♡

Greetings, and welcome back to the first book post of 2023! I loved almost all of the books I read in the last two months, so many good ones in there. 

Click on the titles if you want to be brought through to buy the book! (affiliate links)

Aloha and happy new year to you all! Bringing you my reviews of the books I read in November and December - unfortunately did not get as much read as I wanted to due to The Snowman being the longest and most boring book in the world to get through... but we'll get to that!

First up was Pew, which I thoroughly enjoyed.

Click on the book titles for aff links to purchase.

1. Pew - Catherine Lacey

This story is set in a small unnamed town in the American South, where churchgoers arrive to a service to find a person asleep on one of the church pews. The person has no clear gender, race and refuses to speak. One local family decides to take the stranger in and gives them the nickname Pew. 

The town is in preparation for a strange sort of Forgiveness Festival, very cult-like, which causes a strange atmosphere in the town, almost a free for all as everything will be forgiven at the festival. During the week, Pew is shuttled from one household to the next, as the seemingly well-meaning people of the town give their two cents on Pew's identity and intentions, while many also confess their secrets, as Pew doesn't speak, just listens.

Pew experiences brief flashbacks from time to time about where he might have come from, but ultimate has no real idea either. As the week goes on, the townspeoples' kindness turns to suspicion as the Forgiveness Festival comes closer, as Pew finds a friend in one of the children in the area, the only person to whom he will speak.

This was a weird little book but I really enjoyed it! Would definitely recommend - an easy and short read for when you don't feel like launching into a giant book.

2. Sea State - Tabitha Lasley

So this has been on my TBR list for a couple of years now, and I was so excited when I finally got my hands on it. Unfortunately, it was just not for me.

This is a memoir from journalist/writer Tabitha Lasley, who writes it in her midthirties, newly single from a terrible relationship, she decides to quit her job at a London magazine and move her entire life to Aberdeen, Scotland, to pursue a book idea about the men who work on oil rigs and what they are like when there are no women around.

Naturally, the most obvious issue is there is a woman around - her - so it's not a true representation of what the men are truly like on the rigs with no women, but I digress.

Life on the rigs or "off-shore" almost becomes a metaphor for the double lives some of these men lead, namely Caden, a married rig worker with whom she begins a precarious relationship.

I just found the concept of this book to be a bit vague and random, and as mentioned, the fact that the author - a woman - was present and interviewing the men and living among them, it kind of defeated the purpose of seeing what men were like "without women around."

Not my fave.

3. The Snowman - Jo Nesbo

Ok this one I did not enjoy. It was SO long and rambling, it was meant to be a thriller/page-turner but it took me so long to get through because I was honestly bored out of my mind until the last 100 pages.

I love me a crime novel/thriller but this was absolutely not that.

The story begins in November in Oslo, after the first snowfall of the year. A young boy wakes to discover his mother isn't in the house. When he ventures outside to look for her, he only finds his mother's pink scarf wrapped around a snowman in the front yard that appeared out of nowhere. Investigations uncover that numerous women have gone missing over the years, all on the day of the first snowfall, all with a snowman left behind, and none of their bodies have every been found.

Harry Hole is the lead investigator on the case, determined to find Oslo's serial killer. 

I found the book to have waaaay too many characters and sub plots - I couldn't keep track of who was who and why we were being introduced to such random characters that had nothing to do with the main plot. The story appears to find the killer FOUR different times before they actually have the right person, which was so long-winded to read through.

The last 100 pages were the only part that was actually what I would call a "thriller," when the chase for the actual killer begins, and is quite dramatically gruesome compared to the vanilla theme of the rest of the book. Also the last 100 pages are definitely not a valid reason to schlep through the first 400.

Not a fan.

... and that was it! Mainly because it took me a LITERAL month to get through the final book.

Anyway. I have already finished my first book of January which I really enjoyed, and have started my next one which is definitely promising (40 pages in) so I have much higher hopes for our next book round up!

Let me know what you have been reading over Christmas/New Year and what you have been loving.

Thank you for reading as always,

S ✗

Greetings, and welcome back! I'm just now noticing that there have been 3 book blog posts in a row - I hope you don't mind - shortly there will be a handful of travel posts in a row as I appear to have a backlog of those (New York, Antibes, London at Christmas that I never posted last year), so keep your eyes peeled if that's your kind of content.

