A selection of quotes and pictures to represent October’s reading:

commonplace book
noun
a book into which notable extracts from other works are copied for personal use.

~

Someone had said that if you thought about the unthinkable long enough it became quite reasonable.

Brat Farrar by Josephine Tey (1949)

~

“Power is not a material possession that can be given. Power is the ability to act and that must always be taken, for no one will ever give that power to you. Those who have power wish to keep it, and those who want power must learn to take it.”

Witchcraft for Wayward Girls by Grady Hendrix (2025)

~

And sometimes – like anyone with eyes and ears – I hear or see what people are saying or doing, and it’s obvious what will happen, because they always do the same thing, over and over, even when it didn’t work before. That’s the strongest foretelling of all – knowing someone’s pattern and watching them repeat it.

Royal Witch by Philippa Gregory (2026)

~

‘Have you considered what people would be bound to say?’ Frederick said.

‘No, nor do I propose to burden my head with anything that interests me so little!’ retorted Mr Beaumaris.

Arabella by Georgette Heyer (1949)

~

‘Memories and feelings can never be truly destroyed,’ said Winston.

Murder on the Haunted Express by Emma Mason (2026)

~

What is it about death, about grief, that makes human beings clam up? Why do we find it so hard to talk about?

Nightingale Hall by Rachel Burton (2026)

~

Darkness needs no shape. It uses. It possesses.

Elidor by Alan Garner (1965)

~

She watched a documentary about a family who appeared to lead the perfect life, but underneath skeletons fell from the closet, shattering their world. She didn’t know why she was drawn to these kinds of stories. Perhaps it was just knowing that no matter how tough her life got at times, there was always somebody worse off.

The Witch Elm by Sally-Anne Martyn (2026)

~

But like everything here: you get used to it. It is hard to understand how a person can become used to awful things, but Varga said as much; if a man should be bitten one small bite at a time, he will allow himself to be devoured.

The Last Handmaid by Clare Whitfield (2026)

~

The thing is, he doesn’t have to be lying to be wrong. He could just be looking at the moment without knowing enough.

The Country Schoolmaster by Kate Grenville (2026)

~

Silence is a pause. Silence is a gap, a void, an absence. Silence, between two people, is a weapon selected to wound – or to threaten with the cold, certain inevitability of pain.

Pale Mistress by Naomi Kelsey (2026)

~

Favourite books read in October:

Arabella, Brat Farrar and The Country Schoolmaster

Authors read for the first time in October:

Sally-Anne Martyn, Grady Hendrix

Places visited in my October reading:

England, USA, Scotland, Australia, Italy, Cyprus, Hungary, Slovakia

~

Reading notes: October was a good month of reading for me. I took part in 1949 Club (and can’t wait for 1973 in April), read some more books for the RIP XXI challenge, got through some of the books on my NetGalley shelf, and found time to re-read a childhood favourite. I also joined a new book group in October and am looking forward to discussing this month’s book, Witchcraft for Wayward Girls, next week.

November is always a very busy month in the book blogging calendar and this year is no exception. Here are the events I’m aware of that are taking place:

Nonfiction November
Novellas in November
Reading Scotland Month
German Literature Month
Margaret Atwood Reading Month
SciFi Month

I’ll be taking part in at least some of these!

What did you read in October? Do you have any plans for November?

A selection of quotes and pictures to represent September’s reading:

commonplace book
noun
a book into which notable extracts from other works are copied for personal use.

~

She was a spirited girl last night and a pensive young woman tonight. Seventeen was the age when they tried on various poses to see which one they liked best, I recalled.

The Heiress of Northanger Abbey by Nancy Bilyeau (2026)

~

The word willing is one of the most useful words in the English language. It’s so easy for people to tell you they can’t do something, that they won’t do it. But hardly anyone will say they’re unwilling to try. Attempt it on someone, if you like. I guarantee you won’t be disappointed.

The Midnight Guests by Alex Hay (2026)

~

I thought that in mastering spelling I would be led to the promised land of knowing things, how to act in the human sphere. That words were everything. Holding everything together. The countless grains of sand that kept the Cumberland River itself from sinking into the earth. And in knowing words I would not sink myself.

The Newer World by Sebastian Barry (2026)

~

‘There you go again,’ she said. ‘Such sweet formality. But I will nudge you away from it, for this is what writers do: they prise open all the closed and shuttered places in other people. You didn’t know that, did you?’

The Housekeeper by Rose Tremain (2026)

~

As I’ve got older, I have become more interested in the areas of life where I find I don’t have a strong opinion. There are plenty of things I do feel very strongly about, of course. But as the world and its new media technologies push for more and more polarisation, I treasure the places where I can see more than one side to a question.

