Someone asked today if there is a book club, so I thought I'd try starting one. Not the usual type of club where everyone reads the same book - I thought we could write a synopsis of a book we've recently read, to give each other ideas for new books to read.
I have a Kindle subscription, so all of mine will be available on there for people who also subscribe.
This sounds very interesting and potentially one for me. Unprocessed memories of things seen and things cruelly done to me led to my dx of PTSD, well its actually C-PTSD but diagnosis letter didn’t say that. We were just talking a few hours ago about the aftermath of a suicide I saw at Warren Street tube station in the 1970s, thats another one which cannot be unseen to add to recovering me.
I read widely, mainly but not exclusively non fiction. Ive a pile of 20C poetry books beside me. I get through these at high speed, recent reads have been Elizabeth Bishop, Anne Stevenson, Ezra Pound and Stephen Spender. Pound and Spender were political opposites in the 1930s and comparing their different perspectives was very interesting. Next Im going to read Thomas More’s UTOPIA, then a study of his contemporary Erasmus of Rotterdam. Im have no training in philosophy, am an autodidact, but the philosophy of people and history fascinates me, I like always to understand the why behind events.
I want to re-read Jack Hight's Saladin trilogy, it's interesting to look at the Crusades from the other side and Saladin's life story narrated by someone who could of been there but wasn't is extremely well done.
Sometime this week; I am expecting a delivery of the paperback:
The Canary Code
by Ludmila Praslova.
(Pub. 24 February 2026).
It is also available as an Audiobook and a Kindle format.
I thought I would prefer the physical book this time, as I suspect I will want to dip in and out, as a reference book (probably wanting to add low-adhesive tabs as I read - to aid my future navigation).
"The Canary Code is a groundbreaking framework for intersectional inclusion and belonging at work that embraces human cognitive, emotional, and neurobiological differences--neurodiversity.
Despite their skills and work ethics, members of autistic, ADHD, Tourette Syndrome, learning differences, and related communities face barriers to hiring and advancement. In the U.S., 30-40% of neurodivergent people and 85% of autistic college graduates struggle with unemployment. Yet, like canaries in the coal mine, they are impacted by issues that ultimately harm everyone. Lack of flexibility, transparency, and psychological safety exclude neurodivergent, disabled, and multiply marginalized talent- and leave most employees stressed and disengaged.
This book helps CEOs, human resources and DEI leaders, managers, and consultants design neuroinclusive and thriving workplaces where everyone can do their best work. It draws on examples of pioneering organizations, human stories, academic research, and the author's decades of experience."
Top of my in tray (actively reading):
Title: Unspeakable - Stories of Survival and Transformation After Trauma.
Authors: Gwen Adshead & Eileen Horne.
(Currently, 10 March 2026, available in: Hardcover / Audiobook / Kindle).
The Sunday Times bestselling authors of The Devil You Know return with a life-affirming myth busting exploration of trauma, resilience and healing.
A widow dares not utter her husband's name.
A prisoner of war buries the memories of his ordeal.
A child hostage is rendered mute.
What happens when trauma goes unspoken?
The pioneering psychiatrist and psychotherapist Dr Gwen Adshead invites us to witness her work with patients struggling in the wake of a range of distressing and painful life events.
Drawn from over thirty years of clinical practice, Unspeakable illuminates how language - and silence - can dramatically affect the quality of our recovery after disaster.
Sometimes the hardest words to say out loud are the very ones to set us free and with Adshead's assistance and extraordinary insight, these courageous people step out of the darkness of shame and fear to discover new possibilities.
This is not a book about trauma, it is about survival.
In challenging prevailing misconceptions around trauma and by charting the transformation of patient identities, hearts and minds, Unspeakable makes a powerful case for hope.
I finished the East End Library Girls series by Patricia McBride - set in World War Two and follows three girls who work at the same library, following their stories through the war. I would recommend giving at least the first book a go if you like history or just like taking a ride through someone else's life.
The order of the books are:
I've always found the act of reading difficult for some reason. Over the last couple of years I started listening instead to audio bools which I've had better luck with. Although I can't listen and do something else really.
I jave been listening to Helen Fields and enjoyed them, psychological thrillers, although I have to say some of the murderers/murders are disturbing.
I just finnished a book called Cleopatra by Saara El-Arifi, apart from the ending which I wasn't so keen on, it was one of those books you can sink into and be instantly transported to another time and place.
It's good to see a woman as pivotal in history as Cleopatra reclaimed from the Roman mysogynistic propaganda, that has plagued her legacy for over 2,000 years, People have chosen only to look at her through a lens of sexual availability and her lovers, rather than her learning and her political skills. We think we know so much about her, but we don't even know what she looked like, or who her mother was.
what did they get up to?
im on the last 40 pages on my overlord book by max Hastings, I knew about d day, but the book has let me learn about the details that mostly get missed, it was a inevitable victory for the allies on the macro level, but the germans put up a great resistance.
the British really didnt do all that much in the grand scheme of things, we held down the most difficult German devisions, but we really struggled with achieving the objectives we set out before the invasion, but I also belive Montgomery knew this and didnt want to make any aggressive pushes for territory in the first place, he was a officer in the firts world war and saw the damage that battles had on the male population and wanted to mitigate the losses to British soldiers by letting the Americans and their growing strength do the hard yards.
I did find it boring and ive struggled to finish the book in the end, its the second book of his ive finished but I dont think ill be putting myself through that again, its interesting but boring, the is lots of detail but with my adhd its just hard to sit through this type of book.
I recently discovered that Shawn Inmon published a new Middle Falls book in November, and I read it last week. It's one of a series of books where some people living in the town of Middle Falls get to re-live their lives after they die, to try to get a better outcome. They wake up usually either as a teen or young adult, although sometimes later, and can remember their previous life. Usually they need to live several lives before finishing one happily. This most recent novel is called "The collected lives of Chuck Burke" and the central character is a compulsive hoarder, whose first death is caused by a pile of stuff falling on him. It shows the reality of compulsive hoarding disorder, and how he is helped to overcome it.
Anna is a married woman in high society who falls in love with another man, Vronsky. She leaves her safe but unhappy marriage to be with him. Society judges and rejects her, and her relationship becomes filled with stress, jealousy, and sadness, leading to tragedy. At the same time, another character, Levin, searches for a meaningful life. He marries Kitty, and their more honest, steady relationship shows a healthier kind of love. The book contrasts passionate but risky love with stable, growing love, and shows how choices can shape a person’s fate.
Expecto_Patronum I finished reading The Great Alone finally 
I enjoyed the ending it was good to read.
I've just finished Louise Penny's Black Wolf, it's so brilliant, every year she brings out a book that's basically a murder mystery, but filled with love, kindness, friendship and poetry, reading one feels like a spiritual experience they touch so deeply.