1. Beloved - Toni Morrison

TW: racism, abuse, rape, infant death

This book has been on my TBR list for quite a while, and I managed to find this vintage edition in Chapters so I had to pick it up.

This story begins in 1873 and centres around Sethe, a woman - literally - haunted by her past. Sethe was born a slave but managed to escape "Sweet Home" where she was held and put through unthinkable things, and 18 years on she still doesn't feel truly free. Widowed Sethe's house in Ohio where she lives with her daughter Denver and mother-in-law, Baby Suggs, has been haunted for a long time by the ghost of her eldest daughter, who died as a baby without a name and whose gravestone is engraved with one word (all Sethe could afford), "Beloved."

When a man who was enslaved with Sethe at Sweet Home arrives to her home in Ohio, he drives the spirit of Beloved out, causing nothing but trouble when they arrive home that night to a sickly young woman sitting out front, calling herself Beloved. Paul is suspiscious, but Sethe and Denver immediately take her in and care for her, believing she is the lost baby returned. Paul soon finds out the dark secret about Sethe's past after Sweet Home, and flees. Beloved then turns on Sethe and Denver, and trouble ensues.

This is a dark but brilliant read, would highly recommend. 

2. The Great Believers - Rebecca Makkai

TW: homophobia

I picked up this book after seeing a TikTok of books you will like if you liked "The Hearts Invisible Furies" (review here) - which I absolutely loved and is definitely one of my favourite books of all time - so I was sure I would love this one too and I wasn't wrong!

The story is set between 1980s Chicago in the height of the AIDS epidemic, and modern day Paris, and follows the lives of Yale Tishman, his friend Nico, Nico's little sister Fiona and their wider circle of friends.

One by one, Yale's friends are dying around him, all the while the AIDS virus seemingly coming closer and closer to Yale himself. Soon, the only person he has left is Fiona, Nico's little sister, after Nico passes away, along with many members of their friendship circle. 

Jump to 30 years later and Fiona is in Paris, trying to track down her daughter who she is estranged from and whom she hasn't seen in years. In Paris, she stays with an old friend of hers who played a pivotal role as a photographer documenting the AIDS crisis in Chicago in the 80's, which brings it all back up for her, including Nico's death and how it affected her life and the relationship she had with her daughter.

The book takes us through the intertwining lives of the characters, jumping between 1980s Chicago and Paris in the modern day, from the heartbreak of the AIDS epidemic to the chaos of the world today, as they struggle to find light at the end of the devastation they have experienced.

This book is fantastic, very sad and heartbreaking, but beautifully captures the essence of friendship in the midst of deep despair. A must read.

3. Intimacies - Katie Kitamura

I won't lie, this was a bit of a random one. It has been on my TBR list for ages, probably since back when I got ALL of my book recommendations from Dolly and Pandora's The High Low podcast, and - get this BARACK OBAMA also loved it - so I'm wondering did I miss something as I was a little disappointed with this one. I do see how the metaphors and meanings of certain events in the book come through, so in that way it is well-written and clever, so maybe that in itself is the draw of the book. Other than that, I found all the events a little random and very loosely connected, but again, perhaps I missed something and it needs another read.

The novel follows an interpreter who has come to The Hague from New York, wondering if it will be the place where she feels at home, and has a new job in the International Court there. A host of kind of random, dramatic events occur in her personal life - she finds out her lover Adriaan, while separated from his wife is still very much entangled in his marriage, her friend Jana witnesses an act of violence just outside her apartment block on a seemingly unsuspecting victim whom the interpreter oddly becomes friends with the sister of, Jana also acts strangely when she is introduced to Adriaan (we never really figure out why, which is slightly irritating).

At work, the drama continues, as she is required to interpret for a former president accused of brutal war crimes, putting to the test her abilities to separate her personal views on what he has done from her professional relationship with him as his interpreter.

Again, it was well-written, but not my favourite book, and quite boring overall. But as I said, maybe I just didn't get it and missed something, as it comes so highly recommended from others. Do let me know if you read it and loved it, and tell me what you think I might have missed!

4. It Ends With Us - Colleen Hoover

TW: domestic violence, abuse, abusive relationships

Firstly, I feel this book needs an entire paragraph on these trigger warnings because I didn't know about them and I probably wouldn't have read it if I had as I found it quite triggering. I will say if you have been in an abusive/manipulative relationship of any kind - emotional, physical, mental, verbal - then just watch out for this one, it's quite a brutal read. 