The Strangers by Naomi Alderman (2026)

~

How could they know? How could anyone know? If just one person, once, in the whole history of the world, had done just one thing differently from the way they in fact did do it – who could say that it would not have changed the whole future of mankind?

By Horror Haunted by Celia Fremlin (1974)

~

It seemed incredibly insensitive. At times, Mabel felt herself bowled over by the cruelty of other people, unable to function in a world that so often cared so much about the wrong things. At least Mabel tried to do the right thing, even if sometimes the consequences were disastrous.

The Scholars by MacKenzie Common (2026)

~

“Fortune may be blind, but it is possible to take her by the hand and guide her. The art of winning lies in the study of why men lose. Indeed,” he ended, on a more pensive note, “that may be the whole art of life. I do not know.”

The Gamester by Rafael Sabatini (1949)

~

“I’m a reliable witness, you’re a reliable witness, practically all God’s children are reliable witnesses in their own estimation – which makes it funny how such different ideas of the same affair get about.”

The Kraken Wakes by John Wyndham (1953)

~

‘Life,’ she declares inside her head, ‘is like a wood heap. People do things to ameliorate and to alleviate. With one little detail after another people move through life. It is like taking wood from the heap, one log at a time to the fire, or in summer, the slow stacking of one log upon another, when a wood pile is being moved or rebuilt.’

The Well by Elizabeth Jolley (1986)

~

“It is a theory of mine,” I said, warming to my theme, “that we owe most of our great inventions and most of the achievements of genius to idleness – either enforced or voluntary. The human mind prefers to be spoon-fed with the thoughts of others, but deprived of such nourishment it will, reluctantly, begin to think for itself – and such thinking, remember, is original thinking and may have valuable results.”

The Moving Finger by Agatha Christie (1942)

~

Favourite books read in September:

The Moving Finger and By Horror Haunted

Authors read for the first time in September:

Naomi Alderman, Elizabeth Jolley

Countries visited in my September reading:

England, USA, Australia, France

~

Reading notes: September was another good month for me in terms of the number of books I managed to read. More importantly, I enjoyed most of them, although one or two were slightly disappointing. I was pleased to be able to join in with Short Story September with By Horror Haunted and I also finished my Classics Club Spin book, The Kraken Wakes, before the deadline for once. In October, I’ll be taking part in 1949 Club, the latest of Karen and Simon’s year clubs, which are always something to look forward to! You may have noticed I’ve already read one book for that and am in the middle of a second one.

What did you read in September? Do you have any plans for October?

A selection of quotes and pictures to represent August’s reading:

commonplace book
noun
a book into which notable extracts from other works are copied for personal use.

~

How poor are they that have not patience! What wound did ever heal but by degrees?

Othello by William Shakespeare (1603)

~

‘Cornelius might well have done that,’ Bodkin revises, looking up at the vicar. ‘Folk are like books written in another language. I know them by their cover but can’t always fathom what’s inside.’

Little Spark by Jess Kidd (2026)

~

The world in which we live is one of error and mistake. Rumours break like waves in some nameless river, dappling our sleeves with falsehood.

Troubled Waters by Ichiyō Higuchi (1893-95)

~

‘I know! Roman tombstones in an Abbey, a gaol made out of bricks from a Roman fort – and a witch held there before her trial. This place is amazing. It’s like around every corner, there’s a new “old” thing to discover, and they’re all connected.’

The Snow Witch by Kirsty Ferry (2026)

~

‘I think’ he said, ‘you will be surprised. They love you, and if we love someone then we want what’s best for them, not for us. Tell them, don’t be frightened of it.’

The Curse of the Saltmarsh Girl by Clare Marchant (2026)

~

I have been told I tend to overthink things. Well I have known enough people to underthink things and could put a little more thought in their decisions.

The Calamity Club by Kathryn Stockett (2026)

~

“Time goes a different pace in different places. Some places you come back to, and you feel that time has been busting along at a terrific rate and that all sorts of things will have happened – and changed.”

By the Pricking of My Thumbs by Agatha Christie (1968)

~

Only looking at me with Searching Eyes and saying: Such vast Questions. Of course, you must appreciate that we can never know all the Answers. However, I feel that the Questions themselves are most important. Would you not agree?

The Matchbox Girl by Alice Jolly (2025)

~

She wanted to believe them but knew with her logical mind that tales were spun for gold every day. Did she really want to know if there was heartbreak and disaster in her future? Was it better to live as a butterfly and not know that winter was on its way?

