State of the TBR – May 2026

May 1, 2026

Liz Dexter Book confessions, Book reviews, Read The Darn Hardback, Reading challenges, State of the TBR, TBR challenge 2024 , , , 16 Comments

I still have a pile!! Oh no. Well, does one book constitute a pile? (you can compare the shelf to last month here).

In fact, while I try not to think of things in terms of failure and certainly don’t seek to beat myself up about my reading, if you look at it objectively, I didn’t get rid of the pile; I didn’t finish my review books or review them; I didn’t read all my NetGalley TBR; I didn’t take any books to Oxfam. Oops. In my defence, I had a big work month (for once: hooray!) which also included sorting out a problem with my pension and doing my tax return, and I’ve been spending quite a lot of time supporting our current local councillor and three more candidates in our local council elections. That bit is over this time next week, and I am also going to be doing some longish volunteer shifts at the Community Centre: you just have to be around for event cover shifts, so I can take something to read, and indeed caught up with my archaeology magazine backlog the other weekend. So I have a plan to work calmly through the backlog. I do care, but I’m not going to panic, about review books. And your blogs. I will read your blogs, any bloggers reading this!

I took and finished just one print book off the main shelf in April and am in the middle of another three, which gave me almost a big enough gap for the incomings. I didn’t take any of the oldest books off the shelf and read NONE from the 2024 TBR project (8 to go now at my stretch goal finish so I STILL didn’t do it but I’ll keep recording to the bitter end!). I only finished one I was half-way through I did manage to read two books for Kaggsy and Simon’s 1961 Week, “Bel Lamington” by D. E. Stevenson, kindly sent to me by Dean Street Press, and Iris Murdoch’s “A Severed Head” (which necessitated me reading “The Bell” first).

I had nine NetGalley review books published in April to read and I only managed to read seven and a half of them. I managed to contribute two books to Reading Ireland Month and one to Reading Wales Month, which I was pleased about.

The Liz and Emma Read Together books are in a separate pile (middle shelf, to the left) because they don’t form part of the TBR project. The pile on the top right is review books and a loaned one that mustn’t get subsumed by the general TBR.

I completed just 13 books in April. I am part-way through a million more (see below) plus my new Reading with Emma book and the ongoing big one. I acquired just eight NetGalley books this month, and my NetGalley review percentage has gone back up to 93%, plus two other e-books.

Incomings

I feel like I kept the incomings down considering there was a Kings Heath Literature Festival last month AND a friend’s book came out …

I was compelled to buy the new (5th) edition of Martin Cutts’ “The Oxford Guide to Plain English” after discovering when I took it along to aid me in updating some Community Centre documents that my 3rd edition recommended “Avoid sexist language when possible”. I ordered it in from The Heath Bookshop of course. Also bought from there the week before the wonderful Literature festival were the three books for the three events I was attending: Jesse Bernard’s “Escaping Babylon” about Black British music (Jesse was lovely, interviewed by Adèle Oliver of “Deeping It” fame, doing his first author event), Helen O’Hara’s “What’s She Like” about her career playing the violin, including in Dexy’s Midnight Runners (Helen was a super interviewee and was interviewed by the lovely Pete Paphides, who I have now met twice), and Will Hodgkinson’s “Street Level Superstar” about the music legend who is Lawrence (just as eccentric as you would hope, both expertly interviewed by Lyle Bignon). Then I had to order my blogging friend Laura Tisdall’s “We Have Come to be Destroyed”, not just because I know her but because it’s about growing up in Cold War Britain. Finally, Pluto Press naughtily sent out a 40% off anarchist titles offer email and I ordered “Anarcho-Indigenism” by various, and Morag Rose’s “The Feminist Art of Walking”.

Moving on to ebooks, I won eight NetGalley books in April, half what I won last month! I did choose the ones to request with intent, I promise, but I need to note I am lagging behind in my NetGalley reading at the moment! I also bought one e-book and was sent one by the author (thank you, Jeevani!):

Jeevani Charika sent me a review copy of “The Valentine’s Express on the Brambleberry Steam Railway”, written under her pen name Rhoda Baxter, which she had to indie-publish because it’s set in Yorkshire at a heritage railway (what is not to like, right?). That was out yesterday and I reviewed it then. Emma introduced me to Sally Page‘s novels and she had a new one out at 99p, “Six Little Words” which we might manage to read together.

Then in NetGalley books I won Katie Clapham’s “Receipts from the Bookshop” (published in June); how can I resist a bookseller’s memoir? Ryan Cho’s “Brotherhood is a Constant Possibility” (Sept) is about South and South-East Asian masculinity and Elvin James Mensah’s second novel, “White Spaces” (June) (I loved his “Small Joys“) about Black British masculinity. Saba Salman’s “Double Discrimination” (May) is about the challenges people of colour with learning disabilities face.

Then we have a run of light fiction: I was offered Susie Dent‘s second crime novel, “Death Writ Large” (August) by the publisher; I was thrilled to win Travis Baldree‘s short stories, “Tales from the Territory” (October) having loved “Legends and Lattes” and its prequel and sequel; I couldn’t resist trying the hilarious Mel Giedroyc‘s new novel “The Comeback” (August); and I was relieved to be sent a link for Christie Barlow‘s new Puffin Island novel, “The Clock Maker’s Cottage” (May) as I’d already heard it was coming out soon!

Outgoings

No books left the house this month!

So that’s 13 books read and 17 books in (but 1 of them already read, so really 16!) for April, and 7 print books in and none out.

Currently reading

OK, so this is actually bad.

Aforementioned busyness was washing over me and I started to panic and read review copies randomly. I realised I hadn’t included my Wendy Cope poems and Oliver Sacks letters in my Get the Hardbacks Read project so have read one of the collected books in the Cope. Emma wasn’t very keen on “Green Unpleasant Land” as it was a bit on the academic side for her, so we’ve chosen a new Reading Together book (“Sand Talk”, the only one on this pile I don’t have to finish this month!) but as we’d done a couple of chapters, I kept it out; I have to read “The Convenience Store by the Sea” because I had its sequel published in April on my NetGalley TBR, Robin Ince’s last book came out in paperback in April and I have been reading Josie Dew’s “Slow Coast Home” with my friend Cari (she hasn’t finished it either, at least). Oh, and I’m continuing with Henry Eliot’s “The Penguin Modern Classics Book” which I WILL finish.

So what I have to do now is read one book at a time, maybe a few poems mixed in per day, calmly and sensibly, right? And perhaps try not to acquire any others?

Coming up

I have a decent number of NetGalley books to read (see below) plus I need to finish all that current Terrible Pile above, plus “A Murder for Miss Hortense” in hardback, which is now out in paperback. Thankfully I don’t have any hardbacks that are out in paperback this month so can concentrate on that Terrible Pile.

My May NetGalley books:

As well as needing to finish “Trapped Life” and reading two more April books, in the usual mix of non-fiction and fiction, I have two in series bookending the month, Kiley Dunbar’s “Making Sparks Fly at the Highland Repair Shop” and Christie Barlow’s “The Clock Maker’s Cottage”; two novels about books, Katie Holt’s “The Last Page” and Julie Haworth’s “Bea’s Book Wagon”; two books about disability issues, Bethany Handley’s “My Body is a Meadow” and Saba Salman’s “Double Discrimination”; two novels by famous people (who are however writers so probably did write them), Tom Allen’s “Common Decency” and Philippa Perry’s “Shrink Solves Murder”. Then I have two about architecture, Tom Fort’s “Lido Land” and Jan-Werner Muller’s “Street, Palace, Square”; and two more Own Voices books, Eden Mackenzie-Goddard’s Windrush Generation novel, “Smallie” and Lydia Pang’s memoir, “Eat Bitter”, the unpaired one being Ruth Ozeki’s short stories, “The Typing Lady”.

With the ones I’m currently reading, I have nine books to finish and two to continue, and seventeen other books to read, which really will NOT be doable, I feel. I do have those Community Centre shifts with hopefully not too many issues to help with, so we’ll see.

How was your April reading? What are you reading this month? Are you doing any book challenges for the month?

State of the TBR – April 2026

April 1, 2026

Liz Dexter Book confessions, Book reviews, Read The Darn Hardback, Reading challenges, State of the TBR, TBR challenge 2024 , , , 41 Comments

I have a pile!! Oh no. Just a two-book one, but it’s upsetting! (you can compare the shelf to last month here). I took just ONE print book off the main shelf in March. I didn’t take any of the oldest books off the shelf and read NONE from the 2024 TBR project (8 to go now at my stretch goal finish so I STILL didn’t do it but I’ll keep recording to the bitter end!).

