Category: My Week in Books

On the blog last week

Tuesday – I went off-piste for this week’s Top Ten Tuesday, revisiting My Winter 2025/2026 To-Read List.

Wednesday – As always WWW Wednesday 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.

Thursday – I shared my sign-up post for the 20 Books of Summer 2026 reading challenge.

Saturday – I joined other gardeners for #SixonSaturday, sharing six things happening in my garden this week.

New on my shelves

The Newer World by Sebastian Barry (Viking via NetGalley)

“I knew as I made my way home that there was no home. All the old things…were gone forever.”

Born into bondage in Union-leaning northwestern Tennessee, Tennyson Bouguereau’s life revolves around his sister, Rosalee, his work in the Magan family’s tobacco fields, and keeping apart from his pro-Confederate neighbors.

In the wake of emancipation, when a gang of defeated soldiers descends on the farm—now also home to Irish immigrant Thomas McNulty; his companion, John Cole; and their adopted Lakota daughter, Winona—Tennyson commits a deadly act.

Tennyson will not now have the chance to till the ten acres Magan has given him and Rosalee as their own. Instead, he must leave everything he knows, and venture into the newer world.

Rose & Renzo by Carolyn O’Brien (Northodox Press)

Manchester, 1936.

Fascism looms in Europe, and Oswald Mosley’s Blackshirts are on the rise.

After the death of their father, two sisters arrive in Manchester’s vibrant ‘Little Italy’: creative misfit, Rose, and her much older sister, Ivy. Fearful of Rose’s impulsiveness, Ivy seeks to control her, forcing her to give up her cherished place at art school.

Frustrated and desperate to pursue her passion, Rose meets Renzo, a painter arrived from Europe. Their connection is instant and powerful. Yet as their feelings deepen, Renzo’s past in Mussolini’s Italy remains a mystery.

As Blackshirts march across the city, Rose is drawn to the fight against fascism, even as she’s compelled to face the devastating question: just which side is Renzo on?

What I’m currently reading

I’m reading Once the Deed is Done, shortlisted for the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction, and Bane of Bernicia (published on 4th June by Head of Zeus) from my NetGalley shelf

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Look out for…

• Book Review: Relative Failures by Matthew Sturgis
• Book Review: Paper Sisters by Rachel Canwell
• Book Review: Flashlight by Susan Choi
• Book Review: Goodbye Chinatown by Kit Fan

On the blog last week

Monday – I published my review of Dark is the Morning by Rupert Thomson.

Tuesday – This week’s Top Ten Tuesday was a freebie and I chose the topic Fictional Housekeepers.

Wednesday – As always WWW Wednesday 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.

Friday – I published my review of A Private Man by Stephanie Sy-Quia.

Saturday – The first Saturday of the month means it’s time for the #6Degrees of Separation meme. My book chain took me from Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaghy to Flashlight by Susan Choi. Plus I joined other gardeners for #SixonSaturday, sharing six things happening in my garden this week.

New on my shelves

The Housekeeper by Rose Tremain (Vintage via NetGalley)

‘Daphne du Maurier stole my life.’

Mrs Danowski – known as Danni – is the housekeeper of a grand house on the wild coast of Cornwall. When a glamorous young writer, Daphne du Maurier, visits Manderville Hall to research her new novel, she and Danni are drawn into a clandestine and intoxicating affair.

For Danni, it is an all-consuming love; for Daphne a submission to long-suppressed desires. But their fragile secret is vulnerable to prying eyes and destined for heartbreak. When Daphne’s novel launches to triumphant success, Danni is distraught to find herself transformed into a malign and jealous character on the page. She seeks respite from the hurt by telling her own story: The Housekeeper.

Call Me Ishmaelle by Xiaolu Guo (audiobook, Vintage)

In 1843, in a small village on the stormy Kent coast, Ishmaelle is born. She grows up swimming with dolphins and eventually – desperate for a life at sea – she disguises herself as a cabin boy and travels to New York.

As the American Civil War breaks out, Ishmaelle boards a whaling ship led by the obsessive Captain Seneca, a Black free man of heroic stature who is haunted by a tragic past. Here, she finds protectors amidst the bloody male violence of whaling and discovers a mysterious bond between herself and the mythical white whale Moby Dick…

Where are the Kings by Donal Ryan (Doubleday via NetGalley)

Jack is just twelve years old when he rushes down the hill after his mother’s car on his bike, desperate to reach her before she reaches the lake.

What happens next cannot be undone. Jack’s life changes just at the moment he is entering those dizzying years when he will transition from boy to man; when nothing makes sense at the best of times.

Yet Jack is not alone. Enveloped as he is by his extended family – his ferociously loving Nana; Grandad, given to sudden bursts of rage; his earthy uncles Haulie and Theo who want to show him what it means to be a man, and the irascible JJ who resents him deeply. Then there is beautiful aunt Rose, whose mere presence ignites every atom in his changing body.

But how can a boy with so many questions, in a family with so many secrets, understand the person he is becoming? Without his mother to ground him on the earth, will he spin off into the stars?

What I’m currently reading

I’m reading Relative Failures: The Lives of Willie Wilde, Mabel Beardsley and Howard Sturgis which I won in a giveaway, and Goodbye Chinatown (published on 2nd June by World Editions) from my NetGalley Shelf

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Look out for…

• Book Review: Paper Sisters by Rachel Canwell
• Book Review: Flashlight by Susan Choi