November 2021

CONVERSATION

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1. The Nickel Boys - Colson Whitehead

TW - sexual abuse, physical abuse, emotional abuse, racism

This book looks at a disturbing part of American history as we see through the story of two young boys, their hellish experience in a reform school in the 1960s in Florida. This is based on the true story of what went on in a real reform school in Florida, which operated for 111 years, destroyed and disrupting the lives of thousands of children over that period.

The story follows Elwood Curtis, an honest young man, brought up by his loving grandmother after being abandoned by his parents, on track to enroll in the local black college, who ends up in a reform school called The Nickel Academy after one innocent mistake - enough to ruin his future due to the colour of his skin.

The Nickel Academy is the epitome of hell on earth, with physical, emotional and sexual abuse at its core, where young boys can disappear at any point, never to be seen again after being brought to an outhouse on the campus. During this horrific ordeal, Elwood becomes friends with Turner, who, contrary to Elwood, believes the world is bad, and the only way to make it through is to be the same way.

This is a fantastically written book with a devastating story, which really brings to light parts of American history you may have thought you knew a lot about.

2. Between the Covers - Jilly Cooper

I dived into this lighthearted book after the heaviness of the first book I read, and it was very funny and an enjoyable, easy read.

Jilly Cooper was a newspaper columnist, covering topics like sex, social life, marriage, friendship and family life. This book is a collection of some of her best columns, covering lighthearted and more serious topics with humour, wisdom and fun.

If you liked Nora Ephron's books which I have mentioned before, you will like Jilly Cooper.

3. Everyone is still alive - Cathy Rentzenbrink

I picked this book up in a charity shop (a GOLDMINE for books, FYI) - actually Ed picked it out for me while waiting for me to decide on the pile of books in my arms - and I really enjoyed it. I had never heard of the author or the book before, but it was a lovely, feel good story.

This story follows Juliet, who has just moved into her late mother's house on Magnolia Road with her husband Liam and young son, Charlie. Juliet is struggling to wade her way through the grief she is feeling at the loss of her mother, the effect this and her work is having on her son, and the pressure to fit in with the other families on Magnolia Road. Her husband Liam is a writer, with lots more free time, and immediately mingles with the neighbouring families as "research" for his book, leaving Juliet feeling as though she is on the outside.

As the families on Magnolia Road naturally begin to weave into one anothers' lives and Liam finds out more about the relationships, trials and tribulations within these families, when marriage difficulties arise in the group, it causes some unease. One afternoon, as the families are having a party with their children, an incident suddenly changes everything.

This book was easy to read, warm, enjoyable and moving and I imagine, relatable to many.

4. Maybe you should talk to someone - Lori Gottlieb

THIS BOOK. Is fantastic. Everybody needs to read it, STAT. I cannot say enough good things about it.

Lori Gottlieb, the author, is a psychotherapist and national advice columnist. She shares her experience of both being a therapist, and having a therapist, and how those two sides of her life come together in the most unexpected of ways. She discovers that as her patients come to her looking for answers, she is in fact looking for answers of her own, and has more in common with her patients and their struggles than she thinks.

The book simultaneously takes us through the crisis Lori is having and how that is affecting her life, thus causing her to seek out her own therapist to deal with this. In the meantime, she is working with a range of patients, from a Hollywood producer who thinks everyone he meets is an idiot, a young woman diagnosed with a terminal illness (her story will get you right in the gut), an elderly woman who has a deadline of her birthday on which she is going to end her life, and a young woman who constantly chooses the wrong men.

Lori writes fantastically and with so much humour, wisdom and insight into both her life and the life she has as a therapist. She insightfully unpacks the facts and fiction we tell ourselves and one another when certain topics raise their heads in our lives. It is written with such candor despite being a very personal story, and is almost reassuring in a way as Lori shows that she is human, we all are, and we all have the power to change our lives in meaningful ways.

I would recommend this book to absolutely anyone (I also happen to be a person that recommends therapy to everyone I meet but that is besides the point. I promise you will like this even if you don't like/go to therapy/have gone to therapy).

5. No one is talking about this - Patricia Lockwood

You may remember I read my first Patricia Lockwood book recently - Priestdaddy (review here) and thoroughly enjoyed it and her style of writing. Luckily, GG (bestie) came through yet again with the birthday books and sent me this new gem of hers.

First off let me say - Lockwood is not for everyone. Her style of writing/way of story-telling is quite eclectic and can be confusing at times, but my advice is - stick with her. She's a genius.

This book is in two very distinct parts. The first half of the book tells the story of a woman who has recently gone viral for her social media posts and travels the world to meet her fans. She refers to the internet as "the portal" throughout, a place she finds quite overwhelming when it comes to navigating the language and general etiquette expected there, unable to shake the feeling that this mass of people she doesn't know are dictating her thoughts.

As she is down the rabbit hole that she knows as the portal, her mothers sends her a text that shakes her entire world. Her real life suddenly collides with that of the portal as she navigates through her sister's unborn baby being diagnosed with a terminal illness, and the family pull together in real life, the opposite to the world she spends her days in, to battle this diagnosis with everything they have. It's tragic and heartbreaking as it is based on Lockwood's true experiences within her family.

Importantly, the two parts seem not to blend together at all, a nod to the juxtaposition between the real world and the online world, and how these feel as though they stand apart from one another, and how tragedy can jolt you from one into the other in a moment.

6. Republic of Shame - Caelainn Hogan

TW - Catholic Church mistreatment of women & babies, abuse

Fair warning on this one - not only is this book extremely upsetting and distressing to read, it will make you absolutely furious so brace yourself.

This true story investigates even further the Catholic Church and their role - along with the Irish state - in the operation of institutions, often called Mother and Baby Homes or Magdalene Laundries, where they hid, punished, exploited and abused women who became pregnant outside of marriage, or "fallen women," and sold or gave away their babies, or mistreated them to the point where they died.

As I'm sure you've heard, the finding of a mass grave on the grounds of an old mother and baby home in Tuam sparked investigation and even more distressing findings on what went on in these institutions. The author, Caelainn Hogan is an amazing journalist who interviews women who spent time in the homes and survived, people who were born in the homes who never found answers as to who their parents were, and some of the religious orders who were involved in the running of these horrific places.

The book is brilliantly written and expertly researched, with major insight into just the amount of damage these institutions caused to women of Ireland and their families, all due to the shame that is still put on women today.

An essential read, but not an easy one.

Let me know what you have read lately that you loved, I'm always looking for recommendations (despite my "to be read" pile being the height of a tall child). Check out my reel for this blog post here!

Thank you for reading as always,

S ✗

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