I had eight NetGalley review books published in March to read and I read all of those plus four published in April (not yet reviewed). I managed to contribute two books to Reading Ireland Month and one to Reading Wales Month, which I was pleased about.

The Liz and Emma Read Together books are in a separate pile (middle shelf, to the left) because they don’t form part of the TBR project. The pile on the top right is review books and a loaned one that mustn’t get subsumed by the general TBR.

I completed 17 books in March (four still to review). The ones not accounted for by TBR or NetGalley books were two review books not reviewed here, one Iris Murdoch and one Liz and Emma read. I am part-way through three more plus my new Reading with Emma book and the ongoing big one. I acquired 16 NetGalley books again this month (two already dealt with), and my NetGalley review percentage has dropped to 92% but should go up again when I review the four books I have read but not yet reviewed.

Incomings

I didn’t acquire many print books in March and one doesn’t count!

I mentioned two ebooks acquired from Floodgate Press last month and the paperbacks I ordered at the same time arrived this month: “Night Time Economy” and “Digbeth Stories” both contain short pieces about my adopted home city. Back in November, I bought a load of books published by 404 Press because they were closing and their final volume, “Publisher Not Found: A Decade of Disruption 2016-2026”, which I bought at the same time, has finally been published and arrived. I was in The Heath Bookshop placing an order for the next book and spotted Hannah Kent’s “Always Home, Always Homesick” about her year in Iceland as a young woman and was unable to resist it, and the next day I collected my order of John Grindrod’s new book, “Tales of the Suburbs: LGBTQ+ Lives Behind Net Curtains”. Finally, Jane from local second-hand bookshop The Book Tower found “Passenger Services Timetable London … The Midlands” from 1958 in a consignment of books she’d bought and knew I’d like it, so brought it along to a Community Centre Development Day we both attended! That last one is not a reading copy as such but is enormously welcome in the house.

Moving on to ebooks, I won sixteen NetGalley books in March, the same number as last month! I mean, I’m keeping up with my NetGalley reading, even ahead, so I think this is OK, and they’re all good ones!

I was offered Amy DuBois Barnett’s “If I Ruled the World” (published April, already read) by the PR for the publisher and greatly enjoyed this late 90s story of a Black woman excelling in magazine publishing. I love Ruth Ozeki’s work and spotted her short stories, “The Typing Lady and Other Fictions” (May). Richard Collett’s “Along The Borders” (April) traces a years-long journey in the borderlands of Britain. I loved “The Secret Lives of Church Ladies” so had to request Deesha Philyaw’s new novel, “The True Confessions of First Lady Freeman” (January 2027!). Lea Korsgaard’s story of the healing effect of looking for Danish nature, “The Butterfly Season” (June) was from a read-now promotion email from NetGalley, and I think Marie-Claire Amuah’s “Sister of Mine” (April, already read) was similar. Three non-fiction titles, A. J. West’s “How Queer Bookshops Changed the World” (June), Neeraj Kaushal’s “When Africa Comes to America: How the Next Wave of Immigrants Will Transform the United States” (June) and John Kluge’s “Banking on Belonging: Why Investing in Refugee Entrepreneurs Benefits Everyone” (July) are self-explanatory and will be interesting.

Mostly update novels from previously enjoyed authors, Jeevani Charika alerted her newsletter readers about “The Wedding Planner’s Guide to Stealing the Bride” (July) – I previously enjoyed her “How Can I Resist You”; the publisher contacted me about Jenny Jackson’s new one, “The Shampoo Effect” (July) because I’d enjoyed her “Pineapple Street“; I’ve been enjoying the Highland Repair Shop series so said yes to the publisher on Kiley Dunbar’s “Making Sparks Fly at the Highland Repair Shop” (May). I have “A Murder for Miss Hortense” to read (soon) so was thrilled to spot Mel Pennant’s “Miss Hortense and the Last Rites” (July) (they’re set in Birmingham!); Matthew enjoyed Asako Yuzuki’s “Butter” so I requested her new stalkery novel, “Hooked” (March); and I was offered Jane Linfoot’s “The Cornish Beach Hut Wedding” (April) and took it on as I’ve enjoyed her other books. Finally, Tiffany Gayle Chenault’s “Black Woman Runner” (October) is a memoir about running in general and running as a Black woman, so I had to request it.

Outgoings

I took four running books to my running club’s AGM and donated 11 to Oxfam Books for a total of 15.

So that’s 17 books read and 21 books in (but two of them are already read, so really 19!) for March, and 5 print books in and 15 out.

Currently reading

Not sure how I’m still reading Laura Spinney’s “Proto” which I started last month! Emma and I are about to start Corinne Fowler’s “Green Unpleasant Land” and I’m reading Emily Kerr’s “Blind Date with a Book” on Kindle. And I’m continuing with Henry Eliot’s “The Penguin Modern Classics Book” which I WILL finish.

Coming up

I have a decent number of NetGalley books, some review books and some Read the Darn Hardbacks to read, plus my next Iris Murdoch, “The Bell” and hopefully “A Severed Head” as that fits in with Kaggsy and Simon’s 1961 Week!

“Of Thorn and Briar” and “Miss Hortense” are published in March and April in paperback so need reading! Lovely Cari sent me “Slow Coast Home” by Josie Dew and we’re going to read that together this month. Review books “Lost London”, “Future Rural” and “Run Forever” will appear on Shiny New Books (first two) and my blog soon!

My April NetGalley books:

In a mix of non-fiction and fiction, I have “Hooked”, “Along the Borders” and “The Cornish Beach Hut Wedding” as previously mentioned. Amir Levine’s “Secure” about how attachment style manifests in adulthood, “Trapped” about life on a London estate, “The Wilderness” following Black women friends, “Fallout” looking at Greenham Common’s pull on a schoolgirl, the new Debbie Macomber and “Meet Me At the Convenience Store By the Sea” which reminds me I need to dig out the first novel from my TBR shelf!

With the ones I’m currently reading, I have three books to finish and two to continue, and fifteen other books to read, which might be doable, I feel (I have a weekend away with train journeys and some other down time planned this month). I did what I planned last month, after all!

How was your March reading? What are you reading this month? Are you doing any book challenges for the month?

State of the TBR – March 2026

March 7, 2026

Liz Dexter Book confessions, Book reviews, Read The Darn Hardback, ReadIndies, Reading challenges, State of the TBR, TBR challenge 2024 , , , , 33 Comments

Sorry this is almost a week late, I’ve had to have other priorities this week and these posts take quite a lot of time and effort. This post is basically based on the state of the TBR a week ago, so there will have been some changes since, so bear with me if things don’t seem to match up. I am pleased that even though I acquired a LOT of print books in February, with some of them going straight on the shelves and a lot of them being review copies, I have managed to still fit them all in on the TBR shelves (you can compare them to last month). I took four print books off the main shelf in February. I didn’t take any of the oldest books off the shelf and read NONE from the 2024 TBR project (8 to go now at my stretch goal finish so I STILL didn’t do it but I’ll keep recording to the bitter end!).

I had five NetGalley review books published in Feburary to read and I read all of those. I attempted Kaggsys Bookish Ramblings’ #ReadIndies challenge and did manage three books published by independent publishers, plus I acquired print books this month from EIGHT different indie publishers, which I highlight below.

The Liz and Emma Read Together books are in a separate pile (middle shelf, to the left) because they don’t form part of the TBR project. The pile on the top right is review books and a loaned one that mustn’t get subsumed by the general TBR.

I completed 14 books in February (all reviewed). I am part-way through four more plus my Reading with Emma book and the ongoing big one. I acquired 16 NetGalley books this month (two already dealt with), and my NetGalley review percentage is steady at 93%, and two e-books.

Incomings

I acquired quite a lot of print books in February! Fortunately, not all of them went on the TBR as such.

