This was fascinating. Starting just over 100 years ago it looks at the role of women in Russian society, both political and personal.

I was worried this would be too politics-heavy for me, but it wasn‘t at all - the author uses her own family history to great effect.

The book grew more compelling (and terrible) as it neared the present day, particularly on the subjects of VAW, the Ukraine war and Putin.

Highly recommended.

A genre-defying book…. Part whaling story / maritime adventure, part body horror, part dark fantasy, part polemic on the dangers of capitalism.

I certainly can‘t say I enjoyed it but I appreciated it and was compelled to keep reading, despite the very graphic depictions of whale slaughter.

There‘s a lot to process here and I‘ll be thinking about it for some time.

Another one from the NBA longlist and from my #10beforetheend list.

Just two books finished so far for #10beforetheend. 😬

Work is kicking my butt at the moment. 🙄

I am part-way through reading 5 others from my list though, so there‘s that! 😜

This was wonderful - thank you so much for sending it to me! @Caroline2

Jude, Wendy, Sylvie and Adele have been friends for years. After Sylvie dies, the other 3 gather for a weekend, to clear out her house. Sylvie was the glue that held them together, so tensions arise and fractures appear.

I spent the whole time holding my breath, hoping that something terrible wasn‘t going to happen, particularly with the dog, 😬 but still loved it!

My special edition boxed-set of A Little Life just arrived! ❤️❤️❤️

Thanks for putting it on my radar @TrishB and good job I jumped on it quickly, as it‘s now sold out!

I‘m afraid I just didn‘t ‘get‘ this, but it‘s probably a me-thing rather than the book itself. I‘m not in a very concentrate-y mood right now and need something that‘s easy to read or grips me from the start.

There was a lot of florid language and probably a load of metaphor that just went over my head.

It‘s based on a real-life trans man although I didn‘t see much queerness at all, but possibly that‘s me skimming rather than reading in depth.

A fascinating book from the NBA NF list. Jordan was studying for a PhD when he decided to become a ‘hotshot‘ firefighter, chasing wildfires.

The book blends his physical experiences fighting fires with his studies into how indigenous peoples managed the land through fire.

Most interesting (and infuriating) was the mis-information on climate change peddled by large corporations and taken up by (Republican) politicians.

I‘m reading some great books at the moment but still can‘t seem to concentrate so thought I‘d try to lose myself in a short book.

I really liked this - Shy is a teenager at a young offenders‘ institution. We spend time with the thoughts in his head through one dark night.

I‘ll be interested to see the recent film, which sounds like it‘s got quite a different perspective.

Thank you for sending this to me, Cathy. @Cathythoughts

Hubby and I had brunch with Mark Billingham today…. Well, us, and about 50 other people!

He‘s a very funny guy - he actually used to be a stand-up comedian.

At one point he talked about abandoning books he wasn‘t enjoying. He asked who reads books right to the end even if they‘re not loving them and I got thoroughly told off! 😝

It‘s a LONG time since I read Wild Swans and I wonder if this would have felt a little repetitive in places if I‘d read it more recently. This book is really a love letter to the author‘s mother and brings Wild Swans up to date. I particularly enjoyed the section where Chang first arrives in the UK, and found her most recent experiences with censorship in China rather terrifying.

I found the middle section, where Chang is writing her ⬇️

#10beforetheend

Excited to be joining in with this challenge! ALL of these are from the NBA awards longlists. Although some didn‘t make the shortlists I own them now so want to read them anyway…. @Hooked_on_books

My only concern is I‘m going to get distracted by the ToB longlist in the not-too-distant future. 😜 I‘m looking at you as well! @BarbaraBB 😉

Thank you for my surprise gift! @CarolynM 😘

This book sounds SO good - I‘ve been keeping an eye out for it since you read and reviewed it but, you‘re right, it‘s very difficult to find.

I love the coaster too - perfect! 👌

Loved this! I have Vol II on audio, and await the publication of Vol III next month.

I‘m reading Frankenstein at the same time and there are some intriguing parallels; Tara refers to herself as a monster and I‘m just at the part in Frankenstein where the monster is living in an annex and watching the family next door…. Sound familiar?! 🤔

Henry on his one night camping trip, supposed to be two but I have the lurgy so we came home early.

Gifts from Gladstone‘s! (Actually, mainly from @julesG ! 😜)

Jules made us each a cushion cover ❤️ and also gifted me 2 book sleeves! ❤️❤️

Lots of bookmarks (some of which are already in use), a key ring, a pencil etc etc - bookish goodies are my favourite!

