4 Stars

Best for:
Cat lovers. Those who enjoy a slightly melancholy, but also hopeful, look at everyday life.

In a nutshell:
Five individuals seek assistance from a mysterious clinic.

Worth quoting:
N/A

Why I chose it:
My sister gave it to me for Christmas. She knows me well.

Review:
I read most of this book in one sitting – where I am, 2 January is also a holiday, and I enjoyed the return of sunny weather by sitting indoors devouring this sweet book.

The book is broken down into five stories, featuring six cats and five humans who are in need of some help in their lives. One hates his job and says he wants to know how he can just get on with it as he needs the work. Another is a sexist man who feels diminished at work and in his home. The third is a woman who is dismissive of her young child’s concerns. The fourth is a woman who runs her own company and is tired of being the only one who does everything the ‘right’ way. Finally, the last is a woman who has lost her own cat.

Each person finds their way to the clinic via recommendation, but not directly – it’s always a friend of a friend’s cousin or someone they run into at work who recommends the clinic. And the prescription is always the same – a cat, for a week or two. And the cats do help – but perhaps not in the expected ways.

Two days ago I celebrated the 13th anniversary of ‘gotcha’ day of our two rescue kittens. We moved them across the world with us, and they are the center of so much joy (the cuddles! The playfulness despite their age!) and frustration (the puke! The multiple visits to the vet each year!). They’ve been in my life for nearly a third of it, and it’s wild to even imagine them not being here. I love when a book like this can capture how important cats can be in the lives of their caretakers.

2 Stars

Best for:
I cannot imagine anyone other than a new Lewis Hamilton fan finding this book interesting.

In a nutshell:
Lewis Hamilton shares his journey to Formula One, ending at the end of his very first season as a Formula 1 driver (so 1985-2007, essentially).

Worth quoting:
“But I do not want to be the Tiger Woods of motor racing – just being the Lewis Hamilton of motor racing will be cool enough for me.”

“It is mostly mental energy that you are losing; you must try not to empty ‘the bottle’ of your own energy to keep everyone else happy.”

Why I chose it:
This was my partner’s Christmas gift to me this year (we always just do a gift for the home, and then exchange one book on Christmas Eve) because I have somewhat recently gotten into F1, and my favorite driver is Hamilton.

Review:
It is unfortunate to start out with such a critical review for 2025, but I am still happy I read this book because I did learn some things about Hamilton. For those of you who aren’t aware, Lewis Hamilton is the 7-time World Driver Champion of Formula 1 (and should have been an 8-time champion, but that’s a whole other story). He’s also the only Black driver out of 20 on the grid, and the only Black driver in the history of the sport (out of 805 drivers). He’s outspoken about a lot of issues such as racism and LGBTQ+ rights. Of course, he’s also (now) a multi-millionaire.

Like a lot of folks, I came to know F1 via Drive to Survive, a documentary on Netflix. But I didn’t learn about the series until maybe its third or fourth season, and I didn’t start actually watching F1 in real earnest and following it until I think 2023, when we realized our Now TV subscription included live coverage of all the race weekends. Now, my partner and I are all in. As an early birthday present my partner gave me the giant LEGO Mercedes F1 car, which took awhile to build and is, frankly, so cool. We spend race weekends watching practice, qualifying, and of course the race. When my sister and her partner were visiting over the summer, we basically forced them to watch the British Grand Prix, which was especially amazing as Hamilton won it. I play football (soccer) on Sundays, so often I’ll miss the race and will come back to the changing rooms to see a play by play series of text messages so I still can experience it. And yes, I’m aware of the negatives of F1 – the sportswashing, the politics, the money.

With all that as preamble, this was the perfect book to get for me in theory, but unfortunately it is not a well-written book. I think the responsibility for this lies with the editors and the ghostwriter employed to tell Hamilton’s story, because it reads basically like a bunch of interviews strung together and edited only to remove any sense of drama from it. Hamilton was 22 at the time it was written, and he is not a writer. I’ve mostly only read sport autobiographies written by women (Megan Rapinoe, Hope Solo, Abbie Wambach, Caster Semenya) – but whether those were ghost-written or not, they were definitely better than this one. I even wondered if it was perhaps a young adult or even child’s edition but no, it seems to be just the standard copy that was printed.

