On the blog last week
Monday – I shared my October 2026 Wrap-up. I also published my Q&A with Itay Koh, author of historical novel Ernest and Samuel.
Tuesday – My take on this week’s Top Ten Tuesday was Books I’ve Reviewed With Titles That Are Compound Words. As part of Nonfiction November, I looked back at My Year in Nonfiction.
Wednesday – As always #WWWWednesday is a weekly opportunity to share what I’ve just read, what I’m currently reading and what I plan to read next… and to take a peek at what others are reading. I also published my review of Miss Veal and Miss Ham by Vikki Heywood.
Thursday – I shared a Scottish themed Spell the Month in Books.
Friday – I published a guest post by Gabriel Tait, author of Meeks, about why he didn’t start writing fiction until he was fifty. I also published my review of The Taper Man by Nick Harkaway.
Saturday – I published my review of historical novel The Bohemian Queen by Jean Findlay as part of the blog tour. I also participated in the #6Degrees of Separation meme forging a bookish chain from Quartet by Jean Rhys to A Beginner’s Guide to Breaking and Entering by Andrew Hunter Murray. And to complete a busy week on the blog, I joined other gardeners for #SixonSaturday sharing six things from my garden this week.
New on my shelves
Bird in Space by Miki Lentin (eARC, Afsana Press)
In London, Jerry Gold’s mother calls with an impossible demand: travel to Romania and into Ukraine to save a wooden house her father built before the second world war. The house had been a refuge for the family before they were deported in 1941 to Transnistria, a part of the holocaust.
Armed only with his mother’s blurred 1980s photographs, a befriended truck driver and museum director and an uncanny sense that the land remembers him, Jerry is pushed through northern Romania’s forests and borderlands toward Chernivtsi in Ukraine and the truth about the house.
Using Romanian new wave cinema, the art of Brancusi, Romanian traditions and the richness of the landscape, Bird in Space blends history with the present day, depicting a country that is lost in time, still emerging from Communism and struggling with its past and future. The story is personal, one of searching and belonging and asks questions about middle-age, the impact of war and what we do with our personal and built heritage.
Fire in the Fens (1066 Saga #3) by G. K. Holloway (eARC, Troubador)
Duke William of Normandy has conquered all of England, except for the Island of Ely, deep in the heart of the Fens. A land of myths, mists, mire and marshes, where death comes quickly to the careless.
Taking refuge are people caught up in these desperate times. A charismatic soldier appears to lead them into battle against a merciless despot and his henchmen. Overcoming loss and adapting to the worst of trials in their own different ways, these refugees in their home country are willing to lay down their lives for their rights and old way of life.
Will their proclaimed king arrive with an army and save the day? Can they evade capture, or will they have to face the wrath of the Tyrant? Whatever the outcome, life will never be the same for them again.
What I’m currently reading
I’m reading Adder Stone by Clare Clark for a blog tour, a digital review copy of The Boy on the Sofa by Paul Linggood and I’m listening to the audiobook of The Weight of Angels by John Boyne.
Look out for…
- The Gift That Inspired The Silk Weavers’ Legacy by K.L. Loveley
- Blog Tour/Book Review: Adder Stone by Clare Clark
- Guest Post: A Moment’s Surrender by John Burt
- Guest Post: Why I Wrote A Saga by G.K. Holloway, author of Fire in the Fens
