I realized that I could make things easier for myself with these “what I read in such and such year” posts by not waiting until the end of the year to put down my thoughts regarding each book I read—what a slog, I can’t believe I put myself through that last year. This time around, I started earlier on my 2026 post, and decided also to split it up into two parts to hopefully make them easier to scroll through.
Here are my January to June reads:
| Date Read | Book Title | Author |
|---|---|---|
| 01.01–31 | Les Misérables | Victor Hugo (Trans. Christine Donougher) |
| 02.01–03 | Tokyo Express | Seichō Matsumoto (Trans. Jesse Kirkwood) |
| 02.04–08 | The Scarlet Pimpernel | Baroness Orczy |
| 02.09–22 | A Tale of Two Cities | Charles Dickens |
| 02.23–03.10 | Bleak House | Charles Dickens |
| 03.11–03.17 | The Warden | Anthony Trollope |
| 03.20–03.31 | Barchester Towers | Anthony Trollope |
| 04.01–06 | Private Rites | Julia Armfield |
| 04.06–11 | Once Were Warriors | Alan Duff |
| 04.12–13 | The Whale Rider | Witi Ihimaera |
| 04.14–15 | Rabbit-Proof Fence | Doris Pilkington (AKA Nugi Garimara) |
| 04.16–19 | The Piano | Jane Campion (with Kate Pullinger) |
| 04.20–25 | The Left Hand of Darkness | Ursula K. Le Guin |
| 04.26–30 | Ammonite | Nicola Griffith |
| 05.01–07 | Jane Eyre | Charlotte Brontë |
| 05.08–13 | The Tenant of Wildfell Hall | Anne Brontë |
| 05.14–20 | Doctor Thorne | Anthony Trollope |
| 05.21–06.05 | Oliver Twist | Charles Dickens |
| 06.07–08 | Orbital | Samantha Harvey |
| 06.09–18 | The Belton Estate | Anthony Trollope |
| 06.19–21 | Wide Sargasso Sea | Jean Rhys |
| 06.20–30 | Framley Parsonage | Anthony Trollope |
Note:
I find rating books really difficult. I certainly appreciate some books more than others, and may have more to say about some than others…and for others still, I may have nothing to say at all.
But I’m trying something new by adding a few stars (⭐️) next to the books that I loved and think are very much worth people’s time.
These posts are just my way of documenting the books I read, and how I generally felt, and what I loved or didn’t quite love about them.
Les Misérables ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Audiobook Narrators: Adeel Akhtar, Natalie Simpson, Adrian Scarborough, Emma Fielding, and John Owen-Jones
I started the year with one of the greatest epics to exist!
Les Misérables has long held a very special place in my heart, and now even more so! I absolutely love the musical, having seen it in London two or three times 20+ years ago, and have equally enjoyed the various screen adaptations that have been made over the years. Geoffrey Rush is my favourite Javert, and Alan Armstrong my favourite Monsieur Thénardier.
I had purchased the Christine Donougher translation in the summer, as it was much lauded online, and was waiting for the right time to read this 1300-page brick of a book. When Katie, of Books and Things, announced on YouTube that she was doing a read-along starting in January, I decided to join it. Read-alongs aren’t for me, generally, as I prefer to keep to my own schedule, but I figured it would at least help get me started.
I really don’t know what to say about this book to express how utterly remarkable I found it. It is full of breathtakingly heartbreaking scenes and narratives that are beautifully conveyed, and unforgettable characters whose lives and experiences are so profoundly explored and revealed. It’s one of those life-changing types of books.
Les Misérables has it all: heart and humour and suspense in plenty, a foundation of moral and social commentary that is as applicable today as it ever was, “villains” to despise and “heroes” to root for, twists and turns and tension to keep you anxiously on your toes, and a whole lot of history that sometimes had me feeling grateful beyond measure that I could put the audiobook on 2x speed to get through those sections and end my misery that much faster.
In all seriousness though, there are definitely certain parts that I struggled with, mainly the re-telling of the battle at Waterloo, and a handful of speeches sprinkled throughout the book that are given by some characters (and the narrator) that were chock-full of historical, religious, political, and literary references beyond my capacity to comprehend or care about—likely due to the fact that I’m a modern reader with no knowledge of neither ancient nor French historical events and figures that would have probably been widely known to 19th century readers. Thankfully though, those parts I found challenging only make up about 15% of the book, which the rest of the book makes up for in spades. And now that I’ve read the novel, I’ll hopefully get more out of those difficult sections when I revisit it in the future…or maybe I’ll just happily skip over them.