The Crownless Queen by Elizabeth Chadwick (2026)

~

‘I know exactly what you mean,’ Gabriel said. ‘It’s unimaginable if you project, or revisit or posit it – your recent history, I mean. No, no, inconceivable – not me, I could never have done that. But when you have done it, when it has happened, it just becomes experience. Something that you lived through.’

Cold Sunset by William Boyd (2026)

~

I feel a bit exhausted and then decide I don’t have to be in a rush. I don’t have to physically go anywhere anyway. I can travel through time and space just by lying down on my sofa if I have the right book in my hand.

The Agatha Christie Cure by Cathy Rentzenbrink (2026)

~

The example par excellence is the commonplace book: a notebook kept by every Tudor grammar school pupil, and many adults, to record pithy phrases and useful sayings for later deployment in personal letters, or professional text such as sermons.

The Story of Tudor Art by Christina J Faraday (2025)

~

Favourite books read in August:

Little Spark, The Calamity Club and Cold Sunset

Authors read for the first time in August:

Ichiyō Higuchi, Christina J. Faraday, Alice Jolly, Cathy Rentzenbrink

Places visited in my August reading:

Italy, Cyprus, England, Japan, USA, France, Austria, Russia, Greece

~

Reading notes: My August reading mainly focused on trying to finish the 20 Books of Summer challenge, which I successfully did! If you missed my summary, here it is. I’m pleased I was able to make one of my 20 books count towards Women in Translation month. In addition to the challenge books, I also read a few others which I haven’t written about yet – Othello was a re-read and I’m intending to follow it up soon with two modern retellings I have on the TBR.

I’ve already discussed some of my plans for September which include taking part in RIP XXI and Short Story September. I also need to read my book for the latest Classics Club Spin, The Kraken Wakes by John Wyndham, so it’s going to be a busy month!

Have you read any of these? Which quote is your favourite this month?

A selection of quotes and pictures to represent July’s reading:

commonplace book
noun
a book into which notable extracts from other works are copied for personal use.

~

Put one foot in front of the other, and she would get to the other side. Now she knew there was no other side to grief, no other place to get to. You never got through it, not in the way you might get through an illness or a wild storm or an examination. It never went away. Instead, it became a part of you.

The Lost Château by Dinah Jefferies (2026)

~

You can’t win when you’re fighting someone who doesn’t know there is a fight.

The Rose and the Yew Tree by Mary Westmacott (1948)

~

If Ares saw this, I think, if he were made to confront the consequences of his wars, would it stir any flicker of regret in his iron soul? He can fly away from the carnage, his chariot pulled by fire-breathing, bronze-hooved horses, and never have to think about it. It’s goddesses who hear the prayers of the grieving, just as Demeter said. Never the gods.

This Immortal Heart by Jennifer Saint (2026)

~

‘Love is a precious thing and needs nurturing. The love you have is a good basis for the future, but sometimes you must work to keep it alive’.

The Boleyn Secret by Alison Weir (2026)

~

This was the time when the rush for the spoils filled a corner of the forest with the yelping of hounds, the cracking of whips, the flaring of torches. The appetites let loose were satisfied at last, shamelessly, amid the sound of crumbling neighbourhoods and fortunes made in six months. The city had become an orgy of gold and women.

The Kill by Émile Zola (1872)

~

“One must live as if it would be forever, and as if one might die each moment. Always both at once.”

The Persian Boy by Mary Renault (1972)

~

Because the truth makes a kind of deep sense, even when it appears fantastic. Truth weaves the world together. Lies shatter things and the truth restores.

The Forever Summer by Lulu Taylor (2026)

~

For no story is truly lost, as long as there’s someone willing to tell it. And someone willing to listen.

No Fair Maidens by Kim Willis (2026)

~

They’d worked together, just like Bill taught them, and when else did women like them ever get the chance to do that? When the only thing you’re expected to achieve in life is a decent marriage, every other woman is your competition, not your collaborator.

The Scandalous Ladies Football Club by Frances Quinn (2026)

~

Favourite books read in July:

The Rose and the Yew Tree, The Scandalous Ladies Football Club and The Forever Summer

Authors read for the first time in July:

Lulu Taylor and Kim Willis

Places visited in my July reading:

France, England, Greece, Germany, Switzerland, Persia, India, Wales, Scotland

~

Reading notes: After a slow June reading-wise, July was a better month for me. It was also quite a busy month – I was away for a week visiting family in Lincolnshire, bought a new car and went to see The Odyssey, but still managed to find plenty of time for reading. I’ve now read 14 of my 20 Books of Summer and I’m sure I’ll be able to read the rest in August, especially as I’ve already started two of them. Fitting in all the reviews could be a problem as I still have some outstanding from this month as well, as you can see above, but I’ll do my best! August is also Women in Translation Month and I have at least one book lined up for that.