It‘s been a busy week since we got back from our #readingretreat at Gladstone‘s so I‘m only just getting round to the final few posts.

These are the books I ‘gained‘ during the trip. The tagged is the book I chose from our Blind Date With A Book swap - thanks Steffi!

The Prophets is from Emma, and I did a book swap with Barbara for The Loft.

The other 3 were purchases I made at West Kirby bookshop on the way there.

Can‘t tag anyone - sorry! 😬

Another 4 books on the National Book Awards longlist. I had no idea the tagged book was such a chunkster until it arrived!

I also have 2 on order from eBay but they‘re not arriving for a few weeks yet.

I‘m reading The Antidote in print - it‘s too early to say what I think yet. I‘m also listening to The Sisters on audio and, goodness me, it‘s long! 😬

Last morning of quiet reading at Gladstone‘s. 😢 we‘re having Sunday lunch then some of us are heading home - some lucky ducks aren‘t leaving until tomorrow.

Loved this book - 17 year old Charlie is in the driver‘s seat of the family‘s driverless minivan when it is involved in a fatal collision.

Weaving human and AI behaviour this is a twisty-turns look at how what we think and say (and what we don‘t say) impacts on all our lives.

@BarbaraBB gifted me this for my birthday, following Littens‘ recommendations again….and I loved it as much as Barbara did.

We had a nearly-buddyread and then we were trying to discuss what we thought happened next, without spoilering it for everyone else who hasn‘t read it. 😜

I loved the MCs and their complicated relationships and wanted the best for all of them - I just couldn‘t stop reading.

The latest by Washington (out 1st Jan in the UK) is another look at troubled familial relationships.

‘The son‘, a Black gay man has escaped to Tokyo to get away from his homophobic, troubled older brother and ‘the mother‘ who seems to favour the older brother.

When the mother turns up on the son‘s doorstep, they have to work out how to reconcile.

I loved the Tokyo setting - a character in itself. Referring to the son and mother in that ⬇️

This was less tough than I imagined it to be - possibly because the author is very matter-of-fact about her mother‘s behaviour and how it affected her.

There‘s also less about ‘Mrs Roy‘, as Arundhati calls her, than I expected. There‘s more in the first half, during the author‘s childhood, clearly, but the author also talks about her political work, writing her fiction books and non-fiction essays and winning the Booker. All fascinating stuff!

Like many others, I loved this, so thank you to the many Littens who have talked about this book over the past few months.

It follow the lives of 2 queer teenage girls in 70s / 80s Australia - one who is outed and joins a queer community and one who hides her sexuality and marries a man.

It did feel slightly patchy in places - I felt I knew ‘limb one‘ better but wanted to learn more about the queer community around her. I also felt the ⬇️

A difficult to book to read. Set in a very near future Kolkata where the heat and floods have led to poverty, many residents are emigrating to the US on climate visas.

Ma is one of those and, along with her father and 2 year old daughter she has just obtained their passports to join her husband in the US, when her bag is stolen.

Life gets worse and worse as they mount a desperate search for the thief - a very dark book but also unputdownable.

A beautiful early morning walk here at Gladstone‘s Library.

The latest Richard Osman book is another fabulous addition to the Thursday Murder Club series - perhaps not *quite* as good as book number 4 but that one was SO good.

Too many books for 4 days of reading?!

I bought 2 on the way here at the fabulous West Kirby bookshop, and @MicheleinPhilly doorstepped Waterstones in Liverpool to get the new Osman for me. Ive already read more than half of it though, so maybe not too many books for 4 days!

And can you spy the wonderful Gladstone‘s wallpaper?!

Looking forward to a lot more reading at our retreat this weekend!

Library book haul.

The Antidote is from the NBA longlist.

I‘m not sure Katabasis will be for me, so didn‘t want to buy it. I snaffled an audio copy on BorrowBox but I can‘t hear it properly when driving. (Certain voices / pitches / timbres / whatever just don‘t work for me over the road noise, no matter how loud the volume) I was lucky to not have to wait long for the physical copy.

The other two were on the ‘new in‘ shelf.

A terrible indictment of the fostering system in the US. A disproportionate number of children who have been through the system end up in jail or homeless.

The author follows 6 former foster kids, of varying ages and backgrounds, as well as looking at work done to improve the system, showing a glimmer of hope in the darkness.

