Jackie's 2026 ROOTs - thread 2

A couple of days late, but here's my new thread for the second half of 2026. My first thread can be found here: https://www.librarything.com/topic/377395

Welcome to my ROOT thread for 2026. I’m Jackie, and I’ve been a member and participant of this group since 2014, and love the book chat and the chance to keep going at my TBR pile (which is currently (still!) teetering at nearly 800 books!). I’m going to try and prune Mt TBR a little bit in the new year, as there will be a lot of books which past me bought which present me wouldn’t bother with, so hopefully it will look a bit less horrific once I've done that.

I live in Scotland with my husband and daughter, and my day job is research nursing, although I also enjoy creative writing and art and hope to do more of them in 2026. The year started horribly with bereavement and illness, but I'm still standing, and enjoying the distraction of book chat!

Note to self so I don't have to look everywhere - code for inserting a picture (surrounded by less than and greater than signs): img src="URL" width=200 length=150

Ticker 1: ROOTS 2026



Ticker 2: Acquisitions 2026



Ticker 3: Mt TBR

This will be Books Owned + Acquisitions - ROOTs read. Current figures are:

Starting TBR (books owned): 794. Minus 24 books weeded out, = 770
Acquisitions: 76
ROOTs read: 41
Total: 805

ROOTs from first 2026 thread

1. Various – The Nature Chronicles Prize: 1. Finished 1.1.26. 4.5/5.
2. 200 obras de la coleccion del Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia. Finished 5.1.26. 4/5.
3. Sinclair Lewis - It Can't Happen Here. Finished 6.1.26. 3.5/5.
4. Alom Shaha - Why Don't Things Fall Up?. Finished 14.1.26. 4.5/5.
5. Carmen Bugan - Burying the Typewriter. Finished 22.1.26. 4.5/5.
6. Simon Barnes - How to be Wild. Finished 29.1.26. 4/5.
7. Harvey G Cohen - Duke Ellington's America. Finished 26.2.26. 4/5.
8. Lea Ypi - Free. Finished 28.2.26. 4.5/5.
9. John Lewis-Stempel - La Vie. Finished 5.3.26. 4.5/5.
10. Anthony Marra - The Tsar of Love and Techno. Finished 12.3.26. 4.5/5.
11. John Green - Everything is Tuberculosis. Finished 14.3.26. 4.5/5.
12. Susan Sontag - On Women. Finished 16.3.26. 3/5.
13. Cecilia Blomdahl - Life on Svalbard (audiobook). Finished 16.3.26. 3/5.
14. JB MacKinnon - The Day the World Stops Shopping. Finished 24.3.26. 4/5.
15. Mary Karr - The Art of Memoir. Finished 28.3.26. 4.5/5.
16. Suzie Edge - A Hole in the Head: A Gruesomely Grisly History of Medical Firsts. Finished 28.3.26. 4.5/5.
17. Ajay Tegala - The Unique Life of a Ranger. Finished 7.4.26. 4/5.
18. Ross Gay - The Book of Delights. Finished 10.4.26. 3.5/5.
19. Yiyun Li - Things in Nature Merely Grow. Finished 12.4.26. 4.5/5.
20. Seamus Heaney - Seamus Heaney I Collected Poems (audiobook). Finished 12.4.26. 4.5/5.
21. Chris Broad - Abroad in Japan. Finished 20.4.26. 4/5.
22. Josephine Cullum-Fernandez - Walking With Paddy. Finished 27.4.26. 3/5.
23. Robert Macfarlane, Stanley Donwood & Dan Richards - Holloway. Finished 30.4.26. 4/5.
24. Amie McNee - We Need Your Art: Stop F*cking Around and Make Something. Finished 9.5.26. 3/5.
25. Morgan Delaney - The Squared Circle. Finished 11.5.26. 4.5/5.
26. Kassia St Clair - The Secret Lives of Colour. Finished 15.5.26. 3.5/5.
27. Becca Jane Rudd - Untethered: A Collection of Poems and Photography. Finished 22.5.26. 4/5.
28. Tim Hannigan - The Travel Writing Tribe: Journeys in Search of a Genre. Finished 29.5.26. 4.5/5.
29. Keith McNally - I Regret Almost Everything. Finished 31.5.26. 4/5.
30. Adele Brand - The Hidden World of the Fox. Finished 5.6.26. 4/5.
31. David Attenborough - Life on Earth (audiobook). Finished 12.6.26. 5/5.
32. Hannah Gadsby - Ten Steps to Nanette. Finished 19.6.26. 4.5/5.
33. Jen Hadfield - Storm Pegs. Finished 22.6.26. 5/5.
34. Shaun Bythell - Diary of a Bookseller. Finished 26.6.26. 4/5.
35. Lize Meddings - The Sad Ghost Club. Finished 26.6.26. 4/5.
36. Lize Meddings - The Sad Ghost Club 2. Finished 26.6.26. 4/5.
37. Kenneth Steven - Atoms of Delight: Ten Pilgrimages in Nature. Finished 27.6.26. 4/5.
38. Jo Littler - Against Meritocracy. Finished 27.6.26. 4/5.