So. I tried to win a copy of Tim Bird’s “Happy Land” (about Finland!) and a ticket to the book launch and failed, then the publisher sent me a discount code and if I bought something else I got free postage, so that’s how John Bevis’ “The English Library Journey” came to me. Both from indie publisher Eye Books. Then, “Flamboyance: The Art of Burning Brightly” by Jack Parlett came for review in Shiny New Books, out in June, a history of flamboyance as a cultural artefact, from indie publisher Granta. Another review copy, “Future Rural”, essays on the future of the countryside, is edited by Adrian Cooper and out in April from indie publisher Little Toller, yet another, “Lost London” by Paul Knox, also April, a beautiful illustrated, heavy papered book about 25 missing buildings, to review for Shiny, from Yale University Press; and “The Writer’s Table” by Valerie Stivers, which I’m reviewing for the Iris Murdoch Review.

In surprises, I received a copy of Shahad Ezaydi’s “The Othered Woman: How White Feminism Harms Muslim Women”, which I had subscribed for through the now-gone Unbound: indie publisher Pluto Press have taken it on and very generously provided copies to Unbound subscribers. Then I was in The Book Tower, our lovely newish secondhand bookshop in Kings Heath, dropping off some books for owner Jane, and she had one, two, three, four Iris Murdoch paperbacks I didn’t have, two with remarkable covers, so “A Word Child”, “A Fairly Honourable Defeat”, “The Time of the Angels” and “The Black Prince” came home with me but then went straight on the Iris Murdoch Shelves (whichever is the most intact copy to be read as I continue to go through them all again). One little slip when I won the sequel to Sonoko Machida’s “The Convenience Store by the Sea” on NetGalley so had to buy the first volume …

Then, I had seen mention of Tyree Barnette’s “Stolen Man on Stolen Land”, a memoir by an African American man in Australia, it must have been on The Australian Legend‘s blog but I can’t find it now, and had to have it – it was only available in Australia, so I placed an order with Readings, the wonderful Australian bookshop which will ship quite reasonably to the UK, and it made sense to add Tyson Yunkaporta’s “Right Story, Wrong Story: Adventures in Indigenous Thinking”, from indie publisher Text Publishing, Samantha Faulkner (ed.) “Growing up Torres Straight Islander in Australia” and Aarti Betigeri (ed.) “Growing up Indian in Australia”, all also not available here (or only available in expensive e-book form, or actually of course now available grrr), these last two from indie publisher Black Inc. Lastly, indie publisher Vertebrate sent me Damian Hall’s new book, “Run Forever” (out in April).

Moving on to ebooks, I won sixteen NetGalley books in February and I acquired two more ebooks from another indie publisher.

In NetGalley books, I won Helen Lederer’s “Not that I’m Bitter” (published 2025, reviewed here) and Elissa Soave’s “Common Ground” (published February, reviewed here) so they’re done and dusted already. I keep looking at what’s just been put on NetGalley and picked up Clémentine Beavais’ “Piglettes” (published June), a coming of age road-trip on bicycles in France; Amman Brar’s “Mr Sidhu’s Post Office” (July), a novel about the Post Office Scandal; Bethany Handley’s “My Body is a Meadow” (May), about access (or lack of) to the countryside for people with disabilities; “Half Lives” by Krystle Zara Appiah (June), a family story of sisters from Ghana and the two paths they take; and “Secure” by Amir Levine (April), looking at attachment theory and its application to adult life.

The publisher offered me “Main Characters” by Bobby Palmer (July), a novel where we see the two main characters from everyone else’s perspectives, not their own (the cover is disturbing, though, right?!), and I then spotted “Go Home Birdie Brown” by Laura Blake (June), one of a crop of Windrush Scandal novels that seem to be coming through at the moment. I snaffled Alice Amelia’s memoir of an American woman trying to become a K-Pop idol, “How Korean Corn Dogs Changed my Life” (April), and saw Lydia Pang’s “Eat Bitter” (May) and had to read her memoir of searching for her roots in a Chinese minority ethnic group. Eleanor Anstruther’s “Fallout” (April) is a Greenham Common / coming of age novel I had to request. I was offered Kim Stephenson’s “Stride for Stride” (March) because I’d read and reviewed the previous novel, “Your Pace or Mine?” LBGTQ theme, running and the Olympics! Then the aforementioned “Meet Me At the Convenience Store by the Sea” by Sonoko Machida (April) and two more I was offered because of previous review history with the authors, Emily Kerr’s “Blind Date With a Book” (April) – a book barge! – and reliably good Phillipa Ashley’s “A Wedding Under the Cornish Sky” (June).

Quite a lot but also quite spread out and hopefully I can get back into reading a bit of the next month each month.

A newsletter I receive from Walkspace mentioned these Floodgate Press (yet another indie publisher!) e-books of short fiction based around Birmingham and I had to buy both of course (OK, plus two paperbacks but they didn’t arrive until we were into March so you’ll have to hear about those next time!). “The Middle of Everywhere” and “Second City Firsts” have new flash fiction about my adopted home city.

Outgoings

I had a pile of green-spined Virago books which all my Virago-ish friends already had and were a tiny bit lined of spine for Oxfam Books, so I decided to give them to The Book Tower to help stock their lovely shelves, just happy that they would find new owners and readers. Fourteen of them went that way, and that was all that left the house. (I did buy two New Penguin Poetry volumes there but those were for Kaggsysbookishramblings and will leave the house imminently, so those don’t count anywhere!)

So that’s 14 books read and 35 books in (but four of these went straight on the shelves and two of them are already read, so really 29!) for February, and 17 print books in and 14 out.

Currently reading

I’m reading these two, Tom Chesshyre’s “Slow Trains Around Britain” and Laura Spinney’s “Proto” (one review, one Read the Darn Hardback from last month), Ela Lee’s “Minbak” on Kindle, and Iris Murdoch’s “The Sandcastle”. Emma and I are reading and enjoying Guy Shrubsole’s “The Lost Rainforests of Britain” (another recommendation from Halfman Halfbook, I think). And I’m continuing with Henry Eliot’s “The Penguin Modern Classics Book” which I WILL finish.

Coming up

I have a lot of review books to go through although some are published in April and June. I would like to do something for Reading Wales and Reading Ireland but I’m not making any promises and will link those up to the challenges as I go along. I have a couple of hardbacks but again, haven’t finished last month’s yet, so not rushing those.

I plan to read my next Iris Murdoch, “The Bell” this month once I’ve read “The Sandcastle”. I also need to work on my presentation for the upcoming conference in August!

My march NetGalley books:

This was the situation at the start of the month: I have now read “To the Moon and Back” and nearly finished “Minbak” so only have six to go. “Home Sweet Home in Brambleton” is part of a fun series set in a village, “All Booked Up” looks like being the White British version of “Minbak” as an older woman converts her big house into a guesthouse so as not to have to leave it. “Stride for Stride” is male gay runners and “The Perfect Match” female, Brown gay footballers, so an interesting pairing there. And two nonfiction, “Lifeboat at the end of the World” which might be Too Much for me, and “Finding Albion” about myth and hidden Britain.

With the ones I’m currently reading, I have four books to finish and two to continue, and eight-plus other books to read, which is doable, I feel.

How was your February reading? What are you reading this month? Are you doing any book challenges for the month?

State of the TBR – February 2026

February 2, 2026

Liz Dexter Book confessions, Book reviews, Read The Darn Hardback, ReadIndies, Reading challenges, State of the TBR, TBR challenge 2024 , , , , 48 Comments

I’m very pleased that after the double Books Incoming months (Christmas and Birthday), I’ve still not overfilled the TBR shelves (you can compare them to last month). I only took four print books off the main shelf in January. I didn’t take any of the oldest books off the shelf and read NONE from the 2024 TBR project (8 to go now at my stretch goal finish so I STILL didn’t do it but I’ll keep recording to the bitter end!).

I had six NetGalley review books to read and I read those plus four of my February reads (I part-read “Muscles and Monsters” but it was too spicy and also unbelievable for me (how does a wolf with paws work out with weights in a gym?). I didn’t do any challenges.

The Liz and Emma Read Together books are in a separate pile (middle shelf, to the left) because they don’t form part of the TBR project. The pile on the top right is review books and a loaned one that mustn’t get subsumed by the general TBR.

I completed just 15 books in January (all reviewed). I’m a bit sad about that as it’s a big dip, especially in a “long” month, and I was disappointed not to finish the one I’m reading or get my Iris Murdoch read. I am part-way through two more plus my Reading with Emma book and the ongoing big one. I acquired 10 NetGalley books this month (one already dealt with), and my NetGalley review percentage is steady at 94%, and three Kindle books.

