Better With Books: Week 1

Look at me, posting two weeks in a row! One way I thought it would be easy to make use of this blog (after I talked last week about how I need to use it or lose it!) would be to talk about the main ways I am spending my time and for me, if I’m not working I am generally reading!

My Goodreads goal for 2026 is to read 100 books, which should be achievable because I surpassed my target of 85 books in 2025 and actually reached 100 by accident. With that in mind, I should have plenty to talk about every week, as I summarise the books that I’ve read. I’ve never really got into reviewing books, because I don’t know why anybody would want my opinion on them – and I’m going to be honest, most of the time I have no memory of what actually happened in a book! – but I figure if somebody is coming to my little space on the internet then they might be interested to hear my opinions.

A note on star ratings: I am not someone who has an intricate system when it comes to rating a book. I don’t mind if something isn’t perfectly written (though repeated mistakes will probably annoy me and taint my overall experience) and I don’t need deep, profound symbolism in my books. I don’t rate it based on spice level, or how much it made me cry. To put it simply, my rating system can be summed up in one word: vibes. I rate based on how I feel at the end of a book, which is great for authors who have a rocky start and find their footing by the end, I suppose, and perhaps not so great for those who I loved all of the way through and then was disappointed by the ending! But generally I just rate based on what feels right when I finish the final page, and try not to worry too much about what other people are rating things or how they are rating them. Anyway, onto the books!

Snowed In for Christmas by Sarah Morgan

I have been incredibly lucky with my first week of reading in 2026, because I have got 5 stars across the board. Sarah Morgan has an annual tradition of writing a Christmas book a year, and I’m not mad at it. Her books are lighthearted and easy to read, with characters you generally like (or I do!) and romances that you are rooting for. I picked this book because I was mourning the loss of Christmas and wasn’t quite ready to let go, and it was exactly the kind of gentle vibes I needed. We were snowed in at home for the first week of January, so it felt very appropriate, especially as the book is set in the highlands of Scotland and I live in the Highlands and Islands.

I am a big fan of a dual perspective, and this one actually gave us the story from four of the main women in the book (I won’t say all of the main women, because I don’t think Nanna Jean would appreciate that!) and Ross, one of our love interests. We get to know Lucy, a marketing exec from London who tasks herself with saving her deeply caring boss from being forced into hard decisions by making a bold move. We meet the Miller siblings: Ross, Clemmie and Alice, who moved to London for various reasons from their highland home and are coming home for Christmas with a secret or two tucked away. And then we meet Glenda, the matriarch of the Miller family, who is struggling with finding the balance when it comes to supporting her children without them feeling like she is sticking her nose in. There is a reasonably big suspension of belief required in this book when it comes to the very coincidental misunderstanding, but a small thing I do appreciate is that it would have been easy to make this book a miscommunication trope and centre the whole story around treading around a lie that got out of hand, but in actual fact everyone lays their cards on the table straight away and the story becomes about what happens after. It was heartwarming, I watched and celebrated the growth of the characters, and I want to spend Christmas at the Miller house. And easy 5 stars for me.

When Gavin Met Stacey and Everything in Between: A Story of Love and Friendship by Ruth Jones and James Corden

I actually read this book on New Years Day in one sitting, while we watched the Mens Ba livestream on TV and my husband napped on me! I’d recommend this book to any Gavin and Stacey fan. The book is structured as a conversation between Ruth and James, with occasional exerpts of emails and scripts that were bandied around during the conception of Gavin and Stacey. There were serious laugh out loud moments, particularly when sharing alternative versions of the script, and I definitely shook my husband awake to read excerpts out to him more than once. By about a third of the way in to the book we agreed that he just needs to read it himself, because I can’t possibly share all of my favourite moments without just reading him the entire thing. The actual core of the book is the love and friendship that exists between James and Ruth, and I just absolutely adored it. The book felt like a warm hug from a lifelong friend. They shared an openness and intimacy in their conversations that can only be developed between true soulmates, and they were vulnerable when sharing insecurities about mismatched levels of fame, talent and experience while navigating what was a working friendship and a personal friendship that has stretched over decades and continents. I truly felt like I was just in a group chat with my friends at times, while relishing in the peek behind the curtain and a chance to learn new things about our old favourites.

Elphie: A Wicked Childhood by Gregory Maguire

I wasn’t convinced this one was going to be a 5 star book when I started. I’ve been a huge fan of the Wicked books for years; I have fond memories of sitting on the bathroom floor and devouring the books, avoiding splashes on dog-eared pages while my now-12-year-old son took baths as a toddler. I reread the first two books in 2025 (and will probably reread the rest this year) but when I saw this prequel come up as discounted on BookBub I was excited to give it a try. The story follows a young Elphaba – or Elphie in this one, though her nickname was Fabala in Wicked – in the spaces that we missed in Wicked. While in Wicked we see the story of her parents’ romantic relationships with Turtle Heart, in this book he is already gone and the family are travelling Oz to find his family. We experience the birth of Shell, the death of Melena, and witness Elphie learn about both hexes and the existance of Animals for the first time. The book ends with Elphaba learning of a school called Shiz and setting her sights upon getting an official education, having worked for many years in support of her father’s pursuit of both Turtle Heart and The Unnamed God.

I would definitely recommend reading Wicked first if you have only ever seen the musical and are jumping straight in to Gregory Maguire because a lot of things won’t make sense at first otherwise, but be warned – they are almost nothing to do with the musical except for sharing some of the same characters and locations (and even that is tenuous at times!). Maguire’s books are long, so long that sometimes they feel like a slog, and I have noticed that I tend to have to struggle through the first half a bit before finding my feet in the second half. When I say long I don’t even mean in terms of how many pages, but they just feel like they require a bit more from you. For that reason, I think a lot of people DNF before reaching that point where it all clicks into place, and I get it – life is too short to struggle through something you aren’t enjoying. However this is also where Gregory Maguire feels the benefit of my rating system, because what started out difficult ends in a place where I am deeply invested in the characters, having journeyed with them through treacherous lands and harrowing circumstances. I do wonder if I would enjoy the books as much if I didn’t feel familiarity with the characters, and excitement when noticing certain people popping up who I might recognise. But, recognise them I do, and we are where we are. So this was a 5 star read for me, but possibly my weakest 5th star of the year.

Have you read any books yet in 2026? What is your reading goal? I’d love to hear your thoughts if you have read any of these books too!