I also really loved that there were many plot points, scenes, and characters that the book delves into that I knew nothing about, because the various adaptations tend to either completely leave them out or only lightly touch on, making this very familiar story feel like new to me—which was a truly special kind of pleasure!
The book is split into five parts, each read by a different narrator on the audiobook. They were all amazing, but I have to say that Adrian Scarborough’s narration of Part III (“Marius”), with his gravelly voice, was particularly gripping. He was excellent!
Tokyo Express
Audiobook Narrator: Eleanor Matsuura
After such a heavy (literally and figuratively) book, I needed something short and entertaining. Tokyo Express was perfect.
The story begins with the discovery of two bodies at a remote spot in a Japanese coastal town, about which the police initially see nothing suspicious…but the case catches the attention of a seasoned detective and a young investigator, both of whom believe things aren’t quite as they appear. They start working together to get to the bottom of things.
Nothing much to say about this novel other than it was a nice investigative mystery…easy to move through and enjoy.
The Scarlet Pimpernel
Audiobook Narrator: Geoffrey Howard
Les Misérables is not the sort of book you read and move on from. I was thinking about it constantly and was still wanting to learn more about the French Revolution. First, I watched a 90-minute special by the History Channel on Youtube that explained a lot for me, and then I found myself wanting to learn even more. So I began watching the lecture series by The Great Courses titled Living the French Revolution and the Age of Napoleon, presented by Professor Suzanne M. Dean. It is fantastic and extremely thorough, and Dean is a great lecturer.
What does all that have to do with The Scarlet Pimpernel? Well, it’s short and “light”, but is still in keeping with the theme of the French Revolution, so it was the perfect next choice.
The Scarlet Pimpernel, whose real identity is unknown to all but the few entrusted to assist him, manages to brilliantly rescue French aristocrats from the guillotine during the Reign of Terror and smuggle them into England, leaving the French authorities aggravated and humiliated in the process. Orczy has a whole series of books detailing his exploits (which I have no desire or intention to read), but this is the first in the series, and introduces readers to the daring hero.
Apparently, the play upon which this book is based (written by the same author) started the secret identity trope that we are nowadays familiar with, of the hero who’s a “normie” in everyday life (think Superman or Zorro) but is otherwise dedicated to serving justice, in disguise, whenever and wherever the opportunity and need arises. For that reason, I’m glad to have read it…but overall, it’s nothing more than a silly semi-entertaining read with a whole lot of eye-roll-worthy gender-based clichés, and some anti-semitic stereotypes portrayed towards the end of the book that I could certainly have done without (made even worse by the accent put on by the narrator for a particular character).
A Tale of Two Cities ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Audiobook Narrator: Simon Vance
Aaaand we’re remaining with the French Revolution theme. Just as with Jane Austen the previous year, I was familiar with Dickens’ stories, but had never read any of his books until now.
As per Wikipedia: “The novel tells the story of the French Doctor Manette, his 18-year-long imprisonment in the Bastille in Paris, and his release to live in London with his daughter Lucie whom he had never met. The story is set against the conditions that led up to the French Revolution and the Reign of Terror.”
Being that it was my first Dickens read, I had nothing of his to which to compare it, and I thoroughly enjoyed the experience. Some of the characters fell pretty flat or boring, some were interesting and sympathetic, some entertaining, and some were truly frightening. On the whole, it was a great read and a perfect introduction to Dickens’s writing.
Bleak House ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Audiobook Narrator: Simon Vance
Apparently, according to some comments I read online, A Tale of Two Cities isn’t very like Dickens’s other books, so I decided I wanted to read something else of his, and after Les Misérables, the prospect of reading long books no longer seemed all that intimidating (with the help of an audiobook), so I jumped from one of Dickens’s shortest books to one of his longest: Bleak House.
I have no idea where to start with setting up the novel’s plots and characters, so I’ll just direct you to look it up online. But I’ll say that I was worried it would be a tedious read when I found out that it revolves around a lengthy legal case in the Court of Chancery concerning inheritance disputes due to conflicting wills, but thankfully, the case, while significant, merely serves as a backdrop.