Incomings

I acquired quite a lot of print books in January, mainly because of my birthday (discussed here and running from “Murder While You Work” at the end of row 2 below through “Here Comes the Sun” plus late entry “Epic Runs of the World”). As for the others …

So for the non-birthday books and one other: I spottedNicki Chapman’s “So Tell Me What You Want” on Annabookbel’s blog and she kindly sent it on to me. I received an early review copy of Davina Quinlivan’s “Possessions” to review for Shiny New Books (my review here) and the publisher kindly sent me a completed copy. [edited to add:] I saw my friend Claire Margaret Shapiro mention Kay Whalley’s “A Smart Suit and White Gloves”, a history of career books for girls on LibraryThing and [edit ends] I ordered it immediately as it’s by Girls Gone By who tend to go out of stock quite quickly. My dear friend Cari sent me Josie Dew’s “Slow Coast Home” about cycling around the UK with the aim of us reading it together in March, after she saw my review of “A Ride in the Neon Sun“.

The excellent Seren Books had a New Year sale and I took the opportunity to pick up two wishlist books and one more: Julie Brominicks’ “The Edge of Cymru” (where she walks around the border of Wales), Peter Finch’s “Edging the City” (in which he does the same with Cardiff) and “Cymru and I” (in which “nine new writers look at what Wales means to them as people from backgrounds previously largely underrepresented”). Then the last of the pre-birthday incomings came in at the same time as the birthday Dean Street Press books was Stella Gibbons’ “The Snow Woman”, which came too late for Emma to send to me for Christmas!

Three final Nice Things now: my last birthday book was the thoughtful “Epic Runs of the World”, a lovely hardback, from my friend Meg at our BookCrossing meetup just after my birthday. The lovely people at Vertebrate Publishing have sent me Allie Bailey’s “31 Days” to review (it’s out on 5 February so I will be prioritising it!) which is a no bullsh*t approach to mental aspects of running (read more about it here including a competition). And last but certainly not least, on Saturday I met up with the wonderful Lisa Jackson, who I’ve known for a decade, and she kindly gave me a copy of her powerful new book, “Still Running After All These Tears” (see more in this post).

Moving on to ebooks, I won ten NetGalley books in January and I acquired three more books in the Kindle sale.

In the naughty Kindle sale I picked up Mike Gayle’s novel, “Half a World Away”, wish-list book Alan Cleaver’s “The Postal Paths” about the forgotten trails forged by postal workers, and “This is for Everyone” by Tim Berners-Lee, founder of the World Wide Web.

On to NetGalley and “Street, Palace, Square” by Jan-Werner Muller (published May) is about the architecture of public spaces, Sally Coulthard’s “The Secret World of Twilight” (July) looks at the natural history and folklore of dawn and dusk. Ashley Bennett’s “Muscles and Monsters” (Feb) I’ve already mentioned as Not For Me and we’ll leave it there. Debbie Macomber has a new novel out in April, “Chasing the Clouds Away” and I was glad to win it. Melody Carlson’s “All Booked Up” (Mar) is a found family novel where an older woman rents out rooms in her house rather than having to sell up and downsize.

Moving on to some more non-fiction, Helene Landemore’s “Politics Without Politicians” (Feb) looks at the case for citizen rule just as Birmingham faces local council elections in May so should be interesting. Tom Fort’s “Lido Land” (May) looks at the history and development of lidos, now seeing a resurgence. “Healing the Land Teaches Us Who We Are” by Maceo Carrillo Martinet (June) looks at Indigenous cultural resistance and how it can help create a sustainable future, and Layla McCay’s “The Queer Bookshelf” (June) is a reader’s guide to queer books; I’m not sure of its geographical focus at the moment.

Finally, the publisher’s PR kindly offered me the third in Fay Keenan’s Brambleton series, “Home Sweet Home in Brambleton” (Mar) and I accepted gladly. I’m not feeling bad or pressured about all these as I know I’m keeping up / slightly ahead with my NetGalley books at the moment; I am still trying to choose what I request and offers I accept more carefully.

Outgoings

I gave one book to my friend Meg at our BookCrossing meetup and took 20 print books to our local Oxfam Books this month.

So that’s 15 books read and 31 books in (but 1 of those already read, so really 30!) for January, and 18 print books in and 21 out (win!).

Currently reading

I’m currently reading Susan R. Barry’s “Dear Oliver: An Unexpected Friendship with Oliver Sacks”: I have a mini-challenge on the go, “Read the Darn Hardbacks”, which involves me making sure I read hardback books before they come out in paperback and this was my penultimate one which had already come out in paperback by the time I acquired it. On Kindle I have Jessica George’s second novel, “Love by the Book”. Emma and I are reading and enjoying Guy Shrubsole’s “The Lost Rainforests of Britain” (another recommendation from Halfman Halfbook, I think). And I’m continuing with (not seen) Henry Eliot’s “The Penguin Modern Classics Book” which I WILL finish.

Coming up

My print TBR includes the two most pressing review books. Handily, I want to do Kaggsy’s Bookish Ramblings’ Readindies challenge: the Tom Chesshyre and Allie Bailey fall into this. I have “So Tell Me What You Want” for Read The Darn Hardbacks which came out in paperback before I acquired the hardback, then “Love in Exile”, “Proto” and “Of Thorn and Briar” are published in paperback in February / March. For more Readindies, I’m not going to make a list or picture as I don’t want to push myself too hard, but anything else I pick off the print TBR will be by an independent publisher.

I also plan to read my next Iris Murdoch, “The Flight from the Enchanter”. If I get all of these read I will do another Chesshyre and something from the start of my TBR that’s from an independent publisher.

I’ve started February’s NetGalley books so have these left to go and then will get on with my March ones:

So, “The Floating Venice Bookshop” and “The Island Retreat” should be fairly light fiction, then I have “A Four-Eyed World” which is a history of glasses, “Super Nintendo” which is a history of the Japanese games company, and “Politics Without Politicians” which I’ve mentioned above.

With the ones I’m currently reading, I have three books to finish and one to continue, and twelve other books to read, which is doable, I feel.

How was your January reading? What are you reading this month? Are you doing any book challenges for the month?

State of the TBR – January 2026

January 1, 2026

Liz Dexter Book confessions, Book reviews, DeanStreetDecember, Doorstoppers in December, Read The Darn Hardback, Reading challenges, State of the TBR, TBR challenge 2024 , , , , , 37 Comments

Given that we’ve had the first of the double Books Incoming months, I’m happy with my progress with my TBR shelves compared to last month. I took 10 print books off the main shelf in October. I didn’t take any of the oldest books off the shelf (mainly because it was Dean Street December month) and read NONE from the 2024 TBR project (8 to go now at my stretch goal finish so I STILL didn’t do it but I’ll keep recording to the bitter end!).

I had no NetGalley review books to read so those fall out of the equation. I took 10 books off the TBR, plus I moved two to the Liz and Emma Read Together pile as I’d bought copies for Emma! I read eight books for my own Dean Street December (if you’re still reading for this, you have until the end of Sunday 4 January to submit your reviews!), six out of the possible nine print books and two out of the possible five e-books, and finished three for Doorstoppers in December, one from my original list, one on Kindle and one by chance!

The Liz and Emma Read Together books are in a separate pile (middle shelf, to the left) because they don’t form part of the TBR project. The pile on the top right is review books and a loaned one that mustn’t get subsumed by the general TBR.

I completed 19 books in December (all but one reviewed!). I am part-way through two more plus my Reading with Emma book and the ongoing big one. I acquired 12 NetGalley books this month, and my NetGalley review percentage has dropped another percentage point to 94%, and four Kindle books.

Incomings

I acquired quite a lot of print books in December, thanks to review copies from lovely publishers, bookshop and poetry events and a sudden inspiration and, of course Christmas. I’ll share my Christmas lovelies in all their glory first:

On the left, my BookCrossing Not So Secret Santa gift from Julia included two bars of indulgent 80% cocoa chocolate and an electric candle lantern, as well as books by Tessa Hadley, Joanna Kavenna and Susan R. Barry. On the right, on Christmas Day itself I opened books from Persephone and by Patrick Barkham, Deb Chachra and Paul Wood, as well as a jigsaw of my favourite Eric Ravilous painting, a book-themed cushion and some book vouchers and a crocheted Christmas tree (which is on the mantelpiece and I forgot to photograph). Matthew and I give each other blocks of money in our accounts or on a spreadsheet, and I recently spent last birthday’s money on a new running watch. Hooray for wishlists and kind friends!

