All this to say, reading has been an escape for me, but also a little hard to keep up with. I suspect that over the next few months there will be peaks and valleys, times I read a lot and weeks where I really don’t read much at all. I’m okay with that, it’s good to let reading fit into my life when and how it is enjoyable. If my health is okay I’ll try to join in judging the final round of BookTube Prize, because I’ve enjoyed participating again this year. Other than that, I’ll probably keep reading books about gardening, plants and animals as well as some memoirs and maybe a couple of feel-good novels or thrillers!
March
I Found You by Lisa Jewell
Eight Perfect Murders by Peter Swanson
Good Night, Irene by Luis Alberto Urrea
In March I read four suspense/thrillers, which were all okay, but most left one or more areas not fully developed. Before We Were Innocent didn’t quite pack the punch I’d hoped for with the reveals, and I didn’t have much interest in the issues and lives of the privileged characters – I also didn’t connect to or like any of them much. So there was very little emotional impact for me. I Found You was probably the best of the four, I liked the intrigue, I cared about the characters, and I enjoyed the ending. I will be looking for more of Jewell’s work. Eight Perfect Murders also didn’t draw me in – I didn’t care about the characters, the plot was an interesting premise, but didn’t really have me on the edge of my seat, and the ending was okay, but honestly I could have just not bothered with this one. The Paris Widow was decent, the plot was good and I liked some of the twists. Again, I felt a bit for the main character, but didn’t feel that strongly attached to her or the other characters. I wished there’d been more development pre-climax with her and her friend, because I think that friendship would have made me have more emotional involvement. Good Night, Irene was another of my WWII picks. It was interesting because it told the story of the women who travelled around during the war offering doughnuts and tea to American and allied soldiers in Europe. I didn’t know that was even a thing. It was also based on the author’s family history, so that made it feel more immediate. It wasn’t my favourite WWII book, but I’m glad I read it and learned about a different war experience.
April
Garlic & the Witch by Bree Paulsen
In Ascension by Martin MacInnes
I’ll Just Be Five More Minutes by Emily Farris
Between the Stops was a re-read for me, as I wanted something soothing, comforting and funny after my car was broken into. It was a stressful experience, but this book helped me calm my nervous system down a bit and helped me get back in the car and keep driving, literally. Garlic & the Witch was a recommendation from my kid, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Lovely book about growing up and facing change with courage. In Ascension was my first BookTube Prize Quarterfinals judging book. I was excited about it, but in the end I found it overly wordy and lacking in emotion. I also found it a bit confusing and convoluted, and didn’t really enjoy it much. I probably wouldn’t have finished it if it weren’t a commitment book. I’ll Just Be Five More Minutes is Farris’s memoir of being late-diagnosed with ADHD, and the struggles it caused her both pre- and post-diagnosis. I enjoyed it as it’s always good to read about other people’s experiences that overlap with my own.
Gabriel’s Moon by William Boyd
Long Island by Colm Tóibín
All three of these were BookTube Prize books. Behind You Is the Sea is a set of overlapping stories about Palestinian families who have emigrated to a community in Baltimore. Each is connected to another, but there’s not really a discussion about those connections. You piece them together as you read. I loved the writing in this book, there were so many characters I cared about as I read, so many struggles they were dealing with and difficult decisions they had to make. I did find the overlapping part difficult as it was hard for me to keep track of who was who and how they connected. In the end I kind of stopped trying to figure that out and just enjoyed each character’s story in its own right. Gabriel’s Moon is one I feel a little conflicted about. It was an okay read, and the story is interesting – it’s all about a writer who accidentally becomes embroiled with espionage, so there’s some exciting moments and interesting parts. Not a strong emotional connection – he’s not the best person, in the end – but decent read. Long Island is my second Colm Tóibín (I read The Magician for the BookTube Prize three years ago) and as expected, it was very well written. I hadn’t read Brooklyn, to which this was a sequel, but I didn’t feel disadvantaged by that. This book stands alone just fine, and it definitely drew me in. It’s a deeply felt look at the push and pull of families, how geographical distance creates emotional divides, and how betrayal can stick to someone through decades or shake up the foundations of their life as it happens. It’s a look at family ties and the complexity of inter-cultural unions, and the balance between parents’ relationships and their devotion to their children. It was a very well written book, but the ending was a bit abrupt for me, so I left it feeling not quite satisfied, which took away from the whole feeling of the reading experience for me.
