Book thoughts – Iris Murdoch – “The Sandcastle”

March 28, 2026

Liz Dexter Book reviews, Iris Murdoch in my 50s , , 6 Comments

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Leading up to the Iris Murdoch Society Conference in 2028 (I already have something prepared for this year’s conference and I need time to get through all the novels one a month), and because I like to do this in every decade of my life, I’m rereading all of Iris Murdoch’s novels in order, again. The last time I did this, 2017-2019, I ran a big readalong project, and the time before, I read them with a group of friends: this time is a solo effort, just to allow myself to think about how I find them as I move into my 50s (and age past a lot of the main characters!). So I’m writing more notes than recaps of the novels: if you want the deeper dive, please take a look at the Readalong post and comments for this one. My earlier review on here from 2008 is here.

Iris Murdoch – “The Sandcastle”

(1980s)

Mor, a middle-aged teacher at a lower level public school, has a dull marriage to the controlling Nan and two children who aren’t going to achieve what he’d hoped. So when Rain Carter appears to paint a portrait of the old headmaster, Mor’s dear friend Demoyte, he’s ripe to fall for her. Against the background of school events and Mor’s fumblings towards becoming the candidate to be the local Labour MP, alongside his (and the family’s) friend Tim Burke, another of Murdoch’s slightly separate Irish men, and his ambitions for Mor. As Donald plans to climb a school landmark, Mor’s obsession climbs and so apparently does Rain’s.

Thoughts on themes

Painted ladies / ageing hags

Not really a theme in this one. Nan is quite glamorous but not really a painted lady; Rain is boyish. Does she move towards this theme from here?

Sudden revelations

Mor is hit by the thunderbolt of his love for Rain: “He waited. Then from the very depths of his being the knowledge came to him, suddenly and with devastating certainty. He was in love with Miss Carter. He stood there looking at the dusty ground and the thought that had taken shape shook him so that he nearly fell”. (p. 136)

Reading Iris Murdoch post-#MeToo

Saints are passive, non-threatening / non-masculine men (as discussed in the last post) – Reverend Everard fits the bill here. Poor Rain is pawed by Demoyte and then idealised by Mor. She only really has a “moment” when she realises Mor’s political ambitions and states firmly she would never let anything separate her from her painting. Meanwhile, it takes another man’s gaze for Mor to realise Rain is a decent painter and he’s excited later to be “keeping her in the house” (p. 164). Rain is described several times as boylike, with her slim figure and short, tousled hair (prefiguring “The Black Prince”).

I was reminded of something I thought I remembered IM saying which I found in a post in the IM Society Facebook (thank you to Daniel Read): ‘She writes this to Georg Kreisel, late Oct 1967, around the time when she’s starting to develop A Fairly Honourable Defeat: “I think I am sexually rather odd, which is a male homosexual in female guise. (This is fairly evident from the novels where it is the male queer relations which tend to carry the most force from the unconscious.) I doubt if Freud knew anything about me, though Proust knew about my male equivalent.”’ Is this because of her internalised misogyny?

Mid-life crises?

The book is basically about Mor’s mid-life crisis.

Alternative idea: set pieces

If the MeToo stuff is too much, an alternative idea to look at. Here, of course Donald’s climb and rescue, also Felicity’s spell and the car falling into the river. As with all the set pieces in the novels, there is so much satisfying detail. Note: Flight from the Enchanter – Annette’s jump to swing at the beginning / the AGM of the magazine. Under the Net – the rescue of Mr Mars and/or the destruction of the set.

What’s changed in my reading this time?

I had remembered most of this but I had sympathies for Bledyard this time around. I had thought the romance fascinating, now it seems dirty. I have been in my relationship longer than the Mors have been married. Is there a theme of long marriages somewhere, even before IM had one? Chimes with previous books I’d not noticed – Tim decides he wants to tell Nan all about his childhood, just as Mischa does in “Flight”.

What has stayed the same?

