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Didn't post a single thing on here last year cos life got in the way of reading.. I've been out and about and I've been in with a shout (yes, I did see Paolo Nutini live last year at Ally Pally and yes, it did take me almost two hours to get home from there to west London and yes, I did go to work the next day). Anyway, reading took a huge back seat last year because I basically went out living my life and making up for the time that I lost during COVID.  I also realised that my attention span was getting shorter and shorter so I've tried to lure myself away from Insta and Twitter. I tried to read a fair few books last year but my mind just wasn't in the right place so I left it.  Maybe the books I tried were shit or maybe my brain just wouldn't read them.  I tried to get back into the Goldfinch so many times but it just didn't work so I've left it. Anyway, I sped through two books during the arse-end of 2022 and I've already read one book in 2023. I...

Reading date - December 2021 You know sometimes you see a book mentioned everywhere and then the author releases the follow-up book and you hear that mentioned everywhere, too?  That is how I came across this book. It had been hyped up to death and I thought I should give it a try.  I will never, ever learn.  I know that these books that are hyped up always fall short for me but still, I fall for it.  Seldom have I read a book on the bandwagon which I have loved as much as everyone else. Anyway, this book is a murder mystery which started out ok but the more I read, the more annoying and badly written it got.   I am trying to be nice about this book but I struggling.  My book of 2021 is The Secret History by Donna Tartt. I loved this book so much that I bought everything she has written.  This never happens to me with authors.  I have read The Little Friend and am working my way through the Goldfinch.  I LOVED TSH. The Maidens is a book ...

Reading date  - April 2021 I will begin this review by copying the following from the description of the book:  "Woven throughout this deeply personal and unflinching memoir of Musa’s five years at Eton in the 1990s is a present-day narrative which engages with much wider questions about pressing social and political issues: privilege, the distribution of wealth, the rise of the far right in the UK, systemic racism, the ‘boys’ club’ of government and the power of the few to control the fate of the many. One of Them is both an intimate account and a timely exploration of race and class in modern Britain." What I expected from this book is not what I got from it.  For some reason, I thought this would be a biography of Musa's life, from birth to modern day.  I should have paid more attention to what the description said. This book is brilliant, Musa has a skill where he writes about the everyday and mundane (to him) in a way which makes reading about it an absolute joy...

Reading date - April 2021 I try and read books by authors from a similar background as myself as I feel there is a massive gap in the market for this. This book is written by a brown woman about a brown woman who is the same age as me but this lady (Anu) has a husband and a child. The book focuses on Anu and her life in England, where she tries to balance fitting in with the mums at the school where her daughter Neha goes, her mum, her overbearing cousin and her relationship with her husband. I really liked this book, it is split into three parts and follows Anu going through her day to day life, coping with a mother who was always distant, a daughter in primary school and having to negotiate her friendship groups. I have been reading a lot of thrillers recently and kept expecting a twist but once I got it into my head that this book would not have a twist, it was a very enjoyable read. The characters are well written, I like the additions of Punjabi/Hindi works in the book an...

Reading date - April 2021 Hmm..a bit of a strange book really, not sure what to make of it.. A good book which showed promise, I got drawn in at the start but my interest waned towards to the end where I felt it flipped between scenarios too much and way too fast.  I enjoyed the writing style for the most part and the characters are well written, you feel for them and get invested in their lives.   The arc is unexpected and is something I would never ever have predicted.  Some parts of the book are confusing and a lot is left unexplained at the end. I feel if it was introduced more as a sci-fi book as opposed to a mystery/horror book then it may do itself more justice.

Reading date - April 2021 My first book on NetGalley and what a corker. This is the type of family saga I like to read about. The book is about the Gleeson family who live in Ireland.  Every year on the anniversary of the death of their sister/daughter they gather for a dinner party. The book is set across different times and different locations but always told from the view of one person, the twin sister of the girl who died. I started reading this two nights ago and I couldn’t put it down. The chapters are large, I believe there are only five in total but it is such a gripping book. All the characters are well rounded and I feel the focus on one is done very well, the author doesn’t cram a lot of unnecessary detail in. Would definitely recommend this if you like noir books about dysfunctional families.