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Reading date - December 2020 Taking into account that this is book 52 and there are 52 weeks in a year, this would mean that going on this blog alone, I have read one book a week which I am very impressed with.  I am even more impressed because this blog didn't start with the first book I read this year.  No, no, there are five books which have not been reviewed here as I read them pre-covid times but still in 2020. Anyway, the year went out with me reading a book about a serial killer.  My first ever proper book about serial killing.  I watch a lot of stuff about serial killers and murders in the UK but I seldom read anything about them because I just don't mix my mediums.  Everyone and their cat knows about Dennis Nilsen (DN), the sad, lonely, closeted homosexual who killed boys, jizzed over them, cut them up, cooked them and then flushed them down the bog.  Jeez, what an epitaph.  There was a dramatisation of the whole affair last year on ITV which ...

Reading date - December 2020 This is a fairy tale for the "modern" day, if the modern day was back when this book was actually written.  I enjoyed it but it was a bit repetitive in places when it kept harking back to when the girl "met the American".  I mean that wouldn't happen in modern day times and I doubt it happened back then.  It was a chance meeting for minutes, if that. Anyway, it was a very quick read.  I expected something of more substance going on what my mates had said about it but substance was the one thing I did not find here.  It is quite a predictable kind of book and if you like that kind of namby pamby happy ending stuff then you will like it.  I won't be reading more of her work because it just ain't my style.

Reading date - December 2020 I could not get on with Underground Railroad so I was surprised to find myself liking this.  The book tells the tale of two boys sent to a correctional school, one who is a pessimist and one who is an optimist.  I flew through this book, it was heart wrenching and sad for the most part but I believe it tells an honest story of what went on in these correctional schools in the South in America back in the day. It can be quite overwhelming to read something as full on as this so I tried my best to leave it alone for long periods of time but that didn't really work so I ended up finishing it within days. Would recommend.

Reading date - December 2020 THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS I am always very sceptical of Matt Haig books and I don't go out of my way to read them because I find his whole shtick a bit cringey.  I know he has battled with his mental health and that he tried to commit suicide a while ago but then he found love and brought himself around.  This is obviously something to be applauded but I find his whole vibe a bit weird. I read his other one a while ago (one of the early ones, before I knew his MO).  The one I read before was about a teacher who could time travel, it was called How to Stop Time and it was a bit weak.  It was about a time travelling teacher..but a very, very, very poor imitation of the Time Traveller's Wife. I find he tends to churn out books with a cheap, pseudo-positive message where the storyline is weak and everything at the end is tied up in a neat little bow.  I think that is a bit of an insult to people who suffer from mental health issues. ...

Reading date - December 2020 I've realised what I like so much about biographies by musicians.  It's not the behind the scenes of the actual music business, it's how they were before they became big and what their life was like.  Everyone is fascinated by the mundane, whether they like to admit it or not..or they just want to know what went on behind closed doors.  I have a copy of Brett Anderson's Coal Black Mornings and I loved it because 1)I love the man 2)I have a massive crush on him and have had since the first time Suede came to my attention and 3)because his life was so normal..he doesn't come from a fancy showbizzy family, he was just a boy who lived in Crawley with an eccentric dad. I found this on Depop and it was the first thing I'd ever bought on there.  I started out really liking this book, Tracey Thorn has a very disarming way of writing about herself, it's not arrogant, it's honest without being self deprecating and I really like that.  ...

Reading date - December 2020 I read Billion Dollar Whale (BDW) around around this time in 2019 back when the only corona we knew was a beer and a facemask was a relaxing treat I threw on my face when I was in need of some down time.  I was in the process of leaving my old job and when I interviewed for my new one, we spent ages discussing BDW. This book is by two authors, one of those also co-authored BDW.  This is not as entertaining as BDW but it is still a very good read if you are interested in this type of thing.  I, for one, am; that's why I read this book. The authors write a good book, it's very well researched, parts are written with shade and I love that.  As it was more full on that BDW, it did take me a bit longer to read but I still really liked it and would recommend it to anyone who wants to know how Saudi Arabia works and how MBS rose to power so quickly.  BDW could easily be a Hollywood film, this isn't written in the same way as it's more the s...

Reading date - December 2020 For years I have been telling myself I would read these books when I got all five of them..and now I do.  I absolutely loved these books, I would have no idea Maya Angelou had such a varied life had I not read these books. I thought Why The Caged Bird Sings was the only book she had written about her childhood but all of these books covered her entire life up until the time she decided to start writing. They are fabulous!! They make you care so deeply for her and her brother, her son and everyone who loves her.  Her life is amazing, I cannot believe she has managed to do so much.  Of course, being a black girl/woman growing up when she did, life was not without its struggles but Ms Angelou has such a way with words that you feel like you're just drinking them in.   I would definitely recommend these books to everyone, get them from the library or get them on audiobook, just make sure you get to read them.

Reading date - November 2020 I struggled with this book a bit at first as it was quite dry and data heavy but once you have the initial facts learnt, it's an easy and very interesting read. It tells the story of Toussaint Louverture which was way more fascinating than I thought it would be.  The thing I liked best about this book was the fact that it didn't build him to be some kind of hero who had no flaws.  He had flaws but he still achieved great things.  I am all for balanced history, not a story told from just one side which is what we have been fed at school since school was born. TL is born a slave in Haiti who manages to earn special privileges on his plantation.  He then manages to use these privileges to gain knowledge he would never have obtained had he not had those special privileges. The story progresses and it would read as if it was fiction if there weren't records around that backed it up.  It is no surprise that a successful uprising was kept s...

Reading date - November 2020 I have this book in hardback and I am only really reading it because I judged it by its cover.  I love the pink colour used, in my mind is it stripper pink because I think this is what a stripper's dressing room in a strip club in Miami would look like.  Even before knowing anything about the book, I thought the Mars Room would be a great name for a strip club. This book is about incarceration from a female perspective and along with it, the inherent challenges of being an incarcerated mother.   The book follows Romy Hall and her life through jail.  The book is not a sweeping novel which takes place over years and years, it covers a short period of time and tells the reader of Romy's backstory and how she fares in prison. Now, I am of a certain age that when I hear the word Romy, I think of Romy and Michele's High School Reunion .   I liked this book for many reasons, firstly it brings to more general notice a lifestyle tha...

So, it's 2021.  We made it through 2020 which is something not everyone managed to do. I've got a few reviews from 2020 left to go and seeing as we are probably going to be locked down again, I'll have more reviews.  I have recently bought a fair amount of books to get me through this year and I am properly not buying anything unless it's on my proper wishlist. I was going to carry on my book reviews for my own mind because I wanted to record what I thought about books but it's January 2021 and we've got yet another presser from the "PM" this morning.  Now we're apparently going from Tier 4 to 5...T4 is pretty much lockdown anyway so I've got no idea what T5 is and I bet the shitshow in charge doesn't have an idea either.  I guarantee borders won't close. I don't make resolutions but what I really need to do is stop buying every book I have a passing fancy to and actually read what I've got...but what can you do when there are s...