We have spent most of the last two weeks in Denmark, which is pretty cool. And has kind of eclipsed whatever else it was I got up to in the first half of this month. I think there was a heatwave? I will post properly about the holiday when I have sorted through my hundreds (thousands?) of photos.

One thing of note: right at the start of the month, Tim spotted one of those niche local lectures in a room above a pub that was right up my street. “Sylvia Plath, witchcraft and radical poetry” presented by Dr Dorka Tamas, based on her own research. She introduced the different types of witch in literature, history and society, and explained how all those show up in Plath’s work. She showed us the cultural and social influences that we know Plath was responding to. This includes the Grimm Brothers’ fairy tales, Shakespeare, historical witch trials in Salem and Scotland, Senator McCarthy’s Communist witch hunt, moral panics about gender roles at work and at home after the world wars, the Kinsey report Sexual Behavior in the Human Female…to name just a few. Tamas had some really interesting insights to share, including that Plath had more explicit references to witches in many early drafts of her poems, which were softened or made ambiguous in the final versions. I will absolutely be reading more Plath again soon – and making sure I buy a copy of Ariel that restores Plath’s own choice of the order of the poems.

Before holiday, Tim and I looked up some Danish writers to immerse ourselves in. Aside from Hans Christian Andersen, surprisingly few have been translated into English. And I couldn’t quite bring myself to read Kierkegaard to prepare for a summer holiday. Does anyone have any recommendations? While we’re in the Danish mindset?

My favourite read this month was without question Wild, Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaghy. I had never heard of this book, despite it being on the Women’s Prize list for 2026. Leah at the Very Small Bookshop in Bristol recommended it to me and I absolutely adored it – top read of the year so far for me.

Books finished in July

Wild, Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaghy
The Salt family live on an extremely remote sub-Antarctic island. There was a research facility here, now abandoned due to rising sea levels. The Salts will soon have to leave too, but in the meantime they maintain what the scientists left behind. Widower Dominic has a strained relationship with his daughter, and his two sons largely do their own thing. On a wild, stormy night, a woman is washed ashore, almost dead. As the family rally to save her, they discover she has questions they are reluctant to answer. Everyone is keeping secrets, but in this environment they rely on each other to survive. This book is incredible. Evocative setting, beautiful nature descriptions, terrifying depiction of climate catastrophe and a gripping thriller as well as hugely moving.

Meet the Neighbours: Life on Mars and How to Find It by Steven A Benner
This popular-science book by an astrobiochemist attempts to explain why the results from experiments performed on Mars in 1976 were discredited, and the decades-long attempts by scientists (including Benner) to undo that. Benner explains the science, the history, the funding panels and the reality of being the lone dissenting voice at a scientific conference. This book is very very detailed, pretty polemical and US-focused, but it’s certainly an interesting angle on an already interesting topic. Is there life on Mars? Quite possibly. And Benner has the receipts to explain where and how to find it. I did find his tone a bit repetitive, and the level of detail made me wonder exactly who this is aimed at – he’s explaining the concept of a planet outside our solar system on one page, and then postgraduate-level chemistry elsewhere. But it’s worth dipping into.

Strangers on a Train by Patricia Highsmith
I’m a big fan of the Hitchcock film based on this novel. And I have loved the other Highsmith books I’ve read. But I must admit something about this book didn’t quite gel for me. Perhaps it’s that the plot is quite different from the film, which I have watched many times. I certainly can’t fault Highsmith’s complex characters or chillingly believable depiction of criminal psychology. The concept is simple. Two men meet on a train, each wishing (to greater or lesser extent) someone dead. Bruno suggests they swap murders – he will murder Guy’s estranged wife who won’t give him a divorce, while Guy can murder Bruno’s father. There would be nothing to link them to their crimes and they could time it so the obvious culprit is out of town. Guy laughs off the suggestion but two weeks later Bruno commits murder. I found Guy in the book far less sympathetic than in the film.

Smash or Pass by Birdie Schae
A YA sapphic summer romance set at a volleyball camp might not sound very me. But it came recommended and I needed a light read for a stressful day. This was exactly what I needed. Ellie is autistic and masking heavily to fit in. But it seems it was all for nothing when her hot, popular boyfriend dumps her in the middle of a high school party. At the summer camp she never really wanted to attend, she finds she is encouraged to be herself. A sweet story.

Star Shipped by Cat Sebastian
Another queer romance, but this one is about adult men, just to mix things up. Actors Simon and Charlie have been co-stars in a sci-fi TV show for several years. The cast and crew know they hate each other. Then during a break between seasons, Simon ends up helping Charlie with a family emergency and finds he actually quite likes the guy. Can Simon let down his barriers enough to see where this leads?

The Vengeance by Emma Newman
Pirates, lesbians and hints of the supernatural in a period setting, this book was a lot of fun. Morgane was raised as a pirate in the Caribbean. She loves the life, but on her mother’s deathbed a huge truth is dropped. To uncover what it really means takes her to France, to a world of society and manners and fancy dresses she has never experienced and does not fit into. I really enjoyed this.