According to the blurb this is A traditional American woman, a “tradwife” influencer, suddenly awakens in the brutal reality of 1855—where she must unravel whether this living nightmare is an elaborate hoax, a twisted reality show, or something far more sinister in this sensational debut novel. I think I may like to read this book.
My first link is The Year Without Summer by Guinevere Glasfurd, a novel that illustrates how the impact of the extreme weather conditions affected the lives of six people. They never meet, or know each other, but their stories are intertwined throughout the book in short chapters, giving what I think is a unique look at the events of 1816.
My second link is A Summer Bird-Cage by Margaret Drabble, a novel about dissatisfaction and not knowing what you want, about family relationships (sisterly rivalry in particular), and the nature of marriage – the cages we live within. Whilst not a lot as regards plot happens in this short novel, it contains many ideas, attitudes and character studies. And it’s beautifully written.
My third link is Nothing To Be Frightened Of by Julian Barnes, a family memoir in which he shares details about his family’s beliefs and the deaths of his parents and grandparents, of the rivalry between him and his brother, his mother’s solipsism and manipulative behaviour, his father’s seemingly passive approach to life and the difficulties of really knowing a person.
The fourth book in my chain is another book by Julian Barnes – The Sense of an Ending. It’s a novel about memory and the effect of time, about ageing, about the nature of history and literature, about nostalgia and the question of responsibility.
My fifth link is Playing With the Moon by Eliza Graham – historical fiction, capturing what life was like during the 1940s. The book deals with the power of memory, with loss, grief and bereavement. It’s also about war, the legacy of war, and of how to make sense of our lives.
My final link is also set in the 1940s – Murder by Matchlight by E C R Lorac. The setting is London in 1945, in the darkness of the blackout as the bombs are still falling. A murder takes place in almost complete darkness in Regent’s Park, witnessed by Bruce Mallaig who heard it happen and briefly saw both the victim and his assailant by the light of a struck match. It is not only darkness that shrouds the mystery – who is the victim?
The links in my chain are words in the titles, books about rivalry, books by the same author, about memory and books set in the 1940s.
Next month (August 1, 2026), we’ll start with Maggie O’Farrell’s new release, Land.
This is a monthly link-up hosted by Kate atBooks Are My Favourite and Best. On the first Saturday of every month, a book is chosen as a starting point and linked to six other books to form a chain. Readers and bloggers are invited to join in by creating their own ‘chain’ leading from the selected book.
Books can be linked in obvious ways – for example, books by the same authors, from the same era or genre, or books with similar themes or settings. Or, you may choose to link them in more personal ways: books you read on the same holiday, books given to you by a particular friend, books that remind you of a particular time in your life, or books you read for an online challenge.
A book doesn’t need to be connected to all the other books on the list, only to the ones next to them in the chain.
This month we are starting with Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaghy. It was longlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction 2026. As it’s a book I’ve not read this is the description from Goodreads:
A family on a remote island. A mysterious woman washed ashore. A storm gathering force.
Dominic Salt and his three children are caretakers of Shearwater, a tiny weather-lashed island that is home to the world’s largest seed bank. As Shearwater risks being lost to rising sea levels, the island’s researchers have fled, and only the Salts remain.
Until, during the worst storm in living memory, a stranger washes ashore. The family nurse the woman, Rowan, back to strength, but it seems she isn’t telling the whole truth about why she’s there. And when Rowan stumbles upon sabotaged radios and a recently dug grave, she realises that she’s not the only one on the island with a secret.
A novel of breathtaking twists, dizzying beauty and ferocious love, Wild Dark Shore is about the impossible choices we make to protect the people we love.
I think I may like to read this book.
My first link is Wild Mary by Patrick Marnham, a biography of Mary Wesley, the author of TheCamomile Lawn (I remember watching the TV adaptation) and other books. It’s based on her personal papers, and conversations between Mary and Patrick Marnham in 2002. One of the most fascinating things about Mary’s life for me was her wartime experiences, working for MI5 in the decoding unit.
My second link is another biography Daphne du Maurier by Margaret Forster, a candid account of her relationships, eg her troubled married life; wartime love affair; and friendships with Gertrude Lawrence and Ellen Doubleday, as well as an excellent source of information on Du Maurier’s method of writing and views on life.