The book follows a linear time line after the introductory chapter, and gets into Hamilton’s young life and how he got into karting and then professional driving. There are interesting parts about his young life, his education, and his relationship with his family, given his parents divorced when he was so young. He credits his father with so much of his own success, but there are a lot of allusions to how hard his father was on him.

Because I wasn’t watching F1 during Hamilton’s start, I didn’t know much of anything that happened during his rookie year (like, th fact that he nearly won the World Driver Championship that year!), and that section of the book flowed a bit better. He covers most of the races, and addresses the ‘Ferrari issue’, which I didn’t know about and had to look up online before it was explained. I also wonder how Hamilton feels about some of the things he shares now that many more years have passed – talking about how cool it was to meet P Diddy (yikes), and giving over a paragraph to how much he enjoyed being on a talk show with David Cameron and how he wasn’t really into politics (double yikes). But also, like, what 39 year old would look back at every decision he made at 22 and think ‘yep, totally nailed it’? Certainly not me…

So far I’ve read two F1 books, and neither has really been great. I’m not sure if its the quality of the (ghost) writers, or if folks just haven’t figured out how to write a compelling motor sport book, but I think a biography would probably be more interesting to read than this memoir, at least while Hamilton is still a driver. If he decides to write a complete memoir after he retires, I will certainly read that, though hopefully he’ll work with a better ghostwriter and team.

4 Stars

Best for:
Those looking for a quick, satisfying read.

In a nutshell:
Leonard is accused of killing an elderly woman, Emily. He believes his wife will serve as his alibi. Will she?

Worth quoting:
“Everything has something to hide, something they would do anything to protect.”

Why I chose it:
I enjoyed “The Unexpected Guest,” and have been checking out what is available of Christie’s at my local library.

Review:
I listened to this, and it was read by Christie’s grandson. Cool idea, but his delivery left something to be desired.

This short story quickly explores the ideas of who we believe and why, and as it has a fantastic final line that sums things and leaves the reader saying, essentially, ‘oh shit.’

Leonard Vole has befriended an older woman, Emily. We don’t quite understand why – but we do learn she is wealthy. However, Leonard is married. When he is charged with murdering Emily, his attorney Mayhew is interested in the truth, and determines that he needs to help Leonard because Leonard is not guilty. Leonard’s wife is his alibi, but when Mayhew goes to interview her, things take a turn.

This was a short, simple, and surprising story. I’d heard about it and was expecting more, but at the same time it was an interesting way to tell such a short story. It’s only in a couple of locations, there are not that many characters, and when it was over, I thought ‘oh! Well done!’

What’s next for this book:
I’d love to see the play.

Four Stars

Best for:
Anyone who has the ability to clean things.

In a nutshell:
Ann Russell, professional cleaner (and TikTok cleaning question answerer) shares a collection of her tips for keeping a clean home.

Worth quoting:
“10-20 minutes every night and 10 minutes before you leave in the morning should keep your space under control.”

“Try to pull furniture out to go under and behind, but don’t beat yourself up if you can’t – decent people don’t check for dust behind your sofa; ask any that do to leave in a hurry.”

Why I chose it:
I thoroughly enjoy Russell’s TikTok contributions, and her tips seem so sensible. Plus she’s do very dry.

Review:
Now, I am a tidy person but I am not always the cleanest person. There is very little ‘mess’ out in our flat, but until fairly recently, if you ran a finger over anything higher than eye level or lower than knee level you’d probably recoil. But in August we found our cats had acquired fleas (they are indoor cats, so we suspect a hitchhiker from our lovely cat sitter), which meant we had to vacuum every bit of floor, carpet, and soft furnishing every day for a week. That eventually switched to every other day, and now twice a week, but I’ve gotten used to a clean home but want to do better. Our flat is very old, and while it was redone probably 20 years ago, there are crevices, cracks, and neglected areas that the previous owners possibly never considered cleaning.

I picked up this book hoping for some quick, reasonable guidance, and that’s exactly what it offers. It is a very quick read, and I found myself underlining quite a lot, making notes of things to try. During my weekly house clean yesterday I tried out her method for dusting (using a fully squeezed out damp cloth) to see if that might pick up and keep more of the cat fur and dander that accumulates throughout the week. Because I do a deep clean of each room on a rotating weekly cycle in addition to the standard dusting and vacuuming (e.g., primary bedroom this week, kitchen next week), I’ll be able to try out some of her suggestions room by room, which is how the book is divided.