Here are all those books in full:

The publisher Summersdale had got in touch about one book and when I respectfully turned it down, asked me if I’d like anything else recent of theirs, so I asked for any by Tom Chesshyre, as I know other people who like his books, and they very kindly sent me three, his new one, “Slow Trains Around Britain” (which I will be reviewing for Shiny New Books), “Slow Trains to Istanbul” and “Lost in the Lakes”. We went to a poetry / songs set to tunes on early instruments show by Attila the Stockbroker and he had a new book out, “A Lifetime of Football Writing”. I’m not a big football fan but I would read anything he writes, plus he put it out with a Finnish publisher and in support of Tampere FC who have gone fan-owned like his own club did, and I have strong work connections with Finland, so … Then, another lovely review copy, the new British Library Women Writers volume and another of their excellent short story collections, “Stories for Lovers”.

One last The Heath Bookshop event of the year, and it was an excellent one-man-show by Marc Burrows showcasing his book, “Mistletoe and Vinyl” about UK Christmas Number Ones. Continuing the Christmas theme, our Bookcrossing Not So Secret Santa yielded three wish-list books, Tessa Hadley’s “The London Train” (I’m told she’s an heir to Iris Murdoch), Joanna Kavenna’s “Zed” (this seems sci-fi-y, but it was on my wishlist for a reason, I’m sure) and Susan R. Barry’s “Dear Oliver: An Unexpected Friendship with Oliver Sacks”. Then Ali kindly gave me “The Third Persephone Book of Short Stories” with so many stories in that I haven’t already read!

Emma came up with Patrick Barkham’s “The Butterfly Isles” about his search for all the British butterflies, Deb Chachra’s “How Infrastructure Works” which is about road and rail and telecoms, etc., and Paul Wood’s “London is a Forest” which describes long trails of wooded walks through the capital – all for Reading Together (see our Pile above, once we’ve balanced and made sure we have the same ones we’re going to have to pause on the buying for a year or so!). Finally, Ali saw on our friend Meg’s social media that she’d acquired Kate Mosse’s “Feminist History for Every Day of the Year” and as we’ve just done “Black History for Every Day of the Year” we succumbed and both bought a copy to read this year!

Moving on to ebooks, I won 12 NetGalley books in December and I acquired four more in the Kindle sale.

I saw an advert on Facebook for Sally Page’s “New Beginnings for Christmas” and found it was a sequel to her to “The Book of Beginnings” and a Christmas book, so I had to buy that for 99p and read it on Christmas Day. And there were music memoirs by Jarvis Cocker, “Good Pop, Bad Pop”, and Miki Berenyi from Lush, “Fingers Crossed” (she also featured in the Billy Childish biography) in the sale so it had to be done. Rebecca Romney’s “Jane Austen’s Bookshelf” I saw on Brona’s Books’ blog and then there it was in the sale, so that was acquired, too.

On to NetGalley and I have tried to be more intentional in my requesting, which probably translates to more nonfiction and less genre fiction. But I did request and win a lot. Kallie Emblidge’s “Two Left Feet” (published February) is a YA gay football novel which will maybe help combat the terrible homophobia in the football world. Ela Lee’s first novel “Jaded” was interesting so I jumped at “Minbak” (Mar), which covers three generations of South Korean women, partly in London. Ebony Reid’s “Trapped Life” (Apr) is published by Merky Books (Stormzy’s Penguin imprint) and is a nonfiction narrative of young Black men on a London estate.

I selected Caroline James’ “The Arctic Cruise” (Jan) from Rachel’s Random Resources’ offerings because I enjoyed her “The Cruise Club” and requested Caroline Flournoy’s “The Wilderness” (April), about four Black women over the course of a 20-year friendship, after seeing it recommended by my friend Thomas Le, who reads very diversely and interestingly. Cathy Kelly is an author I always pick up, so I leapt at her “The Island Retreat” (Feb).

“Attensity” by The Friends of Attention (Jan) is about the need to form a movement of radical attention that will combat the lack of attention promoted by tech companies, etc. Margaret Drabble has a collection of “essays, stories and memoir”, “The Great Good Places” out in April and in May for light reading I will have Katie Holt’s bookshop romance, “The Last Page”.

The publisher kindly offered me Christie Barlow’s “No. 17 Curiosity Lane” (Feb), the fifth in her Puffin Island series, which of course I said yes to (and may well read this month as I can’t resist) and then I have two more nonfiction titles. “Super Nintendo” by Keza McDonald (Feb) is a history of the gaming firm (and while I don’t play many games, even I know several of their characters) and Zakia Sewell looks at the alternative spirit of Britain still found today in “Finding Albion” (Mar).

Outgoings

I took 14 print books to our local Oxfam Books this month.

So that’s 19 books read and 30 books in (but 1 of those already read, so really 29!) for December, and 14 print books in and 14 out.

Currently reading

I’m currently reading my first ebook for Rachel’s Random Resources for this month, Eva Glynn’s “The Croatian Island Library”, and Emma and I are rattling through Craig Taylor’s “Londoners” which we’re absolutely loving. I have a mini-challenge on the go, “Read the Darn Hardbacks”, which involves me making sure I read hardback books before they come out in paperback: as I have none in that situation this month, I am picking off the ones that have already come out (most of the books acquired second-hand or with no paperback) so Alison Steadman’s memoir, “Out of Character” is now on my bedside table. And I’m continuing with Henry Eliot’s “The Penguin Modern Classics Book” which I WILL read.

Coming up

My print TBR includes the three most pressing review books, “Davina Quinlivan’s “Possessions”, the newest Tom Chesshyre, “Slow Trains Around Britain” and the BL “Stories for Lovers”.

Then my Read the Darn Hardbacks continue with Richard Negus’ “Words from the Hedge” (Unbound, no PB), Dean Atta’s “Person Unlimited” (bought in the Bookshop sale because the paperback had just come out) and Susan R. Barry’s “Dear Oliver” (backlist book bought from my wishlist). I also plan to read my next Iris Murdoch, “The Flight from the Enchanter”. If I get all of these read I will do another Chesshyre and something from the start of my TBR.

Not too many NetGalley books although I might start February’s if I belt through these:

So, Dr Ryan Martin’s “Emotion Hacks” might help me to feel better fast, “Genderqueer Menopause” by Lasara Firefox Allen will help me to be a better ally to Queer people of my age, “The Arctic Cruise” and “The Croatian Island Library” (already started but including it made the image neater) are both for Rachel’s Random Resources, “Attensity” we’ve discussed above and Manish Chauhan’s “Belgrave Road” has an intriguing plot of two people from different countries and cultures being thrown together in the UK and falling in love.

With the ones I’m currently reading, I have four books to finish and one to continue, and thirteen other books to read, which is doable, I feel.

How was your November reading? What are you reading this month? Are you doing any book challenges for the month – Dean Street December or Doorstoppers in December?

State of the TBR – December 2025

December 1, 2025

Liz Dexter Book confessions, Book reviews, DeanStreetDecember, Nonfiction November, Reading challenges, State of the TBR, TBR challenge 2024 , , , , 38 Comments

I’m a bit disappointed that the TBR shelves haven’t gone down much compared to last month. The problem will be seen in the acquisitions, and the fact I read thin books! I took 10 print books off the main shelf in November and reviewed six of them. I didn’t take any of the oldest books off the shelf (because it was Novellas in November month so I concentrated on short nonfiction) and read NONE from the 2024 TBR project (8 to go now at my stretch goal finish so I didn’t do it but I’ll keep recording to the bitter end!).

I read my October and November nonfiction NetGalley review books as planned, and I read 16 books for Nonfiction November, seven of which and one fiction book were for Novellas in November. The fiction book counted for GermanLitMonth too, though I didn’t link to it. I didn’t read all my planned novellas (in fact only 5 out of the 15!) and read two newer ones instead – but I was poorly during the month and had a blob of fiction reading to comfort myself. So basically, I didn’t read all of the books I set an intention to read last month but I read others instead. The Liz and Emma Read Together books are in a separate pile (middle shelf, to the left) because they don’t form part of the TBR project. The pile on the top right is review books and a loaned one that mustn’t get subsumed by the general TBR.

I completed 22 books in October (all but five reviewed!). I am part-way through one more plus my Reading with Emma book and the ongoing big ones (see below for two big ones I keep hiding). I acquired 13 NetGalley books this month, and my NetGalley review percentage has dropped a percentage point to 95%, and four Kindle books.