My third link is The End of the Affair by Graham Greene, a novel about the end of the affair between Maurice Bendrix and his friend’s wife, Sarah. Their affair had begun in 1944 during the London Blitz. It’s a study of love and hate, of desire, of jealousy, of pain, of faithfulness, and of the interaction between God and people.
The fourth book in my chain is The Death of Shame by Ambrose Parry and another character called Sarah. It’s the 5th and final Raven and Fisher book, set in Edinburgh in 1854 . It’s a combination of historical fact and fiction, a tale of murder and medical matters, with the social scene, historical and medical facts slotting perfectly into an intricate murder mystery.
My fifth link is another book on the history of medicine. It’s the The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot, a biography of Henrietta’s life and death. She died of cervical cancer in 1951. Her cancer cells became known as HeLa cells and have formed the basis for much medical research and drug development ever since. It is also a history of the diagnosis and treatment of cancer and considers the ethical issues around ownership of her cells and the distress, anger and confusion this caused her family.
My final link is linked by the title – Dear Dodie: The Life of Dodie Smith by Valerie Grove. Dodie wrote I Capture the Castle and The Hundred and One Dalmatians amongst many other books and plays. She was born in 1896 and died in 1990. During her lifetime the world went through enormous changes and numerous wars. This biography not only relates Dodie’s life, but is also a record of those years, containing so much about the changing society, culture, values and recalling an unknown (to me at any rate) theatrical age.
The links in my chain are words in the titles, biographies, books about love affairs, characters called Sarah, and books about the history of medicine. Four of the books are biographies and only one is crime fiction.
Next month (June 2, 2026) we’ll start with book by Austrian author Stefan Zweig – The Post Office Girl. Kate has chosen this book in honour of Eurovision being held in Vienna.
This is a monthly link-up hosted by Kate atBooks Are My Favourite and Best. On the first Saturday of every month, a book is chosen as a starting point and linked to six other books to form a chain. Readers and bloggers are invited to join in by creating their own ‘chain’ leading from the selected book.
Books can be linked in obvious ways – for example, books by the same authors, from the same era or genre, or books with similar themes or settings. Or, you may choose to link them in more personal ways: books you read on the same holiday, books given to you by a particular friend, books that remind you of a particular time in your life, or books you read for an online challenge.
A book doesn’t need to be connected to all the other books on the list, only to the ones next to them in the chain.
This month we are starting with an epistolary novel, The Correspondent by Virginia Evans. It was longlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction 2026. As it’s a book I’ve not read this is the description from Amazon:
Every morning, Sybil Van Antwerp sits down to write letters – to her brother, to her best friend, to the president of the university who will not allow her to attend a class she desperately wants to take, to her favourite authors to tell them what she thinks of their latest books, and to one person to whom she writes often yet never sends the letter.
Because at seventy-three, Sybil has used her correspondence – witty and wise – to make sense of the world. But beyond the page, she has spent the last thirty years keeping the people who love her at arms’ length… Until letters from someone in her past force her to examine one of the most painful periods of her life.
Now, Sybil must send the letter she has been writing for all these years – and find forgiveness within herself in order to move on.
My first link is also an epistolary novel, Letters from Skye by Jessica Brockmole and also a book I haven’t read yet, one of my TBRs. It’s a novel told in a series of letters written spanning the years from the First World War to the Second between a poet living on Skye and a fan of hers living in Illinois.
My second link is Star Gazing by Linda Gillard, which is also set on Skye. Marianne who has been blind from birth falls in love with Keir, a solitary Highlander and geophysicist, who works on the oil rigs, but who spends his time on shore at his house on Skye. The locations in Star Gazing are just beautiful, described so vividly you could almost be there. Marianne falls in love with Keir and with Skye.
My third link is The Stars Look Down by A J Cronin, a family saga chronicling the lives of a number of interconnected families over a period of thirty years. beginning in 1903 in a North Country mining town. It was first published in 1935. The story starts in 1903 in Sleescale, a fictional town, as its inhabitants experienced social and political upheaval. It ends in 1933. I loved it.