I remembered most of the story and main scenes. I have always loved this quotation:

Eccentric people, he concluded, were good for conventional people, simply because they made them able to conceive of everything being quite different. This gave them a sense of freedom. Nothing is more educational, in the end, than the mode of being of other people. (p. 62)

Links to my life and way of being

Bledyard’s late assertion chimed with me: “‘Happiness?’ said Bledyard, making a face of non-comprehension. ‘What has happiness got to do with it? Do you imagine that you, or anyone, has some sort of right to happiness? That idea is a poor guide.'” (p. 195)

As with my previous, this is my thinking aloud, and it might bet that these posts are only interesting to Iris Murdoch afficionados, I don’t know. If it’s disappointed you, go back to one of the earlier links and read a proper review. Back soon with the next one!

Book review – Dominic Gregory – “Lifeboat at the End of the World”

March 24, 2026

Liz Dexter Book reviews , 14 Comments

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I requested this book back in November, attracted mainly by the fact that this is about the Dungeness Lifeboat, Dungeness, in my county of origin of Kent, being a place of which I’m very fond but haven’t visited for decades. I did worry a little that the subject-matter would be too grim, as obviously not all rescues end in saving a life; I needn’t have worried, as the balance of grimness and steady comfort is done well. Oh, and look at that cover illustration: how wonderful. Best of all: after the wonder of “Finding Albion“, this is also a strong candidate for my books of the year!

Dominic Gregory – “Lifeboat at the End of the World: A Volunteer’s Story”

(17 November 2025, NetGalley)

Yet he never took this authority for granted. If one of the crew suggested an idea, he rarely dismissed it but would listen and rub his chin thoughtfully, even if it started and ended a poor suggestion. Or else, when it turned out to be good after all, he would never claim it as his own but be quick to let it be known to the rest of the crew to whom it rightly belonged. Moreover, he did not think it beneath him to get his own hands dirty. Stuart Adams never asked someone else to do a job he was not prepared to do himself.

Dungeness is a strange place, right on the edge, people’s mobile signal flicking between England and France (I remember this from when I was growing up in Kent and we could get French radio really easily; handy when I was learning the language). The book opens notably with Gregory being pursued along the beach by a journalist demanding to know if all lives are worth saving. Because, while most of the book relates Gregory’s career path from applying to sign up and attending training right the way through to helming the lifeboat through the Channel on rescues, and the landscape and history that surrounds him, the latter part explores the effect of the increasing number of refugees in small boats who, exploited and abandoned, try to get across to England and need to be watched and/or rescued.

Some NetGalley readers have complained the book’s a bit slow and not in a sensible order: there are no chapter divisions in the e-book I read, which is a bit odd, but the order and the content make sense to me, examining Gregory’s surroundings, both the nature and the buildings, including Derek Jarman’s cottage, his colleagues and neighbours, his family and his development, fears and worries and all, and the history of the Dungeness Lifeboat itself. People have also complained there’s a lot about seasickness: there’s not. I reckon there’s about the amount you’d expect. What you do get is lovely descriptions of the rather austere surroundings, and affectionate portraits of Gregory’s fellow lifeboat crew, most particularly the coxswain, Stuart Adams, who is described above. The community around them is lovingly described, too, from retired members of the crew – particularly the older women, who used to be responsible for launching the boat and bringing her back in – to families – his own wife more suited by temperament and practicality for the work but not keen on the sea – and the people who carefully donate biscuits and, later, jumpers and toys for those who float across from France with nothing.

There are, of course, distressing and grim scenes; they are never gratuitous and never so detailed that you can’t face reading them. And Gregory is clear on the effect of deaths and drownings on the crew, needing time off or counselling among themselves. He explains to us that the crew are forced to make decisions on who lives and who must be allowed to die when confronted with overwhelming numbers of casualties after yet another over-filled boat is sent off to its doom; and that then, when he has struggled ashore, helped people get changed and dry and sealed some into body bags, he must remove traces of RNLI uniform to prevent those who seek to criticise him for helping from seeing he is one of the helpers, something I think is absolutely dreadful.

A wonderful, timely, humane and honest book which is a powerful and moving read. I have donated to RNLI having read it – here’s their donation link if you wish to, too.

Thank you to William Collins for selecting me to read this book via NetGalley in return for an honest review. “Lifeboat at the end of the World” is published on 26 March 2026.