Incomings

I acquired quite a lot of print books in November, thanks to a review copy, Oxfam and Awesome Books, a Need To Buy Immediately, a kind gift and finding out a publisher was about to close down …

Having read Buchi Emecheta’s “Double Yoke”, I found out there was an autobiography, “Head Above Water”. Not available on Bookshop.org so I had to order it from That Online Place. Then I popped in to buy some cards from Oxfam Books in Kings Heath and spotted Rozsika Parker’s “The Subversive Stitch” and had to have that. Vertebrate Books kindly sent me a review copy of Dennis Gray’s “Essays from the Edge” (I have read this book on mountaineering and my review’s in progress) and when I was buying some books for a secret santa from Awesome Books I spotted first Black and Muslim Mayor of Sheffield Magid Magid’s “The Art of Disruption” which I’d pre-ordered from Amazon in 2021 (before the Bookshop opened) and they’d just told me didn’t exist. Annabel from Annabookbel and Shiny New Books very sweetly sent me Kathy Burke’s “A Mind of My Own” which she’d just read and reviewed – thank you again! Then I was reviewing “Deeping It“, looked up the publisher to link to them and found 404 Ink was closing down so I pre-ordered their final book, “404 Not Found” (genius title) and bought from Bookshop.org via the Heath Bookshop page, Durre Shahwah and Nasia Sarwar-Skuse’s “Gathering: Women of Colour on Nature”, Carrie Marshall’s “Small Town Joy” (about queer music in Scotland), Karl Johnson’s “The Loki Variations”, about the Norse god Loki in popular culture, and Liam Konemann’s “The Appendix: Transmasculine Joy in a Transphobic World”.

I won 13 NetGalley books in November and I acquired four in the Kindle sale. I have pictured them in the wrong order but I couldn’t face redoing the graphic!

The Reverend Richard Coles’ “Murder Under the Mistletoe” was the last of his mysteries I needed to get, at 99p; now I need to read all but the first one. Uzma Jalaluddin’s “Yours for the Season” was a free Amazon first reads for November and a holiday romance, then there was Neneh Cherry’s acclaimed memoir, “A Thousand Threads” and I also picked up Ritu Bhathal’s “In God’s Hands” which is third in a trilogy about a British Asian woman I haven’t started yet. Sigh.

In NetGalley incomings, “When Rock Met Hip-Hop” by Steven Blush (published February) charts that time of crossover in the charts. Lilian Lee’s “Bad Asians” (Feb) is a novel about a group of second generation Asian Americans who do everything right then get hit by the 2008 financial crisis, Christie Barlow’s “The Cafe on the Coast” (December) which I was offered and have read and will review in a couple of days, and “Love by the Book” by Jessica George (Feb), who wrote “Maame“, which I loved, are also about groups of friends. Joseph Piercy’s “100 Books to Live By” (Nov) was a fairly standard bibliotherapy book, nothing much new and I skimmed it. David King Dunaway’s “A Four-Eyed World” (also Feb: what??) is a history of spectacles! Lucy Webster’s “The View from Down Here” (Nov) was an excellent memoir and polemic around life as a wheelchair user, read and reviewed already, and I’ve also read and reviewed James Fox’s “Craft Land” (Sept).

Annabel French’s “The Floating Venice Bookshop” (oh, look: Feb) I requested because I can’t resist a book about a bookshop. And more boats with Dominic Gregory’s “Lifeboat at the End of the World” (March, at least) which is a volunteer’s story of working on a lifeboat going out from Dungeness in Kent (where I did my geography A-level fieldwork in the warm sea). “The Perfect Match” by Adiba Jagadir (March) is a story of young female football players, and I couldn’t resist requesting comedian Tom Allen’s novel “Common Decency” (May!) about a village trying to save a tree. Brigitte Reimann’s “Woman in the Pillory” (Nov) was a late request after I read about it on Brona’s blog: I won, read and reviewed it at the end of the month.

Outgoings

No print books left the house in November. I was feeling too poorly mid-month and then I just didn’t get round to it.

So that’s 22 books read and 26 books in (but 6 of those already read, so really 20!) for November, and 9 print books in and none out.

Currently reading

I’m currently reading my first book for Dean Street December, Doris Langley Moore’s “All Done by Kindness” and with Emma, I’m reading Craig Taylor’s “Londoners” which we were worried might be a bit dated but we’re absolutely loving and are already almost half-way through. I’ve included a peek at David, Yinka and Kemi Olusoga’s “Black History for Every Day of the Year” because I will be finishing it this month (and it probably counts for Doorstoppers in December!)

Coming up

It’s both my own Dean Street December and Laura Tisdall’s Doorstoppers in December challenge this month so I’m concentrating on both. Edited to add: how could I forget?? I am starting reading through Iris Murdoch’s novels again in advance of the next but one IM Society Conference, so “Under the Net” will be in the mix, too!

Here are my Dean Street Press possibles:

Doris Langley Moore – “All Done by Kindness”, Romilly Cavan – “Beneath the Visiting Moon”, Doris Langley Moore – “A Game of Snakes and Ladders”, Dorothy Lambert – “Much Dithering”, Susan Scarlett “Love in a Mist”, D. E. Stevenson – “Green Money”, Marjorie Wilenski – “Table Two”, and D. E. Stevenson’s “Charlotte Fairlie” and “Kate Hardie”. See below for the e-books.

And my Doorstoppers – they’re suggested to be over 350 pages but I think mine are all over 400, I have been vaguely reading the first two for YEARS so aim to get them at least done:

Henry Eliot – “The Penguin Modern Classics Book”, Catherine Mcllweaint – Tolkien: Maker of Middle Earth”, Josie Dew – “A Ride in the Neon Sun”, Samantha Maxwell – “DisabIing Ableism”, Wendy Cope – “Collected Poems” and Oliver Sacks “Letters”.

I don’t have any NetGalley books published in December (I had the Christie Barlow but I read it last month!) so the ebook TBR is just made up of some Dean Street Press titles):

So, Frances Faviell’s “Thalia”, Winifred Peck’s “Arrest The Bishop?”, Patricia Wentworth’s “The Red Lacquer Case”, Molly Thynne’s “The Draycott Murder Mystery” and Rachel Ferguson’s “Evenfield” give me two Furrowed Middlebrows and three Golden Age mysteries.

With the ones I’m currently reading, I have one book to finish and two to continue, and up to 21 other books to read, of which six are humungous.

How was your November reading? What are you reading this month? Are you doing any book challenges for the month – Dean Street December or Doorstoppers in December?

State of the TBR – November 2025

November 1, 2025

Liz Dexter Book confessions, Book reviews, Nonfiction November, Reading challenges, State of the TBR, TBR challenge 2024 , , , 15 Comments

I have made some more progress on the TBR shelves compared to last month. I took 7 print books off the main shelf in October and reviewed all of them, and I’m part-way through one more. I took one of the oldest books off the shelf and read from the 2024 TBR project (8 to go now at my stretch goal finish so I didn’t do it but I’ll keep recording to the bitter end!). I moved one from there to the Liz and Emma pile as when we went through some of my books Emma might fancy, “Sand Talk” appealed to her (and “The Museum of Other People” from more recent acquisitions, so both have gone onto that pile).

I read my October and November fiction NetGalley review books as planned, and I read my (last!) Moomins book for the month. I managed one book for #1925Club. I didn’t read all of the books I set an intention to read last month but I read others instead. The Liz and Emma Read Together books are in a separate pile (middle shelf, to the left) because they don’t form part of the TBR project. The pile on the top right is review books and a loaned one that mustn’t get subsumed by the general TBR.

I completed 20 books in October (all but one reviewed). I am part-way through two more plus my Reading with Emma book and the ongoing big ones. I acquired 12 NetGalley books this month, and my NetGalley review percentage is still 96%.

Incomings

I acquired a few print books in October, thanks to review copies, an event at The Heath Bookshop, a voucher from a friend, a Facebook advert (!) and a trip to a second-hand bookshop.

The lovely people at Lonely Planet sent me “Epic Runs of the World” to review, which I did for Shiny New Books here. I then managed to pass it on before I remembered to photograph it with the other incomings. My other review copies for Shiny are Davina Quinlivan’s “Possessions”, which is a fascinating looking memoir about identity and academia (published in January) and Carl Morris’ “Dirtbag Dreams” which is a history of mountain, ultra and trail running which comes right up to date with the rise of amazing women ultra runners. That’s out this month. I went to a brilliant talk at The Heath Bookshop by Mathelinda Nabugodi about her book, “The Trembling Hand”, which looks at the Romantic writers through a lens of race.