The fourth book in my chain was also first published in 1935. It’s Tortilla Flat by John Steinbeck. Tortilla Flat is on the hill high above Monterey, an old city on the coast of California. The book is a collection of stories, some humorous and some tragic. about Danny and his friends. They are paisanos, being a mix of Spanish, Indian, Mexican and assorted Caucasian bloods, living in old wooden houses in the midst of pine trees.
My fifth link is to The Dutch House by Anne Patchett, which has another character called Danny. Danny, Maeve and their mother, Elna and father, Cyril lived in the Dutch House, but when Danny was just three his mother left home. Cyril remarried, and his second wife, Andrea was the epitome of the wicked stepmother. When their father dies he leaves the Dutch House, to Andrea.
My final link is to The House on the Strand. Dick Young moves between the present day and the 14th century set in Cornwall – around Par Sands and the Manor of Tywardreath. Dick is staying at Kilmarth (where Du Maurier lived after she was forced to leave Menabilly). He’s the guest of his friend Magnus, a scientist researching the effect of a psychedelic drug that produces hallucinations of time travel. As Dick moves in his mind to the 14th century he physically moves across the present day landscape crossed by roads and railway lines that he cannot see. The difference in the landscape plays a central part in the story.
The links in my chain are epistolary novels, books set on Skye, books with ‘star’ in the titles, books published in 1935, with characters called Danny, and finally books with the word ‘house’ in the titles.
Next month (May 2, 2026) we’ll start with Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaghy.
This is a monthly link-up hosted by Kate atBooks Are My Favourite and Best. On the first Saturday of every month, a book is chosen as a starting point and linked to six other books to form a chain. Readers and bloggers are invited to join in by creating their own ‘chain’ leading from the selected book.
Books can be linked in obvious ways – for example, books by the same authors, from the same era or genre, or books with similar themes or settings. Or, you may choose to link them in more personal ways: books you read on the same holiday, books given to you by a particular friend, books that remind you of a particular time in your life, or books you read for an online challenge.
A book doesn’t need to be connected to all the other books on the list, only to the ones next to them in the chain.
This month we are starting with Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë. This was one of my favourite books when I was a teenager.
My first link was also a favourite book I read as a teenager, Mist Over Pendle by Robert Neill, historical fiction based on the real-life Lancashire witch trials.
My second link is possibly the first historical fiction book I read, The Children of the New Forest by Captain Frederick Marryat, one of the first historical novels written specifically for children and published in 1847, set during the English Civil War.
My third link is The King’s General by Daphne du Maurier, also historical fiction that I read as a teenager. It’s a blend of fact and fiction set in Cornwall also during the Civil War. It was first published in 1946.
The fourth book in my chain was also first published in 1946. It’s Miss Pym Disposes by Josephine Tey, set in a Physical Training College where was a’nasty accident‘. But this is not a conventional crime fiction novel. It’s a psychological study focusing on the characters.
My fifth link is to a biography of Tey – JosephineTey: a Life by Jennifer Morag Henderson, a book I have yet to read. Josephine Tey was the pen-name of Elizabeth MacKintosh, who was a Golden Age Crime Fiction writer.
My final link is to another biography, The Brontës by Juliet Barker, based on research among all the Brontë manuscripts. This is a biography of the Brontë family – which I should have read a long time ago.
My chain is mainly made up of historical fiction and crime fiction and two biographies. The links are some of my favourite books I read as a child and then a teenager, books published in 1946 and biographies of two of the authors.
My final book links the starting book by Emily Brontë to the last, a biography about her and her family.
Next month (April 4, 2026) we’ll start with Virginia Evans’s epistolary novel, The Correspondent, a book I’ve never heard of before.
This is a monthly link-up hosted by Kate atBooks Are My Favourite and Best. On the first Saturday of every month, a book is chosen as a starting point and linked to six other books to form a chain. Readers and bloggers are invited to join in by creating their own ‘chain’ leading from the selected book.
Books can be linked in obvious ways – for example, books by the same authors, from the same era or genre, or books with similar themes or settings. Or, you may choose to link them in more personal ways: books you read on the same holiday, books given to you by a particular friend, books that remind you of a particular time in your life, or books you read for an online challenge.
A book doesn’t need to be connected to all the other books on the list, only to the ones next to them in the chain.