ROOTs July-Sept

39. Zeinab Badawi - An African History of Africa. Finished 5.7.26. 4/5.
40. Isabel Hardman - Why We Get the Wrong Politicians. Finished 10.7.26. 4.5/5.
41. Ellie Middleton - Unmasked. Finished 19.7.26. 3.5/5.

Non-ROOTs

1. Lita Kurth - Writing Memoir in Flashes (LTER). Finished 3.5.26. 4/5.
2. Edward Hirsch - How to Read a Poem: And Fall in Love With Poetry. Finished 4.7.26. 3.5/5.

Acquisitions from first 2026 thread

1. Sir David Attenborough, Colin Butfield – Ocean: Earth's Last Wilderness. Acquired 1.1.26.
2. Steve Brusatte – The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs. Acquired 1.1.26.
3. Jonathan Kennedy – Pathogenesis. Acquired 1.1.26.
4. James Fox - Craftland. Acquired 14.1.26.
5. Jacob Allen-Paisant - The Possibility of Tenderness (audiobook). Acquired 29.1.26.
6. Samantha Harvey - The Shapeless Unease. Acquired 2.2.26.
7. Owen Hatherley - Trans-Europe Express. Acquired 2.2.26.
8. Ibram X Kendi - How to be an Antiracist. Acquired 2.2.26.
9. Susan Casey - The Underworld: Journeys to the Depths of the Ocean. Acquired 5.2.26.
10. Daniel Levitin - Music as Medicine. Acquired 10.2.26.
11. Andrey Kurkov - Three Years on Fire. Acquired 11.2.26.
12-17. Ursula Le Guin - The Books of Earthsea: the Complete Illustrated edition. Acquired 19.2.26.
18. Keith McNally - I Regret Almost Everything. Acquired 21.2.26.
19. Yiyun Li - Things in Nature Merely Grow. Acquired 21.2.26.
20. Yiyun Li - Dear Friend, From My Life I Write to You in Your Life. Acquired 21.2.26.
21. Keon West - The Science of Racism. Acquired 27.2.26.
22. John Davidson - I Swear. Acquired 2.3.26.
23. Merlin Hanbury-Tenison - Our Oaken Bones. Acquired 2.3.26.
24. ed Rob Stepney & Kathy Clugston - Good, Occasionally Rhyming. Acquired 2.3.26.
25. Mary Karr - The Art of Memoir. Acquired 2.3.26.
26. Jessica Martucci - Back to the Breast. Acquired 3.3.26.
27. Julia Ioffe - Motherland. Acquired 8.3.26.
28. Lea Ypi - Indignity. Acquired 23.3.26.
29. Becca Jane Rudd - Untethered: A Collection of Poems and Photography. Acquired 28.3.26.
30. Seamus Heaney - Seamus Heaney I collected poems published 1966-1975 (audiobook). Acquired 29.3.26.
31. Carla Ciccone - Nowhere Girl. Acquired 31.3.26.
32. David Sedaris - Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim. Acquired 31.3.26.
33. Sarah Perry - Death of an Ordinary Man. Acquired 1.4.26.
34. Siddhartha Mukherjee - The Emperor of all Maladies. Acquired 1.4.26.
35. Sophy Roberts - A Training School for Elephants. Acquired 1.4.26.
36. Daniel Levitin - This is Your Brain on Music. Acquired 1.4.26.
37. E.F. Schumacher - Small is Beautiful. Acquired 1.4.26.
38. Laura James - Odd Girl Out. Acquired 1.4.26.
39. Colin Thubron - Shadow of the Silk Road. Acquired 1.4.26.
40. Michael Symmons Robert - Quartet for the End of Time: On Music, Grief and Birdsong. Acquired 1.4.26.
41. Christina Dunbar-Hester - Oil Beach. Acquired 3.4.26.
42. ed. Ahmed Alnaouq & Pam Bailey - We Are Not Numbers. Acquired 4.4.26.
43. ed. Alison H Deming & Lauret E Savoy - Colors of Nature: Culture, Identity, and the Natural World. Acquired 9.4.26.
44. Tim Hannigan - The Travel Writing Tribe. Acquired 14.4.26.
45. Amie McNee - We Need Your Art. Acquired 26.4.26.
46. Seamus Heaney - Seamus Heaney II Collected Poems (audiobook). Acquired 29.4.26.
47. Jon Gower - Birdland. Acquired 1.5.26.
48. Adam Nicolson - Bird School. Acquired 1.5.26.
49. Judi Dench - Shakespeare: The Man Who Pays the Rent. Acquired 3.5.26.
50. Dave Goulson - The Garden Jungle. Acquired 6.5.26.
51. Gabriel Weston - Alive. Acquired 13.5.26.
52. Alev Scott - Cash Cow: How the Maternal Body became a Global Commodity. Acquired 15.5.26.
53. Arundhati Roy - My Seditious Heart: Collected Nonfiction. Acquired 24.5.26.
54. Maureen Seaberg - The Synesthesia Experience. Acquired 28.5.26.
55. Shon Faye - The Transgender Issue. Acquired 1.6.26.
56. Hamza Yassin - Homeward Bound: The Joy of Nature and My Life Outdoors. Acquired 1.6.26.
57. Len Howard - Bird Life. Acquired 1.6.26.
58. Joycelyn Longdon - Natural Connection. Acquired 11.6.26.
59. Julian Barr - World Breaker. Acquired 13.6.26.
60. Patrick Radden Keefe - Say Nothing. Acquired 17.6.26.
61. Seamus Heaney - Seamus Heaney III Collected Poems (audiobook). Acquired 29.6.26.