Then I had a Persephone Books voucher from the lovely Verity which I exchanged for their newest title, Winifred Watson’s “Hop, Step and Jump”. I was in town for a coffee with friends and a few of us popped into the second-hand bookshop associated with the Back-to-Backs museum, where I found Frances Spalding’s biography of novelist and poet Stevie Smith. And finally, a Facebook ad that knew me too well led me to Sarah Miller Walters’ “Woods Ware China at the Serving Hatch”, a short history of the village hall with an example of said chinaware on the front – anyone my age or older who ever went to a village or church (or other religious building) hall will recognise that banded china in green, pink, cream or blue!

I won 11 NetGalley books in October; I acquired one in the Kindle sale and one from Rebecca’s Random Reads for a blog tour:

I bought Laurie Gilmore’s “The Gingerbread Bakery” for 99p and I have not read any of this series yet so I hope I like them! Then the NetGalley wins. It’s a bit of a mishmash if I go in order of acquisition, so bear with me! Chris Della Rive’s “Uncharted Territory” (published November) is about the numbers behind the biggest hit songs. Eden McKenzie-Goddard’s “Smallie” (May 2026) is a Windrush novel set in the 1960s and today. Actor Natalie Cassidy has a memoir out, “Happy Days” (October; one of the ones I’ll be reading this month) and while she was in EastEnders, Amanda Barrie was in Coronation Street and has written her memoir, “I’m Still Here” (September) at 90 years old! “How Simi Got Her Groom Back” by Sonali Dev (March) is an American novel about a fake marriage, and Manish Chauhan’s “Belgrave Road” (January) is a British novel about an arranged marriage.

I’ve already read Kiley Dunbar’s “Mending Lost Dreams at the Highland Repair Shop“, Derek Owusu’s “Borderline Fiction“ and Sudha Bhuchar and Shaheen Khan’s “Balti Kings“ so you can read more about them through the links. “Emotion Hacks” by Dr Ryan Martin (January) promises 50 ways to feel better fast and Philippa Perry specialises in helping people to feel better but with “Shrink Solves Murder” (May) has written her first crime novel. And having posted my first cover reveal on this blog for Eva Glyn’s “The Croatian Island Library”, I’m happy to say I’ll be taking part in a blog review tour for it in January!

Outgoings

Ten print books left the house in October: I took them to Oxfam Books in Kings Heath.

So that’s 20 books read and 20 books in (but 3 already read, so really 17!) for October, and 7 print books in and 10 out.

Currently reading

I’m currently reading E. R. Braithwaite’s memoir of a visit to South Africa for Novellas in November, I’ve just started Amanda Barrie’s “I’m Still Here” and with Emma, I’ve just started Craig Taylor’s “Londoners” which is quite substantial, so will take us a while to navigate.

Coming up

Nonfiction November is here and so is Novellas in November: I got the first (oldest) fifteen short nonfiction books off the shelf and wrote about them in full here, so here’s just a picture of them (I’ll also be reading one of my review books):

I carefully read all the fiction NetGalley books I had for October and November in October, so I have a couple of books from October, one that I won in October but was published in September, and three November ones:

So, three memoirs, by Amanda Barrie, Mary Portas and Natalie Cassidy; “Growing Papaya Trees” is about how Indigenous solutions can work against climate displacement; and I have two music books, Rob Miller’s “The Hours are Long but the Pay is Low” about his life in indie music, and Chris Dalla Riva’s book on the charts.

With the ones I’m currently reading, I have two books to finish and one to continue, and up to 22 other books to read, of which 15 have under 200 pages each. Doable, perhaps!

How was your October reading? What are you reading this month? Are you doing any book challenges for the month – Nonfiction November, Novellas in November or one of the many others that are on the go?

Three super reads with multicultural representation – Jeevani Charika – “How Can I Resist You?”, Sudha Bhuchar and Shaheen Khan – “Balti Kings” and Taj McCoy – “Zora Books her Happy Ever After”

October 30, 2025

Liz Dexter Book reviews, Reading challenges, Social justice - gender sex sexuality, social justice - race, TBR challenge 2024 , , 18 Comments

Three really good reads today, the first two via NetGalley and the third one was part of my 2024 TBR project, the last fiction book in the pile. Of the eleven print books I acquired in December 2023 before Christmas, I’ve now read and reviewed or disposed of nine! As next month is Nonfiction November and I only want to read nonfiction then, I have also been picking off all of October and November’s fictional NetGalley books.

Jeevani Charika – “How Can I Resist You?”

(27 August 2025, NetGalley)

Vidya is the sensible older sister, working in admin for a law firm and sharing a flat with her younger sister Udeni and their mutual friend Angie, who works with Vidya. Now Udeni’s in trouble: after a one-night stand after Vidya and Angie’s office party, she’s pregnant and she can’t remember anything about the father apart from a chest tattoo. Once they’ve narrowed it down to two possibilities, Vidya finds herself manipulating things to go on a fact-finding trip with lawyers and best friends, Leo and Caleb. Leo seems buttoned-up and awkward, Caleb friendly and jolly, and so everyone hopes Caleb’s the one. But as Vidya and Leo draw closer and find similarities between them that could lead to the perfect relationship, is it in fact Caleb who needs to be told the uncomfortable truth?

I love an office-based book and this did it so well, complete with moving filing shelves and the use of AI (for admin, not generative AI). The characters are endearing and there are enough subtle cultural references to make sure Vidya and Udeni are rooted in their British / Sri Lankan heritage but not in a clumsy or stereotyped way. It’s funny and sweet and I will definitely be looking out for more of this author’s work.

Thank you to HQ for selecting me to read this book via NetGalley in return for an honest review. “How Can I Resist You?” is published on 6 November 2025.

Sudha Bhuchar and Shaheen Khan – “Balti Kings”

(27 October 2025, NetGalley)

And how could I resist this title, living in Birmingham, the home of the balti, when I spotted it in the Multicultural section of NetGalley?

This play was actually originally put on in 1999 and 2000, but this is its first time in print. The authors decided to write it as chicken tikka was declared Britain’s favourite dish and the Balti Triangle in Birmingham was flourishing but full of competition. I haven’t read a play script for ages and had to read it in NetGalley Reader but that worked OK and it was easy to follow as the cast is quite small.

We are in the back rooms of a balti house for a day as they try to make a go of a new concept of all you can eat and Curry-Oke, complete with celebrity guests who are clearly never going to turn up. Tensions rise as the owners push the workers and they have their own dramas: one woman resents being fleeced by them when her husband put money into the business years ago and another is being pursued by a playboy while the kind son of the establishment tries to support her. Funny and tender, I would love to see this on stage, and apparently there are plans for a new run in 2026!

Thank you to Aurora Metro Books for making this playscript available on NetGalley in return for honest reviews. “Balti Kings” is published on 20 November 2025.

Taj McCoy – “Zora Books her Happy Ever After”

(11 December 2023, The Works)

I enjoyed this author’s “Savvy Sheldon Feels Good as Hell“, bought at the same time, and got what I expected: a fun romance set in Black-owned businesses and the Black middle class in this time Washington D.C., with a strong undertow of social justice and doing the right thing. Zora owns and runs a bookshop and there’s a satisfying amount of detail about the admin she has to do and the processes around running the place. She hasn’t dated for ages then meets sexy author Lawrence … and his somewhat mardy best friend Reid. So she dates both of them, all the while exploring fabulous food at different restaurants and celebrating her plus size and beauty. She’s of Black and Filipino heritage and her best friend is bi so there’s extra representation, something this author excels at. Quite spicy, but the plot itself was nicely done (I did guess the twist) and I loved the concentration on the art of writing, on community, and of supporting younger generations.

This was Book 137 in my 2024 TBR project, and there are almost definitely 8 to go. 

Book review – Michael Hann – “Denim and Leather”

October 13, 2025

Liz Dexter Book reviews, Reading challenges, TBR challenge 2024 , , 10 Comments

I worked on a very small part of this book, and was interested in the topic anyway, so I pre-ordered the paperback in February 2022 (pre-The Heath Bookshop!) and it arrived as a gift from my past self a year later, my name included in the Acknowledgements, very kindly. This forms part of my 2024 TBR project, which is coming along nicely (see the note at the end of this post). I am happy to report that I have now read and reviewed all of the nine print books I acquired in February 2023.

