In which I love bookish snail mail

SUBSCRIPTION BOXES.

Best thing since ever, am I right? I am, I’m totally right. Not always or about everything, but absolutely about this.

I mean most of my snail mail is dullsville, bills and other such adult stuff about which I care not a jot but which I have to deal with because I am trying my hardest to do successful adulting.

Trying my hardest but not always succeeding.

‘My head hurts. I need ibupforen and hugs,’ I wailed at my Dad recently, ‘I am not ready to self-parent,’ and because most post is telling me about money that will be leaving my bank account and thus making me sad, it feels nice when those little boxes rock up. I mean I know that money has had to leave my bank account in order for me to get said boxes, but whatever: I feel much better about spending my hard earned cash on bookish goodies than on gas and electric and council tax. It’s just the way it is.

Book Review: Manhattan Beach

Oh my goodness but this book. Which, is that how I start a lot of blog posts lately? I feel like it is. I make no apology; I’m reading some good stuff. This book is Some Good Stuff.

Book Review: Genuine Fraud

Genuine Fraud - E Lockhart

YES THIS BOOK.

I am, as it happens, a massive fan of Lockhart’s We Were Liars; I think it’s an excellent book and so obviously I was super excited to get my hands on a copy of her new book, Genuine Fraud and let me tell you a thing: it didn’t disappoint.

Blog Tour: Little Fires Everywhere

Everyone in Shaker Heights was talking about it that summer: how Isabelle, the last of the Richardson children, had finally gone around the bend and burned the house down.

In Shaker Heights, a placid, progressive suburb of Cleveland, everything is meticulously planned - from the layout of the winding roads, to the colours of the houses, to the successful lives its residents will go on to lead. And no one embodies this spirit more than Elena Richardson, whose guiding principal is playing by the rules.

Enter Mia Warren - an enigmatic artist and single mother- who arrives in this idyllic bubble with her teenage daughter Pearl, and rents a house from the Richardsons. Soon Mia and Pearl become more than just tenants: all four Richardson children are drawn to the alluring mother-daughter pair. But Mia carries with her a mysterious past, and a disregard for the rules that threatens to upend this carefully ordered community.

When the Richardsons' friends attempt to adopt a Chinese-American baby, a custody battle erupts that dramatically divides the town and puts Mia and Mrs. Richardson on opposing sides. Suspicious of Mia and her motives, Mrs. Richardson becomes determined to uncover the secrets in Mia's past. But her obsession will come at unexpected and devastating costs to her own family - and Mia's.

Little Fires Everywhere explores the weight of long-held secrets and the ferocious pull of motherhood-and the danger of believing that planning and following the rules can avert disaster, or heartbreak.

Autumn Wrap Up

But how is it November already. That means it’s almost Christmas, right? Not that I am going to get excited just yet. I mean, I love Christmas, I absolutely totally do, but I love it in the way that means I want to concentrate that love into a small time frame so that I can love it really intensely whilst it lasts and then tuck it away for another year knowing I’ll love it just as hard when it comes around again which means I don’t ‘do’ Christmas until December 1^st. I won’t even eat a mince pie, which is pretty hard going actually because holy moly I love mince pies. The only exception I make to this rule I think is the festive coffees. Give me all the gingerbread lattes please. Today I had a spiced cookie latte from McDonalds (Maccies is the only coffee place open before I go to work and actually it’s not that bad), the cup had little foxes on it and I was beyond delighted.

Author Visit: Jen Campbell

THE BEGINNING OF THE WORLD IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT
Spirits in jam jars, mini-apocalypses, animal hearts and side shows. A girl runs a coffin hotel on a remote island. A boy is worried his sister has two souls. A couple are rewriting the history of the world. And mermaids are on display at the local aquarium.
The Beginning of the World in the Middle of the Night is a collection of twelve haunting stories; modern fairy tales brimming with magic, outsiders and lost souls. 

So a couple of weeks ago I asked the lovely Jen Campbell to sit down and have a slice of pizza and chat with me* about her short story collection The Beginning of the World in the Middle of the Night which is published today. This is how that chat went.

*I say ‘with me’ but actually real life prevents Jen and I from eating pizza together as often as I’d like so what I actually mean is she was there and I was here although in my case the pizza was in no way hypothetical.

Books I am looking forward to for the rest of this year...

...even though my TBR is already the size of Everest and my bookshelves are full. A list by me.

Basically guys, I am in a reading slump and it’s making me sad. Seriously, up until yesterday I think I’d read about ten pages in as many days and I hate when this happens to me and I have decided to try and get myself out of it by making a list, thanks to the notes on my phone, of the books I am excited about for the latter part of this year. Also because this list is generated from said phone notes me of which are months old, a couple of these books are OUT NOW GO GET THEM.

Review: The Beginning of the World in the Middle of the Night

So.

I’ve been pondering over this review for a while now, partly because I excel at procrastination and partly because never has a review ever felt so important. I want to do this book justice, and I want to review it in a way that makes it clear that what I love most about this book is the quality of the writing and not the person that wrote it.

Make your selves comfortable my lovelies. This could go on a while.

Things to Read if You Liked The Handmaid's Tale.

So a week or so ago I chatted about the recent tv adaptation of The Handmaid’s Tale and how I felt about it and that got me thinking about what an excellent book that is which then got me to thinking about other excellent dystopian books there are out there because I love me a good dystopia and so then I decided to make a list because I also love me a good list.  Wow, holy run on sentence Batman.

Anyhow. Here is that list. (Also, disclaimer: this is not me in any way pretending to have any intellectual or literary-wise opinions here. I just really liked these books.)

Dystopian Novels you should read if you liked The Handmaids Tale (in no particular order).

Blog Tour: Death in the Stars

So today I am super excited to be taking part in the blog tour for Frances Brody’s new Kate Shackleton mystery, Death in the Stars. (Thank-you Little,Brown for asking me to take part and for the copy of the book) LET US TALK ABOUT IT.