Book review – Zakia Sewell – “Finding Albion”

March 22, 2026

Liz Dexter Book reviews, social justice - race , 11 Comments

E-book cover of Finding Albion

I spotted this book in December and immediately knew I wanted to read it as I love reading about the folklore and myth of Britain, and the description made it sound tantalising, modern and fascinating: “Traversing the length and breadth of our island from Somerset to Scotland, she’s seeking out a different story – one that lies beyond divisive national myths and symbols”. Having read it, I can confirm that it was even better than I expected it to be, and is definitely a candidate to be on my Books of the Year list for 2026!

Zakia Sewell – “Finding Albion: Myth, Folklore and the Quest for a Hidden Britain”

(21 December 2025, NetGalley)

Local communal festivities, whether age-old or recent inventions, have the potential to connect us to one another and to the areas in which we live; something incredibly simple and yet desperately needed in today’s increasingly polarised society. Could a vital, collective reimagining of our folk customs and festivities help us to revive the communal spirit that’s been lost in Britain? And might it make us a little happier, too?

My problem with writing this review is that I could basically have typed out most of the book in quotations from it! Sewell has dual heritage, her dad White British and her mum’s grandparents from the Caribbean island of Carriacou, and this heritage, her interest in paganism and her deep understanding of colonialism (including the education her grandparents received about the UK and the back-and-forth progress of folklore and song) inform this book as she searches for new myths and folk practices that might provide an alternative, unifying heritage for Britain that acknowledges and welcomes the input the nations have always had from people coming in from other places.

Following the wheel of the seasons, equinoxes, solstices and the times in between, she visits festivals age-old and almost new, from Glastonbury at the spring equinox through Notting Hill Carnival at Lammas, Montol in Penzance at the winter solstice and the Inner Hebrides for Imbolc, coming back to Stonehenge for another spring equinox, she follows a different theme in each chapter. She’s always curious and questing and making sure to look for inclusion and diversity, whether that’s looking at Morris dancing and noting the women’s sides and an initiative where people can do Morris dancing solo from a bed or sofa, new traditions bringing different communities together, age-old places like Glastonbury and Stonehenge, community celebrations like Carnival or individuals who are exploring dual heritage roots. There’s a very interesting section about the folk songs which travelled out with colonisation, were adopted and then retained in new communities, sometimes returning with migration back to the UK.

Sewell isn’t starry-eyed and naive about her project to bring out the community between people: she’s aware that she’s one of an increasing number of younger people who are starting to both explore older traditions and to create new ones, and she’s also aware of conservative forces which seek to keep things to the purity they imagine they have. But she looks at, for example, Welsh national pride and sees ways England could reimagine itself. She covers some ground familiar to those who have read David Olusoga and Corinne Fowler, but summarises and pulls it together to show the diversity that runs through Britain alongside the echoes of colonialism we do still need to address.

I could go on and on about this superb book but really I’d just urge you to get hold of a copy and read it!

Thank you to Hodder and Stoughton for approving me to read this book via NetGalley in return for an honest review. “Finding Albion” was published on 19 March 2026.

Two LGBTQIA sports novels – Kim Stephenson – “Stride for Stride” and Adiba Jaigirdar – “The Perfect Match”

March 16, 2026

Liz Dexter Book reviews, Reading challenges, Reading Ireland, Social justice - gender sex sexuality, social justice - race , , 10 Comments

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I happened to end up with two sports novels with LGBTQIA main characters this month, so it seemed ideal to read and review them together.

Kim Stephenson – “Stride for Stride”

(23 February 2026, NetGalley)

I read Stephenson’s first book in her “Running for the Romance” series, “Your Pace or Mine” last year and enjoyed it with a couple of reservations about the realities of the times people ran. This one featured two young running stars, Jackson and Elliot, one working-class and not from a running background, one son of a former elite, now his coach and agent, who are pitted against each other in various marathons and have an enemies-to-lovers trope to contend with as they vie to get selected for the Olympic marathon.

The author sets herself the tricky task of running this storyline at the same time as Darius and Jamie’s from the first book and does seem to carry it off – it’s useful if you’ve read that one though not essential. The training regimes and races are nicely done and pretty accurate and the story progresses well – the sex scenes are pretty explicit, but then they also give young queer men useful information about safe sex, so that’s fair enough.

