The third of this series of illustrated books lives up to the other two (art & science). It follows the same pattern of a one page biography of women through the years that have broken ground or changed the status quo for women and equality. I guess because of the nature of sport, these are more modern biographies, in the last centure or so, but it’s still inspiring and beautifully put together.

I don’t remember picking this book up so didn’t know what to expect from it. It’s a reasonably good thriller, I liked the way it was structured with various diary entries and points of view, but I’m not sure I was totally sold on the underlying mystery. It seemed a bit far-fetched, but then, you just never know with people, do you?

Loved this. I listened to the audiobook so it had an intro from Tim Peake and then was read by Robin Ince. This is structured around questions that Peake has answered throughout his career as an astronaut and covers the entirety of training to get to the position of astronaut, and then every inch of a trip into space, living on the international space station, and returning back to earth. There were all kinds of details I wouldn’t have thought of asking and have never heard talked about elsewhere, and it was absolutely fascinating. Just a shame that Peake didn’t read the whole thing himself as I think that would have been better.

Somehow, even though each of the prequel books for the Inspector Frost series don’t fill me with joy, I can’t stop reading them. I love the Frost character, but in this book he doesn’t come across very well - all that scrapping around on people’s sofas and being generally unhealthy and unkempt, it just doesn’t strike very well. He has his moments of brilliance but the other characters are given more chance to shine. A good read, but not one of the best.

A fun read this one. For once, I thought I might have liked it better via audiobook because it was such a monologue style and so strongly Irish, I feel like being told the story would have been better than reading it. However, read it I did and I zipped through it. The style reminded me quite a lot of Bridget Jones, that sort of informal, thoughts-on-a-page thing. But I liked that it wasn’t just a rom-com, it was really a woman trying to figure out where she is and where she’s going next, whilst dealing with some family drama along the way. And I really liked the calm ending, not all wrapped up neatly but with some promise for the future.

This was an interesting concept for a book but as I was reading, I could never decide if I was enjoying it or not. The hook for the book is following the history of London by means of the oldest house in the capital, and what historical events it has seen. I guess I might have wanted it to be a bit more domestic in places, whilst fully appreciating there’s only so much evidence out there. Even so it was interesting to think about what this house has lived through - plague, fire, various monarchs and religions, protests, rebellions, two wars, and plenty of rebuilding. Overall a decent read.

This was a different book to the one I was expecting - it wasn’t just a festive rom-com, I mean, it was hardly that at all really. Emma splits up with her partner and has an unfortunate accident that means she heads home to recover and re-connect with her family. It had elements of magic and long family feuds and that village mentality where everyone knows each other’s business. It reminded me a lot of Practical Magic (the movie, I haven’t read the book yet), so it was good but it wasn’t quite what I had hoped.

I loved this. A short collection of essays by the author about the joys and horrors of Christmas, and particularly about those horrors that are really joys and you would miss if they weren’t there. They’re written so well to really bring you into the moment. I can completely imagine the swimming pool situation - Santa in a swimming pool is such a weird concept. And the endless obsessions over the moistness of a turkey. Brilliant. Just a great read and so easy to get through in one sitting.

I’m racing through these Jessica Daniel books, having picked the series up again after a long break. This one featured a handful of different crimes again, with the main focus being on a prison break and the effects that flow out from that specific moment in time. I found it a little bit hard to follow in the middle but of course, it’s the main characters and how they interact that really keeps you reading - the camaraderie, and of course, keeping up with what’s going to happen next!

I love Kerry Wilkinson’s books, and this was another really good thriller mystery, where two sisters return to a Cornish village from their childhoods to move on from trauma, but in turn finding more to deal with as they go along. There are some really great, but potentially triggering, descriptions of struggling with an eating disorder, and the scenes in the cave were genuinely very tense. The rising stakes, the feeling that the truth might never come out, it was really well-paced and well-written. Good times.