We didn’t have the greatest December, or the most relaxing end to the year. I’m looking forward to a few days of doing very little before the new year starts in earnest. We did manage a few lovely walks in the woods; put up some Christmas decorations to make the house feel more cheerful on the long dark evenings; and treated ourselves to a lot of chocolatey and alcoholic tasty things. And the dog and I made the most of our one day of snow here in Bristol.

This month I finished a couple of books I spent all year reading in short segments, making it look like I read my usual amount, rather than a fair bit less than I’d hoped to. My favourite read of the month – and a contender for my top 10 of the year – was All the White Spaces by Ally Wilkes.

Books read

The Mountains Sing by Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai
This novel about Vietnam through most of the twentieth century, told through one family, is heartbreaking but beautiful. It opens at the height of the Vietnam War, and looks forward and back from that point to tell the story of one girl and her grandmother. Not an easy read at some points, but I still definitely recommend this.

All the White Spaces by Ally Wilkes
This is an excellent account of a fictional voyage to Antarctica in 1920 in which everything goes wrong – but is there a supernatural reason for the continual disasters? The narrator is the most junior member of the expedition, an outsider who doesn’t know all the internal politics and secrets of the crew. It’s thrilling, unnerving and certainly put our little cold snap of a few days at minus 10 into perspective! Tim had been urging me to read this for months and clearly he knows me well as I loved it.

The Almanac: a Seasonal Guide to 2022 by Lia Leendertz
I read this month by month over the course of the year, to learn about the changing night sky, foods, traditions and folk tales. Some of it is a little wishy-washy for my taste (horoscopes, gardening “by the Moon”) but I like Leendertz’s sense of humour, and most of the recipes look delicious.

Rutherford and Fry’s Complete Guide to Absolutely Everything (Abridged) by Adam Rutherford and Hannah Fry
I spent most of the year dipping in and out of this book, which is full of fascinating tidbits but not easy to consume in one gulp. It’s one of those popular-science tomes that skips around all the major subjects. But it concentrates in particular on physics, astronomy, biology and psychology. Anyone familiar with the authors from their podcasts, TV and radio appearances will have an idea of the tone. They’re funny, and know how to identify the less-well-known stories from science’s history and present.

Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi
Translated from Japanese by Geoffrey Trousselot

This is a loan from a friend, the first in a series that is uber popular in Japan and, increasingly, worldwide. The concept is simple. At one particular coffee shop, it is possible to travel back in time. But there are strict rules to follow, including that you must finish drinking the cup of coffee you are given when you time travel before it goes cold. The novel is structured almost as a series of linked short stories, each focusing on one time traveller. I love the idea, and the tone is kind and accepting. But I found the language a little clunky.

Sunless Solstice: Strange Christmas Tales for the Longest Nights
A British Library collection of spooky short stories set at Christmas, or midwinter, or in a couple of cases just set somewhere cold and snowy, this seemed like the perfect book to start on the Winter Solstice and finish over the Christmas holiday. The authors include Daphne du Maurier, Muriel Spark and a couple of other big names, but most are now largely forgotten and to be honest, I can see why. I found the older tales a bit dry and dull, and some of the newer ones had some honking racism. I did discover a couple of interesting authors I would like to read more of though, which I guess is a useful role anthologies like this can play.

Well, that’s all from me in 2022. I will be back in January with my top reads of 2022 and my new set of reading goals. Happy New Year!