BOOKMARK February 2025 Book recommendations
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February Titles
All books are available from Adventure Into Books in Blairgowrie.
This extract from Ian Duhig’s Bridled Vows made me smile:
‘To be your perfect wife, I could not swear;
I’ll love you, yes; honour (maybe); won’t obey,
But will co-operate if you will care
As much as you are seeming to today’
Nesting by Roisin O’Donnell, is not a romance, it is a story of love, hope and resilience. Emilia Hart has a new book out this month: The Sirens. We really enjoyed reading and discussing her first novel, Wayward, in our Book Blether last year. Also new out is Beautiful Ugly by Alice Feeney.
February is also a popular month for hardbacks to turn into paperbacks. I’ve been eagerly awaiting these three in particular: James by Percival Everett, The Women by Kristin Hannah and Night Train to Odesa by Jen Stout this book has been shortlisted for this year's BOOKMARK Book of the Year award.
I hope you enjoy these books. Let me know if you have any recommendations you would like to share.
Kate
BOOKMARK Member
PS: The Adventure into Books Book Blether group meets at 7pm on the first Wednesday of each month. On 5th February, we’ll be meeting to chat about The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store by James McBride (ISBN: 9781399620420, paperback, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2024). All are welcome.
Poetry Prescription: Words for Love by Deborah Alma
(Pan Macmillan, 2025)
Poetry
Poetry Prescription: Words for Love, chosen by Deborah Alma, has it all (ISBN: 9781035061297, hardback). This is the latest addition to the Poetry Pharmacy collections of poetry and has suggestions for all matters of the heart: the thrill of new love, the understanding of a friend, the pain of lost love.
Nesting by Roisin O’Donnell
(Scribner, 2025)
Fiction
Nesting by Roisin O’Donnell (ISBN:9781398528529, hardback) is not a romance. It’s the story of Ciara and the split-second decision she takes one day to flee, with her children, from a coercive marriage and a home where she no longer feels safe. As she begins to resurface, hard realities make it hard to stay away. It is a story of love, hope and resilience.
The Sirens by Emilia Hart
(The Borough Press, 2025)
Fiction
Emilia Hart has a new book out this month: The Sirens (ISBN: 9780008499136, hardback). Set in Australia, The Sirens is a beautifully woven puzzle, laced with a touch of Irish legend. Running from trauma, Lucy needs her sister, but Jess has gone missing. As Lucy searches for her, she is drawn to the coast by the voices of mermaids, telling her the story of two sisters, bound and transported two centuries ago. What does this story mean for Lucy and Jess? How can it help them?
Beautiful Ugly by Alice Feeney
(Pan Macmillan, 2025)
Fiction
Beautiful Ugly by Alice Feeney (ISBN: 9781035053803, hardback). Excited to share his news, Grady Green calls his wife, Abby, as she’s driving home. He hears her slam on the brakes, get out of the car, then nothing. When he gets to Abby’s car, there’s no sign of her. She’s vanished. A year later, still in the throes of grief, Grady travels to a tiny Scottish island, seeking a place to get his life back on track. Then the impossible happens: he sees a woman who looks just like his missing wife. Yes – I’m going to leave it on that cliffhanger!
James by Percival Everett
(Pan Macmillan, 2025)
Fiction
James by Percival Everett (ISBN: 9781035031238, hardback). In this reimagining of Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, enslaved Jim emerges to claim his voice, as he and Huck set off on a life-changing odyssey, down the Mississippi River towards the elusive ‘free’ states. In the words of author Ann Patchett, it is ‘funny and horrifying, brilliant and riveting’.
The Women by Kristin Hannah
(Pan Macmillan, 2024)
Fiction
The Women by Kristin Hannah (ISBN: 9781035005673, hardback). It’s 1965 and US Army Nurse Frankie McGrath follows her brother out to Vietnam. In the midst of the overwhelming chaos and destruction of war, and the devasting aftermath it leaves, Frankie finds friendship and love in all its uplifting and heartbreaking guises.
Night Train to Odesa by Jen Stout
(Birlinn, 2027)
Non-Fiction
Night Train to Odesa by Jen Stout (ISBN: 9781846976476, hardback, paperback out in February). Scottish journalist Jen Stout tells the stories of people caught up in the war in Ukraine: the small stories of human life, courage, concern and generosity, side by side with the destructive explosions and mind-wrenching fear of conflict. It is an exceptional book.