If you appreciated Invisible Child, tagged below, then you‘ll feel the same about this book.

Both of the author‘s sons died by suicide, as teenagers, 6 years apart. The author talks about how to keep on living afterwards. You would imagine this book to be terribly emotional, but it‘s not. It‘s also not cold-hearted.

It‘s very difficult to find the words to describe this book - it‘s poetic, beautiful, clear-eyed and somehow hopeful.

Love this! 12 year old Kaitlin spent the 6 weeks of her school summer holiday visiting all 42 libraries in North Yorkshire (my county). North Yorkshire is the biggest county in the UK so she travelled over 900 miles to do this.

Also, Kaitlin has already read 156 (library) books this year - a Litten-in-training! ❤️

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cn0r45z7k75o

Checking out options for reading books from the NBA longlists - this is my only option currently for The Wilderness! How much?! And, seeing as I haven‘t had a CD player for over 10 years, I don‘t think so! 🤣

I‘ve purchased two physical books from the Translated Literature list and used two gift credits on Libro.fm for two NF books (thank you, Holly! 😘) I may also get Sad Tiger on Libro.fm but think I‘d rather have that in print.

Just arrived back from our camping trip to two more lovely gifts!

Thank you very much @robinb for No Two Persons - I haven‘t read it before! I‘ve read and really enjoyed The Scent Keeper so I‘m really looking forward to it.

And Culpability is from a secret squirrel Litten! 🤔 I‘ve seen so many great reviews for this on Litsy recently *and* it‘s a Europa Editions book - yay!

Written by a Goorie (Aboriginal) author this covers two timeframes.

In 1854 Mulanyin tries to build a life and a marriage against the backdrop of colonial violence. I found this part of the book fascinating, learning about how the different tribes lived and worked together, and how they were treated by the incomers.

The more modern story was of less interest to me, perhaps because the historical fiction was SO good it drew me away from it.

Loved this! It‘s a fictionalised tale of two real-life Scottish painters, Robert Colquhoun and Bobby MacBryde who meet at Glasgow School of Art in 1933.

Taking us from poverty to their college years, then the war years, then fame and famous friends, it‘s a tale of passion, debauchery, forbidden love and devastation- I couldn‘t put it down.

Catching up with reviews of books I‘ve read whilst we‘re on our hols.

Only 3 books though, despite the rain, as hubby bought me some crossword books for my birthday so they‘ve been distracting me!

I spotted this in a charity shop just after I‘d read Margo‘s Got Money Troubles and only just got round to reading it. I liked it a little more than Margo, I think - it felt a little more expansive and I liked the girls more than those in Margo.

Birthday book haul! Top and bottom books are from a non-Litsy friend, and puzzle books are from hubby, for the campervan when it‘s raining outside. ☔️

Thank you to all my lovely Litten friends - @jhod @Caroline2 @quietlycuriouskate @Oryx @Cathythoughts and to @TrishB @julesG @MicheleinPhilly for the vouchers and @Hooked_on_books for the Libro.fm credits.

You‘re all wonderful! ❤️❤️❤️

Peter is a workaholic asylum lawyer in NYC, hooking up with men on occasion but with no close relationships, including with his mother. She is a former church minister who runs a women‘s retreat.

The retreat parts of the book offer a quiet contemplative space, that contrasts with the violence and rending of both Peter‘s work and his past, as we slowly uncover what has led him to now and to the estrangement from his mother. Loved it!

It‘s definitely a book-related post, even though it may not look like it!

A rare ‘lefty‘ snail is one of the main characters in the tagged book, longlisted for the #bookerprize. 😝

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/aug/27/campaign-find-love-left-spiralling...

Aaand…. I‘ve finished the #bookerlonglist!

Above is my list, in approximate order. I‘m disappointed that, while I enjoyed a lot of these, none will make my best of the year as I‘d always hope to find 1 or 2 absolute gems on a prize list.

The first 4 were all at the same level, but I just don‘t think the Markovits is a Booker book. Oddly, I‘d substitute in Misinterpretation, despite it being lower down the list than others. ⬇️

A very long, epic story, but one that kept me engrossed throughout. Sonia and Sunny have both left India for the US, and are both lonely in their different ways.

This detailed, immersive book follows their lives and those of their meddling families as they‘re all drawn together and apart over the years.

There was a small amount of magical realism, which I didn‘t like and a bit too much introspection on occasion, but overall a fabulous read.