She starts off with chapters on products and equipment, which was handy for me, as Russell is from the UK, and some of the words used for things here differ from what I’m used to, so good to get a sense of what things actually are before I try to use them. She then talks about setting up a cleaning routine, before diving into room-by-room suggestions. She also includes a chapter full of tips for those who are renting, which I think is a really nice thing to include, because sometimes (let’s be real – usually) landlords don’t do the upkeep needed, which can result in things like mold and damp that tenants are left to clean up.

The book also includes a surprising amount of fairly dry humor, which one doesn’t necessarily expect from a cleaning book. And Russell is very clearly not judging anyone’s level of cleanliness, or the time they have to devote to cleaning. Overall, a very good purchase.

What’s next for this book:
Keep and refer back to regularly. Maybe only recommend if someone asks; otherwise it might sounds like I think they need to improve their cleaning skills.

Five Stars

Best for:
Those who want a page turner that has an underlying message about society.

In a nutshell:
Our protagonist isn’t given a name – in fact, no one, I realised only as I started writing this review, has a proper name. Everyone is identified by their relation or role – mother, father, daughter, son. She wakes up in the night to see a man standing in her hallway, and has to make a decision about how to keep her children safe.

Worth quoting:
“Men and their eyes, always thinking they were so subtle.”

“The star on the cover posed with hands on hips and a forward slouch, quote superimposed over the photo reading, ‘I always want things dangerous.’ How safe the world had to have felt to say such a thing. She couldn’t remember it ever feeling that way.”

“Easier to believe a woman’s lying than that bad things happened on your watch. Easier to believe the simplest thing is always correct. And it’s simple to say a woman is crazy.”

Why I chose it:
It was part of a book subscription from Rare Birds – a bookstore in Edinburgh that only stocks books written by women.

Review:
Ah, what a book. I read nearly half on the first night, stayed up too late on the second night, and had to finish it during my lunch hour today.

It’s so hard to write a quality review of this without spoilers, but I will try.

The book takes place mostly over the night in question. The protagonist wakes up to see a man in her house. Her husband isn’t there – we eventually find out why – and she has to think through what to do to keep her children safe. The home is huge, and very old, and labyrinthine, which is an asset to those who know its layout.

She eventually finds a place to hide, but that’s only part of the problem. What if he finds her and the children?

While most of the book focuses on the current predicament, we are taken to different points in the protagonist’s life where men have harmed her or let her down. Her father-in-law, her own father, her husband, strangers. It’s not just the intruder who has frightened her and made her feel powerless; it is many men she has encountered.

Again, avoiding spoilers, but I will say that the emotions I felt while reading this were all over the place, but ultimately I was so glad I read it.

What’s next for this book:
Keep, maybe lend to others.

4 Stars

Best for:
Folks who are interested in how man-made disasters come about, and how governments and individual people respond to them.

In a nutshell:
During a test of the cooling system, one of the reactors at the Chernobyl plant in Pripyat, Ukraine, USSR, explodes, leading to some immediate deaths, some short-term deaths, many longer-term deaths, and the complete abandonment of an entire city.

Worth quoting:
“We have to be seen to be doing something.”

Why I chose it:
I watched the recent miniseries and given my previous work in emergency management found it an interesting topic.

Review:
This book was fascinating. Because I’d watched the miniseries, I did have a sense of the broad outlines and beats of the event, but for crying out loud. It’s amazing how mistakes multiply, and how unwilling some people are to admit that something serious is happening.

I have very vague memories of this happening. I was six, and I recall my mother talking about fears about purchasing milk, because of radiation from the particles that were caught in the wind and distributed over the earth.

As I mentioned above, I chose this and listened to it partially from the perspective of a human who just cannot imagine who scary that must have been for everyone, and partially from the perspective of someone who used to think about how to respond to public health emergencies.

So much went wrong, partially because of just people not believing how bad it could be, and partially due to lack of preparation.

The book does a great job of keeping the topic engaging, telling the story from multiple perspectives. Higginbotham shares stories about the people in the reactor, the first responders, the people in the town, the government, from before the reactor was even built, until after trials seeking to determine and apportion blame for the disaster.