When I was looking for a book to read in the airport on the way home from New York (didn't pack enough books for the 2 long haul flights), I saw this and had seen and heard SO much about it all over social media that I figured I would give it a try. Granted I did read the back but I feel like the blurb on the back makes it sound more romantic than problematic, which is problematic in itself. I digress.

This story follows Lily, from adolescence to young adulthood and the trials and tribulations that appear to follow her wherever she goes. Beginning with a difficult childhood and an alcoholic father who was abusive to her mother, Lily swore she would never forgive someone for treating her that way, criticising her mother for staying with her father. As this is going on at home, she meets Atlas Corrigan, and they quickly become enamoured with one another. Atlas goes off to the military, Lily moves to Boston and starts her own business and they lose contact.

In Boston, she meets Ryle, a neurosurgeon with whom she instantly becomes infatuated with all his fantastic qualities, and the feeling appears to be mutual, apart from the issue that Ryle is a notorious committment-phobe. They begin a whirlwind romance and Lily thinks things can't possible get any better for her. But when Ryle finds out about Lily's past with Atlas and how that links to her current life, a side of Ryle she never thought existed rears its ugly head.

It's a book you will devour in probably the shortest time you've ever read a book, it's definitely a page turner and you're dying to see what happens next, but please please be warned about the themes and content of the book - it is a tough read so put it down if you need to.

And those are my reads for the last two months! I'm currently reading Pew which is another very odd book. I appear to be at a gloomy section of my TBR.

I would love to know your thoughts if you have read any of these or want to. Feel free to leave a comment or DM me on Instagram. I'm also on TikTok if you want to follow over there!

Thank you for reading as always,

Sending lots of love for these darker months, I know they can be tough.

S ✗

July and August brought lots of great reading time due to the fab weather (catch me outside on my front path in the sun reading with my vino) on EVERY sunny day, also had a week's holiday in France (blog post coming on that soon) which involved PLENTY of reading time.

1. None of this is serious - Catherine Prasifka

TW: sexual assault

I read this directly after Beautiful World Where Are You and found the two very similar in a lot of ways (I've since realised upon reading this back that Sally Rooney is Catherine Prasifka's sister-in-law) - not only because they both have Irish authors and are set in Ireland - but also the characters are a similar age and are trying to find their way through the post-school/college years of their lives while encountering all the challenges that come with that.

This story starts with Sophie and her friends who are coming to the end of their student life in Dublin. As is often the case, Sophie feels as though her friends and her twin have got everything figured out and she will be left behind, particularly in the case of her best friend Grace. 

We follow Sophie and her friend group through the mundane to the dramatic, to the traumatic and uncertain aspects of young adulthood today. We see them attempt the difficult balance between living in the real world versus online, as Sophie drowns in her own self-scrutiny, social anxiety and isolation, not at all helped by her being immersed in social media constantly.

While I understand the aspect of highlighting the mundanity of everyday life, I did at times find it just a bit too banal and borderline boring. 

2. Conversations on Love - Natasha Lunn

I really loved this book.

While most books with similar captions focus only on romantic love, I really enjoyed how this book covered all types of relationships, from the romantic, to the platonic, to the parental.

The author offers intimate details of her personal life, while interviewing a wide range of people, from Alain de Botton to Dolly Alderton (I will read anything she writes, is interviewed in or reviews), on the topic of love from a range of types and perspectives. It covers what it is to be human, happy, alone, lonely, vulnerable, heartbroken, and the importance of friendships, love, loss, grief, parenting and change - in all forms.

The book is split into 3 parts - how do we find love, how do we sustain love and how do we survive losing love. Hard to say much more about this as it's so unique and relatable, other than it's an absolute must read.

3. Tender is the Night - F Scott Fitzgerald

TW: inappropriate patient/doctor relationship & underage relationship

I plucked this one off my bookshelves before we left for the South of France as it is set on the French Riviera - precisely where we were headed - and I always find it fun to read a book that is set in a place when you are there/have been there, as it helps me imagine it even clearer. 

This story - problematic in ways it may not have been noticed when it was first published back in the 1920s - follows the romance of a young actress, Rosemary, and an older, married psychiatrist, Dick Diver, who happens to be both husband and doctor (psychiatrist) to his wealthy wife, Nicole, who he met as her doctor during her mental breakdown (again, WTF).

