Shellyrae @ Book’d Out is hosting the 2026 Nonfiction Reader Challenge. The aim of the Challenge is to encourage you to make nonfiction part of your reading experience during the year. For the different goals and categories see this post.
I’m joining this challenge because I want to read more nonfiction next year, so the Nonfiction Grazer goal is perfect for me, ‘Read & review any nonfiction book. Set your own goal, or none at all, just share the nonfiction you read through the year“. This year I read 8 nonfiction books, so for 2026 I’ll be aiming to read and review at least 10 books.
The challenge will run from January 1st to December 31st 2026. Participants may join at any time up until December 1st 2026.
There are just a few days left in the Historical Fiction Reading Challenge 2025 hosted by Marg at The Intrepid Reader & Baker. These are the books I’ve read including those I haven’t reviewed:
10 Minutes 38 Seconds in This Strange World by Elif Shafak
Fire from Heaven by Mary Renault
I was aiming to reach the Medieval Level – 15 books, but exceeded that so next year I’ll be aiming to reach the Ancient History Level – 25 books – and to review all of them!
Tomorrow sees the start of 10th Anniversary Club Reading Week hosted by Simon and Karen and the start of the next bi-annual event from 20th to 26th October 2025. They are asking readers across the internet to join together to build up a picture of the year 1925 in books – you can read, share, review and comment on any book from the year in question; you can get involved as much or as little as you like. You could read one book or several; it’s low pressure and you have a wide choice of reading matter! There will be a dedicated page for the club where Karen will share links to other people’s posts and reviews.
These are books published in 1925 that I’ve read previously:
The Great Gatsby by F Scott Fitzgerald – a portrait of the Jazz Age in all of its decadence and excess. As I first read this before I had my blog I may re-read it this week.
Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Wood – this is the story of one day in the life of Clarissa Dalloway. She is preoccupied with the last-minute details of party she is to give that evening. Elsewhere in London, Septimus Smith is suffering from shell-shock and on the brink of madness. Mrs Dalloway first appeared in Virginia Woolf’s short story, Mrs Dalloway in Bond Street published in The Dial magazine in 1923. This is another book I first read before I began my blog.
I don’t think I have any other books published in 1925! I’m looking forward to seeing what others read,
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 Dominic Amerena’s debut novel about authors and publishing, I Want Everything. Amazon describes it as a wickedly sharp story of desire and deception, authorship and authenticity, and the devastating costs of creative ambition.
I haven’t read I Want Everything, so I’m starting my chain with another debut novel – My Beautiful Imperial by Rhiannon Lewis. It was a Mother’s Day present from my son, a few years ago. It’s historical fiction set in the 19th century in both Wales and Chile. It captured my imagination completely. I was caught up in this story of friendship, love, war and the dangers of life at sea. It’s based on the actual events of the Civil War in Chile.
Painting as a Pastime by Andrew Marr is another book that my son gave me for Mother’s Day several years ago. Churchill was forty when he first started to paint at ‘a most trying time‘ in his life and art became his passion and an ‘astonishing and enriching experience‘. He talks about the fun of painting, the colours and the pleasure he found in not only in painting a picture, but also the pleasure he discovered in a heightened sense of observation, finding objects in the landscape he had never noticed before. Andrew Marr is political editor of the New Statesman. He is a former political editor of BBC News, and hosts Tonight with Andrew Marr on LBC radio.
Andrew Marr’sThe History of Modern Britain covers the post World War Two period from 1945 up to 2006, with an added introduction in the paperback edition written in 2008. This history follows all the political and economic stories, but deals too with comedy, cars, the war against homosexuals, Sixties anarchists, oil-men and punks, Margaret Thatcher’s wonderful good luck, the true heroes of British theatre, and the victory of shopping over politics.
1946: the Making of the Modern World by Victor Sebestyen gives a wider picture of the world after the end of World War Two. In 1946 the Cold War began, the state of Israel was conceived, the independence of India was all but confirmed and Chinese Communists gained a decisive upper hand in their fight for power. It was a pivotal year in modern history in which countries were reborn and created, national and ideological boundaries were redrawn and people across the globe began to rebuild their lives. This is a book I bought in 2014.
Another book I bought in 2014 and it also has a year in the title is 1066: What Fates Impose by G K Holloway. A novel about family feuds, court intrigues, assassinations, plotting and scheming, loyalty and love, all ingredients in an epic struggle for the English crown. Harold Godwinson, Earl of Wessex, is seen by many as the one man who can bring stability to the kingdom. He has powerful friends and two women who love him, but he has enemies who will stop at nothing to gain power. As 1066 begins, England heads for an uncertain future. It seems even the heavens are against Harold.
Another novel about a fight for the throne of England is told in The Sunne in Splendour by Sharon Penman. This conflict was between the houses of York and Lancaster, known as the Wars of the Roses from 1455 to 1487. This is a fascinating novel about his life from his childhood to his death at Bosworth Field in 1485. Much has been written about the infamous Richard III from the time of his death onwards. Penman portrays a very likeable Richard; from his childhood onwards he comes across as a kind, generous and brave man, a skilled leader on the battlefield, a loving husband to his wife, Anne, and devoted and loyal to his brother, Edward IV, who was by no means a saint.
My chain has wandered far away from I Want Everything, taking in both fiction and nonfiction, a book about painting and historical fiction. It passes through 19th century Wales and Chile, Britain in the post Second War Two years, the year 1946 worldwide, then back to the 15th century in England at the time of the Wars of the Roses. And I haven’t included any crime fiction this time – a rare event!
I saw this on Joanne’s blog and on Janette’s blog and wondered if I could fill the alphabet with one word titles too. I’ve limited myself to books that I have read and came up with 25. There is one book that I own but haven’t read yet and guess what – it begins with the letter X. I haven’t read any one word books beginning with Z.
Most of them are crime and historical fiction and the links take you to my reviews – some are parts of posts about different books.
Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme created by The Broke and the Bookish and now hosted by Jana at That Artsy Reader Girl. For the rules see her blog.
I wasn’t sure I could take part this week because I don’t really write personal posts, but I found the following posts that give a few glimpses of me and my life.
Blog Anniversary 12 April 2015! written for the 8th anniversary of BooksPlease, about starting my blog and my love of reading.
Here are some of the things that have influenced my reading
Libraries have always been important in my life – this post contains some of my library memories
I love cooking – This post is one of my Weekend Cooking posts about StrawberryMeringue Layer Cake.
I love history -reading both history books and historical fiction, visiting historic buildings, castles, cathedrals, and National Trust properties. This post combines my love of history with cross-stitching.
I’ve written a few posts about my family. This one is about my grandmother, my father’s mother.
I love cats as well as books. Here is one of the posts I’ve written about George one of the cats we have had.
BooksPlease 