Michael Hann – “Denim and Leather: The Rise and Fall of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal”

(09 February 2023, Amazon)

It was not so much chucking tellies out of the window, because we never did that. We never had enough money to pay for that. You chuck a telly through the window, you get a bill for five hundred quid. I think our Yorkshire heritage stopped us doing that. (p. 136, Steve Dawson from Saxon)

NWOBHM was a special genre of music that arose in the late 1970s, spurred on and inspired by bands that came just before, like Black Sabbath, and here Hann sets out to record the rise and fall of the bands that made it and the bands that just missed the boat – something he achieves admirably. I always like an oral history, and there’s a real skill to weaving parts of different people’s narratives together to watch them interplay and react, sometimes interjecting with an authorial note (here mainly to give the correct facts or point out discrepancies).

It’s affectionate and never mocking, and Hann makes a proper effort to include women in the mix, with a chapter devoted to a couple of bands and a publicist who describe their sometimes very different experience. Apart from this, we have chapters on the beginning and the end (when Def Leppard went mainstream) and on bands like Diamond Head and the groups formed by various members of Deep Purple, on the radio shows that broke the bands and the first festivals.

The interviewees include band members, ex-band members, managers, publicists, writers (quoted from the time or interviewed now), record label owners, engineers and producers, and fans. There’s constant mention of the entrepreneurial spirit involved in a lot of the bands: taking the punk ethos of just picking up an instrument and doing it yourself, they were also a reaction to the prog rock that came before, and this makes them often cheery and cheeky, and there are interplays between different bands and musicians – notably when Lars Ulrich of Metallica details his month-long stay in Stourbridge with members of Diamond Head.

As a professional reaction, I loved the way Hann captured the regional accents of the band members through his and his assistants’ transcriptions, which brought them alive even more. Interesting points are brought up: why did bands wear spandex on stage but this wasn’t “audience gear”? Did Kate Bush turn up at that gig or not? There are also important points on money: Diamond Head get by on royalties from the songs of theirs that Metallica recorded, and it was better to be on a Top of the Pops that wasn’t hosted by a subsequently cancelled DJ, as they still get repeated and you still get the money.

There’s a list of people at the front and an Afterword which pulls together just why the movement folded and why some people did manage to carry on, as well as a Where are they now? section. I really loved this absorbing, fun, incredibly detailed and smoothly reading book and would recommend it highly as an example of music writing and of oral history.

This was Book 137 in my 2024 TBR project, and there are almost definitely 8 to go. Book 135 was a quite slight pony paperback, Michael Callan’s “Jockey School”, which was set in a racing stables with a girl trying to get rides as a jockey. And Book 136 was “Sand Talk” which has (hopefully, second time of ordering lucky) turned into a Liz and Emma Read Together book.

State of the TBR – October 2025

October 1, 2025

Liz Dexter Book confessions, Book reviews, Nonfiction November, Reading challenges, State of the TBR, TBR challenge 2024 , , , 43 Comments

Even though there is a slightly smaller gap on the end now, I have made some more progress on the TBR shelves compared to last month as there is now no pile of older books on the top right! I took eight print books off the main shelf in August and reviewed seven of them (including my last four Three Investigators books) and I’m part-way through one more. I took the two oldest books off the shelf and read from the 2024 TBR project (9 (perhaps!) to go now at my stretch goal finish so I didn’t do it but I’ll keep recording to the bitter end!). I read my last two August NetGalley books, and of my 12 September NetGalley review books I read 9 (I DNF’d “Sorry, Not Sorry”, not liking the story, and “Soon Come” because I didn’t get on with the style, and I’m half-way through the last one) and I read my Moomins book for the month. I managed three books for #Spinster September. The Liz and Emma Read Together books are in a separate pile (middle shelf, to the left) because they don’t form part of the TBR project.

I completed 22 books in September (all but one reviewed). I am part-way through two more plus my Reading with Emma book and the ongoing big ones. I won NO NetGalley books this month, and my NetGalley review percentage is up to 96%.

Incomings

I acquired a few print books in September, thanks to gifts from friends, gifts for myself, extras when I bought the gifts for myself, and a loan.

I treated myself to Laura Spinney‘s history of the original European language, “Proto” as a present for completing my 20 Books of Summer. Yes, it’s a hardback, yes, I now have a note of when all my hardbacks come out in paperback and a plan for reading them before that happens! While I was buying that, I saw Lol Tolhurst’s “Goth” going onto the shelves and intercepted it. Who wouldn’t buy a book on goth by a member of The Cure? Gill loaned me Daniel Tammet’s “Nine Minds” which profiles nine autistic people (I enjoyed his “Born on a Blue Day“). I found out from the newspaper that there was an autobiography-in-photographs of photographer Martin Parr (with Wendy Jones) coming out and ordered “Utterly Lazy and Inattentive” using some book tokens I discovered I had left over from my birthday, and when I was collecting it I spotted Jen Benson’s “The Path she Runs” about modern women ultrarunners, so had to get that. Weirdly, I discovered a mutual interest in running and sociolinguistics with the local council by-election candidate whose campaign I am supporting at the moment, and Stephen Pihlaja kindly gave me a copy of his “Narrative and Religion in the Superdiverse City” (about Birmingham!). Finally, Sian shared a pile of just-read books with our BookCrossing group and brought Algerian French Faiza Guene’s “Men Don’t Cry” to our meet-up for me, which will do nicely for Women in Translation next year.

I won no NetGalley books in September; I acquired two in the Kindle sale and two from Rebecca’s Random Reads for blog tours:

Debbie Viggiano’s “Saving Starlight Hall” (out in October) is a novel about saving a community centre, something I’ve been helping to do in real life recently, and Elizabeth M. Hurst’s “Planning the Perfect Plot” will be useful for readers of my professional editing blog when I share it there as well as here. Sale books were yet another Reverend Richard Coles, “A Death on Location” – I now have all four and just have to read number two onwards! – and Tommy Orange’s “There There” – so I need to get his first.

Outgoings

Only five print books left the house in September: I gave one to Gill and posted four to various friends. Not too bad, though.

So that’s 22 books read and 31 books in for September, and 7 print books in (but one’s a loan so won’t stay) and 5 out.

Currently reading

I’m currently reading Kiran Desai’s “The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny” (weird title: excellent book, now shortlisted for the Booker Prize!) and Michael Hann’s excellent oral history of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal (which I did a bit of the transcription for), and with Emma, Stephen Moss’ “The Accidental Countryside” .

Coming up

Nonfiction November is coming up fast, and I am running “Book Pairings” week again. I had a look at my draft post for it and would like to get through as many of these books as possible for it.

This is all in addition to my FINAL Moomins read with Kaggsy. The memoir “That Peckham Boy” goes with novel “Small Worlds” in its setting; “Double Yoke” follows the African fiction and nonfiction theme I’ve been looking at; “Disabling Ableism” is the nonfiction and “Out on a Limb” the fiction in a pairing about disability; “Pride” and “Neon Roses” are both about the 1984 Miners’ Strike (non-fiction and fiction respectively); and “Beyond the Wall” and “Marzahn, Mon Amour” follow my East Germany theme in non-fiction and memoir. I want to do nonfiction novellas in November so hope I will get as many as I can of these read this month.

“A New Life in Amsterdam” and “Planning the Perfect Plot” are my October Rachel’s Random Resources blog tour reads. “Soyangri Book Kitchen” is another Korean healing novel, “I Shop, Therefore I Am” is Mary Portas’ memoir, and “The Cornish Christmas Book Club” is just because. Then for Kaggsy and Stuck-in-A-Book’s 1925 Week from 20-26 October I will attempt to read “Carry On, Jeeves” and “Manhattan Transfer”. As mentioned above, I want to read nonfiction novellas in November, so as well as pre-reading “Saving Starlight Hall” for its blog tour, I’ve promoted “All We Want for Christmas”, “How Can I Resist You?” and “Brigands and Breadknives” to read this month, while leaving the nonfiction books for November itself.

With the ones I’m currently reading, I have three books to finish (as Em and I will finish our book this month), and at best 21 other books to read. Doable, perhaps!

How was your September reading? What are you reading this month? Are you doing any book challenges for the year or the month – have you chosen your 1925 Week reads?

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