The only big quibble I have is that Higginbotham takes a few opportunities to hit out at communism, suggesting pretty heavily that this is why the disaster happened. I’ve got to say, a whole lot of horrible disasters happen regularly in capitalist nations, and I don’t think a capitalist nation would have handled this any better just by virtue of its economic system.

What’s next for this book:
I’d recommend it to anyone with similar interests.

2 Stars

Best for:
I can’t really recommend this book. It’s fine, but not something I’d recommend even to those who have a curiosity about such things.

In a nutshell:
The author claims he worked as a hit man, and details how he came into that world, and how he eventually got out.

Worth quoting:
Nothing.

Why I chose it:
Wanted an audio book to read while running and as someone who finds details and specifics fascinating, I was interested in HOW contract killing actually worked.

Review:
The hitman had a weird childhood with an unforgiving father. He also, if we are to believe him, left his baby sister alone and she died, leading to his mother taking her own life. He then traveled to his mother’s homeland of Brazil (which is I’m assuming a stand-in for another country since the author claims all the details have been changed) to meet his grandfather, and some of his relatives. Then mentioned a handsy priest who his grandfather had killed. Then he returned home, went to fancy boarding school, and joined the French Foreign Legion.

Is that were everyone who eventually claims to have been a spy / mercenary / hit man does their training?

The hitman serves with a guy he calls H, and H maybe sets the hitman up to kill a child in Lebanon while also killing someone else? I don’t quite get this part. But the hitman eventually feels indebted to H, and they go into business together. H gets the contracts, the hitman does the killing.

H details his jobs, while also sharing the toll this takes on his marriage (his wife suspects an affair, not a secret vocation). It’s all very clinical, which is fine – I wasn’t looking for salacious, because ew. But it’s very nonchalant. Only a couple of times does it seem like the hitman has any real concerns about the work he’s doing, or even about really getting caught. But most frustrating – and maybe this is where I’d prefer to have read H’s book – I still don’t get from this exactly how all of this comes about. How the people know to approach H, how the money is laundered, how anyone trusts that anyone will do the job and not just go to the cops.

Also, given the author is still alive, they would have had to change like all of the details of the jobs to avoid being caught, so this book is essentially a work of fiction.

As I said, not one I’d recommend, and not one I’m thrilled to have read.

What’s next for this book:
Write the review, return the book, forget I read it.

4 Stars

Best for:
Those who enjoy a bit of mystery, a bit of revenge, and some history.

In a nutshell:
Two parallel stories: In the late 1700s, Nella runs a secret apothecary in London to assist women who need freeing from abusive men. In the current day, Caroline has come to London to celebrate her 10th anniversary, only just before leaving the US for the trip, she found out her husband had been having an affair.

Worth quoting:
N/A – Audio book

Why I chose it:
Given the outcomes of the election in the US last week, and the world’s general turn backwards in terms of women’s rights and respect, I felt this book was a good reminder of women will do when they don’t have other options to be safe. Also I just got my library card here and this is my first borrowed audio book!

Review:
This book has some of my favorite things – multiple perspectives, stories that interact but take place in different time.

Nella runs an apothecary, taken over from her mother. She runs a special service from a hidden room, where she assists women who need freeing from abusive men, One day, a 12-year-old named Eliza comes on behalf of the woman she works for.

Meanwhile, Caroline ends up mudlarking while in London trying to sort out what to do next about her marriage. She finds a vial with a tiny bear etched on it, and decides to research where it came from.

Without giving away any major plot points, I appreciate how the author weaves in ideas of loss, of childhood and ignorance, of how life can get away from us and our dreams and goals. A large, looming aspect is how people will take back power when power is either taken from them or withheld. I also appreciate how each of the two women and the girl were written – we get point of view chapters from all of them, and especially for Nella and Eliza, we see how different events might be understood differently depending on the life experiences one has.

I would definitely read more by this author. The only real issue I had was with the audiobook performance choice. Caroline is from the US, but the person who read her chapters read them with an English accent. When the character was talking to others, the actor used a US accent, but that was rare. As someone from the US, it was odd to hear an English accent for someone from the US, and was at times confusing as her not being English was somewhat relevant to the plot.

