52 in 25

I read 52 books last year, mostly fiction but a smattering of non-fic too. I also read a few comic books, and a handful of short stories, and I dnf'd two books. I'll spare the authors' blushes - but one was a book of essays on air travel; I have no idea why I picked this up because I have no interest in this subject, in fact I refuse to ever get on a plane, so this book was never going to work for me. The other was a memoir by a big name Hollywood star, but I found him such an insufferable braggart that I slammed the book shut long before the final credits rolled.

I don't know why I just spent more time writing about the two books I didn't finish, than all the ones I did, perhaps that's just human nature. Or my maybe just my nature. Ok, I'll tell you what, why don't I flag up a few of the best books I read last year, just to balance the, well, books?

Orbital by Samantha Harvey. A slim, quick read. Winner of the 2024 Booker Prize. It relates 24 hours in the lives of six astronauts/cosmonauts aboard the International Space Station as it orbits the Earth. I loved Harvey's use of language - almost like poetry at times, the intimate drama within the extraordinary setting, the mundanity of the crew's life as they carry out their duties whilst they cogitate on all manner of profound topics. Each orbit of the Earth takes 90 minutes, and I was always eager to read the descriptions of the views of differing lands and oceans far below that the tiny windows in the Space Station afforded the crew high overhead.

All Change by Elizabeth Jane Howard. The fifth and final novel in the Cazalet Chronicles saga. It has taken me a couple of years to read all five books, because I didn't want to rush through them. I loved knowing that I still had three, two, one more to read. The series documents the lives of the extended Cazalet family from the 1930s, through the Second World War, into the 1950s. It's set, predominantly in London, and in Home Place in Sussex, where various permutations of the family gather in the big house every summer for their holidays. I loved these books, I loved spending time with them, and I am finally sorry to have finished the series.

On the Calculation of Volume Book 1, by Solvej Balle. Another slim title. This one tells the story of Tara, who has fallen through a crack in time and wakes everyday to find she has to relive November 18th again. Everyone else lives that day like it's the first time they've lived it, because it is, but for Tara it's all being repeated again and again. She knows what time the rain will start to fall, and what time her husband will come downstairs. She can change small things and sometimes when she awakes to the next November 18th those small things remain changed, but sometimes they revert to how they were before. It's a slow paced story but with a wonderful atmosphere and sense of intrigue. Solvej Balle is a Danish writer and the story is set in France, with Tara often travelling into Paris to carry out business, and to try to figure out why she is trapped in this time loop. I found this story to be really unforgettable, and haunting, and I'm excited that it is the first book in a septology. The first three books have already been translated into English and been published here. A further three have been written in Danish but are, as yet, unavailable in English. Highly recommended.

Other, honourable mentions, from last year's list would have to be IQ84 Book 3 by Haruki Murakami, Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolf, and, Infinity Gate by M.R. Carey. All of which I hugely enjoyed for different reasons.

So, that was a re-cap of 2025s reading. What will the list for 2026 look like? To be fair, I don't usually make a list of books to read, I'm very much a mood reader so I'll pick up something that appeals to me in the moment. However, prompted by a spate of videos that I've seen on BookTube, I thought that I'd like to make a list of 26 books that I definitely want to read in 2026, and you can read that list, if you care to, in the next post - 26 in 26.