Life lately has been hectic but still very much enjoying escaping into a book at the end of a busy day.

Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik

I started reading this back in December 2023 and finally finished it in February 2025. I adored the Scholomance trilogy but I’ve been underwhelmed by Naomi Novik’s other works, and came very close to giving up on this because it was so slow paced and the story is narrated by too many characters. Spinning Silver is an intriguing story about a Jewish money lender who can turn silver to gold and a Duke’s plain daughter, a winter king and a fire demon, peasants and a Tsar, and how we are all pawns in someone else’s games.

The Winners by Fredrik Backman

The final part of the Beartown trilogy really brings the story full circle with a parallel to another family from the same town dealing with a similar tragedy to the first book. This had a slow start, and is full of parallels, but I loved catching up with characters from the first two books and getting to know some new characters too. As ever small town politics, family relationships and community are at the centre of this story about ice hockey. This is such a bittersweet ending to the trilogy (an ending foreshadowed right from the start of Beartown) with a little bit of romance, conflict and rivalry, grief, bravery and heroism.

A Haunting in the Arctic by C. J. Cooke

An eerie and atmospheric story that follows the daughter of a whaling ship owner travelling through the Arctic in 1901 and an explorer who visits the shipwreck beached in Iceland in 2023. There’s a twist at the end, but the ending itself seemed rushed and anti-climatic as having been pitched as a tale of trauma and revenge, it switches to one of healing, which while worthy felt a bit dissatisfying. Nevertheless, this was gripping, atmospheric and haunting.

We Are Not Here to be Bystanders by Linda Larsour

A thoroughly engaging memoir of a Muslim Palestinian-American Community organiser. This describes the formative personal experiences and socio-political context that shaped Linda Larsour from growing up in multicultural Brooklyn and spending summers visiting her family in the West Bank, to being Muslim in America after 9/11, racial profiling of Arab, black and Latinx men, and police brutality. A fascinating insight into the immigrant/ethnic minority experience in the USA, including accessing heath care and education, motherhood, racism, and building community. This was on par with Michelle Obama’s Becoming, and as someone feeling a bit burned out after a decade in social care, I really appreciated the reminder about how much can be achieved at a local level, and how to build resilience and community.

Sweet Bean Paste by Durian Sukegawa

A short but poignant Japanese story of a pancake chef trying to pay off a debt who meets an old woman who makes the best sweet bean paste filling he’s ever tasted. This is a story about the intrinsic value of life, and about second chances, lost chances and last chances.

Have a lovely week. X