Acquisitions July-Aug

62. Alan Cleaver - The Postal Paths. Acquired 1.7.26.
63. Peter Ross - Upon a White Horse. Acquired 1.7.26.
64. Map Men - This Way Up: When Maps Go Wrong (and why it Matters). Acquired 1.7.26.
65. Elizabeth Kolbert - Field Notes from a Catastrophe. Acquired 3.7.36.
66. Janina Ramirez - Legenda: The Real Women behind the Myths that Shaped Europe. Acquired 3.7.26.
67. Rob Cowen - The North Road. Acquired 9.7.26.
68. Hisham Matar - A Month in Siena. Acquired 14.7.26.
69. Bob Mortimer - The Satsuma Complex. Acquired 16.7.26.
70. Alex Bellos - Alex's Adventures in Numberland. Acquired 17.7.26.
71. ed. Gordon Jarvie - Scottish Folk and Fairy Tales. Acquired 17.7.26.
72. Lesley Riddoch - Huts: a Place Beyond. Acquired 18.7.26.
73. Susan Orlean - The Orchid Thief. Acquired 18.7.26.
74. Goscinny & Uderzo - Asterix in Spain. Acquired 18.7.26.
75. Oyinkan Braithwaite - My Sister, The Serial Killer. Acquired 18.7.26.
76. Terry Tempest Williams - The Hour of Land. Acquired 19.7.26. (***NB All titles up to and including this one in the Jar of Fate***)

Nerdy Stats

ROOTs (total: 41)

fiction: 5
non-fiction: 34
poetry: 2
mixed F/NF/P:

female author: 20 (%)
male author: 21 (%)
non-binary author: (%)
mixed anthology: 2 (%)

paper book: 9 (%)
ebook: 28 (%)
audiobook: 4 (%)

completed: 41
abandoned:

ratings (4* and above): 33

Non-ROOTs (total: 2)

fiction:
non-fiction: 2
poetry:
mixed F/NF:

female author: 1
male author: 1

paper book:
ebook: 2

completed: 2
abandoned:

Acquisitions (total: 76)

fiction: 11
non-fiction: 60
poetry: 5

female author: 34
male author: 40
unknown gender:
non-binary/trans author: 1
mixed anthology: 3

paper book: 8
ebook: 64
audiobook: 4

Amount spent overall: £11.95 (Jan); £29.79 (Feb); £24.92 (Mar); £29.38 (Apr); £9.72 (May); £15.09 (June); £8.72 (July); £ (Aug); £ (Sep); £ (Oct); £ (Nov); £ (Dec)

Source:

kobo ebooks - 61
kobo audiobooks - 4
Literary Escape Festival - 1
inherited - 2
Bandcamp -
birthday presents - 2
Barter Books - 3
amazon.co.uk -
Christmas presents -
random gift -
bookshop.org -
Book Nook Stirling -
The Bookhouse Broughty Ferry -
University of Chicago Press - 2
Direct from the author -
Kickstarter - 1
Portobello Books -
LTER -
Forum Books, Corbridge -

(via Bookbub: 22)

Hooray! Welcome to my new thread :)

Some impressive stats-keeping there, Jackie. Happy new thread

Happy new thread, Jackie! It looks like you are making good progress on your ROOTS.