How was your July? Do you have any plans for August?

A selection of quotes and pictures to represent June’s reading:

commonplace book
noun
a book into which notable extracts from other works are copied for personal use.

~

‘When you think about it, everyone’s life’s a prison – of days, sort of. The trick is to get comfortable in it, I reckon. Find your freedom inside whatever your prison is.’

A Far-flung Life by ML Stedman (2026)

~

‘It wasn’t only a little she-cat I bought. It was the nobility of all cats, their infinite disinterestedness, their knowledge of how to live, their affinities with the highest type of humans.’

Gigi and The Cat by Colette (1933/1944)

~

Anne said, “Common sense is an unkind master.”

The Unicorn Hunters by Katherine Arden (2026)

~

Just as a novel must contain ideas, so must a painting. A novel devoid of thought was mere entertainment and a painting bereft of ideas no better than caricature.

She Walks at Night by Seishi Yokomizo (1948)

~

The loss of the mother and sisters became internalized as a kind of empty space or wound that required filling with near-endless lands, people, and tall tales. The stories must go on forever and crowd out dark gaps. Charlotte wrote of herself, but this could be from Emily, too: “I’m just going to write because I cannot help it.”

This Dark Night by Deborah Lutz (2026)

~

Favourite book read in June:

A Far-flung Life

Places visited in my June reading:

Australia, France, Japan, England, Brittany

Authors read for the first time in June:

Colette, Deborah Lutz

~

Reading notes: June wasn’t a great reading month for me, for various reasons, and I’m already behind with 20 Books of Summer. I didn’t manage to read my Classics Club Spin book (The Persian Boy by Mary Renault) by the spin deadline either, although I’m more than halfway through and will finish it soon. The good thing is, I enjoyed everything I read, which is more important than the number of books, I think!

This month, Emma of Words and Peace is hosting Paris in July, a celebration of all things French! I have a review ready to post for that and hope to have time to read another suitable book as well. After missing the Read Christie challenge monthly read in June, I’m planning to join in again this month and read The Rose and the Yew Tree. Otherwise, I’ll be concentrating on my 20 Books of Summer list.

How was June for you? Do you have any plans for your July reading?

A selection of quotes and pictures to represent May’s reading:

commonplace book
noun
a book into which notable extracts from other works are copied for personal use.

~

A certain freedom of action was required in any relationship, even if caring deeply for a person you love also brought a type of freedom in itself.

24 Hours in Shogun’s Japan by Mark Hudson (2026)

~

Aren’t memories like cats, either impossible to put out, or resistant to all attempts to call them to you?

Murder at the Spirit Lounge by Jess Kidd (2026)

~

As one Polish architect put it to me, “Daylight is free. If something is free, people kind of neglect the importance of it.”

The Inner Clock by Lynne Peeples (2024)

~

‘I’d rather die,’ Bridget said. On occasion she could be as melodramatic as Rose. ‘I will only marry a man if he has a good library.’

The Fourth Queen by Nicola Cornick (2026)

~

Don’t tell me that’s of no importance. You’d be mistaken. You’d be like those rich people who like to claim that money doesn’t matter. That’s because they have it, damn it! But what about when you don’t? Have you ever known what it’s like not to have any?

Letter to My Judge by Georges Simenon (1947)

~

Yet now, seeing her vulnerable, human side, Yvette realised how easy it was to judge people by the armour they wore. She considered how often one didn’t know what people had gone through and what suffering they carried within them.

The Lost Orphans of Lyon by Helen Parusel (2026)

~

Mila nodded her agreement. She thought how, in a way, summer days did last forever. It was only the people who changed; the younger generation constantly replacing the old.

The Sea Sisters by Louise Douglas (2026)

~

Because war is still war, perhaps less artful, less effective, less heroic than the bards sing it, but still deadly, still widow-making and orphan-fathering, still tragic. On the canvas of the Trojan War, it is the depth of the colour that counts, not the exactitude of the lines.

Son of Nobody by Yann Martel (2026)

~

I pass over the spectacle of Poirot on a camel. He started by groans and lamentations and ended by shrieks, gesticulations and invocations to the Virgin Mary and every Saint in the calendar. In the end, he descended ignominiously and finished the journey on a diminutive donkey. I must admit that a trotting camel is no joke for the amateur. I was stiff for several days.