I did have a slight issue with the times Stephenson gave the characters, with one seeming to beat the British record in the London Marathon (UK athletes usually get about 2:07 in that, but there was a definite under 2:03) and one side character is trying to get under 2 hours in a marathon which hasn’t actually been done in a race (Eliud Kipchoge did it in a time trial in 2019 but that’s it). It was a shame to have this small inaccuracy which wasn’t necessary for the plot. Anyway, apart from that point, a fun read if I had to avert my eyes now and again.

Thank you to Kim Stephenson for choosing me to read this (self-published) novel in return for an honest NetGalley review. “Stride for Stride” is published on 17 March 2026.

Adiba Jaigirdar – “The Perfect Match”

(21 November 2025, NetGalley)

Dina and Maya have already had their enemies-to-friends trope nine years ago, when they went from classroom and footballing rivals to girlfriends. Then Maya got a chance and Dina didn’t, Maya went off to play for a US football team and Dina into the corporate world. Now they’re both in a difficult place: Maya has given up her football career after too much stress and racism and is back at her parents’ house, and Dina has chucked in her corporate work and is helping her brother in the family restaurant.

Somehow, they end up coaching two young women’s football teams: can they tamp down their rivalry and be better people now? There’s a nice background of Dina’s family with her brother trying to revive their always-failing restaurant against their mum’s wishes, while Maya’s background is not drawn in in so much detail. Will they draw close again or have to be told off by their old school coach yet again?

I loved Dina’s sulky, not-keen team that pulls together and it’s all believable and sweet with a Bangladeshi background that informs and makes things difficult but isn’t used to push the two protagonists into stereotypes or tropes.

I have been aware of the author’s work for a while and will definitely look out for more by her.

In a Bookish Beck Serendipity Moment, as well as the expected social media / influencer themes and mentions of “spiralling” you will get with novels about younger protagonists, both books had a scene where one character had to hold the other’s hand on a plane because they were scared of flying.   And very excitingly, this book works for Reading Ireland Month, because the author describes herself as Bangladeshi/Irish in her About the Author note!

Thank you to Orion for accepting my request to read this book via NetGalley in return for an honest review. “The Perfect Match” is published on 19 March 2026.

Two fun light reads – Fay Keenan – “Home Sweet Home in Brambleton” and Melody Carlson – “All Booked Up”

March 13, 2026

Liz Dexter Book reviews, Social justice - age, Social justice - gender sex sexuality , 8 Comments

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Two more community-based NetGalley reads with gentle aims to entertain and teach us a little about life.

Fay Keenan – “Home Sweet Home in Brambleton”

(28 January 2026, NetGalley)

I was offered this one by the publisher because I’d read and reviewed the first two books in the series, “A Sky Full of Stars” and “Could It be Magic?” I was a bit concerned because it featured a cat but thought the author wouldn’t give us anything too upsetting (there had been a dog and a cat in the last two books which were OK).

Well, we were told (warned) the cat was elderly and declining a bit as he was being boarded at the cattery in Brambleton Village, his owner having died and the owner’s grandson not being around, and that wanderer Bella was helping out there and working in the pub, living in her friend’s spare room and knowing she needed to move out soon. So we had the workings of the grandson, Noah, and Bella meeting and going enemies-to-friends, workings out of who lived where, and who was looking after the cat … and then when poor old Monty passes away, because pass away he does (to be fair, not in an unpleasant or upsetting way), the plot moves on as there’s no need for Bella to be around any more … or is there?

It was a fine book with a nice plot but I was a bit sad about Monty as he was a great character while he was around. No one else on NetGalley has mentioned this point, but I’d have wanted to know. A nice sub-plot involving Bella’s past life as a musician and the kindness of the friends around her made the book richer.

Thank you to Boldwood Books for offering me this book to read on NetGalley in return for an honest review. “Home Sweet Home in Brambleton” was published on 12 March 2026.

Melody Carlson – “All Booked Up”

(13 January 2026, NetGalley)

I requested this one because the idea of an older (well, she’s 61, so not that much older) woman who has to rent out rooms in her house appealed, as a boarding house novel always will. Set in Oregon, in a Victorian house a little older than my own Edwardian one, Riva finds herself stuck, unwilling to get rid of her library and leave the house it turns out she grew up in and then moved back into when her grandparents died.