Wake by Rebecca Hall
The Twat Files took over as my comforting and funny reading material once I finished Toksvig’s memoir, and it served its purpose. I love Dawn French, particularly how she is simultaneously this seemingly assured famous actress and national treasure, but also someone who feels like they’re constantly putting their foot in it and bumbling their way through life. This book is all about those bumbling moments, and it’s great. Relatable, amusing and just a darn good read. Wake is a graphic novel about Hall’s search for historical accounts of female resistance to enslavement, and it’s an interesting one. She does find some of these stories, but I think the book is as much about how many accounts just weren’t ever written down and how many voices were lost as it is about the few she found. Even those had gaps that she had to fill in based on her knowledge as a historian. It’s heart-breaking on several levels, but a very important read.
Best Friends Forever! by Amy Shields
Rascally Rabbits! by Aline Alexander Newman
Dolphins! by Moira Rose Donohue
All four of these are audiobooks I listened to as audiobooks with my kid. We both love animals, and particularly enjoy learning new things about how they behave, what they’re capable of, and the relationships they form with one another and with humans. We both really enjoyed these, which are a mixture of animal stories and factual information. I won’t be writing individual reviews, so I’ll just say that these are excellent for middle-grade, animal-loving kids, and we’d both recommend them!
May
Wildful by Kengo Kurimoto
Shy Creatures by Clare Chambers
I loved Raising Hare. It’s such a quiet book, but it was a meditative look at so many important issues – our impact on natural environments, how fast-paced our lives are, what we can gain by slowing down and taking time to interact with living creatures and plants around us, how much there is to see when we start looking, and our responsibility to make sure we’re providing safe spaces for the creatures who share the spaces we have control over. Beautiful book. Wildful was actually a wonderful companion book for Raising Hare. It’s a graphic novel – heavy on the graphic, light on the novel. It’s about a young girl who chases her dog into a nearby wild space and discovers a whole world of plants and animals she hadn’t noticed before, and a new friend. She and her mother are dealing with the recent loss of a family member, and this natural space helps her to begin healing. Another beautiful book. Shy Creatures was my fifth BookTube Prize book, and one I’d purposely saved as I thought I’d like it. I wasn’t wrong. It’s two stories that are intertwined – that of an art therapist and one of the people who ends up being a patient at her facility. It’s a slow burn, taking time to reveal the full stories of the characters, but I definitely felt for all the characters, and liked how Chambers’ characters were realistically flawed but all trying their best to navigate the difficulties of their own situations.
The Farmer’s Wife by Helen Rebanks
My last four Spring reads! Sipsworth was my final BookTube Prize book, and I’m glad I saved it for last. It’s short, but man does it pack a punch. It’s the story of Helen, a retired woman who lives alone and doesn’t have anyone in her life. Having lost everyone who was important to her, she’s pretty much just waiting out the clock on her life, alone. And she’s okay with that. She gets by with minimal interaction with people and doesn’t really make any effort to do more than just maintain her day-to-day. Until an unexpected visitor changes everything. I won’t say more here, but trust me, it’s delightful. The Farmer’s Wife is by Helen Rebanks, the wife of author James Rebanks who wrote The Shepherd’s Life, about his life living and working in the rural Northwest of England – where half of my family is from. I had trouble getting into his book, partly because it’s not available as an audiobook, so I thought I’d try Helen’s work. I enjoyed it. It’s the kind of memoir I like these days, full of the minutia of daily life, the truth of what it means to be a woman, a wife and a mother while still trying to balance what is expected of you by the world, your family, your community, and yourself. I found it interesting and relatable, and one of those quiet books that speaks loudly.
So that was my reading for Spring 2025! I’ve read a fair amount, 23 books in total, and there have been some I know will stick with me for a while – probably the top of that list being Raising Hare and Sipsworth, but there were others nipping at their heels!
What about you guys? Did you have a good reading season this Spring? Which were your favourite books? Have you read any of these, and if so what did you think?