Dick and Nicole Diver exude the atmosphere of being in the presence of greatness. Charming, gorgeous and filthy rich, there isn't a fancy part, restaurant or beach they don't attend. However, all is not as it seems with Nicole's seemingly good health, and as she begins to realise what is taking place between Rosemary and Dick, she begins to unravel.

An easy read, a nice setting and timeline, but as mentioned - obviously problematic for a number of reasons.

4. The Panic Years - Nell Frizzell

TW: miscarriage

Most people reading this are most likely in, or hurtling towards, the panic years - some time between 25 and 40 where a personal crisis and then a transformation occurs. There is no name for this time - unlike "adolescence", "menopause", so Nell has decided to aptly brand them, The Panic Years, During this time, we as women, are largely conscious that every decision we make about our lives, is ultimately impacted by the urgency of the body clock deadline decision we have to make: whether or not to have a baby (and the million micro-decisions that decision entails). And if your decision is to have one, then the clock just seems to tick ever faster.

This book could not have landed on my lap at a better time. I just turned 29 last week and safe to say I was most definitely SPIRALING in the lead up to it. This book helps you calm down essentially, how to stay sane during this stressful, decision-heavy time, to understand what you want and how to know if you're making the right decisions (spoiler alert: there's no right or wrong answer).

Hilarious, real,  relatable, comforting and brutally honest - if you are in crisis mode I guarantee this will help. If you are a woman or there is a woman in your life who you think may be panicking - send her this,

5. The Queen of Dirt Island - Donal Ryan

TW: sexual assault

As you may remember, I read Donal Ryan's other book, Strange Flowers (last year sometime, review in this blog post), and what I didn't realise when I picked this one up is that it's sort of a sequel, in that it involves some of the same characters as well as some new ones, and is essentially focused partially on a different family in the town than the one Strange Flowers was based on (but the original family do -play a big part in this book too).

I find Donal Ryan's books so easy to read and comforting in a way. The Aylward women have seen tragedy, loss, sadness, as well as love and peace. Four generations of the Aylward women live under the same small roof - Eileen, her dead husband's mother, her daughter Saoirse, and Saoirse's daughter Pearl - and have a deep love for one another, holding each of them together despite the tragedy they have endured in their lives. I loved how relatable this book was in how the family dynamic is in many households - tonnes of love disguised as its opposite. I also love how Kit Gladney and her family were incorporated in the story, who we meet and get to know in Strange Flowers (I will say though, that you don't have to have read one to read the other, they do make sense on their own). 

Loved it. An easy, comforting read. Would recommend.

6. At Night All Blood is Black - David Diop

TW: war scenes

My final book for this batch is one that has been on my list for what feels like years - one I could somehow never locate in any of my favourite charity bookshops, but when I picked it up for full price in a regular bookshop, of course I have seen it in no less than THREE charity bookshops since. Mercury, retrograde, etc. Don't wanna talk about it.

Anyway. This is a short, but quite dark and sad book, but the writing is beautiful and I enjoyed it nevertheless.

We meet Alfa, a Senegalese in the French army during WW1. His friend, Mademba, a fellow soldier, is seriously injured in battle, and begs Alfa to kill him to end his suffering. Alfa refuses, unable to kill his friend, and when Mademba does pass away, the guilt of not ending his suffering sooner eats Alfa up, causing him to go mad, eager to avenge the death of his friend, by whatever means necessary.

This is an important read as it is an aspect of war/historical fiction that we often don't see written about - the mental affects such horrific war experiences have on the soldiers left behind. A short but important read.

Those are my reads for July and August, let me know if you have also read any of these books - I would love to know your thoughts on them! Also tell me about your TBR list - mine is almost up to my hip.

Thank you for reading as always,

S ✗

I am aware this blog post is a little late - it is the END of July - but this month has been manic with work and life and I have not had a minute to sit down and pour out my thoughts on my recent reads. So, here we go.

1. The Most Fun We Ever Had - Claire Lombardo

This is one of those books that really makes you feel like you're IN the story and you know the characters, so naturally I thoroughly enjoyed it. It reminded be a bit of a few of Marian Keyes' novels in the dysfunctional family aspect, so if she's your jam then you'll love this.

This story follows the Sorensons - parents Marilyn and David are the picture perfect couple, still madly in love after 40 years together, while their 4 very different daughters are each in a different state of crisis. Wendy was widowed at a young age and self-soothes with alcohol and younger men; Violet used to be a litigator and is now a stay-at-home-mom battling anxiety when the darkest part of her life rears its ugly head; Liza is a professor, in a relationship with a man with serious clinical depression, when she finds herself pregnant and unsure she wants to be with him; while Grace - the youngest - is living a lie that nobody in her family knows about. The one thing the daughters have in common is the fear that they won't find a love like their parents'.