That makes it sound a bit like an Anne Tyler – it was more along the lines of Jan Karon’s “Father Tim” novels, as it has an overtly Christian theme, with Riva praying for guidance and the characters joining in prayer and maybe being more forgiving of Kitty, the one grain of sand in the oyster, when she behaves badly. There is an AA side to it, too, with one character actively seeking forgiveness through the 12-step progress and other characters confessing to each other. There’s also a lot about grief and bereavement in this kind book which will help people through those kinds of times, I’m sure, with its simple examples of how grief operates and slowly, gently hopeful mood.

Just the ticket for a gentle read with plenty of detail about cooking and gardening and a side theme about the power of reading to get you through all sorts of things.

In a Bookish Beck Serendipity Moment, this was the second book I read in short succession where the main, female, character had to set up a boarding house in her home in order to save her house and finances, after “Minbak“.

Thank you to Revell for approving me to read this book via NetGalley in return for an honest review. “All Booked Up” is published on 17 March 2026.

Looking at two different cultures – Eliana Ramage – “To the Moon and Back” and Ela Lee – “Minbak”

March 11, 2026

Liz Dexter Book reviews, Social justice - class, Social justice - gender sex sexuality, social justice - race , 14 Comments

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I won “To the Moon and Back” ages ago and have been desperate to read it but full of other reading requirements; I enjoyed Ela Lee’s first novel, “Jaded“. So here we are, two NetGalley reads where we can learn about Native American and Korean / Korean British families.

Eliana Ramage – “To the Moon and Back”

(2 June 2025, NetGalley)

Nothing stuck to her. The way she’d flit through the hallways at school – from class to class, friend to friend – it was incredible to me, and alien. My sister belonged, happily, like she’d sprouted out of the ground behind this house. I was something like a refugee, from a time and place my sister had forgotten. I wished I could have just a little of all that Kayla was.

Steph remembers the time her mum picked her and her sister up and fled to the family reservation and tribe in Oklahoma – Kayla was too young to remember. Where Kayla fits in, learns how to be a good Native American, learning their language and fitting in, Steph hides in a world of space and stars, longing to be an astronaut.

As they grow and change, Steph gay, Kayla straight, Steph childless, Kayla pregnant early, they end up on two sides of a huge debate which could derail Steph’s career, although she’s just as likely to derail her own career. Meanwhile, we follow Della, who was adopted out of her community in a big case that everyone knows; can she regain her identity and will meeting Steph help or hinder this? We have chapters from these three characters’ viewpoints, which did get a bit uneven at times as Della faded from the story, but I’m not sure how else this could have been covered.

This was absorbing and fascinating, with stepdad Brett providing space but also unknown historical details, like the fact that Native American people brought enslaved people with them as they tracked across America trying to find a home, constantly turned out themselves by the settlers. There is quite a lot of information in the book and it’s occasionally uneven; and the characters are not all that positive, but it’s really engaging and absorbing, even when the unthinkable happens part-way through with a bit of a shock scene. I will definitely look out for more of this author’s work.

Thank you to Transworld for accepting my request to read this novel in return for an honest review. “To the Moon and Back” is published on 19 March 2026.

Ela Lee – “Minbak”

(2 December 2025, NetGalley)

For Hana, grief was, until now, an exotic, faraway thing. For Youngja, grief was an insistent harassment. To Hana, it was a small room without windows of doors. To Youngja, it was the seven seas, the sun and all of the moons.

And here’s a book where I said, “I will definitely look out for more by this author” and I did! This second novel is much more even and approachable than her first, in my opinion.

It does take a bit of getting used to as we flick back and forth in time to historical Korea, then South Korea, with a teenage Hana helping to run a guesthouse – a minbak – which saves the her mother and father when difficult economic times hit as South Korea booms but not for them, then to the modern day, where Hana faces ruin again as her White husband dies and she and her daughter and her mother, again, have to face up to running a guesthouse. But what happened to the baby born so long ago, and will teenage Ada get trapped into running a guesthouse, too.