Poirot Investigates by Agatha Christie (1924)

~

He forgot that love, which is a madness, and a scourge, and a fever, and a delusion, and a snare, is also a mystery, and very imperfectly understood by everyone except the individual sufferer who writhes under its tortures.

Lady Audley’s Secret by Mary Elizabeth Braddon (1862)

~

The solitude and his own company suited him and days like this, when everything was white and the trees were skeletal, didn’t bother him. It just made the Northumbrian countryside more stunning. Yet it also made you realise what a tiny part of the world you inhabited as a human being.

And that was the part that, if you dwelt on it too much, could freak you out.

The Witch’s Stone by Kirsty Ferry (2026)

~

Favourite books read in May:

The Lost Orphans of Lyon and Lady Audley’s Secret

Authors read for the first time in May:

Mark Hudson, Helen Parusel, Lynne Peeples and Kirsty Ferry

Places visited in my May reading:

England, Japan, France, Egypt, USA, Canada

~

Reading notes: May has been a good month of reading and I was particularly pleased to finish two nonfiction books, as reading more nonfiction was one of my resolutions for the year. Lady Audley’s Secret was a re-read for me (another of my resolutions was to do some re-reading!) and I’ll be reviewing it tomorrow for FictionFan’s review-along. Otherwise, my other outstanding reviews will appear eventually!

This year’s 20 Books of Summer challenge begins tomorrow. I posted my plans last week and although there are some books I’m definitely hoping to get to this summer, I’m also going to allow myself plenty of flexibility, particularly as I’ll be away for a week in June and a week in July. There are some other reading events taking place this summer as well, beginning with Mallika’s cat-themed Reading the Meow event, which runs from 15-21 June, and I have at least one book lined up for that.

Have you read any good books this month? What are you hoping to read in June?

A selection of quotes and pictures to represent April’s reading:

commonplace book
noun
a book into which notable extracts from other works are copied for personal use.

~

But it was only in epic tragedies that gloom was unrelieved. In real life, tragedy and comedy were so intermingled that when one was most wretched ridiculous things happened to make one laugh in spite of oneself.

A Civil Contract by Georgette Heyer (1961)

~

For that matter, why would anyone bother to read a mystery novel if they had any doubts about the man who was leading them to a solution? It’s a simple rule. Detectives have to be infallible. If not, readers will never trust them again.

A Deadly Episode by Anthony Horowitz (2026)

~

‘Danger, yes, always,’ the goddess says. ‘Danger and doom and death, but also victory. It might be hard to tell the four apart, from where you stand. An ant caught on a thread cannot discern the loom’s grander design – yet it can change the pattern with its presence.’

Vile Lady Villains by Danai Christopoulou (2026)

~

“One’s prime is elusive. You little girls, when you grow up, must be on the alert to recognise your prime at whatever time of your life it may occur. You must then live it to the full.”

The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark (1961)

~

The idea of the inexplicable meant nothing to them; they did not need it. So much that was inexplicable – for example, the phases of the moon – lay around them that they simply accepted it as part of their lives.

Tales from Watership Down by Richard Adams (1996)

~

A surge of joy flows through me. I realise how much I’ve wanted someone else to know. Love feels real with a witness.

Pixie by Jill Dawson (2026)

~

Only the tone of his voice had remained distinct and clear within her…and a voice is to the blind what artificial light is to other people: it is sufficient to detach in a certain manner the shadows and the reliefs of an individual’s soul.

The Blind Woman of Sorrento by Francesco Mastriani (1852)

~

“I asked you to solve my problem for me,” said Maria-Pia, slowly. “That was a foolish thing to do. Nobody can solve problems for other people.”

Dead Men Don’t Ski by Patricia Moyes (1959)

~

Human happiness is rarely in the best of circumstances without shadows, and an almost pure happiness can be a terror to itself.

The Black Prince by Iris Murdoch (1973)

~

Favourite books read in April:

A Deadly Episode, The Blind Woman of Sorrento and Pixie

Authors read for the first time in April:

Muriel Spark, Danai Christopoulou, Francesco Mastriani, Patricia Moyes

Places visited in my April reading:

England, Scotland, US, Jamaica, Italy

~

Reading notes: I started the month with two books for 1961 Club – I enjoyed the Heyer and although I didn’t love my first experience with Muriel Spark, I do intend to try more of her books. The rest of my April reading consisted of some NetGalley review copies, a lost Italian classic, a sequel to a childhood favourite and the Iris Murdoch novel I had started to read in March! In May (can you believe it’s May already?) I’ll be joining in with the Read Christie challenge which I’ve neglected for the last few months, but otherwise I don’t have many plans.

How was your April? What will you be reading in May?