I have been meaning to read this for ages, and as it was first published in 1961 I got a copy from the library. However, it was disappointing in I am honest. Miss Jean Brodie might have been in her prime, but she was a thoroughly unpleasant person.
A Brief History of France - Cecil Jenkins. This is one of Intellectual Husbands books and it has been on my to read list for a while. I did learn about France, not sure it was what I expected, as it was mostly about modern France, but then France didn't really exist as such for much of the period covered in the book.
I also read The House in the Dark of the Woods - I bought this on Kindle about 6 years ago, it was probably cheap at the time. I was pleasantly surprised and enjoyed it, although I am still figuring out the subtext of it.
March 2026
Books planned for March, although I am hopeful that I will read more because I do have a week and a bit off work.
The Untold Railway Stories - Ed. Monisha Rajesh. Started in February and a much anticipated Christmas present.
Brainspotting - A. J. Lees. Started in February and has been sitting on the shelf for a while waiting for me to read it. I found it less interesting than I expected as it mainly seemed to be about the life of the author. Whilst he was a neurologist, I still expected more about the cases he came across and less about him.
The Crooked Cross - Sally Carson. See below - started in late February. A difficult book to read, written in 1934 about 1933 Germany, with the view of history, knowing that it really is not going to end well.
Murder Underground - Mavis Doriel Hay. Another Crime Classic and another book involving a train. This was an OK read, a bit hard to start with (i.e. dull) and I worked it out by about two thirds of the way in (very unusual for me as I am a bit dim).
Jackal, Jackal: Tales of the Dark and Fantastic - Toby Ogundiran. I am back reading short stories, or trying to. This was a present for intellectual husband in the 2024 Book Flood.
The Meaning in the Making - Sean Tucker. A birthday present from last year - I think this is the last one to read. Recommended from a podcast that I listen to. It gets very good reviews - hopefully I will not be disappointed.
I picked up The Uncorruptibles from my shelf which I bought second hand a few years ago. It was an easy read, based on a Roman Empire with demon hellfire held captive as a source of power, a dwarf, what is probably the American west and nasty elves.
I also read Women, Crusading and the Holy Land in Historical Narrative which was a Christmas present. I was a bit concerned it might be a little academic for me and I was right. It does assume a knowledge of the area and of some of the history of crusading and people involved. I assume it was written as an academic text as it jumped around and didn't really have an easy narrative to follow.
My final read of the month was John le Carre's Small Town in Germany - only because it was in the same volume as a George Smiley novel and I wanted the shelf space. It was better than the Looking Glass War, but it did wander on, had more than a hint of mysoginism and was not the best of his books.
February 2026
Books planned for this month include the first in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms - which will probably take most of the month actually.
South Riding - Winifred Holtby. I bought this ages ago and it takes up loads of room on the shelf. I have read one other book by this author and wasn't overly impressed, but later wondered if I had been a bit harsh so, as this is one of her more famous books I bought it second hand and thought I would give her a second chance. It was OK and kept me coming back, but although she had some strong characters in it, she ruined the book for me with the ending and the lamentations of what was a very likeable female character mourning the death of an unrequited love - pish.
Ancient Greece (vsi) - Paul Cartledge (borrowed from M-i-L). I finished this but what a slog. There was a lot to pack in and I think the author chose the wrong way to do it; dividing it by city state. He didn't really enlighten me about any Greek art or culture or architecture, but did give his own opinions and in-jokes a lot. Really disappointing book.
Crooked Cross - Sally Carson. A Persephone birthday present from last year which I thought I would as Persephone has the next book coming out soon
Summit - Ed Conway. All about the Bretton Woods agreement, and characters. I started this last month and it is another big book to get off my shelf. It took quite a while to work through. I enjoyed it, learnt quite a lot about Bretton Woods (not hard as I didn't know anything about it at all), not that much about exchange rates and economics or the gold standard.
Monkey - New Writing from Japan Vol. 5 - Various. Another one that I started last month, but it is my continuation of reading short stories.
Romance of the Three Kingdoms - Vol 1. Kicking off this year's reading challenge. The start of the book was nothing, if not confusing, with a cast of what seemed like thousands and I wondered how I was going to get through it. But I was loving this by the end, and was a bit sad that it was over.
I decided after the bloodshed and constant wars of the Three Kingdoms that I wanted somethign lighter and so read a recent purchase - The Reader on the 6.27 which I loved not just because it was nice, but also because of the descriptive prose.
And, after a gentle book I went for The Four Just Men, which was short, but an enjoyable read where a member of parliament was threatened with death if he pushed through a bill in parliament that they believed would lead to further bloodshed in many countries. It goes without saying that he did continue and they were successful but it did build the tension quite well and I certainly didn't have a clue how they did it.
January 2026
This month I am planning to make a start on my goals and am going to read Tinker Tailor Solder Spy. I have also started the year reading Shadowlands by Matthew Green which I have had for three years and I am readying The Roman Republic (a very short introduction) and reareading Daventry Past. For a change I haven't actually planned the other books I am going to read this month. After finishing Tinker Tailor I picked up one of my Book Flood presents - Mystery in White. It seemed right to be reading it as it was cold and frosty and it is about a murder on a train caught in the snow. After that I have started Tom Cox's Everything Will Swallow You. I had paid for this through Unbound, which went bust twice and didn't pay it's authors. So I bought it at the local bookshop and it is therefore probably one of the most expensive novels I have bought. I find his writing sort of odd, but not, because other than the actual subject matter, the style is very much like talking to Intellectual Husband. I finished Shadowlands so moved on to reading Summit by Ed Conway about the Bretton Woods agreement, or more precisely the actual summit and the people involved. I quite enjoyed Shadowlands but it wasn't quite what I thought it would be (I will probably never learn to read the blurb properly) and found some chapters a bit repetitive and longer than they needed to be - particularly the last few which were twentieth century abandoned villages.