This is the list of what books I’ve read over the last few years.

2025

Bring Up The Bodies by Hilary Mantel

★★★★★
I’m wary of historical fiction - it can often feel like an exercise in showing how much research the author did - but the Wolf Hall series has such a sense of authenticity and depth in every page. Am really looking forward to the final installment (and the earlier monster tome ‘A Place of Greater Safety, which I started but paused as I realised that I didn’t know enought about the French revolution to really appreciate it).

Starman by Paul Trynka

★★★★☆
I’m not really a Bowie fan - I think he has a special place for a generation of people that are a little older than me but I missed his golden period. This book however, made me appreciate Bowie way, way more and gave me a way in to enjoying (some of) his work. It also effectively shows that Bowie’s apparent beaming down to Earth was, in reality, the result of a lot of years of hard work and trial and error. One of the best music biographies I’ve read.

Parable Of The Sower by Octavia E. Butler

★★★★☆
A really great, thoughtful story about the fall of civilisation. Does its magic without over-dramatising or big set-pieces.

The Fireman by Joe Hill

★★★★☆
First Hill book I’ve read and I enjoyed this. Although I’m sure the comparison to his dad isn’t what he’d want, I felt that he had the same knack of creating characters that you cared about without losing the thread of the story.

The French Revolution by Christopher Hibbert

★★★★☆
Essential prep for my planned read of ‘A Place Of Greater Safety’, this was a good overview of the key events of the revolution. I did get a little lost at some points with the various factions and the bureaucracy of the revolutionary govt, but it covered everything I (think I) needed.

The Last Policeman by Ben H. Winters

★★★★☆
A detective story set as the world ends is a concept that really appealed to me and this book executed it well. The plot got a little convoluted towards the end but the world/scenario building worked well.

Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr

★★★☆☆
I wanted to like this and several times while reading it, I thought it was going to catch fire. In the end however, I found it a little underwhelming.

From A Buick 8 by Stephen King

★★★☆☆
Has all the ingredients of a King novel and is definitely a page-turner. I’m not sure however that its up there with his very best (‘The Stand’ and ‘Under The Dome’).

The Benn Diaries by Tony Benn

★★★☆☆
Had this on my reading list for, literally, years as I remember this being serialised on Radio 4 when I was a kid. What I liked was his on-the-spot view of some of the biggest events of the last 50 years. Regardless of your views on his politics, reading how govt actually worked is very interesting. Not a page-turner and some bits just weren’t of interest to me, but glad to have finally read it.

The Prestige by Christopher Priest

★★★☆☆
sigh I had the same problem with this as with other Priest novels - there’s a great story in there and some great moments but it somehow manages to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. The Nolan-directed film is definitely the better take on this tale.

• The Silmarillion by J.R.R. Tolkien ★★★☆☆ - feels slightly blasphemous to only give this three stars but it is quite hard-going.
• All Systems Red (Murderbot 1) by Martha Wells ★★★☆☆ - don’t really get the hype about this series.
• Bad Blood by John Carreyrou ★★☆☆☆ - lacked the sort of storytelling that the best non-fiction has and so just felt like a series of anecdotes.
• Fall or Dodge In Hell by Neal Stephenson ★★☆☆☆ - Stephenson’s worst book by some distance.
• Jonathon Strange & Mr Norrell by Susannah Clarke ★★☆☆☆ - just a really boring story.

DNF Reads

Books I gave up on.

• Moby Dick by Herman Melville
• The Dog Stars by Peter Heller

2024

• Marvels by Kurt Busiek ★★★★★
• The Fellowship Of The Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien ★★★★★
• Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud ★★★★★
• Coal Black Mornings by Brett Anderson ★★★★☆
• Contact by Carl Sagan ★★★★☆
• The Spy Who Came In From The Cold by John Le Carre ★★★★☆
• V For Vendetta by Alan Moore ★★★★☆
• World Without End by Ken Follett ★★★★☆
• Eversion by Alistair Reynolds ★★★☆☆
• In Ascension by Martin MacInnes ★★★☆☆
• The 39 Steps by John Buchan ★★★☆☆

2023

• The Pale King by David Foster Wallace ★★★★★
• Under The Dome by Stephen King ★★★★★
• Red Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson ★★★★★
• The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett ★★★★★
• Elder Race by Adrian Tchaikovsky ★★★★☆
• Lords of Uncreation by Adrian Tchaikovsky ★★★★☆
• There Is No Antimemetics Division by qntm ★★★★☆
• A Short Stay In Hell by Steven L Peck ★★★★☆
• Station Eleven by Emily St John Mandell ★★★★☆
• Billy Summers by Stephen King ★★★★☆
• Leviathan Falls by James SA Corey ★★★★☆
• Persepolis Rising by James SA Corey ★★★★☆
• Tiamat’s Wrath by James SA Corey ★★★★☆
• The Uninhabitable Earth by David Wallace-Wells
• McCartney: The Biography by Philip Norman ★★★☆☆
• Beowulf by Seamus Heaney ★★★☆☆
• A Brief History Of Time by Stephen Hawking ★★★☆☆
• Man’s Search For Meaning by Viktor E Frankl ★★★☆☆
• Babylon’s Ashes by James SA Corey ★★★☆☆
• Cibola Burn by James SA Corey ★★★☆☆
• Exhalation by Ted Chiang ★★★☆☆
• Infinity Gate by MR Carey ★★★☆☆
• In Cold Blood by Truman Capote ★★★☆☆
• Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy ★★☆☆☆
• If:Then by Jill Lepore ★★☆☆☆
• The Man In The High Castle by Philip K Dick ★★☆☆☆