What’s next for this book:
Return it to the library, recommend to a friend,

Three Stars

Best for:
Anyone interested in the overall topic of climate footprints; those who are looking for some ideas on how they can reduce their own.

In a nutshell:
Author Berners-Lee explores the literal carbon cost of pretty much everything.

Worth quoting:
“Cryptocurrencies have to be one of the most fundamentally pointless ways of using energy. … Blockchain…adds even more to the energy use and the carbon footprint.”

Why I chose it:
I was looking for a book to leave at work and read when I had time during my lunch breaks. So nothing with a strong narrative or where I’d have to remember things. Good thing I picked this for that purpose; it took me 2.5 years to finish.

Review:
I’m not sure a book like this could get a much higher review, just because of its style. It’s not a narrative book – though each little entry has some personality and story to it. It’s literally just a study of how large the carbon footprint is of all sorts of things, from apples and bananas up through war. (I hope the next iteration includes AI, because that shit is sucking the life out of the world.)

I learned some interesting things (especially related to consumer purchasing and banking, and to travel), and had some of my beliefs reinforced (eating basically no meat, and not having children, are doing good things for the climate). It reminded me that my love of dairy is not helping things, and that my membership in a car-sharing club is a better choice than owning my own car.

One of the challenges of a book like this – and one the author does address at the end – is how individualistic it is. It’s talking about a large-scale, community problem, but for the most part is focused on all the little (and big) things we as individuals do that contribute to the climate emergency. That doesn’t mean I think we should order a bunch of shit online while driving an SUV around and eating beef burgers all day long. However, I think that collectively the focus should be on the major polluters and companies that create the items we consume without having to shoulder the burden of the climate crisis.

And at the same time, I do see value in knowing and thinking through our choices as they relate to environmental impact. Some things seem sort of obvious to me, but that might not be the case for others. And some things that were light bulb moment for me are probably super obvious to other people. There are some changes I’m already taking based on what I read in this book – the next question (and one that the author does try to address in the last chapter) is how can we get those in power to make the more critical changes?

What’s next for this book:
Might keep on a shelf for reference.

Four Stars

Best for:
Those who have been going through some things and are looking for some sweet advice delivered by a lovely writer.

In a nutshell:
Writer and actor Hart updates her story by sharing her struggles with chronic illness, and what she’s found to be helpful in not just facing those challenges but in thriving as a person.

Worth quoting:
There’s a lot of wisdom in this book, and I wish I had a physical copy to follow along, but alas I didn’t write down any quotes while reading.

Why I chose it:
I somewhat enjoyed her previous book, and had heard this one was interesting. I didn’t quite know it wouldn’t be as traditional a memoir as expected, but I still enjoyed it.

Review:
Finishing this on the day the 45th US President was re-elected, Grover Cleveland-style, seemed appropriate. I didn’t know how soon I’d need her suggestions and positivity (the not-toxic kind).

Hart is an actress folks would know from her show Miranda, or from her role as Chummy on Call the Midwife, or most likely, from her role as Melissa McCarthy’s coworker ‘Amber Valentine’ in the movie Spy. You might have wondered why she seemed to disappear after such a successful role, and she answers that here.

For pretty much her entire adult life, Hart has had health issues, at times not being able to leave her home. She eventually shares her diagnosis, but the focus is on the things she’s learned and sought out to help deal with the frustration and exhaustion that came with her illness. For the book, she calls these her ten ‘treasures,’ and they are sort of what you might expect to find in a self-help book, but she shares them in a relateable way, with her trademark kind sense of humor.

There are a lot of great nuggets of wisdom she shares, pulled from lots of her own reading of a whole lot of ‘ists’ (like psychologists, therapists, etc.). One that really stuck out for me is something I am so often guilty of doing – going out for plans that I don’t want to do, and thinking ‘I’ll just pop in for a few then leave.’ And I love the way she frames that – about how unkind it is to treat spending time with others that way. Either go enthusiastically, or be honest that you don’t have the energy and don’t go. That might not work for others, but it really hit home for me.

There are lots of little bits that I think a lot of folks would benefit from hearing. It’s not groundbreaking, but its shared in a really accessible. Frankly, the book feels like a warm hug.

What’s next for this book:
I might purchase a physical copy to read over again and take some notes in.