In short, I loved it. Especially when it was Esther Summerson, the novel’s main heroine, narrating. And while I also loved many of the characters in the novel (including the ones I hated), there were also a couple of subplots and some characters that I cared little about and wanted to be done with so I could get back to the main narrative. I sense that this will be a recurring theme with my experience with Dickens, that there will be a lot to love about his novels, but also some things that I just couldn’t care less about…and that’s okay.
After finishing the novel, I watched the 2005 BBC miniseries adaptation, which was also very good.
The Warden and Barchester Towers ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ / ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Audiobook Narrator: Simon Vance
I don’t think I’ve explained my obsession journey with Anthony Trollope in my previous blog posts (it deserves a dedicated one, honestly), so I’ll give a quick summary of it here. Basically, sometime last year, I binge watched a whole bunch of videos over at Books and Things on YouTube, wherein Katie spoke greatly of her love for Trollope’s work, and I began thinking that I wanted to read his books too. But he wrote 47(!) novels, and many of them are currently out of print, so I started to purchase them wherever I found them, either brand new or secondhand.
After reading two novels by Dickens, I looked over my classics bookshelf, contemplating what to read next. As my eyes moved across my little Trollope section, I realized that I better introduce myself to his books, since I had enough of them by that time, and after all, I should be sure that I actually liked his writing before I grew my Trollope collection any further.
I began with the first two books of his six-part series, The Chronicles of Barsetshire, and was relieved to discover how delightfully entertaining and greatly insightful Trollope’s writing is. These two books in particular are best read back-to-back, as The Warden serves as an introduction to Barchester Towers, and I absolutely loved them both! I was convinced, Trollope is indeed a fantastic writer!
The first book introduces us to the gentle and kindly warden of an almshouse, Mr Harding, and the various people in his life: his dutiful daughter Eleanor and her new-to-town young suitor, John Bold, as well as Harding’s archdeacon son-in-law Mr Grantly, married to Harding’s older daughter Susan. When John Bold, with good intentions, starts to question and make inquiries regarding the warden’s income (which is under the purview of the Church) and whether church funds are being misappropriated, things are set into motion that cannot be undone and the situation very quickly gets out of control. I know that might sound boring, but it really isn’t! The Warden is a lovely little story that’s full of heart and charming characters.
Barchester Towers picks up shortly after where The Warden ends, and brings in a whole new set of wonderful and memorable characters and storylines, making everything so much richer and more entertaining.
After this, I just knew I’d be reading more of Trollope’s work and no longer had hesitations about collecting more of his novels in physical form.
Private Rites ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Audiobook Narrator: Hannah van der Westhuysen
I loved Julia Armfield’s Our Wives Under the Sea last year, and was excited to give Private Rites a try. It’s a novel about three sisters navigating their relationships and family dynamics following the death of their father, set in a future in which rain is a constant and the world is slowly drowning under the earth’s rising water levels.
I enjoyed it, found it compelling…but I hated the ending. With Our Wives, many things were ambiguous or nebulous, but nothing seemed too out of reach to make sense of, and the ending was solid enough to feel rewarding (albeit emotionally devastating). I hoped I’d feel the same way about Private Rites as I was reading it, until I had about 10 pages left, was approaching the story’s climax, and began to worry that there wasn’t enough time to have everything wrapped up (nicely or otherwise). There was the slow and steady build-up from the beginning, the delicious tension and mystery leading up to the end, and then suddenly (I don’t wish to spoil the book) it was all over with a gut punch of an ending, leaving me hanging in shock and confusion and pain.
As with Our Wives, I enjoyed having the narrative told by multiple voices/characters and also the strange, dark, and eerie undertones. I guess what I’m saying is that Private Rites was really good…and I was left gutted!
A note on the audiobook: I started with it but stopped listening after a little while as the narrator unfortunately employed rising inflection/uptalk far too frequently and I found it distracting.
Once Were Warriors ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Audiobook Narrator: Jay Laga’aia
I saw this book in a secondhand bookstore in Toronto last year and bought it immediately. I vaguely remember either watching or trying to watch the film adaptation decades ago, and the dark and gritty atmosphere it had, and was curious to revisit it. Published in 1990, the novel centres around the various members of the Hekes, a Māori family living in an impoverished urban neighbourhood in New Zealand.
Once Were Warriors is excellent, truly, and unlike anything I’d read before as regarding the author’s fluid and stream-of-consciousness writing style. Multiple characters narrate the book that deals with very difficult subject matters: poverty, domestic and sexual abuse, alcoholism, gang violence, suicide, and the deep connections that bind us together…and each voice was very real and palpable.