There are sections from grandmother Youngja’s point of view; she’s dealing with dementia and these sections are done really well and authentically, from other sources I’ve read, and are pretty moving as she flits between memory, cloudiness and clarity. She’s resourceful and so is Ada, and Hana will have to come to accept their abilities along with her own.

Lee does a brave thing in not resolving all the threads of the story, and in including chapters by different people along the way and relating the Korean foreign adoption scandal, and of course I love all the details in both timelines of how exactly things work. You learn Korean history a bit more gently than you learn space details in “To the Moon” and it’s a book that’s hard to put down.

Thank you to Random House for approving my request to read this book via NetGalley in return for an honest review. “Minbak” was published on 5 March 2026.

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 , , , , 32 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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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

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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:

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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?

Non-fiction catch-up: Helene Landemore – “Politics Without Politicians”, David King Dunaway – “A Four-Eyed World”, Shon Faye – “Love in Exile” and Keza MacDonald – “Super Nintendo”

February 27, 2026

Liz Dexter Book reviews, Get the hardbacks off the shelves, Read The Darn Hardback, ReadIndies, Reading challenges, Social justice - gender sex sexuality , , , 18 Comments

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Well, here we are. This month has been a little chaotic for a variety of reasons (don’t worry: all is OK) and I have managed to keep reading but not post reviews and not read other people’s blogs (sorry, and I will catch up!). I have just caught up with my comments on previous reviews. So here are four catch-up reviews of non-fiction books I’ve read this month. One is even from an independent publisher so counts for Kaggsy’s Bookish Ramblings’ #ReadIndies month, which I have not done enough reading for as I’d hoped.

Helene Landemore – “Politics without Politicians: The Case for Citizen Rule”

(14 February 2026, NetGalley)

Landemore is French and grew up in the punitive and terrifying French educational system where you were very much not encouraged to ask questions. Time in America taught her a different way and then she was involved as a journalist and observer in two big French governmental projects to involve citizens in contributing to new laws, including one on euthanasia, and draws a lot of the substance of the book from that. She also looks at the two Irish debates, on abortion and same-sex marriage; I hadn’t realised these were citizen-led as well as referenda, and the Icelandic work on the Constitution, among others.

Although she demonstrates that historically a fully citizen-led nation or city-state can exist, she is pragmatic and realises that really we probably would work best with some elected and some chosen-by-lot groups to run us. She’s very keen on the “shy” being involved, those who would not naturally gravitate to politics in its current form as a politician but have things to say. An interesting book read at a time I was helping to get politicians elected to the city council!

Thank you to Allen Lane for approving me to read this book via NetGalley in return for an honest review. “Politics without Politicians” was published on 10 February 2026.

David King Dunaway – “A Four-Eyed World: How Glasses Changed the Way we See”

(11 November 2025, NetGalley)

This slightly chaotic book gives us both an overview of the history and sociology of glasses-wearing and a very odd experiment on the author’s part. He works his way back and forth through history, including the contentious invention of glasses and the Church’s mistrust of amending nature, and talks a lot about reactions to glasses-wearers in the 20th and 21st centuries, taking in bullying, perceived unattractiveness and the like. He visits modern optometrists to try out the latest in lenses and has a go at explaining the economics of monopolised lens companies and designer frames. There are some gems of information, for example the idea that the current growth of myopia is due to the lower amount of sunlight today’s children are exposed to, thanks to their indoor lives. The experiment is that the author goes without his glasses for a week and has philosophical thoughts about it while constantly tripping over things. I’m all for a quest but this seemed silly and also broke up the book to make it even more confusing. A good idea, not executed very (haha) clearly.

Thank you to Bloomsbury for approving me to read this book via NetGalley in return for an honest review. “A Four-Eyed World” was published on 19 February 2026.

Shon Faye – “Love in Exile”

(06 July 2025, The Heath Bookshop)

I bought this at an author signing during Queens Heath Pride last year, Shon Faye seeming nervous and protected from the public by our being allowed in one at a time to meet her and have our books signed. Of the six print books acquired that month (one read already and for my collection) I have now read and reviewed two. This is also another book read for my “Read the Darn Hardback” challenge, as the paperback was published this month.