Loved this one - an easy read but with some unexpected twists and the relatability of chaotic family life.

2. My Year of Rest and Relaxation - Ottessa Moshleigh

TW: Addiction

This one was a JOURNEY and a half let me tell you. I'm still not sure what I really think but equally I feel like everyone should read it if that makes sense? Maybe not.

In ways relatable, this story follows the journey of an unnamed young woman and her efforts to essentially tap out of life and the troubles of the/her world via an extended period of essentially "hibernation" - which I think a lot of us have probably felt like doing at one time or another. However, in her corner she has one of the worst psychiatrists known to man who just keeps prescribing her drug upon drug to assist with said hibernation, one after another, until the woman is addicted.

The unnamed woman "should" be happy and seemingly has it all, but this book shows you that despite appearances and how things may seen, people can be extremely unhappy and affected. She is deeply troubled and has an unhealthy, toxic relationship with her "best friend" as a result - at times you will seriously dislike the main character.

Again, I'm unsure how I felt about this book but I do feel it's one you should read and see what you feel. It really leaps from one extreme to the next - at some moments tender and compassionate, and at others dark and ruthless, and at the end you're left thinking that maybe the hibernation was necessary. If you've read this please let me know what you thought!

3. The Paper Palace - Miranda Cowley Heller

TW: Sexual assault

I saw that this book was shortlisted for the 2022 Women's Prize for Fiction, so I picked it up with high hopes - I have loved some of the previously shortlisted, longlisted and winning books of this prize so I figured I was in for a treat. Unfortunately, I found it a little lack-lustre - kind of a dragged out read.

The story introduces us to Elle - a seemingly happily married mother of 3, waking up at her family's holiday home ("The Paper Palace") where she has spent every summer of her life. Her oldest friend Jonas has also spent every summer around the corner with his family, when suddenly they find themselves tangled in a passionate affair one night, while their families are unknowingly feet away.

The story then takes us through the next 24 hours and simultaneously back to her childhood while Elle is torn between choosing her childhood love and her beloved husband, Peter, while we learn about the events that have led Elle to this day.

4. The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo - Taylor Jenkins Reid

Now, nobody come for me, but the HYPE around this book was insane, and I was expecting to adore it as much as I adored Where the Crawdads Sing - another seriously hyped up book and quite rightly so.

Don't get me wrong, I did like the book, but I'm not sure if it's worth all this hype, or is there something I was missing? I found it quite repetitive until about half way through when we start to understand the secret life Evelyn Hugo was leading and the reason for the seven husbands - I did really enjoy that aspect of the story, and I loved the relationship between her and her best friend, Harry. 

The twist at the end involving the journalist writing the story, Monique, is definitely one I didn't see coming, so from that aspect that's always what you want in a twist! Another easy read - the perfect beach or holiday book, or one when you want a bit of escapism but not too much in the way of concentration.

5. Beautiful World Where Are You - Sally Rooney

I had high hopes for this one based on Normal People and Conversations with Friends, and while it didn't quite measure up to those books, it was an easy, enjoyable read - and very much along the same theme as her previous two. 

In the story we meet Alice, a writer, who meets Felix (online - it's very current). They meet and don't really hit it off at all... but within a matter of pages they are suddenly in Rome together. Alice's best friend Eileen, in Dublin, is recovering from a break up and finds herself going back to a former flame for comfort and maybe something else.

There are some lengthy letters over and back between Alice and Eileen in the book which are a bit tricky to get through at times (and to be honest, discussing the topic of religion in detail at points bored me to tears). Other than those chunky letters, overall an easy read, nothing ground-breaking, but I would say even more gazing-into-each-others-souls-and-analysing-the-state-of-the-world than Normal People. If you can imagine that.

If you have read any of these books I would love to know your thoughts! I am heading to Antibes, France for a week in a couple of days so hoping I will fly through my next stack of books and I promise I will be much more on time with my July/August books at the START of September.

If you want to purchase any of the books mentioned in this post, simple click on the title (affiliate links). Reel to go with this post over on my insta and TikTok!

