JULY REVIEW
Edition 1.0
When life gets hard, I read my favourite book for the 10th(+) time.
When life gets fun, I’ve got a book in my bag just in case.
When life gets overwhelming, there’s always a book and a cup of tea.
When life gets boring, time passes faster when you’re in another world.
When life gets lonely, you’ve always got a friend in a book.
I’m a 33 year old living in London, nothing extraordinary (as summed up in these next sentences), I work in marketing, play netball, practice yoga, adore my friends and read books… I’ve just returned from living in Australia for two years and, quite frankly, don’t know what I’m doing with my life.
Currently reading: The Long Island Compromise by Taffy Brodesser-Akner
Each month I will run you through what I’ve read that month and then I’ve added some extra recommendations under each of the following categories:
Cosy and Comforting - The perfect snuggle up with a cup of tea read.
Love and Relationships - Love, life, friendships and all the real bits in between.
Intense and Rewarding - Those books that take you on a big journey and you have to talk about.
Pick ‘N’ Mix - These could be anything from suspense, classic, fantasy to non-fiction.
Not Worth It - The ones I’ve started and sometimes finished.
TBR (To Be Read) - Ones I’m planning on reading next and other reccs I might not get round to but you should.
Cancer season. Love, sunshine and laughter. My birthday and now my wedding anniversary!
We got married on the 6th July in Clissold Park and it was the perfect day. Then honeymooned in the Cotswolds where we drank champagne and I read and read and read (and napped between reads and feeds).
WHAT I READ THIS MONTH
Sandwich by Catherine Newman
Published: Jun 2024
Category: Being Human
Summary: A lovely if not raw and slightly distressing novel. Catherine Newman speaks right to the core of relationships/ love and loss. You are physically transported to Cape Cod.
Trigger Warning: Abortion
Feels during: Where is this going?! Why is she confiding in her little daughter? Gosh raising a family is hard/ impossible.
Feels after: That was good. The one liners are incredibly visceral, a favourite was describing how her husband applied sunscreen to her with “the hands of a yeti” (and of course he got it in her hair).
Rating: 6.5/10
Recc: Read We All Want Impossible Things over this. If you love that then you can come to this.
This Charming Man by Marian Keyes
Published: Mar 2008
Category: Relationships
Summary: Marian at her best! You follow four women who have crossed paths with a gorgeous hunk of a man. However, naturally, he isn’t all what he seems. The four women themselves are the heroes in this story (obviously).
Trigger Warning: Alcoholism and abuse.
Feels during: I adore women! I want to move to a remote Irish town (I have this thought during every MK novel!). Charming men are icky. Lola’s parts are written as a diary-like entries so are snippy and quite hard to read at times. Dee is a hero and all countries need one of her leading them!
Feels after: Wow what a book. 600+ pages and I devoured them. I was delighted to find I hadn’t completed the backlog of Marian and am now undecided to hunt for more or let them find me.
Rating: 8/10
Recc: Read this, read everything Marian puts out.
COSY & COMFORTING
Dear Mrs Bird by A.J.Pearce
Published: April 2018
Summary: Emmy is (one of the many) unsung heroes of the war. Her and Buntys’ relationship is one of the best fictional friendships. Note, it is about the war so whilst I’ve categorised it as cosy, there is a war going on…
Rating: 9/10
Recc: Read the rest of the series, The Emmy Lake Chronicles: (2) Yours Cheerfully & (3) Mrs Potter Calling. Other cosy WWII books that spring to mind are Custard Tarts and Broken Hearts by Mary Gibson. Less cosy but a 5* book: Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein.
LOVE & BEING HUMAN
The Vintage Shop of Second Chances by Libby Page
Published: Feb 2023
Summary: Absolutely falls into the Cosy category as well. Travel to the seaside village of Frome and meet a whole host of wonderful fully formed characters (as opposed to support acts). I was nearly put off by the title and the blurb as they focus on clothes and I’m not that into fashion, so do not let that put you off! It’s a vivid read - I can still picture it now!
Rating: 8/10
Recc: More Libby Page! Especially The 24-Hour Cafe. Easy reads at their best!
INTENSE & REWARDING
Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver
Published: Oct 2022
Summary: I’m not the only one to be writing about Demon, it was a co-recipient of the 2023 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, won the 2023 Women's Prize for Fiction, has just been ranked #1 New York Times top 100 books of the 21st Century as selected by their readers PLUS it has nearly half a million ratings on goodreads (overall rating 4.5!). It’s one of those immersive novels where even when you’re not reading you’re thinking about Demon and how he’s getting on.
Rating: 10!
Recc: A great follow up from this would be Educated by Tara Westover or The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls. Two real life Demon’s whose memories blew me away.
Pick ‘N’ Mix
The Giver of Stars by Jojo Moyes
Published: Oct 2019
Summary: Jojo Moyes is known for perhaps one of the best (and most devastating) love stories (Me Before You) and in The Giver of Stars she also truly transports you to America in the late 1930s. The plight of delivering books (aka a lifeline) to the most rural of communities under Eleanor Roosevelt’s new travelling library.
Rating: 9/10
Recc: Another book centric book is the lovely Welcome to the Hyunam-dong Bookshop by Hwang Bo-Reum, another magical book that shows you the power of connection through reading.
NOT WORTH IT
The Hotel Nantucket by Elin Hilderbrand
Published: June 2022
Summary: It sounds like a fabulous escapism summer read, however, there is a ghost and whilst I tried, I could not get on board with this phantom spirit as a main character.
Rating: DNF
Recc: Read The Perfect Couple by Elin Hilderbrand instead. Summer escapism to the Nantucket wedding season with a tragedy at the heart of it. This is being turned into a Netflix movie with Nicole Kidman etc. (trailer here) so if there’s a time to read the book it’s now.
TBR
Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea by Barbara Demick
This is next up for me! Mari Andrew, who I’m enamoured with mentioned it in her “Everything I Loved in June'' edition of her wonderful Out of the Blue substack and I was hooked on her description alone so I’m excited for the book!
Ordinary Time by Cathy Rentzenbrink
The reviews and quotes on this are out of this world, they include Marian Keyes, Nina Stibbe and Meg Mason! “Funny and heartbreaking”... Sounds like a must read to me.
One final quick question:
How do you split your reading between fiction and non-fiction?
That’s all this month, Happy reading xo