The year got off to a cracking start with The Women by Kristin Hannah. The protagonist, Californian Frances McGrath, leaves her comfortable middle-class life to serve as a nurse in the Vietnam War. The first half of the novel is a vivid portrayal of the horrors of Vietnam from the point of the view of the medical teams on the ground. The second half focuses on the psychological difficulties of readjusting to civilian life and the struggle women faced for their contribution to be recognised when most Americans believed there hadn’t been any women in Vietnam.Continue Reading

When I looked back on my reading for 2024, I found that I’d tried quite a few new authors. Some of them I liked so much I read two or three books. I tried 65 books in 2024, only ditching a handful. Here are my reading highlights of the year.Continue Reading

My Book of the Year

I might as well say straightaway that my Book of Year is Das Achte Leben by Nino Haratischwili. It won hands down. There were other great books, but this one stole my heart. And much of my time! It’s incredibly long, but divided into parts, so you can read it in sections, a bit like a series. But it isn’t a series, it’s a single novel following the fortunes and (more often) the misfortunes of a Georgian family throughout the turbulent history of the twentieth century. It was recommended to me by a friend when I asked her for a good book in German. I read it in the original German, but it has been translated into English as The Eighth Life. Despite the vividly portrayed horrors of living in Stalin’s Soviet Union, the story is narrated by Niza with a lightness of touch that makes the book very readable. It’s harrowing but also warm-hearted, gripping, and occasionally funny. It deserves to become a classic.Continue Reading

These are the books I’ve most enjoyed in 2022.Continue Reading