A powerful read and highly recommended! I found the movie online, but can’t yet bring myself to watch it.
The Whale Rider ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Audiobook Narrator: Witi Ihimaera
Remaining with New Zealand, The Whale Rider came next. I’d been wanting to re-watch the movie for a while, which I’d seen a long time ago and loved, so decided to read the book first, as I hadn’t before.
The story is about Kahu, a special young girl born to be a leader among her people. But, as she is not a boy, her tribe’s chief and grandfather, Koro Apirana, blinded by his attachment to tradition, refuses to teach Kahu and guide her towards fulfilling her destiny.
Here, the audiobook version shone! There are passages, mainly Māori stories and prayers, that were either not in the international edition of the book I had, or were abbreviated, that Witi sings in the audiobook, bringing even more depth to the narrative. It’s such an innocent, sweet, and moving story that’s full of heart.
I then watched the film, and while it has its own strengths (powerful and memorable performances, and Lisa Gerrard’s score is beautifully haunting), it was darker in tone than the book. To me, the book has a certain amount of levity and warmth that the film couldn’t quite capture, perhaps largely due to the personality of the character telling the story in the book itself, and Ihimaera’s voice and delivery.
Beautiful novel, and I highly recommended the audiobook especially!
Note: We studied a poem of Witi Ihimaera’s during my undergraduate education that I’ve never forgotten. As applicable today as it ever was, it’s called Dinner with the Cannibal, and is very much worth a read.
Rabbit-Proof Fence
Audiobook Narrator: Rebekah Germain
I moved to Aboriginal Australia next. This was another book I’d never read whose film adaptation had had a huge emotional impact on me when I watched it a couple of decades ago. In fact, I still listen to the movie’s very gripping and atmospheric soundtrack to this day.
Set in 1931, Rabbit-Proof Fence follows three Aboriginal girls who are taken away from their families and community to the Moore River Settlement, an internment camp that (forcibly) prepares “half-caste” children for work in various services and assimilation into white society. The girls escape the settlement and make their way home back to Jigalong, on foot, covering 1,600 kilometres of ground, by partly following along the rabbit-proof fence in Western Australia.
Truthfully, this didn’t live up to my expectations, mainly because it was written more in the style of an account of the events it covers, when I had hoped for something that would read more like fiction. This is not a problem, of course, but compared to the movie, the words on the page didn’t quite tug at my heartstrings the way the immersive film experience did. Also, because the book tells the story based on the narrators’ memories of events that took place when they were children many decades earlier, naturally, the book contains mainly their side of the events. Again, this is understandable…but the film also gives us the thoroughly detestable A. O. Neville (played by Kenneth Branagh), who served at the time as Chief Protector of Aborigines in Western Australia—the bad guy, basically—and the very memorable Moodoo, the tracker hired to find the girls (played brilliantly by David Gulpilil). With the authorities and tracker at their heel, the film truly succeeds in conveying that ever-present sense of threat the girls would have felt.
What I’m saying is that the film captures the story and events so powerfully, in a way the book doesn’t…or can’t. Without the book there would be no film, but this is one instance in which the book, for me, falls flat in comparison.
The Piano
Back to New Zealand I went, to another book with a film adaptation. However, the unique thing about The Piano, the book, is that it was written by Jane Campion (with the help of a co-writer), the film’s writer and director, after the release of the award-winning film. I didn’t know this when I started the book, but I suppose, with the film’s success, which was based on an original script, she was encouraged to (re)tell the story in novel form.
The book follows the film exactly but gives us a little extra: it provides us with Ada’s backstory and reveals the identity of her daughter’s father.
An easy read…not much else to say.
The Left Hand of Darkness
Audiobook Narrator: George Guidall
Considered by many as one of the best American writers, especially of science fiction and fantasy, I was naturally curious to read Le Guin’s work, and The Left Hand of Darkness has been described as a masterpiece.
As per Wikipedia: The Left Hand of Darkness tells “the story of Genly Ai, a human native of Terra, who is sent to the planet of Gethen as an envoy of the Ekumen, a loose confederation of planets. Ai’s mission is to persuade the nations of Gethen to join the Ekumen, but he is stymied by a limited understanding of their culture. Individuals on Gethen are ambisexual, with no fixed sex; this situation has a strong influence on the planet’s culture, and it creates a barrier of understanding for Ai.”