This was another somewhat chaotic read, a brave and open book with the theme of love, especially because Faye makes it horribly clear that in her desperate search for love as a trans woman attracted to men, she has made some terrible choices and acted very much not in her own interests. This makes painful reading, even more so when we come on to the alcoholism and black-outs. She makes her way through, bringing us along, to discuss mother love (and its pedestal) and the love of friends, the most important thing apart from the love of self. She offers some useful pointers to how to honour and care for oneself (integrity, discipline and the like) and it’s a moving book and a careful portrait of the life of a trans woman in today’s society; it’s also quite a sad read.

Keza MacDonald – “Super Nintendo: How One Japanese Company Helped the World Have Fun”

(19 December 2025, NetGalley)

MacDonald is a gamer and a games journalist and her knowledge and love for the topic shine through in this book which is just as good a read for the non-gamer (me) as I’m sure it is for the super-fan. She takes us through the history of Nintendo through its games consoles and games, from the playing cards and toys of the early company through Mario, Pokemon, Animal Crossing and the like. She carefully weaves in published interviews and her own with staff and CEOs, alongside just enough personal detail to keep it lively without overwhelming it. I loved the story of her trying to introduce her toddler to Pokemon too young, and exchanging Animal Crossing cards with friends.

MacDonald is very clear on the differentiating factors of Nintendo: it publishes family-friendly games, no shoot-em-ups (there’s a game where characters from different games fight each other, amusingly, and some dark moments in Metroid and Zelda, but nothing horrific like some of the first-person shooters you see out there) and the prime motive is for users to have fun. This really comes across and for a secretive company, we learn a lot of fascinating detail about both games and their creators. Really, a book for everyone, I’d say. And we might be revisiting our Mario Cart game ourselves!

Thank you to Faber and Faber for approving me to read this book via NetGalley in return for an honest review. “Super Nintendo” was published on 12 February 2026. This was my third book for #ReadIndies month.

Two pink memoirs by women in entertainment – Helen Lederer – “Not That I’m Bitter” and Nicki Chapman – “So Tell Me What You Want”

February 22, 2026

Liz Dexter Book reviews, Get the hardbacks off the shelves, Read The Darn Hardback, Reading challenges, Social justice - class, Social justice - gender sex sexuality , , 18 Comments

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I won Helen Lederer’s memoir from NetGalley and the Nicki Chapman is another book read for my “Read the Darn Hardback” challenge, the last one for the moment where I acquired the hardback after the paperback had come out. The lovely Annabookbel kindly sent it to me after I commented on her review of it on her blog. I have actually now read and reviewed three of the eighteen print books I acquired in January this year!

Helen Lederer “Not That I’m Bitter: A Truly, Madly, Funny Memoir”

(03 Feb 2026, NetGalley)

In my head, I felt genuinely curious. in practice I’d forgotten how to behave.

A very brave and honest book: I will admit that at times Lederer comes over a little bitter, but then she has every right to be, as she got caught time-wise between the success of French & Saunders and Victoria Wood and others, who were then the only funny women allowed, and the crop of slightly younger female comedians who also found success. Lederer seems to have struggled and all through her career needed to scrape together work, find a new agent, etc. However, as highlighted in the quote at the top, she also manages to self-sabotage over and over again, behaving frankly terribly, including asking people why they haven’t given her jobs, doing things poorly, and in the example above, asking her agent’s other clients what they thought of her agent at an event the agent was also attending. It’s great to be outspoken and honest and it’s interesting to see how women comedians were expected to be as sexually active and free and easy as the men (though of course then more damaged by it), but there is a deep vein of actively ruining her chances which is very painful to read about.

The book is funny and gives lots of great gossip about the British comedy world, but it is a hard read as you’re constantly reading about abusive relationships (especially early on when she was taken advantage of at drama school and beyond) and waiting for Lederer to undermine herself. It’s a real shame as she’s played some great parts and written some great material. I hope this book helped her to find some peace and catharsis.

Thank you to Mirror Books for accepting my request to read this book via NetGalley in return for an honest review. “Not That I’m Bitter” was published on 10 April 2025.

