A Small Part of History: Book Beginnings on Friday & The Friday 56

Published on by Margaret1 Comment

Every Friday Book Beginnings on Friday is hosted by Gillion at Rose City Reader where you can share the first sentence (or so) of the book you are reading. You can also share from a book you want to highlight just because it caught your fancy.

A Small Part of History by Peggy Elliott, is one of the books I’ll be reading soon. It’s one of my TBRs, historical fiction I bought in 2008. I’m featuring it today as the book caught my eye this morning as I browsed my bookshelves. I took it off the shelf and it made me think of all those cowboy series on TV that I used to watch about pioneers venturing out West. More recently I’ve enjoyed watching Taylor Sheridan’s television series Yellowstone and the prequels 1883 and 1923. 

It’s described on the back cover as:

an epic, heartfelt story of courage in the face of appalling adversity, and a haunting portrayal of how America was forged. Above all, it is a story of people and how the ties that bind us most strongly are those of friendship, of family and of love.

But what makes this book look a bit different is that it’s told from a woman’s perspective. In her Author’s Note Peggy Elliott explains that she’d read ‘a wonderfully thought- provoking book, Women’s Diaries of the Westward Journey which pointed out how different women’s experience on the Oregon Trail had been compared to men’s.’

The book begins :

My papa always told me it was best to start a story at the beginning when I confused him by jumping into the things somewhere in the middle. so I am not going to talk about where I am today or even last month, because it all really begun back in June of 1845.

Also every Friday there is The Friday 56, hosted by Freda at Freda’s Voice, but she is taking a break and Anne at My Head is Full of Books has taken on hosting duties in her absence. You grab a book and turn to page 56 (or 56% of an eBook), find one or more interesting sentences (no spoilers), and post them.

Page 56:

Poor Lizzie! There were dark shadows beneath her eyes and Rebecca could see pale blue veins throbbing in her forehead. What words of comfort could she possibly bring her, not being a mother herself? To have a young child on the trail brought one set of worries, but to bring yet another into the world while still travelling must present even more of a burden.

The map at the front of the book shows the length of the Oregon Trail from Independence, Missouri to Oregon City.

Description from the back cover:

In the summer of 1845 Rebecca Springer and her family join the Oregon wagon train in search of land thousands of miles away. It’s a hard and dangerous journey through blizzards and searing heat, over prairies, desert plains and mountains and, at times, it seems as if it will never end. But an unbreakable bond develops amongst the travelling women as they are tested, physically and emotionally, and their shared experiences of new life and tragic death will bring them closer than blood ever could.

And now I’m really looking forward to reading this book.

If you have read A Small Part of History, what did you think?

Top Ten Tuesday: Books on my TBR by Authors I’ve Never Read Before

Published on by Margaret19 Comments

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme created by The Broke and the Bookish and now hosted by Jana at That Artsy Reader Girl. For the rules see her blog

The topic today is Top Ten Books I Want to Read by New to Me Authors. (Share books from your to-read list that are written by authors you’ve never read before.)

Robert Graves – The Greek Myths the Complete and Definitive Edition

Graham Norton: Frankie

Christopher Isherwood – Mr Norris Changes Trains

Lesley McEvoy – The Murder Mile

Jo Leevers – The Museum of Second Chances

Antony Beevor – D-Day: The Battle for Normandy

Benjamin Wood – Seascraper

Alan Davies – Just Ignore Him (autobiography)

Bonnie Baylock – The Water Women

James Clavell – Tai-Pan: The Second Novel of the Asian Saga

I am really hoping I’ll enjoy these books!

Spell the Month in Books July 2026

Published on by Margaret5 Comments

Spell the Month in Books is a linkup hosted by Jana on Reviews From the Stacks on the first Saturday of each month. The goal is to spell the current month with the first letter of book titles, excluding articles such as ‘the’ and ‘a’ as needed. That’s all there is to it! Some months there are optional theme challenges, such as “books with an orange cover” or books of a particular genre, but for the most part, any book you want to use is fair game!

I am delighted to say that Jana is now back on her blog and she and her new baby are doing well. She is currently not assigning themes so I’ve chosen to feature cookery books, all of which I own, apart from the last one!