There is always a little fear that books can be so hyped up that they don’t meet one’s expectations when one finally reads them. This was partially my experience. I didn’t know anything about the novel other than it treats gender in an unusual way. I wonder, if I had known more about it before starting, that I would have enjoyed it a bit more. I think going in ignorant of what was in store wasn’t the best choice.
That’s not to say it’s not an excellent or enjoyable book. In fact, I may re-visit it in a few years that I may get more out of it next time. The novel has a great deal going for it: thought-provoking concepts, beautifully written passages, relatable experiences, and an interesting plot…but I couldn’t quite connect emotionally with the main character. Having said that, I still cried like a baby towards the end.
I think the novel is a product of its time. It would have been revolutionary when it came out…but now? I would say less so. It’s worth noting, also, that Le Guin eventually came to think differently about how she handled certain subject matters in the book.
Special Note: The copy of the book I own, which I purchased in the UK last year, published by Gollanz/Orion, has a tiny but significant printing mistake on the very last page of the book. The misplacement of one little character created some confusion for me, as well as for others, I came to find, when I searched online for an explanation. So, if you’d like to read this novel, try looking for an older edition, one published in the 1900s, preferably.
Ammonite
From Wikipedia: “Ammonite is British-American author Nicola Griffith’s debut novel, which was published in 1992. It takes place on Grenchstom’s Planet (“Jeep”) which is inhabited entirely by women. American author Ursula Le Guin cited Ammonite as ‘a knock-out first novel, with strong, likeable characters, a compelling story, and a very interesting take on gender’.”
Respectfully, I very much disagree with Ursula Le Guin’s thoughts. I couldn’t stand the main character, cared less about the story as it went on, and as for its take on gender…I didn’t understand it. I really enjoyed some of Griffith’s later works, mainly the Aud Torvingen series, but this was a total miss for me.
Jane Eyre ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Audiobook Narrator: Nadia May
Wanting to get back to my classics, I thought I’d finally give Jane Eyre a try.
Ugh, f*cking Rochester. Despicable. He’s a controlling self-centred prick…with St John not far behind him. And poor, deluded Jane. Such an amazing character, like many women in her time, I’m sure: determined, strong in her faith, and fiercely honest and true to her heart…and also very pitiable to this (me) modern reader.
Excellent and beautiful book as far as the writing goes, and is, of course, very much worth reading!!
The Tenant of Wildfell Hall ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Audiobook Narrators: Frederick Davison and Nadia May
I thought about reading Wuthering Heights next. The last time I read it was 25 years ago (we had studied the novel for my undergrad degree), but then I remembered it being full of toxic and troubling characters…and I just wasn’t quite ready for the drama of it all. So I went with the one other Brontë sister left. I didn’t know much about The Tenant of Wildfell Hall except that it touches on issues of marital abuse.
The novel has two narrators, one of whom is Helen Graham, a young widow who, along with her son, mysteriously arrives at a new village and takes up residence at Wildfell Hall, a deserted mansion on the outskirts of town. As she initially tries to keep away from people, rumours and gossip about her soon start to spread. The other narrator is a man named Gilbert Markham, who slowly befriends Helen and her son. He eventually learns more about her past and the life she’s running away from, that she may protect her child from his father’s influence and grasp.
Let me say that, as someone who is very familiar with how abusers operate in intimate/marital relationships, especially when it is primarily emotional in nature, Anne Brontë’s depiction of how such abuse can wear a woman down is truly exceptional! She held nothing back. The Tenant of Wildfell Hall succeeds brilliantly in presenting, to 19th-century readers, the hypocrisy that underpinned the social and gender norms of that time. In fact, considering that nothing has changed, the book is as relevant today as ever. This novel was extremely relatable, almost too difficult to read at times for how honest and real it felt.
A masterpiece! A truly excellent novel!
Doctor Thorne ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Audiobook Narrator: Simon Vance
My third Trollope read is also the third (of six) in his Chronicles of Barsetshire series.