Thank you for reading, 

S ✗

Welcome back to the bi-monthly book posts, hope you are enjoying! This was a great reading (two) months, in that I thoroughly enjoyed each of the books I read. Grab a cuppa and settle in for some reviews (don't forget to click the title of each review if you want to buy the book!)

1. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn - Betty Smith

TW - assault/attack, alcoholism

This is such a gorgeous story about a young girl, Francie Nolan, growing up in poverty in 1940s Brooklyn, New York along with her parents and her younger brother. The story is split into 5 "books" within the one novel, each covering a different period in the family's life.

When a heart-breaking event lands into her childhood, Francie is forced to grow up more quickly than other girls her age, and to be a good role model for her brother, Neeley. Francie uses her love of reading and her vast imagination as an escape from the daily experience of living in poverty and turbulence.

We are taken through the years with Francie and Neeley and their parents as they manoeuvre - financially and emotionally - life in New York city during the formative years of the children's lives and education. At times it is so uplifting, at others incredibly sad and moving - quite the rollercoaster but so worth it, it's an amazing read.

2. The House Uptown - Melissa Ginsburg

I loved this book, it is emotional and heart-warming at times, with unexpected turns at others that keeps you turning the pages.

The story follows 14-year-old Ava who, after the sudden death of her mother, must move across the country to New Orleans, to live with her only living relative - her estranged, eccentric grandmother, Lane, whom she has never met - while still attempting to process her mother's death. 

Lane is a talented artist in New Orleans and spends most of her time stoned and painting murals in her home, her main vice. Ava arriving puts Lane on edge, not least because she reminds her so closely of her late daughter, bringing up painful memories of how and why they were estranged before her death. 

Oliver, Lane's assistant in work and life, is thrown into the middle of this turbulence, attempting to keep the peace between the two, while also dealing with his own problems. As Ava settles in to the best of her ability to her new life in New Orleans, she begins to get a sense that something is wrong. Her grandmother's strange behaviour and periods of forgetfulness lead Ava to look deeper into what may be going on and why they have been estranged from her grandmother all these years. 

3. Fify Fifty - Steve Cavanagh

TW - brutal murder

This book. is. SO. GOOD. The definition of a page turner, I read this so fast because I was dying to know what happened next. 

The story starts with two 911 calls, moments apart, from sisters Alexandra and Sofia Avellino, both hysterical and accusing the other of brutally murdering their father in their home. One of them is lying and is the murderer, and as they prepare to go into a joint trial in front of one jury, we read their stories and try to figure out who is telling the truth, through the eyes of their defense teams.

This book has more twists and turns than you could possibly imagine, some which made me audibly gasp, and your mind changes repeatedly about who you think is the murderer. An excellent read, I have already found another two of his novels, Twisted and Thirteen, in a charity shop and I can't wait to read them.

4. The Underground Railroad - Colson Whitehead

TW - racism, sexual assualt, rape, murder

By the same author as The Nickel Boys in my recent blog post, this book is just as amazing and heart-wrenching as I expected it to be.

The story starts as we meet Cora, a slave on a cotton plantation in Georgia. Life is horrendous for all slaves on the plantation, but even more so for Cora when she is seen as an outcast even among her fellow slaves, after her mother Mabel flees the plantation, leaving her behind. Caesar, another slave who recently arrives on the plantation from Virginia, meets her and tells her about the Underground Railroad - an escape route for slaves escaping these horrific plantations - and wills Cora to come with him in his attempt to flee.

Their escape attempt does not go smoothly, and as they try to outrun slave catchers and maintain the secrecy of the white people who help them and operate the secret railroad for fugitives beneath the soil of the south. Each stop catapults them into a different world, sometimes luring them into a false sense of safety and freedom - although this doesn't last.

The story of their flight is harrowing, terrifying, heart-wrenching, disturbing and frightening as they fight with everything they have to be free and escape the horrors of the plantations that lie in their wake.

As I mentioned, I LOVED all of these books and am excited to get stuck into some more by the same authors, my pile of books to be read is growing everyday (I have put myself on a book buying ban, unless they are from charity shops - you find the most amazing books in there, particularly post-Christmas).

Let me know any suggestions you have that I need to add to my pile and what you are reading and loving or loathing at the moment. Also sending my love to anyone who is affected in any way by the atrocities taking place in Ukraine at the moment, and wishing for your safety.

Lots of love always,

S ✗

*affiliate links

Apologies for the delay in getting this post up, ALAS, here is a roundup of my favourite books that I read last year. Reel on insta if you'd like to see that! The headings on each review are clickable links to where you can buy the book if it sounds like something you would love.

