2024 Reading Wrap-Up
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We’ve somehow skidded into the end of the year. 2025 is nigh and I am so glad you’re here.
THE UNMAKING OF JUNE FARROW by Adrienne Young
THE ATLAS OF US by Kristin Dwyer
RECITATIF by Toni Morrison
AMERICAN PRIMITIVE by Mary Oliver
CONVERSATIONS WITH FRIENDS by Sally Rooney
TREACLE WALKER by Alan Garner
FOE by Iain Reid
STONE BLIND by Natalie Haynes
DARIUS THE GREAT IS NOT OKAY by Adib Khorram
MIDNIGHT IS THE DARKEST HOUR by Ashley Winstead
DOUBLE UP by Vanessa North
RUTHLESS VOWS by Rebecca Ross
HOMO IRREALIS by André Aciman
SUMMERWATER by Sarah Moss
ROMANCING THE BEAT by Gwen Hayes
THE IDEA OF YOU by Robinne Lee
SMALL THINGS LIKE THESE by Claire Keegan
HEIR TO SEVENWATERS by Juliet Marillier
MORGAN IS MY NAME by Sophie Keetch
SEER OF SEVENWATERS by Juliet Marillier
A CHRISTMAS CAROL by Charles Dickens
ONE CHRISTMAS MORNING by Rachel Greenlaw
FOSTER by Claire Keegan
THE OXENBRIDGE KING by Christine Paice
ON MY MIND
SMALL THINGS LIKE THESE by Claire Keegan
Small Things Like These is award-winning author Claire Keegan's landmark new novel, a tale of one man's courage and a remarkable portrait of love and family
It is 1985 in a small Irish town. During the weeks leading up to Christmas, Bill Furlong, a coal merchant and family man faces into his busiest season. Early one morning, while delivering an order to the local convent, Bill makes a discovery which forces him to confront both his past and the complicit silences of a town controlled by the church.
An international bestseller, Small Things Like These is a deeply affecting story of hope, quiet heroism, and empathy from one of our most critically lauded and iconic writers.
SEER OF SEVENWATERS by Juliet Marillier
Sibeal has always known that she is destined for a spiritual life, and is committed to it with all her heart. The only thing left for her to do before she enters the nemetons is to spend the summer visiting her sisters, Muirrin and Clodagh, on the northern island of Inis Eala.But Sibeal has barely set foot on the island before a freak storm out at sea sinks a ship before her eyes. In spite of frantic efforts, only three survivors are fished alive from the water, and one of them, a man Sibeal names Ardal, clings to life by the merest thread. Life continues on the island, as it must, and Sibeal befriends Ardal as he begins to regain his health. But it becomes clear there is something unusual about the three shipwrecked strangers.
FOE by Iain Reid
A taut, psychological mind-bender from the bestselling author of I’m Thinking of Ending Things.
We don’t get visitors. Not out here. We never have.
In Iain Reid’s second haunting, philosophical puzzle of a novel, set in the near-future, Junior and Henrietta live a comfortable, solitary life on their farm, far from the city lights, but in close quarters with each other. One day, a stranger from the city arrives with alarming news: Junior has been randomly selected to travel far away from the farm...very far away. The most unusual part? Arrangements have already been made so that when he leaves, Henrietta won't have a chance to miss him, because she won't be left alone—not even for a moment. Henrietta will have company. Familiar company.
Told in Reid’s sharp and evocative style, Foe examines the nature of domestic relationships, self-determination, and what it means to be (or not to be) a person. An eerily entrancing page-turner, it churns with unease and suspense from the first words to its shocking finale.
AS YET UNFINISHED
OUR WIVES UNDER THE SEA by Julia Armfield
SALTWATER IN THE BLOOD by Easkey Britton
AS YOU WISH by Cary Elwes
THE RIVER OF SILVER by S.A. Chakraborty
THE MIDNIGHT FEAST by Lucy Foley
McGLUE by Ottessa Moshfegh
THE DRAGON REBORN by Robert Jordan (audiobook narrated by Rosamund Pike)
Happy reading and Happy New Year!
Marina xx