This month we are starting with Flashlight by Susan Choi, a book that topped lots of 2025 ‘best of’ lists and it was shortlisted for the Booker Prize 2025. I haven’t read, but going off the description from Amazon I think I’d like to.
One evening, ten-year-old Louisa and her father, Serk, take a walk out on the breakwater. They are spending the summer in a coastal Japanese town. Hours later, Louisa wakes on the beach, soaked to the skin. Her father is missing: presumably drowned.
This sudden event shatters their small family. As Louisa and her American mother return to the US, Serk’s disappearance reverberates across time and space, and the mystery of what really happened that night slowly unravels.
For my first link I’ve chosen another Booker Prize nomination, The Secret River by Kate Grenville shortlisted in 2006. It’s historical fiction, a fictional account of the conflict that accompanied the settlement of New South Wales, Australia by exiled British convicts in the 19th century.
My second link is another book set in Australia, Exiles by Jane Harper, Investigator Aaron Falk finds himself drawn into a complex web of tightly held secrets in South Australia’s wine country. It’s the third and final Aaron Falk Mystery book.
My third linkThe Mirror and the Light by Hilary Mantel is the third and final book in The Wolf Hall Trilogy. The trilogy as a whole traces the rise and fall of Thomas Cromwell in the court of Henry VIII. The books bring 16th century England to life in vivid colour. I became very fond of Cromwell, who rose from humble beginnings to become Earl of Essex and Lord Great Chamberlain in 1539. This third book is about his final years as his enemies plotted against him. He was executed on 28th July 1540.
The next book in my chain is The Cracked Mirror by Chris Brookmyre, a murder mystery, a cross-genre hybrid of Agatha Christie and Michael Connelly. It’s a mash-up of British/American crime fiction/thriller, with plenty of twists and turns, complications and rollercoaster fast action chases, most of it unbelievable. It’s brutal and violent, with quite a bit of dark humour thrown in. It’s also tense and full of suspense.
My fifth link is to another ‘cracked mirror‘ book. It’s The Mirror Crack’d from Side to Side by Agatha Christie, set in the village of St Mary Mead. Miss Marple was feeling rather down and a bit weak after an attack of bronchitis. Her doctor prescribes ” a nice juicy murder” for her to unravel and not long after the ideal opportunity arose with the death of Heather Badcock. Heather had gone to a fete at Gossington Hall held by her idol, the glamorous movie star Marina Gregg.
My final link is also set in a village, but in Ardnakelty, Ireland. It’s The Hunter by Tana French, the second Cal Hooper mystery. Two men arrive with a money-making scheme to fleece the villagers, claiming there is gold on their land. One of the men is Trey’s father, Johnny who has been absent from the village for four years. But Trey is suspicious of her father’s true motives and doesn’t trust him, or the rich Londoner, Cillian Rushborough, Johnny met in London.
I loved Tana French’s beautiful descriptions of the Irish rural landscape. It’s the sort of book I find so easy to read and lose myself in, able to visualise the landscape and feel as if I’m actually there with the characters, watching what is happening.
My chain is mainly made up of historical and crime fiction this month travelling from Japan through America and England and ending in Ireland. The links are Booker Prize nominations, books set in Australia, the third books in a trilogy, books with mirrors in the title and books set in villages.
I think I can say that the final book links back to the starting book as both concern books about a father and daughter.
Next month (March 7, 2026) we’ll start with a classic (and in celebration of the forthcoming film) – Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë
This is a monthly link-up hosted by Kate atBooks Are My Favourite and Best. On the first Saturday of every month, a book is chosen as a starting point and linked to six other books to form a chain. Readers and bloggers are invited to join in by creating their own ‘chain’ leading from the selected book.
Books can be linked in obvious ways – for example, books by the same authors, from the same era or genre, or books with similar themes or settings. Or, you may choose to link them in more personal ways: books you read on the same holiday, books given to you by a particular friend, books that remind you of a particular time in your life, or books you read for an online challenge.
A book doesn’t need to be connected to all the other books on the list, only to the ones next to them in the chain.
It’s a nonfiction book telling the incredible story of the wreck of the whaleship Essex in 1820 in the South Pacific. It was repeatedly rammed and sunk by an eighty-ton bull sperm whale. I haven’t read this book yet; it’s one of my TBRs.
