December Picks

Malinowski, Stephan (2025) The Hohenzollerns and the Nazis: A History of Collaboration. Allen Lane.

When the Kaiser fled in 1918 it marked the end of the Prussian ruling dynasties, and the old elite right, and foreshadowed the destructive rise of National Socialism and the Third Reich. Following the War the conservative House of Hohenzollern sought a return to power and saw the fledging democracy of the Weimar Republic as an obstacle, and Hitler as their best chance to leverage power. In this way, under the leadership of Crown Prince Wilhelm the monarchists became both opportunists and collaborators. The self-serving Hohenzollerns were beguiled and found their place in an alliance with Nazism, a role they continue to deny to this day. Malinowski has forensically analysed the toxic behaviour of a defeated monarchy in a work of historical recovery. A readable and brilliant piece of research. Big Read.

Rating: 5/5

Jones, Ruth and James Corden (2025) When Gavin Met Stacey and Everything In Between. Bantam.

Ruth and James recount how they brought the incredibly popular Gavin and Stacey to our TV screens. This behind the scenes memoir is the story of a real-life friendship, iconic characters and the obstacles and challenges of producing the BAFTA award-winning show. Their subversive alter-egos Nessa and Smithy helped turn them into cultural icons. This cosy little book reminds us why we are fans and sends us back for a rewatch. A fun guide to writing a TV phenomenon.

Rating: 3/5

Mangan, Lucy (2025) Bookish: How Books Shape Our Lives. Square Peg.

I love books about books but Bookish did not reach, for me, the heights of her earlier Bookworm (2018) with its focus on children’s books. Bookish is the memoir of Mangan’s reading journey from studenthood until adulthood. Mangan’s book and life choices are reflective of her generation and reading tastes. Although I had read many of the books she talks about I was surprised that I had forgotten the plot of most of them, even though they were seminal reads at the time. Nonetheless this book is an ode to the love of reading and bookish places.

Rating: 3/5

Moss, Sarah (2025) Ripeness. Pan Macmillan.

This tale is told in a dual narrative – in mid-60s’s rural Italy and modern day Ireland. Seventeen-year-old Oxford-bound Edith is sent by her mother to look after Lydia her very pregnant ballet dancer sister, who is staying in an Italian villa with dancer friends, with instructions to make a call when the baby is born. Decades later, now well-settled in Ireland, septuagenarian Edith is reminded of that time when her best friend Méabh receives a call from a man claiming to be her brother. Should Méabh meet her long lost brother? What happened to Lydia’s baby? A powerful yet disturbing novel, with political undertones, although I found the long paragraphs challenging. Resonates.

Rating: 4/5

Jones, Ruth (2025) By Your Side. Bantam.

Linda works for the Glasgow Council’s Unclaimed Heirs Unit and is on the verge of enforced retirement. When reclusive Levi Norman passes away, on the (fictional) remote Scottish island of Storrich, Linda is despatched on her last case to make funeral arrangements and investigate whether there is a living relative. As Linda searches for clues and uncovers a life now lost she unexpectedly makes new friends. Themes of family, belonging and truth. Lots of heart and warmth.

Rating: 3/5

McDonald, Fleur (2025) The Prospect. Allen & Unwin.

After a career defining scandal investigative reporter Zara and Jack, her policeman partner, move to the mining town of Kalgoorlie to start again. In Kalgoorlie Zara is frustrated by the lack of hard-hitting stories and Jack is angry at being back in uniform after a city career as a detective. But when Zara witnesses a fatal accident on an isolated stretch of highway they both become involved in unravelling a racket involving the smuggling of gold, seemingly by unsuspecting grey nomads. Suspenseful story.

Rating: 3/5

Jenkins, Tiffany (2025) Strangers and Intimates: The Rise and Fall of Private Life. Picador.

In defense of a private life. As the boundary between public and private life is diminishing cultural historian Jenkins traces how privacy has changed through the centuries from its emergence in ancient times. Her urgent warning is that privacy is under threat and that in our surveilled and digital present continuance of a private life should not be taken for granted. Salutary.

Rating: 3/5

Bolloré, Michel-Yves and Olivier Bonnassies (2025) God, the Science, the Evidence: The Dawn of a Revolution. Abrams.

Until recently God has seemingly been incompatible with science. French mathematicians Bolloré and Bonnassies make a scientific case for God. They assert, with backup, that recent ground-breaking scientific discoveries have overturned the way we view the cosmos and put the existence of a creator God back on the table. The book’s contentions relate to Christianity specifically. While rejecting fundamentalist interpretations of creationism they challenge the philosophical underpinnings of a purely materialist universe, putting forward broader arguments on how the idea of a creator God fits into contemporary scientific understanding. Fascinating read.

Rating: 4/5

Hammer, Chris (2025) Legacy. Allen & Unwin.

Martin Scarsden is on the run his reputation in tatters and his life threatened. As he escapes into the desert on the NSW-Queensland border he gets caught up in a family feud, a flood, an art theft, a decades old murder, the fate of legendary nineteenth-century explorers and the scandalous ex-wife of a football icon. Sigh! This book has a fantastical plot. A bit of yarn but hampered by the unsatisfactory denouement. Think I’m over Martin and his cronies.

Rating:3/5