Mrs Blackwell’s Reading Log, August 2025

Greetings from Somerset, United Kingdom. This is the second August in a row I’m writing from a different place. Last year at this time I was visiting Michigan and I remember because I was also immersed in the Booker Prize long list then too. I also had the fun or recording my reading video in someone else’s shop - the beautiful Flyleaf in Grosse Pointe Farms. This year my photos and videos are from Sherlock & Pages in Frome.

Mr Blackwell & I flew across the world to attend a very special wedding in the middle of August - my little brother, Tig, married his sweetheart and my new sister-in-law, Emma. It was a perfect day in the Lake District and I had the great honour of being asked to speak. I spoke about the power of having a brother, inspired by an essay from Annie B. Jones titled ‘Everyone Writes About Sisters’.

The Booker Prize Dozen, their long list of 13 titles, was announced on July 29th. I got straight into the two that we already had in the shop. To be considered, a book must be published by a registered UK or Irish publisher. This year, many long-listed books haven't been released in New Zealand yet. I usually pick 4-5 books from the long list to read before the shortlist of 6 is announced seven weeks later. Since I was on holiday and several books this year are short, I expect to read more before the 2025 shortlist is announced on September 23rd.

The five Booker judges read over 150 novels in seven months and they get together to discuss them at length as a group. While you may have not ambition to read that much, I enjoyed this interview with judge Chris Power discussing how to read more, take notes for great conversations about books. I like the idea of a traffic light system for an initial take on a bookclub’s feelings about a book.

Endlings by Maria Reva

If you’re looking for a highly original work of creative fiction, Endlings is the book for you!

Set in present day Ukraine, we met Yeva, Anastasia (Nastia) and Solomiya (Sol). Yeva is a biologist, working alone in her mobile lab trying to save species of snails which are going extinct at a rapid rate. To help fund her work, she’s takes part in “Romance Tours” - where Western men come to Ukraine to met potential wives. Nastia and Sol are also involved in with these Romance Tours, but for an entirely different reason.

Nastia concocts a plan to kidnap a bunch of bachelors and use this as a way to raise awareness of the problem of Ukrainian bridal industry. Their plans - and seemingly the whole novel itself - are interrupted by the Russian invasion of Ukraine and a whole new caper ensues. I found this very inventive and actually quite funny at times.

Universality by Natasha Brown

This story opens with an illegal rave on a wealthy financier’s British farm, where a young man is bludgeoned by a solid gold bar. A journalist sets out to uncover the truth behind this story but of course, in doing so, it raises more questions than it answers.

This is a very short book but it’s an engrossing ride across five chapters, each one revealing something new. I found myself stopping often to consider a new dilemma posed by the author. If you love books that have you guessing about which character is the real villain then you’ll love this one.

Perfect short read for fans of Trust by Hernan Diaz and would make a great bookclub pick if your group like discussing complex social and interpersonal issues.

Audition by Katie Kitamura

The novel opens at lunch in a flash Manhattan restaurant. An accomplished, middle-aged actress is seated with a young man but the relationship between the two is very mysterious. Is he her colleague, a relative, a fan or a stalker, it’s unclear.

The novel is set in two parts with two very different perspectives, but in the second half we start to unravel the real mystery of the book. To say more would start to be a reveal.

It’s very elegantly written and that’s probably what kept me going to the end on this one, as I otherwise found it hard to really get caught by the characters or the outcome of this story.

The South by Tash Aw

A gentle, intergenerational family story set in Malaysia. Jay’s paternal grandfather dies in the beginning of the story and leaves a struggling farm to Jay’s mother - the deceased man’s daughter-in-law. Jay and his family travel to the farm to experience firsthand the impacts of climate change. We follow a complicated coming-of-age story as Jay falls for the Farm Manager’s son, Chuan who is unknowingly Jay’s cousin.

One of this author’s influences is Alan Hollinghurst and that influence comes through loud and clear in this story. The style, the pacing and even some of the story arch is quite similar to Our Evenings. I know it’s a bit unfair of me to say this, but I think I would have enjoyed The South more if I hadn’t so recently read Our Evenings.

This is said to be the first in a quartet of novels and with this in mind, I can see that the author has left a number of threads and storylines to come back to. This made the story feel a bit too inconclusive for me.

Don't Trust Your Gut: Using Data to Get What You Really Want in Life by Seth Stephens-Davidowitz

I picked this for our business book club, mostly because my co-host is such a fan of data, I thought this could be something she’s really appreciate. I really enjoyed this book and came away feeling inclined to look more deeply at the data when it comes to some bookshop decisions.

The author is a former Google data scientist and sets out to show us how wrong our instincts often are. While this is pitched as a business / self help title, I would actually recommend it to anyone who is dating - there was a surprising amount of relationship theory in here and advice on getting the most from dating apps!

Moderation by Elaine Castillo

And lastly, I accidentally read a contemporary romance. This one tricked me the same way the Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley did - where the romance creeps up on you. I think I was also sedjuced by this excellent cover!

Moderation opens with a few stomach churning examples of the actual content moderators have to sit through for big tech platforms. I wasn’t actually sure I was going to be able to take too much of it, but I’m glad I pushed through as I’d never stopped to think that much of what is flagged as objectionable on major tech platforms has to be screened by an actual human being. But we enter Girlie Delmundo’s world as a Las Vegas based content moderator.

I found the storyline quite interesting for the first 20% of the book, but for me I lost interest when the founder of a VR company showed up to offer Girlie a promotion and it turned into, essentially, a workplace romance. I do think if you enjoyed Ministry of Time or would like a romance set inside the tech world, then this could be the one for you.

See you again at the end of September!