January Reading Wrap Up
This year I was the Christmas guest who looked like they were never going to leave. I caught a virus off one of my relatives and fell unwell. Unable to look after myself, I needed support and turned to my parents.
I did return home to my London flat for a whole 72 hours after our Christmas celebrations, but when I was wiped out by illness and couldn’t pop down the road to do a food shop, I phoned my mum. A few hours later, she was picking me up and taking me back to their house, where I would be for the next few weeks.
Infections – like coughs, colds, and flu – tend to affect those of us with Cystic Fibrosis more than the average person. Our immune systems are compromised, so a common cold can really knock me back and then hang around for a long time with lasting consequences.
This time, I had to be off work for three weeks making a slow start to my 2026. And although I’m feeling over the virus now, I am not quite back to where I was beforehand.
In a way, I am used to this – it is part of life with a chronic illness – but I don’t think it will ever not feel unfair. Whenever this happens, my life goes on pause, and I disappear from the world for a little bit.
It is almost like we’re all travelling along through life, and I keep needing to stop on the side of the road for a little while - a metaphor I admittedly got from a book I read this month, Common Bonds: A Speculative Aromantic Anthology. (Although, in the context of the story, this metaphor describes not wanting romantic relationships and stepping off the formulaic relationship escalator that everyone else is pin down to.)
“I still felt like what I wanted was for others some sort of middle ground, just a path that led from one place to another. And nobody wants to live their life on the side of the road” – Seams of Iron by Adrinna C. Grigore
But things are really moving again for me now! I am back at work, I have big life changes coming up in the year, and I have a very exciting tbr to get to! I also read a book with perhaps my favourite quote ever and one that’s even better out of context…
“I’ve never read a book before; it was very exciting. They’re not supposed to fall apart when you touch them, though, right?” - quote from A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers
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Gone with the Penguins by Hazel Prior ⭐️⭐️⭐️
This is the third book in a cute, penguin-packed trilogy following granny McCreedy and other characters. I read the previous two books in 2024.
This time, granny McCreedy, Eileen and Daisy set out a charity walk around their home in Scotland and various penguin habitats - the Galápagos islands, the Falkland Islands, and Antarctica - to raise money in an attempt to save the local sea life centre. As with the other books, we get to read multiple POVs. I'm glad this one decided to follow Eileen, the housekeeper who I don't believe we've heard from before now.
Hazel Prior has a talent for making sure you can read the series in any order; within a few pages you are all caught up, and any additional details are given when needed. This helped me get into the story back in 2024 as I picked up the second book - Call of the Penguins - first (an order I actually recommend given how infuriating the main characters are at the beginning of the first book. But that's the wonder of the character arch, I suppose).
I felt like there was less heart overall in this one. The first two books had strong character development, while this one felt like the characters receded and learnt much the same lessons. But there is more direction in the second half, and I found this to be a delightful read.
The Bookshop on the Shore by Jenny Colgan ⭐️⭐️
I don't really know what to make of this book. I expect it's one I won't particularly remember a few months from now.
I picked this up off a shelf at my parent's house and I've been slowly reading it while I've been unwell.
A single mother, Zoe, is struggling to pay rent in London then gets the opportunity to move to Scotland - a village by Loch Ness - as an au pair for a family who keep to themselves, and as a bookseller helping out with a book van in the village. Although it seems like a terrible mistake at first, this ends up being just the right thing for Zoe and her 4-year-old, Hari, who makes a friend in the big, creepy house they now call home and gains confidence throughout the book.
There is a tiny bit of romance in the final few chapters that felt like an add-on and should have been built into the whole story, if included at all. The "mystery" of what happened to the mother of the children in the big house is revealed too late for my liking and, given the truth, it feels inappropriate that the whole village is gossiping about what might have happened. And the title and cover of the book really have nothing to do with what the plot focuses on, which annoyed me a little (Although that's not the author's fault).
Ultimately, I can't decide what I wanted from this book and I'm left a little flat having finished it.
Klara and The Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro (DNF)
This was my pick for my science fiction book club because it had been on my shelf for years, but it was a disappointment. I found it slow and repetitive, and I feel it was trying to say something about society but not quite getting there. I think it may have been better as a novella or short story.
The book follows the lifespan of Klara, an artificial friend (AF) from shop to decommission. Klara is very observant of humans - both in the store before they are brought and then when they're hired and live in a family home as the companion to Josie, one of the "lifted" - and the narration is their insights of humans and their surroundings over the course or their life.
It's set in a futuristic world with, of course, humanoid companions, but also genetically engineered children for academic ability (the "lifted") who are often unwell and don't survive as long.
The title comes from Klara's worship of the sun for providing energy and the healing powers Klara believes it has.
I really thought I'd enjoy this book based on the themes it explores, but I ended up being bored and putting it down at page 147.
Common Bonds: A Speculative Aromantic Anthology ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Read for my asexual book club, I am really glad a project like this exists!
As with any short story collection, there are some I connected to more than others. I particularly enjoyed:
Moon Sisters by Camilla Quinn
Would You Like Charms with That? by E. H. Timms, and
Asteria III by Margorie King;
and there were many others of interest to talk about at book club as well.
The aim of Common Bonds was to “explore the ways platonic relationships enrich our lives”, but I felt several of the stories were instead there to bluntly name and explain aromantism, which does make sense given the lack of knowledge around the identity right now, but is frustrating for a book group with an already-detailed understanding. There were also discussions at book club about how fantasy stories took centre stage here and other genres, as well as poems, were pushed to the side.
Common Bonds 2 is due to release later in the year – I look forward to seeing if they’ve strengthened the theme, and diversified the entries, on the second go-around.
A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers (Monk and Robot duology Book One) ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
This tale invites you to slow down and just be. It describes a utopian future from the perspective of a queer, genderless main character and is another delight from Becky Chambers (author of The Wayfarer series).
Dex, a monk, is drawn to the idea of cricket song and to pursue a change occupation - from a city gardener to a tea monk in the villages. I related to their need for a new challenge as well as their terrible experience of a first day. They realise they have a lot to learn and do so to become the best tea monk in Panga. I appreciated the steadiness of these opening chapters, and this was the part of the book that particularly gave me the five star feeling; I would have loved more of the tea monk thing, but what was to come was entertaining and enlightening too.
Our monk once again feels to urge for something new and, on a whim, goes off the path and into the wilderness. Here, they meet Mosscap, one of the robots - human machines that gained consciousness in The Awakening and then resigned from human service and walked into the woods never to be seen again... until now.
Their friendship slowly develops during their time together - it is lovely to read about.
The such modern and casual conversations between Dex and Mosscap took me by surprise. But given its set in the far future, I guess that makes sense, and I quickly got used to it.
I am a big fan of Becky Chambers, and this is another book by them that I highly recommend!