My chain begins anothe book with the word heart in the title. It is Heart of Darkness, a novella by Joseph Conrad, originally a three-part series in Blackwood’s Magazine in 1899. Although a gripping story, this was not an enjoyable book for me. But then, I suppose, it is not meant to be. Conrad was writing about the inhumanity of the way the native population in Africa was treated; the greed and cruelty of the Europeans to gain property, business, trade and profit, draining Africa of its natural resources. It paints an appalling picture.
I think it shows the darkest depths of human behaviour. In doing so Conrad highlights the prejudices and the cruelty and shows how it was at that time – the graphic reality of what happened. It is a powerful criticism of colonialism at its worst, and full of imagery, casting a spotlight on the barbarity of the so-called civilised Westerners. These few words, uttered by Kurtz concisely summarise the whole story: ‘The horror! The horror!’
The second book in my chain is also a book set in Africa – Thirteen Hours by Deon Meyer (translated from Afrikaans by K L Seegers), crime fiction set in South Africa, DI Benny Griessel has just 13 hours to crack open a conspiracy which threatens the whole country. Rachel, a young American girl is running for her life up the steep slope of Lion’s Head in Capetown. The body of another American girl is found outside the Lutheran church in Long Street. Her throat slit had been slit. An hour or so later Alexandra Barnard, a former singing star and an alcoholic, wakes from a drunken stupor to find the dead body of her husband, a record producer, lying on the floor opposite her and his pistol lying next to her.
The next book in my chain is The Thirteenth Tale by Diana Setterfield. It took me some time to get into this book and I found myself being both reluctant to read it and yet unable to stop. It was only when I was reading the second part of the book that I found myself actually enjoying it. I usually give up on a book before then. Part of the problem I have with this book is that I couldn’t really like the characters, even Margaret, the narrator irritated me somewhat, even though she loves books. Another problem is the ending, which I found to be contrived.
My fourth book is another book by Diana Setterfield that I enjoyed much more than The Thirteenth Tale is Once Upon a River. It is a beautifully and lyrically told story, and cleverly plotted so that I was not completely sure at times what it was that I was reading. It’s historical fiction with a touch of magic that completely beguiled me with its mysteries and fascinating characters. It’s a mystery beginning in the Swan Inn at Radcot, an ancient inn, well-known for its storytelling, on the banks of the Thames. A badly injured stranger enters carrying the drowned corpse of a little girl. It’s mystifying as hours later the dead child, miraculously it seems, takes a breath, and returns to life. The mystery is enhanced by folklore, by science that appears to be magic, and by romance and superstition.
My fifth book is The Good People by Hannah Kent, another beautifully written book, and an intensely moving tale of Irish rural life in the early 19th century. I grew up reading fairy stories but The Good People gives a frighteningly realistic view of what belief in fairies meant to people dealing with sickness, disease, evil and all the things that go wrong in our lives. It’s set in 1825/6, a long gone world of people living in an isolated community, a place where superstition and a belief in fairies held sway. People talk of others being ‘fairy-swept’ or ‘away with the fairies’, and kept with the music and lights, dancing under the fairy hill. This is a beautifully written book. It is not a fairy story, but one in which their existence is terrifyingly real to the people of the valley.
The Good People is based on true events. And my final link is also based on a true event. West with Giraffes by Lynda Rutledge is historical fiction based on fact about two giraffes who miraculously survived a hurricane while crossing the Atlantic. They then travelled across America from the east coast to the San Diego Zoo, during the Great Hurricane of 1938, the most destructive storm to strike New England in recorded history until 2012’s Hurricane Sandy. It conjures up a vivid picture of America in 1938 during the Great Depression, the Dust Bowl, hobo cards, nomadic workers taking jobs where they could, desperate Hooverville dwellers in shanty towns, sundown town racism, and circus animal cruelty. But of course, it is the giraffes that are the two main characters.
My chain is mainly made up of historical fiction this month travelling from the South Pacific through Africa, England, Ireland and America and from the nineteenth century to the twentieth.
Next month (February 3, 2026) we’ll start with a book that topped lots of 2025 ‘best of’ lists – Flashlight by Susan Choi.
BooksPlease 