Category: My Week in Books

On the blog last week

Tuesday – This week’s Top Ten Tuesday topic was a freebie on the theme of book covers and I chose Books With Modes of Transport on the Cover.

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 published my review of historical novel Little Spark by Jess Kidd.

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

New on my shelves

Careless People by Sarah Wynn-Williams (Pan Macmillan)

Sarah Wynn-Williams, a young diplomat from New Zealand, pitched for her dream job. She saw Facebook’s potential and knew it could change the world for the better. But, when she got there and rose to its top ranks, things turned out a little different.

From wild schemes cooked up on private jets to risking prison abroad, Careless People exposes both the personal and political fallout when boundless power and a rotten culture take hold. In a gripping and often absurd narrative, Wynn-Williams rubs shoulders with Mark Zuckerberg, Sheryl Sandberg and world leaders, revealing what really goes on among the global elite – and the consequences this has for all of us.

Candid and entertaining, this is an intimate memoir set amid powerful forces. As all our lives are upended by technology and those who control it, Careless People will change how you see the world.

Dead Men Don’t Ski (Inspector Henry Tibbett Mystery #1) by Patricia Moyes (Farrago)

Inspector Henry Tibbett is taking a much-needed holiday from his job at Scotland Yard with his wife Emmy. Headed for a spot of skiing in the Italian Dolomites and some first-class people-watching, Tibbett’s worries blissfully melt away.

That is, until a fellow guest who boards the ski lift alive at the top of the mountain is found dead when the lift touches bottom. Another dead body turns up, and then another, and it becomes clear that Murder has come to the mountain.

What I’m currently reading

I’m reading Conqueror (Agricola #4) by Simon Turney from my NetGalley shelf, an ARC of A Shroud of Snow by Sarah Hawkswood, published on 20th August by Allison & Busby, and listening to the audiobook of Careless People by Sarah Wynn-Williams.

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Look out for…

• Book Review: The Glass Maker of Venice by David Gilman
• Book Review: Conqueror (Agricola #4) by Simon Turney

On the blog last week

Monday – I published my review of Country People by Daniel Mason.

Tuesday – This week’s Top Ten Tuesday topic was Books I Was Excited For But Still Haven’t Read… plenty of scope there.

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. I also shared my review of The Draw of the Sea by Wyl Menmuir.

Thursday – I published my review of The Eagle & the Wolf by Gordon Doherty.

Friday – I shared my July 2026 Wrap Up.

Saturday – I joined other gardeners for #SixonSaturday sharing six things from my garden this week. I also participated in the monthly #6Degrees of Separation meme forging a book chain from Land by Maggie O’Farrell to Magpie Murders by Anthony Horowitz.

New on my shelves

A Shroud of Snow (Bradecote & Catchpoll #14) by Sarah Hawkswood (ARC, Allison & Busby)

December, 1145. Hamelin Isenmongere, a trader in iron and charcoal from Gloucester, is considered by many to be the most popular man in Worcester. Why then is he found on the quayside near his warehouse with his head beaten in?

As winter bites, Undersheriff Hugh Bradecote, Serjeant Catchpoll and Underserjeant Walkelin are on the trail of a killer. However, they must tread cautiously when the trail of evidence leads them back to Worcester Castle itself where William de Beauchamp is more concerned that they seek out a spy within its walls. It is up to the Sheriff’s men to discover whether the murder was an act of betryal by someone close to home, or one that casts a shadow over the fight for England’s crown.

Switzy by Emma Cline (Viking via NetGalley) Longlisted for the Booker Prize 2026

A private plane cuts through the winter night, somewhere over Greenland. David, a retired executive, sits back in his leather seat, playing solitaire on his phone. Click. Click. Drag. Click. The notebook in his jacket pocket is filled with familiar phrases, urgent reminders to himself, but he struggles to recognize his own handwriting.

A mystery, among many mysteries. The world, once so knowable, has been rendered inscrutable.

This is what David Cody, his assistant, asleep in the seat next to him, will shepherd him along the voyage. A stopover in London. Dinner with his adult daughter. A meeting in France with an old friend, estranged for decades.

His final destination is Zurich.

David glides through hotel rooms and airports and foreign cities, running out the clock on his mortal life. His grasp on the present slips away, and the past rushes the Sunday roasts of childhood. The stiff clothes meant only for church. A summer at a school friend’s house. The losses and missteps that punctuate a life.

As David’s arrival in Zurich looms, an exquisitely rendered portrait of an unravelling mind emerges, both darkly humorous and profoundly moving. Hypnotic and startlingly original, Switzy probes the depths of human consciousness, revealing what a man is left with when the accomplishments and compromises that have defined him, and the illusions he’s relied on, vanish.

What I’m currently reading

I’m reading Trials of the Heart by Stephen Wade and The Knife Maker of Venice by David Gilman from my NetGalley Shelf.

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Look out for…

• Book Review: Land by Maggie O’Farrell
• Book Review: Little Spark by Jess Kidd