J is for Jamie’s Italy by Jamie Oliver

I have watched Jamie Oliver’s cookery programmes for years and have several of his books. This is one of my favourites as I love Italian food. In the introduction he explained that he wrote it while travelling around Italy, working and eating, wanting to find the food of the ‘real’ Italy and to celebrate the recipes from the people he met from fishermen to family bakers.

U is for Ultimate Slow Cooker by Sara Lewis

I love my slow cooker – but I don’t use it as often as I should. So, I bought this book to learn how to adapt my favourite recipes as well as to try new ones. It contains over 100 recipes from around the world from risottos and roasts to cheesecakes and chutneys, recipes for making family meals, or entertaining friends.

L is for The Love of Italian Cooking by Mary Reynolds

This is now out of print. I love this book and what I particularly like, apart from the recipes and colour photos is the description of the various regions of Italy, highlighting their traditions and specialities, from Sicily and Sardinia moving north through the country to Piemonte in the north-west corner. One of my favourite recipes in this book is Minestrone Alla Casalinga in the chapter on Lombardy, a large region that includes most of the Italian lakes, stretching from the Alps in the north to the valley of the River Po in the south. It takes hours to make, plus the time overnight to soak the haricot beans and is very filling. 

I did want to make this month’s selection Spell the Month in Books all from my own cookery books, but I don’t have any beginning with Y. However, I found this book.

Y is for Your Daily Veg: Modern, fuss-free vegetarian food by Joe Woodhouse

The description on Amazon UK does tempt me to get a copy:

Your Daily Veg celebrates everyday vegetables in a fresh and modern way. Chapters focus either on one core vegetable or on a group of similar vegetables, celebrating seasonality and encouraging you to experiment.

Joe Woodhouse blends textures, spices and flavours to create satisfying meals that use minimal ingredients but achieve maximum flavour. With tips on how best to prep dishes and advice on minimising stress and time in the kitchen, each recipe is as straightforward as possible.

Six Degrees of Separation from Yesteryear to Murder by Matchlight

Published on by Margaret26 Comments

This is a monthly link-up hosted by Kate at Books Are My Favourite and Best. This month we are starting with Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke

According to the blurb this is A traditional American woman, a “tradwife” influencer, suddenly awakens in the brutal reality of 1855—where she must unravel whether this living nightmare is an elaborate hoax, a twisted reality show, or something far more sinister in this sensational debut novel. I think I may like to read this book.

My first link is The Year Without Summer by Guinevere Glasfurd, a novel that illustrates how the impact of the extreme weather conditions affected the lives of six people. They never meet, or know each other, but their stories are intertwined throughout the book in short chapters, giving what I think is a unique look at the events of 1816. 

My second link is A Summer Bird-Cage by Margaret Drabble, a novel about dissatisfaction and not knowing what you want, about family relationships (sisterly rivalry in particular), and the nature of marriage – the cages we live within. Whilst not a lot as regards plot happens in this short novel, it contains many ideas, attitudes and character studies. And it’s beautifully written.

My third link is Nothing To Be Frightened Of by Julian Barnes, a family memoir in which he shares details about his family’s beliefs and the deaths of his parents and grandparents, of the rivalry between him and his brother, his mother’s solipsism and manipulative behaviour, his father’s seemingly passive approach to life and the difficulties of really knowing a person.

The fourth book in my chain is another book by Julian Barnes – The Sense of an Ending. It’s a novel about memory and the effect of time, about ageing, about the nature of history and literature, about nostalgia and the question of responsibility.

My fifth link is Playing With the Moon by Eliza Graham – historical fiction, capturing what life was like during the 1940s. The book deals with the power of memory, with loss, grief and bereavement. It’s also about war, the legacy of war, and of how to make sense of our lives.

My final link is also set in the 1940s – Murder by Matchlight by E C R Lorac. The setting is London in 1945, in the darkness of the blackout as the bombs are still falling. A murder takes place in almost complete darkness in Regent’s Park, witnessed by Bruce Mallaig who heard it happen and briefly saw both the victim and his assailant by the light of a struck match. It is not only darkness that shrouds the mystery – who is the victim?

The links in my chain are words in the titles, books about rivalry, books by the same author, about memory and books set in the 1940s.

Next month (August 1, 2026), we’ll start with Maggie O’Farrell’s new release, Land.