Nicki Chapman – “So Tell Me What You Want: My Story of Making It in the Mad, Bad and Fab Pop Music Industry”

(07 January 2026, gift from Annabel)

I’d left the UK a few weeks earlier as a music executive. I’m going home the girl off the telly, and my life will never be the same again. (p. 267)

A breath of fresh air and positivity, although still with the odd cringey moment, this is the story of the woman who was so influential in the careers of bands such as Hear’say, the Spice Girls and Take That, but also worked with Bowie, Prince and all sorts of other artists, working in management and PR before moving into TV work with Popstars and Pop Idol.

We follow Chapman, writing with Sarah Thompson (and mentioning her on the title page and the acknowledgements) through her first steps in her career, taking a risk applying for a job with a record company and typing and making tea all the way up to co-running her own music PR agency and beyond. She’s loyal to her friends, careful in who she criticises, aware of the imbalances and misogyny going on, and most importantly she comes across as so kind and caring to the people she really does “look after”, trying to advise and protect them as well as promote them. There’s just the right amount of gossip but nothing prurient or unpleasant, and some very sweet stories about especially the Spice Girls.

The book is set out well, starting with the TV stuff then looping back, not too much childhood stuff but just enough (in Herne Bay, Kent!) and then what’s great is there are little mentions of style changes as we go through the years, charcoal sofas and the like, and Chapman’s outfits and where she gets them, which really root the narrative into its times. A really enjoyable and informative read, very readable and engaging.

Book review – Partha Mandal, Zarah Alam, Anne Cockitt, Natasha Uzair, Mohammad Farooque (eds.) – “My City, My Home”

February 19, 2026

Liz Dexter Book reviews, ReadIndies, Reading challenges, Social justice - class, Social justice - gender sex sexuality, social justice - race , , 20 Comments

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Before I start, for any of my book blog friends who haven’t seen my posts about it, I’ve written about my struggle with my two blogs receiving unlikely and huge viewing statistics over on my professional blog, including a conversation with WordPress about it.

Now, on to my book review, and I chose to read this book as it fits in with Kaggsy’s Bookish Ramblings’ #ReadIndies month as Sampad acts in part as a very small, independent publisher! I bought this at The Heath Bookshop when I was in collecting two orders; I can happily say that I have read and reviewed ALL of the 12 print books I acquired in January 2024, including my book presents (linked to in that first post)!

Partha Mandal, Zarah Alam, Anne Cockitt, Natasha Uzair, Mohammad Farooque (eds.) – “My City, My Home”

(28 January 2024, The Heath Bookshop)

Switch on the kettle, grab a mug, teabag and the biscuits / Add a spoonful of sugar and dollop of milk

Boil the water in a handi over an open flame, pour into a jug / Add loose tea leaves, plenty of sugar and a sprinkle of Dano milk powder

Sweet hot tea glides down your throat / Bangladesh and Britain, maybe not so different after all (Reba Khatun, “Rain, Rain, Go Away”, p. 161)

In 2020, Sampad Arts, an organisation based in my home city of Birmingham, ran a multilingual writing competition for women with partners based in Birmingham, Bangladesh and Pakistan, and this lovely book is the result. There are English, Bangla and Urdu sections (I was sadly only able to read the English ones, which take up around 2/5 of the book) and a range of reactions to the theme “My City, My Home” which range through memoir (the majority), poetry, fiction and creative non-fiction, the latter most commonly seeming to be depictions of the author’s mother’s life.

The pieces are short, a couple of pages at most, with the author’s name and location at the top and then a paragraph or two about what inspired them to write their competition entry. A couple of people have two, and there is one mother-daughter pair writing about the same process of relocation from the two viewpoints. The English language competition winner is embedded in the English language section, which is nice and inclusive.

As well as the pieces set in Dhakar, Birmingham and Lahore and in family or growing-up situations, there are more unusual and regional ones, such as a piece set in Stockholm, one in Abbottabad, Pakistan, and others in smaller cities and towns. While most authors have an Asian name and heritage, there are pieces by White women and one by a Greek Cypriot. Bassama Tanvir’s piece imagines the life of a cow in Lahore, looking at the way the wife of the family is treated, and Reba Khatun’s poem (quoted above) is perhaps the most interwoven in terms of her two homes, Britain and Bangladesh.

A lively, often moving, and fascinating look at modern women’s lives and creativity.

You can read more about Sampad Arts here. This was my second book for #ReadIndies month.

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