The novel’s narrative revolves around three families, the Thornes, the Greshams, and the Scatcherds. We have doctor Thorne, a village doctor, and his niece Mary whom he has brought up as his own, and whose father’s identity is unknown to all except doctor Thorne. We have the Greshams, a wealthy nearby family whose eldest son, Frank Gresham, is in love with Mary Thorne, but is forbidden by Lady Arabella, his mother who is of aristocratic birth, to pursue Mary on account of her being penniless and her origins are unknown. Lady Arabella insists that Frank “must marry money!” because the family’s financial situation has worsened over time and she is worried about securing her son’s future and protecting their family’s name and standing.
We also have Roger Scatcherd, Mary Thorne’s maternal uncle. Roger came from humble means, but grew to be very wealthy, and has gotten closer to doctor Thorne in recent years, who has taken on the role of providing him with financial advice. Roger’s health is declining due to excessive drinking, and in considering his will and the future of his estate, which is to be left largely to his son, doctor Thorne’s affairs get caught up in things as well, as he is appointed executor and has knowledge of matters that will impact the lives of many.
This was an enjoyable, though predictable, read with some great characters and storylines, but there were some chapters that didn’t hold my attention much…and that’s okay. I just love how Trollope writes!
Oliver Twist
Audiobook Narrator: Wanda McCaddon
Sometime in early May, my brother shared that his family was visiting London at the end of the month, and since we don’t get to see each other all that often, my sister and I arranged to fly to London as well so that we may spend time with our niblings. He also mentioned that he was planning on booking tickets to see the West Ends revival of Oliver!
I have LOVED the 1968 musical film since I was a child, and thought, since we’re going to see it on stage as well, perhaps it was time that I actually read the book that inspired it, making it my third Dickens read this year.
Well, I didn’t enjoy this book at all. Ugh. It was a struggle pretty much from start to finish, and I just wanted to get through it. This is one instance, in my opinion, in which an adaptation (Oliver!) is far superior to the original…especially when it comes to Fagin. I was not prepared for his presentation in the book. Not only was he unsympathetically evil, but the anti-semitic treatment of his character was wholly unnecessary and distasteful. He’s referred to as “the Jew” throughout the book, more often than by name, and even though anti-semitic tropes are not uncommon in 19th-century literature…this was just plain excessive.
Excepting a few touching scenes and one or two likeable/memorable characters—I’ve always loved Nancy and she’s still the best—I was bored and uninterested throughout, which is why it took me so long to finish it.
I had heard that Dickens’s earlier books are not as good as his later ones, and I can’t argue with that sentiment (Oliver Twist was his second published book, but he wrote it simultaneously with his first, The Pickwick Papers).
Skip this one and watch the 1968 movie musical instead.
Orbital
Audiobook Narrator: Sara Naudi
Many people have had nothing but excellent things to say about this book, and I was naturally curious about and looking forward to reading it.
I’m not sure why exactly, but I didn’t love it. I don’t know if it was bad timing, or if jet lag and post-trip exhaustion had put me in a “blah” mood, or if there genuinely wasn’t enough in it to hold my attention, but I couldn’t really get into this book…even though it’s the sort of thing I would love.
There were beautiful passages, and some insightful and profoundly relatable observations about both our collective human existence and experience on an individual/personal level…those parts I did love…but I found my attention often wandering. Maybe I should have read it with my inside voice and not with an audiobook, which can sometimes be a distraction rather than an enhancement. Perhaps I did actually love it and it’s more a case of there not being enough there (it’s a pretty short book). Maybe I would have loved it more if there was more to sink into. Then again, I can’t imagine it being longer…it said what it needed to say.
On the whole, it’s a poetically reflective ode to Mother Earth and to our grand and minuscule human existence in relation to our planet and the wider universe in which we live. This, I loved, and I think the book is worth a read. But I found I was happy to finish it and move on to something else.
Hmm…it was likely just bad timing.
The Belton Estate ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
I was looking up stuff on Anthony Trollope’s books and found myself on the Trollope Society website, where I saw that they run a program called The Big Read, a sort of read-along and book club rolled into one. They were about to start The Belton Estate, a copy of which I had just purchased in London, so I took that as a sign to register for the event and make this novel my next read.
This was only my fourth Trollope novel, but I trusted that my admiration for Trollope’s writing would remain intact. In fact, I think it grows a bit each time I pick up one of his books now.
The Belton Estate is a pretty simple novel, without too many plot points, and revolves around mainly a handful of characters, at the centre of which is a love triangle between Clara Amedroz and her two suitors. There’s the one who’s a great fit but she rejects, and the one who’s not a great fit but she’s in love with. It’s one of those books in which, to me, not much “happens”, and where you pretty much know the outcome, but you read it because the joy comes from Trollope’s writing and the way he presents his characters and explains their inner thoughts and motivations with levity and humour. He’s really good at writing “real” people in a way that’s light and entertaining, but also warm and moving without an excess of drama.
