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The Wax Child by Olga Ravn

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The Wax Child

Many women, many witches

The wax child entered this world in the early 1600’s and was christened on the Danish island of Funen. We know this because it tells us so; a beeswax doll with human hair and fingernail parings, it looks like a child, longs to be a child but will never be. Now that its mistress is dead and gone, it lies face up beneath the soil, dreaming and remembering. It has stories to tell us, of witchcraft and persecution, female solidarity and betrayal. Based on historical witch trials, The Wax Child by Olga Ravn is an eerie, unsettling and oddly beautiful novel.

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Books for Christmas 2025

Don’t you just love it when someone gives you a thoughtful book as a present? Perhaps a book that you have heard about but never got around to buying or an author you’ve never read before who turns out to be your new favourite?  We’ve been sifting through new releases and chosen our favourites reads from 2025 – fiction, non-fiction and children’s books. It’s been a good year for unusual stories and here they are, the books that give us a warm fuzzy feeling when we see them on our bookshelves.  Take your pick and don’t forget to buy some for yourself!

Happy reading and Merry Christmas from Kirstin and Julie

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So Long See You Tomorrow by William Maxwell

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So Long See You Tomorrow

The classic you didn’t know you should read

An absolute gem of a book, So Long See You Tomorrow by Willam Maxwell had never been on my radar of books to read until I stumbled upon it in a scantily stocked airport bookstore. It’s a novel of two loosely connected stories: the narrator who looks back at his childhood in Lincoln, Illinois and the devastating loss of his mother and the parallel tragedy of his friend Cletus’ family. Maxwell’s evocative yet sparse writing is nothing short of genius.

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Clear by Carys Davies

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Clear

More than words

Winner of the Ondaatje Prize 2025, and Wales Book of the Year, the captivating Clear by Carys Davies is one of our favourite recent reads, devoured as a one-sitting treat. Set on a far-flung Scottish island in 1843, it tells the tale of John Ferguson, a man of God, sent to evict Ivar, the island’s last remaining tenant farmer. When an accident upon his arrival leaves John incapacitated, Ivar takes him in and tends him. They share no common language, life experience or world view, but in Davies’ touching story of solitude and human connection, a tentative companionship is born.

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Goodbye to Berlin by Christopher Isherwood

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Goodbye to Berlin

Observing the downfall of a nation

‘I am a camera with its shutter open, quite passive, recording, not thinking’, starts Goodbye to Berlin by Christopher Isherwood, an autobiographical collection of loosely connected stories from the author’s time living in Berlin during Hitler’s rise to power. Observing is indeed what he does: the decadent nightlife, the discontent and poverty of the working class, and most chillingly, the sinister beginnings of persecution of Jews. It’s a dark but also comical book with the author playing a supporting role to an eccentric gallery of characters. A quirky and notable classic.

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Colony by Annika Norlin

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Colony

Disillusioned by her job and city life, and suffering from a serious case of burnout, Emelie decides to ‘check out’ for a while. She packs her tent and sleeping bag, turns off her phone, and seeks refuge in a little clearing deep in the Swedish forest. Once there, Emelie stumbles upon an unusual group of people who have taken ‘escaping it all’ to a whole new level. Curious, she befriends one of them and is drawn into a bizarre, cult-like existence. Colony by Annika Norlin, a bestseller in Sweden, is both a charming and disturbing portrait of misfits; both funny and creepy, and really enjoyable.

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After Leaving Mr Mackenzie by Jean Rhys

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After Leaving Mr Mackenzie

Down and out in Paris and London

A curiously sad autobiographical novel, After Leaving Mr Mackenzie by Jean Rhys is an episode in the itinerant life of Julia Martin, a thirty-something woman leading a precarious existence in Paris and London between the wars. Hers is a life of cheap hotels, booze, and financial dependence on unsuitable men, who invariably let her down. When her ex-lover in Paris cuts off her weekly allowance, the penniless Julia decides to muster her fading magic and head back to London, in hopes of finding love, solvency, and reconnection with her estranged family.

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The Place of Tides by James Rebanks

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The Place of Tides

The perfect antidote

Both memoir and bibliotherapy for troubled minds, The Place of Tides by James Rebanks takes a step out of time and place, transporting us to a remote Norwegian island just south of the Arctic Circle. Here, burnt out and disillusioned with life, Rebanks spends a restorative ‘eiderdown season’ with a marvellous woman named Anna. Upholding an ancient island tradition, Anna nurtures wild eider ducks as they nest and lay eggs, collecting the precious down they leave behind to make duvets. The days are still, the work simple and repetitive, a balm for Rebanks’ spirits as he uncovers the story of Anna’s long island life and learns some valuable lessons.

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Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates

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Revolutionary Road

The crumbling of an American Dream

Frank and April Wheeler seemingly have it all: good looks, cute kids, a respectable job, a white picket fence house in Connecticut. Cracks are starting to emerge, though. Is this really the life they wanted? Whatever happened to their youthful dreams? A drastic plan emerges, but what exactly are they fleeing from? Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates is an enduring American classic dealing with marriage, expectations and dreams. As relevant today, as it was in 1961 and a very good read.

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The Sense of an Ending

Finely chiseled masterpiece

As I’ve just discovered, it’s never too late to read the brilliant The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes, Booker Prize Winner from 2011. This is a marvel of a novel about interpreting the past, suppressing memories and coming of age, which deserves to join the rank of classics. It’s a book that will make you question your own past and wonder how differently others might perceive it.

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