This is an adaptation of something I saw on Twitter – people were posting 26 books in 26 days, each title beginning with a different letter of the alphabet. However, I’m planning on taking around 26 months to get to Z. Each month I’ll post a newish book I’ve enjoyed, plus a children’s book and an older book.

It’s the ‘O’ books today:

I’ve read and enjoyed several of Sarah Denzil’s books now, and this is a good one. Leah is a nurse in a psychiatric hospital, where she meets Isabel, who was convicted, years ago when she was fourteen, of killing and mutilating a child. But not everyone thinks Isabel was guilty… One For Sorrow is a well-written, tense read with plenty of twists and turns before we arrive at the end.

My children’s book isn’t really a children’s book this month, but I read it when I was about twelve, so we’ll have it anyway. If you’re looking for a fun, laugh-out-loud read, look no further. Monica Dickens is Charles Dicken’s great-grandaughter, and this is her account of a few years of her life in the 1930s, which she spent working as a cook-general. She then goes on to try her hand at nursing, and we can read about that in the follow-up, One Pair of Feet. I absolutely loved both books!

Superintendent Roderick Alleyn is confronted by pagan revelry, morris dancing and the winter solstice in this book, first published in the 1950s. And then there’s Mrs Bünz… A nice gory read!

Coming next month: the ‘P’ books.