Category: books

books, reviews

Book Review – Saving Grace by Jane Green

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Grace seems to have a charmed life, married to a successful writer, a beautiful daughter, a career of her own, a wonderful house, good looks and great friends.

Her husband’s assistant has left, and she hires a replacement, slowly Grace’s perfect life begins to unravel.

Can she find her happiness again?

I really liked this book, Grace is a Brit in America, much like the author, and has a wry take on Americans.

The book covers a lot more complexities than the cover suggests, which is something that often happens with fiction written by women.

Grace’s story encompasses mental illness, cuckoos in the nest, love, trust, friendship, going home and the quest for real happiness.

I don’t want to give too much away, because I want people to read it, but it’s a really good read, just ignore the girlie, simplified cover and enjoy.

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books, charity, giveaway

23rd April – World Book Night

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Every year I sign up to be a World Book Night giver, and this year is no different. I have collected my copies of  Charity Norman’s After The Fall and am ready to give them away.

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WBN was set up to celebrate and foster a love of reading and is now run by The Reading Agency. It is a charitable initiative supported by the publishing industry (which supplies hundreds of books for volunteers to hand out).

I have been involved since the start, when publisher Jamie Byng launched it on a freezing cold night five years ago in Trafalgar Square. Since then I have handed out dozens of books, from poetry in Soho Square, to fantasy on the Underground, free books are popping up everywhere this week.

If you see someone handing out books, take one, read it, pass it on.

To celebrate the event I am offering copies via Instagram to anyone who tells me what reading means to them.

The book is about what happens to a family after a serious accident, secrets and what happens when you keep them. Set in New Zealand it chronicles the lives of the McNamara family after five-year-old Finn falls from the upstairs veranda.

I really enjoyed it when I first read it, it’s quite compelling.

So, what’s your favourite read?

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books, lifestyle boxes

Prudence & the Crow book lover’s box

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I don’t think I’ve written about this before, but Prudence and the Crow is a monthly box for book lovers.

Each month you get a secondhand book in a handmade bag with a selection of little treats. This month I got Raymond Chandler’s The Long Goodbye in a little red bag and my treats included stickers, sweeties, a bookmark, tea and a gorgeous Penguin Books necklace, which I wore all day till haircut time.

The box is slim enough to go through the letterbox and is in itself rather lovely, stamped with the logo.

Check out the website to register for a box.

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books, reviews

Book Review – Frog Music by Emma Donaghue

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Based on a true story about a murder in San Francisco when it was still a new city, Donaghue spins a story involving circus folk, music, measles, baby farms, dancing girls and frog hunting.

Jenny Bonnet (pronounced Bonn-ay) was a teenage tearaway who spent time in a reform school before becoming a trouser-wearing frog hunter in the ponds and swamps around the fledgeling San Francisco, supplying the restaurant trade with that delicacy, frog legs.

When she was 27 she was shot dead in a guesthouse outside the city. No one was ever convicted of the killing.

Using old newspaper articles and court records, Donaghue fleshes out the story of Bonnet’s life and death. Narrated by Blanche Beunon, a French acrobat turned stripper and prostitute, who befriended Jenny shortly before her death, the novel depicts the struggles of immigrants, living hand to mouth in Chinatown.

The details of Bonnet’s life were scarce so this allowed Donaghue, whose last book was the harrowing Room, a lot of scope to write an imaginative, colourful narrative peopled by outrageous characters and a complex tangle of emotions and motives at its centre.

This book is well worth a read, whether historical fiction is your thing or not.

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books, rip, terry pratchett

“Terry took Death’s arm…”

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Sir Terry Pratchett died today it has just been announced. He was one of my favourite authors and I have pretty much all of his books.

I met him once, he won the Carnegie Award for The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents and I was at the Polka Dot Theatre in Wimbledon for the ceremony as part of a school delegation. I was 14.

Somewhere I have the photos I took on a disposable camera, he was kind and funny, charming to those who queued to get their books signed, as I did.

His books meant a lot to me. Growing up I was pretty socially awkward and preferred books to people. The Discworld was the perfect place to escape to.

He was an immensely talented writer, knighted for his services to literature, and a campaigner for Alzheimer’s, having been diagnosed with it a few years ago.

I grew up with his books and with his knowledge, that libraries exist in L-space and bookshops are just genteel black holes that know how to read.

It’s a shame there will be no more stories, and I will be thinking of his friends and family at this time.

Thank you for the stories Sir Terry.
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books, challenges, reviews

#5books7days – round up

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So over on Instagram and Twitter this week I’ve been taking part in a readathon #5books7days which has been really enjoyable.
My five books were:
A real variety of books. Fantasy, autobiography, classic crime, and finally a book written by a friend of mine.

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I haven’t read with purpose since uni, when I read for class or essay writing. Nowadays I read whatever takes my fancy, and sometimes I pick the wrong book. Life’s too short to read books that don’t hold my attention.

This was a really fun reading challenge, and I managed to make a tiny dent in the mountain of unread books, unfortunately it seems to grow while I sleep.

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books, reviews

Book Review – Hope in a Ballet Shoe

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Michaela DePrince is currently a dancer with the Dutch National Ballet, before that she was a ballet student in America, and before that she was an orphan in war-torn Sierra Leone.

As a little girl I wanted to be a ballerina, and although that never worked out, I still do the positions on Underground platforms and try to see as much ballet as I can afford.

Michaela wanted to be a ballerina too, but her journey would be long, hard and at times painful.

If you’ve seen the documentary First Position, you’ll recognise the teenage Michaela, one of the few black ballerinas around. She’s got a beautiful smile and dances wonderfully.

Her book takes you from the tragedy of her early years, orphaned by age 4, sold to an orphanage by her uncle, she witnessed the murder of her pregnant teacher and had to flee along with the other children to neighbouring Guinea. Throughout it all she clung to the dream of looking like the ballerina on the front of a magazine she found in the street.

She and her best friend were adopted by a white couple from America, became sisters and began to dance.

Her story is inspiring, heartbreaking and ultimately full of hope and joy.
I stayed up late reading it, not wanting to put it down, desperate to know whether she achieved her dream.

Written with her adoptive mother’s help, Michaela’s story is brilliant for reminding you that thinks can be achieved and if you work hard dreams happen.

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books, reviews

#5books7days

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Over on instagram and twitter @lotte_le (@lottelovesbooks) is hosting a reading challenge. #5books7days is the perfect reading challenge for me.
Some weeks I can read a dozen books, others I struggle to read one.
As a kid I read everything I could get my hands on, and if there wasn’t anything to hand, cereal boxes or the sports page of my dad’s paper (while he was reading the inside) would do.
As I’ve got older I’ve slowed down a little, I no longer have multiple books on the go at one time. Perhaps my uni days of juggling dozens of books, essays, articles and trying to read for pleasure (I was a lit student, under and post grad) wore me down.
Anyway, my first pick for #5books7days is:

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So far, really enjoying this. It’s a bit weird and full of mystery, but I think that’s what makes it so interesting.

Are any of you readers? Take part in any reading challenges?

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books, neil gaiman, reviews

Book review – Trigger Warning

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Full disclosure, I am a massive Neil Gaiman fan and wrote my MA dissertation on his work.

Trigger Warning is his third collection of poems and short stories, all but one have been published elsewhere before being collected.

Personally I found that disappointing, I have other collections containing these works, including two that have been published as standalone illustrated tales – The Truth is a Cave in the Black Mountains and The Sleeper and the Spindle.

I think it’s a good collection for someone who’s not as familiar with Gaiman’s work as I am or who wants to read some of his short stories after reading some of his longer works.

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