Reading - December 2025

State of Emergency: Britain, 1970-1974 by Dominic Sandbrook (2010)

It's taken me four months to finish this (and I've read 26 other books during that period); like Sandbrook's previous books in this series, it's fascinating, entertaining and sometimes saddening, but it's not meant as criticism to say that it's also hard work - there's a lot to take in. This instalment is the first one that covers events within my living memory (just), which is what I was most interested in when I started these books. Again, what stands out is the sensation of history repeating itself: for example, change the word "permissiveness" to "political correctness" or "woke" and chapter 11 here could be describing the same reactionary bullshit from the 90s or today. And so unfortunately, one is left with a depressing feeling that no-one learns anything - there are as many people interested igniting fires for personal gain, now, as there were fifty years ago.

Questionable Content by Jeph Jacques (2025)

I discovered Questionable Content in 2022 and have been reading it ever since. There's a comic every weekday, but because each is a four (or so) panel comic telling a tiny part of an overall story, an elapsed year in comics amounts to maybe a couple of weeks in the QC universe. It also makes it a smidge hard to remember what the hell's going on. So I re-read all this year's comics. It's a sweet, amusing and gentle soap opera that has amazingly been going for over twenty years.

Bedlam by Christopher Brookmyre (2013)

Probably my ninth or tenth time of reading what is (clearly) one of my favourite books and at this point, if I'm honest with myself, I'm probably skimming it in places. But I love it and its world, and it's good to go back to something familiar.

Ready Player One by Ernest Cline (2011)

Bedlam and this go together in my mind, being based on very similar concepts. Although I've read this fewer times, it's probably the better book and I'm a bit embarrassed by my first review of it, which was somewhat dismissive. Safe to say that now I think it's brilliant and hugely enjoyable.

Holiday Ever After by Hannah Grace (2025)

In her acknowledgements (yes, I really do read them), Hannah Grace says thank you to her readers, for giving her "a chance to try something new". Which is ironic because unlike her previous novels, which were something new (to me at least, possibly because I'm not a teenage girl), this is essentially a completely standard Silhouette romance (or a Hallmark Christmas film, if that's your reference - same thing, basically), albeit slightly longer than their guidelines would allow. That's not to say it's not a good one: I enjoyed it a lot and although the requisite last minute falling out between our heroine and hero felt a little out of proportion, the whole festive season in small-town America is done well.