This is long one, so grab a cuppa or a vino and dive in!

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 ✗

*affiliate links used

Greetings, slightly late post this month (apologies, work and life have been CHAOS), but here we are. These are the books I managed to read in June and July. Some I loved, some I liked, some I didn't get. The usual really. 

1. Where I Was From - Joan Didion

I love Joan Didion's writing - her book The Year of Magical Thinking (review here) was so amazing - so I was excited to read this book (advertised as a memoir) but I just could not finish it. I got about half way through and gave up. 

It is essentially a book about the history of the Californian water system, not a memoir. If anyone has read it through and it gets better let me know, but I couldn't continue... SORRY

2. The Wife - Meg Wolitzer

I am a big fan of Meg Wolitzer, I have always liked anything I've read by her and this was no different.

This story is about Joan Castleman (the wife) and her husband Joseph, one of America's accomplished novelists. When Joan decides she wants to leave Joseph after 40 years of sacrificing her literary dreams for his, they are on a flight to Helsinki to attend an awards ceremony where is he about to receive a prestigious international award for his accomplishments as a novelist.

The book then flashes back 50 years to where their relationship began, and follows each step of the marriage that has brought them to this point, secrets and all, and the challenging position of being an ambitious woman in a man's world.

This is an easy read, enjoyable - a great summer holiday read.

3. The Kind Worth Killing - Peter Swanson

At the complete other end of the spectrum - although oddly enough along the same topic of a marriage destined for failure - we have this book, which is definitely a thriller, which I loved.

Good Reads describe this as "a devious tale of psychological suspense involving sex, deception and an accidental encounter that leads to murder," which pretty much sums it up!

This book tells the story of Ted Severson, who meets the mysterious Lily on a flight from London to Boston, seemingly by chance, and they hit it off, revealing intimate details about their lives to one another. Ted tells Lily about his marital problems, saying that he could kill his wife for what she has done. This sets Lily's plan in motion, who has a dark history of murder and mystery that nobody knows about.

So good, a page turner with twists right up to the end. Very Girl on the Train-esque.

4. Fleishman is in Trouble - Taffy Brodesser-Akner

Now this was the book I just did not get, or like. I had heard so much hype about it - and maybe I missed the point - but I didn't think it was great at all.

It tells the story of Toby Fleishman, who is recently separated from his wife (strange theme going on here in these last 3 books), and suddenly, at forty-one, surround by women who want him like never before. This is all going well for him, until his wife suddenly vanishes, dropping the children at his door and seemingly disappearing into thin air.

What sounded like it was going to be a thriller essentially just turned out to be pages upon pages of the protagonist speaking about all the women he's sleeping with from the apps and the photos they send him, while he makes a poor attempt at looking after his children in between, and also trying to figure out where his wife - the mother of his children - has gone, with seemingly very little urgency. Very strange, didn't get it.

Let me know if you read this and I totally missed something, I may have!

5. The Light Between Oceans - M.L. Stedman

I absolutely adored this book and am now dying to watch the movie, if anyone has watched it can you let me know which you preferred, the book or the movie? I don't want to watch it if it's going to ruin the story for me..

This book tells the heartbreaking tale of husband and wife Tom and Isabel Sherbourne, set in Australia in 1926 - Tom is the lighthouse keeper on Janus Rock, and Isabel marries and joins him to live out there. During their time there they struggle terribly to have a baby, enduring two miscarriages and one stillbirth, which completely destroys them and causes unimaginable grief. So, when one morning a boat washes up on the shore with a newborn baby inside - alive and well - along with the dead body of her father, it is almost as though the baby was sent to them to heal their pain.

Against his better judgement, Tom gives in to Isabel's pleas and they claim the baby as their own, naming her Lucy. When Lucy turns two and they return to the mainland, however, things begin to unravel.

It is an emotional read anyway, and I recently lost my grandfather (a lighthouse keeper for 40 years), who has the same name as one of the main characters in the book, so I found it particularly emotional! (Fair warning).

Et voila. Didn't get as much read as I would have liked but as I mentioned, the last two months have been slightly HECTIC to say the least, so I didn't have the time. BUT, I am going on holidays this Friday for two weeks, and have no less than 10 books packed, so hold on to your hats for that whopper post when I'm back. 

Stay safe, lots of love & thank you for reading!

S ✗