Happy new thread, Jackie.

Happy new thread, Jackie! That's an impressive amount of ROOTs read but the new acquisitions amount kind of dwarfs it. Strange how that happens.

>12 Robertgreaves: Thank you Robert! The stats aren't revealing too many surprises at the moment :)
>13 atozgrl: I'm pleased with my progress so far, Irene.
>14 MissWatson: Thank you Birgit. Hope your move is going well.
>15 Familyhistorian: Thanks Meg! Yeah, although most of them are ebooks so at least I'm unlikely to be buried under a physical stack any time soon!

Non-ROOT #2



How to Read a Poem: And Fall in Love With Poetry by Edward Hirsch presents itself as an initial primer, but I found that my lack of knowledge of much 'classic' poetry did hinder my enjoyment and understanding. A lot of people think that poetry is inaccessible and high-falutin', but several times while reading this I felt that what's actually inaccessible and high-falutin' is other people trying to explain poetry. That's not to say this was awful - sometimes the poetry broke through, and I've now got a list of new poets to explore. It was also redeemed by the extensive glossary at the end, which I found much more approachable and helpful. 3/5.

ROOT #39



An African History of Africa: From the Dawn of Humanity to Independence by journalist and broadcaster Zeinab Badawi is an ambitious book which seeks to redress the balance of much African history having been written by colonisers and other non-African scholars and explorers. Of course it has to be selective, covering such a vast time and space, but is still impressive. As well as better-known histories such as Ancient Egypt, many less well-known dynasties, kingdoms and events are covered, spanning the entire continent, although by necessity not everything is covered in detail. My biggest criticism is that even though it was selective, it still felt like the book was wide rather than deep in its scope, and possibly spread itself a little thinly. However, as an initial overview of a largely unknown (to me) history, it was impressive. As I was reading it I thought that it would possibly work better as a documentary series, and then at the end I discovered that that's exactly how it started - as a TV series for BBC News Africa. I'd like to watch that sometime. A more minor aside, in the notes and acknowledgements I realised that one of the historians she consulted who read and commented on early drafts of the book was the husband of my practice mentor during my year training to be a health visitor. So that was a nice and unexpected connection. 4/5.

>16 Jackie_K: I might have picked the Zeinab Badawi book up in a shop, I like its cover and would like to know more about African history. I've made note of your reservations about its width being greater than its depth, but also that you give it 4/5.

>17 missizicks: 4/5 is possibly a bit generous, but I did appreciate both the ambition and the project, and I particularly liked how she very openly championed African scholars throughout. I should try and get hold of the documentary series and see how they compare - I think it would be really interesting.

>16 Jackie_K: Yeah but is Hirsch a member of an Emergency Poetry Task Force?? (I had to go back to your prior thread to see what it was called :))

>19 detailmuse: That made me actually LOL, MJ! :D

I've been away for the past week, seeing friends last weekend and then spending the week at my mum's. We had a lovely time, but it was TOO HOT. I'm not built for this heat! We had a couple of day trips to London which were brilliant, but my goodness the temperatures, I'm so relieved I don't live and work there any more!

I didn't read as much as I had hoped to, and I have acquired a few books (a late birthday present, taking a couple of my dad's books as mum is trying to clear them out, plus earlier today on the way home we may have found ourselves completely unexpectedly (!) in Barter Books). However, I did finish one book, and will hopefully finish the two others I was reading in the next couple of days.

ROOT #40



Given the UK's current "interesting" political situation (we're about to get our 7th Prime Minister in a decade, and Nigel Farage is battling the magnificent Count Binface in the Clacton by-election), it was quite the time to pick Isabel Hardman's Why We Get the Wrong Politicians out of the Jar of Fate. First published in 2019, my version was updated in 2022 to take further events into account - mainly covid, and Boris Johnson's premiership. That was also the year that Liz Truss's premiership was outlived by a lettuce and Rishi Sunak also became PM, but all that (and the Labour landslide a couple of years later) was still to come after this edition was published.

