My Week in Books – 4th January 2026

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On the blog last week

Monday – I shared my Q&A with Jodie Morgan, author of cozy mystery Murder at the Summer Cheese Festival, plus an excerpt from the book.

Tuesday – This week’s Top Ten Tuesday topic was Most Recent Additions To My Bookshelf.

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 the fifty books on my second Classics Club list. Something to keep me occupied until December 2030!

Friday – I published my wrap-up for the Historical Fiction Reading Challenge 2025.

Saturday – I took part in the #6Degrees of Separation meme, forging a chain from The French Lieutenant’s Women to J. Habakuk Jephson’s Statement. I also participated in the Six on Saturday meme, sharing six things from my garden this week.

New on my shelves

Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaghy (Macmillan Audio)

A family on a remote island. A mysterious woman washed ashore. A rising storm on the horizon.

Dominic Salt and his three children are caretakers of Shearwater, a tiny weather-lashed island that is home to the world’s largest seed bank. As Shearwater risks being lost to rising sea levels, the island’s researchers have fled, and only the Salts remain.

Until, during the worst storm in living memory, a stranger washes ashore. The family nurse the woman, Rowan, back to strength, but it seems she isn’t telling the whole truth about why she’s there. And when Rowan stumbles upon sabotaged radios and a recently dug grave, she realises that she’s not the only one on the island with a secret.

What I’m currently reading

I’m reading Whale Fall and The Eights from my TBR pile and listening to the audiobook of Wild Dark Shore for my book club.

Look out for…

  • Book Review: Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid
  • Book Review: The Huntingfield Paintress by Pamela Holmes
  • Book Review: Tin Man by Sarah Winman

Six on Saturday – My Gardening Week

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Six on Saturday is a weekly meme originally hosted by The Propagator but now in the tender care of Jim at Garden Ruminations.

I’ve been a lurker for quite a while, enjoying reading the posts of other gardeners – celebrating their triumphs, glorying in their knowledge, commiserating with their struggles – but not contributing myself. However, I reckon it’s time that changed even if I have chosen the most challenging time of the year to join in.

(L to R) One – The pyracantha growing over our garden gate is still covered in berries. Two – Just about the last remaining, rather tatty flower of achillea millefolium ‘Cerise Queen’. The achillea took over in the borders last year, smothering other plants. I divided some of the larger clumps back in the autumn and potted them up ready to be moved to new raised beds in the front garden. (Perhaps more on that next time.) Three – Choiysa ternata ‘Sundance’ living up to its name. If you look closely you’ll see the only frog to visit our new wildlife pond so far is a terracotta one.

(L to R) Four – I like the foliage combination of aucuba japonica and arbutus unedo, the latter with most of its strawberry-like fruits now on the ground. At least, those the pigeons haven’t snaffled. Five – It seems way too early to see the leaves of allium schubertii appearing but here they are poking up through frosty earth. There’s nothing around them because I’ve been clearing the bed they’re in as part of another project. (Like most gardeners, I have many projects on the go.) Six – My first attempt at growing purple sprouting broccoli. Whether it will get big enough to be worth harvesting is another matter.

Do check out the posts of other participants by following the links in the comments section of Jim’s post. If you fancy taking part yourself but don’t know where to start, here’s the participant’s guide.