THE TBR 26 IN ’26 CHALLENGE

Published on by Margaret7 Comments

Half way through this year I have just found this challenge to read from my TBRs. It’s hosted by Gilion at her blog Rose City Reader. For full details check out her blog at the link above. Basically, it’s just read 26 books from your own TBRs. A TBR is a book that you have owned prior to January 1, 2026.

I have so many TBRs both on my physical bookshelves and on my Kindle that I really need to get down to reading more of them, so I’m hoping to read more than 26 this year – so far I’ve read 13.

The challenge runs from January 1, 2026 to December 31, 2026. You can sign up any time before December 31, 2026. Crossover with other challenges counts. Rereads count. Any genre counts as long as it is a complete book. Anything published as a book between two covers counts as a book. For example, a single story doesn’t count unless it is published as a stand-alone book, but a collection of short stories does count. If you read an omnibus that contains several “books” you can count each book separately if they were published separately in other editions.

You do not have to review the books to complete the challenge. If you do review a book, please post a link to your review on the review page here. 

When you finish, please post a link to your wrap up post with a list of the books you read and post that link on the wrap up page here. 

Quite Ugly One Evening by Chris Brookmyre

Published on by Margaret6 Comments

Abacus| 7 May 2026| 359 pages e-book| Review copy 4*

An Atlantic voyage. A family at war. A secret worth killing over.

Reporter Jack Parlabane thrives on chasing stories in unlikely places, and where could be less likely than a fan convention on a cruise liner celebrating a contentious Sixties TV series? But unlike the media family exploiting their show’s renewed relevance, he’s not there to stoke controversy: he’s there to solve a murder.

Already in deep water with his employer, Jack desperately needs a win, and solving this decades-old mystery could be it. Problem is, he’s in the middle of the Atlantic, and someone onboard has already killed once to keep their secret.

And that’s not even the tricky part. No, the tricky part is definitely the dead body locked in a stateroom with him, covered in his blood. Now Jack has to solve two murders, otherwise the only way he’s getting off this ship is in handcuffs – or in a body bag.

Quite Ugly One Evening by Chris Brookmyre is the ninth book in the Jack Parlabane series. Jack, now 60, is an investigative journalist, who finds himself in competition with his younger colleagues, grateful that he still has a job.

The first book by Chris Brookmyre I read was Quite Ugly One Morning, the first in the series. That was in 2010 and since then I have read and enjoyed more of his books, including those he’s written under the pseudonym Ambrose Parry with his wife, Marisa Haetzman. But, I haven’t read the other Jack Parlabane books. However, it wasn’t a problem and I don’t think you need to have read the other books to enjoy this one, as it does read well as a standalone.

It is a ‘locked room’ type mystery as the action takes place on a cruise liner as it crosses the Atlantic. The ship is full of fans of the Maskyn family’s 1960s TV puppet series, The Imaginators, attending a convention, symposium and 60th anniversary celebration. They are also looking to update the series as sixty years later the series is not only dated but also obviously racist in some of the puppet designs. And the family are split over a takeover bid from a billionaire, with some wanting to accept his offer and others bitterly opposed to it.

It’s also complicated, with a large cast of characters and multiple layers. It took me a while to work out who is who, as I was reading a proof copy which does not have the Maskyn family tree included in the published edition – it would have been really helpful. Jack is onboard after being approached by MI5 who want him to act as an undercover agent investigating the death of an agent, Simeon Wickham forty years earlier. MI 5 had intelligence that the Maskyns had been infiltrated by an agent of a foreign power at that time. Just who was Simeon Wickham, what was his involvement with the Maskyns and who killed him?

Right from the start of the book it appears that Jack is the main suspect for killing the man found dead in suite 1114. The first half is slow going with detailed descriptions of the layout of the ship, with Jack getting lost in the different staircases that looked the same, confused by the position and direction of the ship and not sure which deck he was on. There is a great deal of description about the TV puppet show and about the current criticism it’s attracting. However, the pace begins to speed up at about 49%, and it was a race to the end.

I thoroughly enjoyed it, murder, onboard a luxury line in the middle of the Atlantic, with a complex plot, interesting characters, social commentary, told with humour and a hint back to the Golden Age of murder mysteries.