What we’re reading: Alan Hollinghurst, Samantha Harvey and Guardian readers talk about the books they enjoyed in December | books

Tomasz, Guardian reader

Ever since my father gifted me a copy of “The Unicorn,” beautifully translated into my native language, I have been a huge fan of Iris Murdoch’s book. She continued to read her novels, plays, and poetry with great enthusiasm. Before Christmas, I returned to her penultimate novel, Green KnightHe remembered only a little of it. However, from the first page, I was reminded of why I loved her work so much: the prose is rich, precise, disciplined, and meticulously detailed; The many characters are so vividly rendered that none of them seem two-dimensional; Each experience and process reality in a way that feels distinct and unambiguously individual; The pace of events seems to be perfectly judged. Although the novel is full of philosophical musings on goodness and love, it never feels burdensome or artificially forced. Rather, it appears naturally as an integral part of the dense and complex fabric of the novel.

Alan Hollinghurst, author

I spent a month reading two poets whose works have been a part of my life for over 50 years. John Fuller Marston Meadows It begins with the immaculate garland of sonnets that inspired Ian McEwan’s new novel What We Can Know, but these give only a preview of a group that ranges, with astonishing intelligence, agility and profound feeling, through the changing views of aging (Fuller is 89). In my opinion, it is the most influential and illuminating of all his books. Poems by Seamus Heaneybeautifully edited by Rosie Laffan, Bernard O’Donoghue, and Matthew Hollis, contains surprises, too: poems never before collected, some never seen before, and most suited to standing alongside the literary monuments of their time. Finding these new things has been almost as magical as re-reading the countless other poems I have learned almost by heart.

Our Evenings by Alan Hollinghurst is published by Pan Macmillan. To support The Guardian, order your copy from guardianbookshop.com. Delivery fees may apply.

Kelly, Guardian reader

I read Little things like this Written by Claire Keegan with Sauna Book Club (yes, it’s a sauna book club – no, we don’t read in a sauna). I enjoyed this title when I first read it in 2023, but this time I delved deeper into the story, perhaps because of the time of year: this story is set at Christmas in Dublin during the 1980s, with the local abbey’s eerie and unsettling backdrop. I think it also struck a chord with me because I have a daughter who is the same age as the girl that the protagonist, Bill Furlong, is trying to help. Bill is someone everyone deserves to know, and someone who won’t look away – he makes readers question their own morals and fills their hearts with hope. Keegan’s writing is so sensitive, it amazes me how much she can say in one sentence. The book club enjoyed the book and we gave it a 10/10.

Samantha Harvey, author

I read option Written by Neil Mukherjee a few months ago and it still resonates with me. It is a novel of three stories – or perhaps one story, with the other two integrated into it, so that we are called into a maze of moral uncertainty and it is not easy for us to escape. It is irresistible writing, elegant and devastating.

I’m about halfway there The spare room Written by Helen Garner, it is the first book I read. She describes a kookaburra as the remains of butter, then with a few quick strokes she conjures the radiance of a child and the specter of death. I see why people care about it, and now I will too.

Iris Murdoch newly published Poems from the Attic extends its life; They are often written for a specific person, and I almost feel bad—the voyeur—reading them. But obviously I am an act Read them, fascinated and uplifted by their unerring spirit, their candor and their interest. The final poem, The Parrot in the Snow, is a bolt of light. He made me cry on the train.

Orbital by Samantha Harvey is published by Vintage. To support The Guardian, order your copy from guardianbookshop.com. Delivery fees may apply.

Stuart, Guardian reader

I spent most of December reading Ice Written by Jacek Dukaj, translated by Ursula Phillips. This is a fantastic novel about an alien invasion and an alternate history of Russia, set in the year 1924. Protagonist Benedikt Jiroslawski is sent to freezing Siberia to track down his father who is believed to be collaborating with the alien Glycine invaders who are slowly freezing all of Europe. An amazing novel weighing in at around 1,200 pages. The world building and depth of character development are really something else.

Much of the novel takes place on a trans-Siberian express train, adding to the story and character development. It’s a heavy read – not an experience to attempt with the TV on in the background, but certainly an experience to sit quietly and immerse yourself.