This book isn't a moanfest about politicians, but rather is a thorough explanation of the various systems and processes involved in people getting selected as candidates, what happens to those who do and don't succeed, and what happens once they're actually walking through the corridors of power. The book reveals a thoroughly dysfunctional system which of course ends up with, for a much larger part than is ideal, the same type of person being elected (ie white, male, with money already and/or a foot in the door already). It also shows how the role of MP is pretty impossible given that MPs are meant to both do casework in their constituency and scrutinise legislation, yet there is no job description per se, and many people who are elected have precisely zero relevant experience for either role. The author was, I thought, pretty generous in her assessment of individual politicians (many of whom she had surveyed and interviewed), and squarely put the blame for the dysfunction on the system rather than individuals. It was quite a depressing read, but very eye opening, and not hard to follow, so I'd recommend it as a first primer to try and understand this weird system we've ended up with. 4.5/5.

>20 Jackie_K: This sounds an interesting study, Jackie - it's now on my wishlist. Having had almost 10 years of Andy Burnham as Greater Manchester's Metro Mayor, I'm cautiously optimistic about his premiership, while fully aware that PM is a very different job to Mayor of a combined authority region. You're not encouraged to spend money, for one thing! My optimism lies in his experience of devolved power fuelling more of this across the UK, backed by the funds to get things done. I'm also encouraged by his working relationship with Mariana Mazzucato, whose Mission Economy I found a persuasive read.

>21 missizicks: I'm cautiously optimistic too, although with quite a few caveats. I get the impression he looks out for which way the wind is blowing before announcing any policies (eg during the 2015 leadership election, once he spotted that Jeremy Corbyn was getting all the attention he seemed to change his rhetoric to be more left-wing than previously). And for all he's got the experience of devolved power, I don't think he really gets devolution in Scotland and Wales, and it wouldn't surprise me if it ends up with the same old position of treating Scottish Labour like a branch office (which is what the then Scottish Labour leader Johann Lamont accused Ed Miliband's party of doing over a decade ago, and that is an accusation which still resonates up here). I also think that more drilling in the North Sea is potentially disastrous. But, a lot of what he's said is encouraging, and much as I wish Keir Starmer had had a better go at things, I hope that a new start will finally turn things round as far as countering the far right goes. I actually think that if he'd won the leadership in 2015 rather than now things would have been much better. For all I like Jeremy Corbyn, he was a disaster as Labour leader.

>22 Jackie_K: I agree about 2015. I like Corbyn but his leadership was disappointing for many reasons. I also agree about Burnham taking the wind direction. Locally, there are concerns about his propensity for getting starry eyed about people he thinks are cool and not wanting to believe the wind direction when they turn out to be the antithesis of cool. I'm blindly hoping that the chatter about North Sea drilling is just chatter to keep the media frenzied about something while he gets his head in gear and a team around him. It seems an odd thing to soft leak, given what an about face it would be, policy-wise.

No English politician understands Scotland or Wales. Let's hope that the dislike of Westminster politics he talked about in his recent book with the Liverpool metro mayor is real and he allows the Senedd and the Scottish Parliament some head room.

>23 missizicks: I agree, but his recent pronouncements about devolving power to Scotland seemed to completely bypass the fact that a) there is a Scottish parliament, and b) the things he was talking about (funding for local authorities) are already devolved and it's the Scottish govt who make those decisions. I fear this will be a missed opportunity, which is such a shame as a resurgent Labour party as credible opposition would be so good for Scottish politics.

ROOT #41



Unmasked by Ellie Middleton is a guide to neurodivergence written by a young woman who was herself diagnosed in her mid-20s as autistic and ADHD. Having explored neurodivergence a lot over the past couple of years there wasn't much here that I didn't already know, but it was really handy to have all that information, clearly explained, in one place, and I will definitely be giving my neurodivergent loved one a copy at some point. 3.5/5.

>24 Jackie_K: his recent pronouncements about devolving power to Scotland seemed to completely bypass the fact that a) there is a Scottish parliament, and b) the things he was talking about (funding for local authorities) are already devolved and it's the Scottish govt who make those decisions. Oh dear. This is one of his weak points, pronouncing on things he doesn't have a grasp of.

Ellie Middleton's book got a rave review from one of my colleagues who was diagnosed ADHD late in life. She found it really helpful.