This was such a lovely read!
Wide Sargasso Sea ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Jean Rhys’s Wide Sargasso Sea tells the story of Antoinette, whose character features in Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre as Bertha Mason, Rochester’s mad wife. We learn about Antoinette’s early childhood spent in Jamaica with her mother and brother, and follow her when she’s a little older and newly married to Mr Rochester—with disastrous results.
This is another book that we looked at during my English Literature education back in the day, but about which I remembered nothing. I must say that I was surprised to find that a large part of the book is narrated by Rochester himself. At first, this bothered me, I wanted more of her voice, but then I came to realize how best it is that Rochester should reveal himself to the reader, for who better to explain his character’s racist and willful ignorance and journey towards self-serving and controlling villainy than the man himself?
My (very low) opinion of Rochester was firmly established by my earlier reading of Jane Eyre, where we are first introduced to his manipulative and narcissistic ways. Wide Sargasso Sea actually managed to humanize him for me, but it couldn’t make me despise him any less. From reading people’s reactions online, I know that there are many out there who love Rochester and see nothing or very little of his deficiencies.
So, Wide Sargasso Sea is in fact as much about Rochester as it is about Antoinette, if not more so. And Antoinette’s fate is all too familiar, and all too common, and while extreme in its presentation, mirrors many women’s experiences who’ve had their flames extinguished and the colour drained from their worlds by the men in their lives, whose characters are vastly inferior, but in whose hands all the power lies.
A very short novel that says so much, tackling matters not only of racial, social, and cultural identity and the effects of their presence within marriage and relationship power dynamics, but also of colonialism and slavery and their generational impact on communities and families.
Framley Parsonage ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Audiobook Narrator: Simon Vance
Bringing us to the end of the first half of 2026 is another Antony Trollope, this being the fourth book in the Chronicles of Barsetshire.
I felt pretty certain that I would enjoy Framley Parsonage just as I have enjoyed the four previous Trollope books I’d read, so I jumped right in!
Oh, what a delight this was!!
Here, we follow Mark Robarts, a young married vicar with small children settled in the village of Framley in Barsetshire. Mark is making a good living for himself and his young family, thanks in great part to the influence, connections, and generosity of Lady Lufton, the mother of his childhood friend Ludovic Lufton, who has taken Mark Robarts under her wings. Mark is a good man, but he is also eager to further his career and to hobnob with people occupying higher circles of society…the kind of people that Lady Lufton strongly disapproves of and with whom she would not wish those close to her to associate.
Against his better judgement, Mark does make his way into those circles of high society, and soon brings trouble upon himself when he agrees to guarantee a loan for a friend of a friend…a loan that he has no financial means of actually paying if called upon to do so. And so, we follow Mark, and all the people involved in his life, as the consequences of his poor choices play out.
The other major plot of the novel revolves around the romantic relationship between Mark’s friend Lord (Ludovic) Lufton and Mark’s younger sister Lucy. Doctor Thorne had a very similar storyline, but I think that it is done to much better effect in Framley Parsonge.
Once again as with all previous Trollope books, I thoroughly enjoyed Framley Parsonage. I loved Mark and his sweet and ever-supportive wife Fanny. I loved Lucy, Mark’s sister, and the affectionate relationship between Fanny and Lucy as sisters-in-law. And I so loved Lady Lufton. I even loved Mr Sowerby (the friend of a friend who gets Mark into financial trouble), and I certainly loved Miss Dunstable, a singular and charming character whom we’ve met in previous books in the series, but is brought closer to us here.
The six novels that make up the Chronicles of Barsetshire can be thought of as stand-alones, because each book’s stories are generally contained within it. However, as they all take place in that same county of Barsetshire, Trollope connects the books through the use of secondary characters and story lines that he brings back, slowly weaving everything together and bringing about a feeling of comfortable familiarity. This is done especially well in Framley Parsonage, as many memorable characters from the previous three books are brought into this fourth one, and even though they don’t take centre stage, we get to more fully experience this world that Trollope has built.
Oh, what a pleasure this series has so far been!!
And that’s it for the first half of 2026.
See you at the end of the year!