Thank you Barbara for my lovely gifts!

As you know, the tagged book has been on my radar for some time after all the Aussie Littens read it and raved about it!

And Slanting Towards The Sea is a fairly new addition to my wish list, having seen stellar reviews from @Jas16 @Lesliereadsalot .

I‘m looking forward to reading both at the same time/ similar time to you - maybe even a #buddyread at Gladstone‘s?!

I finished #14books14weeks! 🎉🎉🎉

I substituted 2 books - I replaced Audition with Small Boat, as I‘d read Audition before we even started! 🤦‍♀️ And I had a digital ARC of The Mobius Book that turned out to only have 3 pages 🤷‍♀️, so I replaced that with Gabriele as I joined in the June buddy read for that.

A real mix of books - some that I loved and a few that were not so good!

Thanks @Liz_M for hosting such a fun challenge!

#bookerlonglist #12

I loved this epic, character driven chunkster. Louisa goes walking on a Japanese beach with her father one night. Sometime later Louisa is found, barely alive. Her father is never found.

We look back at their lives, and those of other peripheral characters, & also at the post-war history of Japan / Korea and China, a period of time I don‘t know much about and found fascinating.

At the top of my list, alongside Seascraper.

I don‘t play computer games, but this sounds really cute - run your own bookshop recommending books to people!

https://www.theguardian.com/games/2025/aug/11/tiny-bookshop-review

Even better - hubby says he‘ll build me a real one out of a horse-box or an ice-cream van! 😝

Anyone want to join me?! We could have a little fleet of Tiny Bookshops on wheels - visiting the seaside, eating cake and talking about books!

The Brooke family gather together in their country pile to bury their husband / father / unfaithful philanderer. They‘re all nearly as unlikeable as he is, and all out for what they can get.

I just don‘t think this was the right book for me right now - too much anger and angst and, while I often enjoy reading about ‘bad‘ people, this time it just felt too much.

There was also one aspect of the story that wasn‘t covered in enough depth.

#bookerlonglist #11

I found the first half of the book really compelling and intriguing, with the mix of marriage-bureau and saving the snails. (sounds odd but kind-of works!)

I also liked the meta-fiction elements, where the author inserts her own thoughts on the Ukraine war into the storyline.

Later on, it all started to get a bit dis-jointed and I didn‘t think the author quite nailed the ending.

Popped into the library after my supermarket shop this morning, to pick up two holds from my Booker predictions spreadsheet (top 2)

I saw the author of the 3rd book speak at the Crimewriting Festival recently, liked the sound of the book, but not enough to want to buy a hardback copy 😬 so I was glad to see it on the ‘new in‘ shelf.

And then there was a book sale….. oops! I‘m doing my bit supporting local libraries, of course!

#bookerlonglist #10

I did really like this but struggled with the audio at the start. Definitely a case of me though, not the book. Listening on my commute and having lots of work-related stress meant I was very distracted and kept losing the thread. Although I don‘t think the constant changing of POV and from first to third person helped.

The ending was very sudden, but to be expected when it‘s the first in a series of four. I will read more.

#9 from the #bookerlonglist and one that I really enjoyed.

I get the Strout comparisons, from the POV of a monologue that goes off at tangents about random people from the past and present. However, it‘s definitely not the ‘male All Fours‘ - not even remotely. That‘s just a lazy comparison because the protagonist takes off on a road trip without telling anyone, in this case having just dropped his daughter off at college.

This is #8 from the #bookerlonglist and another one I wasn‘t overly excited to pick up. There‘s a lot of (inappropriate) sex at the start and I really dislike that on audio ?.

As the book continued, though, I grew to like and appreciate the MC, István, even though he remains monosyllabic throughout a life that just seems to happen to him.

Currently, this would make my shortlist, albeit from a longlist where nothing is standing out yet.

Of course I still needed to borrow more books from the library, even though I‘m reading the #bookerlonglist.

And of course I‘m still waiting for another 6 holds to come in - these are all books that I reserved ‘just in case‘ they made the longlist and that I still want to read anyhow! 🤦‍♀️😜

#bookerlonglist book 7

Another one that I wasn‘t overly enthusiastic about but I really liked the first part. The narrator is an Albanian translator in NYC who gets too involved with her clients, leading to misunderstandings with her husband, and even danger to herself.

I thought this would likely make my shortlist but then the final third got really confusing, with no loose ends tied up and too many unanswered questions.

A soft pick.