What I read in July 2025
July was a long month, and I read some long books (and a couple of short ones too!). I also posted An Unexpected Stop, the story I wrote inspired by Orford Ness, on here, and it seemed to go down well.
The other day, I went to see Plays from a Park Bench at Colchester Castle Park – an evening of ten-ish minute plays based around, well, a park bench, some of which were written by people from my writing group. It was excellent, though what always frustrates me about plays (but what also makes them special!) is their ephemerality – I always want to share a link afterwards like ‘watch this funny, cool thing my friend wrote!’, but I can’t!
My review schedule is still looking rather sparse, so if you want a book reviewed soonish, now’s a good time to ask! Feel free to contact me on Instagram or Mastodon. I especially enjoy reviewing autobiogaphy, other non-fiction, short stories, and sci-fi.
Guilty by Definition, by Susie Dent - you know when you watch Only Connect, and you just accept the clever people’s answers because you haven’t got a hope of puzzling it out yourself? That. Also, it stuck in my craw a bit that Dent’s publishers came to her like ‘you’ve never written fiction before but we think you’d be good at it with our help’ when some people hone their writing skills all their lives but never get published. 4*
A Leg to Stand On, by Oliver Sacks - 4*
Home Before Dark, by Eva Björg Ægisdóttir, translated by Victoria Cribb - 5*
The Architect’s Apprentice, by Elif Shafak - I know I said I was going to read The Island of Missing Trees, but then it occurred to me that this was one of the oldest unread books on my Kindle (I bought it in 2020). 4*
Artificial Condition, by Martha Wells - after bingeing the fantastic Murderbot TV series, I wanted to spend a little more time in that universe (I read All Systems Red ages ago, so the show also served as a handy refresher!). 5*
Broken Biscuits and other male failures, by Adam Farrer - 4*
An Account of the Decline of the Great Auk According to One Who Saw It, by Jessie Greengass - 4.5*
Ruby, by Nina Allan - 4.5*
House of Odysseus, by Claire North - 4*
The Cat Bride, by Charlotte Tierney - review coming soon! 4.5*
Containment, by Vanda Symon - 4*
Looking ahead…
No image this time as it’s going to be another month of mainly deciding what to read based on my mood! One book I definitely will read, though, is The Transcedent Tide, by Doug Johnstone, as I’m on the blog tour and can’t wait to see how the Enceladons trilogy concludes!