Rachel's Holiday

Synopsis (Goodreads) 

The fast lane is much too slow for Rachel Walsh. And Manhattan is the perfect place for a young Irish female to overdo everything. But Rachel's love of a good time is about to land her in the emergency room. It will also cost her a job and the boyfriend she adores.When her loving family hustles her back home and checks her into Ireland's answer to the Betty Ford Clinic, Rachel is hopeful. Perhaps it will be lovely—spa treatments, celebrities, that kind of thing. Instead, she finds a lot of group therapy, which leads her, against her will, to some important self-knowledge. She will also find something that all women like herself fear: a man who might actually be good for her.  

Quick Thoughts

It is very unfair to call Marian Keyes chicklit or fluffy.  There is nothing fluffy about Rachel's Holiday.

I picked up this book on a whim in a charity shop after a disastrous exam. I wanted to read a book that was truthful and funny and I knew Marian Keyes would deliver. She always does. Maybe not always, The Mystery of Mercy Close was dreadful. I think of it now and grimace with boredom but that is another review for another day. 

Rachel's Holiday is the second installment from the Walsh Sister's series and explores drug abuse without being judgmental, without being self-righteousness and it was painfully funny This is classic Keyes. It had humor, intelligent prose and depth. 

If you are interested in finding out more about what happens to the Walsh Sisters, here is a list of all the books in the series so far. 

The Walsh Sisters 

1) Watermelon 

2) Rachel's Holiday 

3) Anybody Out there

4) The Mystery of Mercy Close 

5)Angels 

GONE GIRL

Who are you?

What have we done to each other?

These are the questions Nick Dunne finds himself asking on the morning of his fifth wedding anniversary, when his wife Amy suddenly disappears. The police suspect Nick. Amy's friends reveal that she was afraid of him, that she kept secrets from him. He swears it isn't true. A police examination of his computer shows strange searches. He says they weren't made by him. And then there are the persistent calls on his mobile phone. So what really did happen to Nick's beautiful wife?

Thoughts 

It's safe to say that most people have heard about Girl Girl. And I'm pretty sure most people have seen other people reading this book on public transport. 

Two years ago it was everywhere hence why I avoided it like the plague. I had no interest in reading about a doomed marriage. But sometime last year I "accidentally on purpose" watched the movie. I committed the cardinal sin - I watched the movie before I read the book.  And my goodness, Rosamund Pike was brilliant. She is the psychotic, manipulating Amy Dunne and Ben Afflect is the insanely irritating husband. 

I started reading the book soon after. I have to say Gone Girl is really good, there are moments of imperfections of course but overall it surpassed my expectations. 

Here's my favorite paragraphs from Gone Girl. 

“Men always say that as the defining compliment, don’t they? She’s a cool girl. Being the Cool Girl means I am a hot, brilliant, funny woman who adores football, poker, dirty jokes, and burping, who plays video games, drinks cheap beer, loves threesomes and anal sex, and jams hot dogs and hamburgers into her mouth like she’s hosting the world’s biggest culinary gang bang while somehow maintaining a size 2, because Cool Girls are above all hot. Hot and understanding. Cool Girls never get angry; they only smile in a chagrined, loving manner and let their men do whatever they want. Go ahead, shit on me, I don’t mind, I’m the Cool Girl.

Men actually think this girl exists. Maybe they’re fooled because so many women are willing to pretend to be this girl. For a long time Cool Girl offended me. I used to see men – friends, coworkers, strangers – giddy over these awful pretender women, and I’d want to sit these men down and calmly say: You are not dating a woman, you are dating a woman who has watched too many movies written by socially awkward men who’d like to believe that this kind of woman exists and might kiss them. I’d want to grab the poor guy by his lapels or messenger bag and say: The bitch doesn’t really love chili dogs that much – no one loves chili dogs that much! And the Cool Girls are even more pathetic: They’re not even pretending to be the woman they want to be, they’re pretending to be the woman a man wants them to be. Oh, and if you’re not a Cool Girl, I beg you not to believe that your man doesn’t want the Cool Girl. It may be a slightly different version – maybe he’s a vegetarian, so Cool Girl loves seitan and is great with dogs; or maybe he’s a hipster artist, so Cool Girl is a tattooed, bespectacled nerd who loves comics. There are variations to the window dressing, but believe me, he wants Cool Girl, who is basically the girl who likes every fucking thing he likes and doesn’t ever complain. (How do you know you’re not Cool Girl? Because he says things like: “I like strong women.” If he says that to you, he will at some point fuck someone else. Because “I like strong women” is code for “I hate strong women.”

Whatever happened to young female black characters

I read widely. I enjoy all kinds of books whether they happen to be by black or white or Asian authors.

However this week I was faced with the truth that I loved books with characters that looked liked me.  As a teenager I read books by Tsi, Degerambe - Nervous Conditions and felt kinship with the character, her confusion mirrored my own.  I read Knoughts and Crosses and I could vision myself as Sephy. In Purple Hibiscus, I was back in my native country navigating the pitfalls of growing up.

Recently though I've struggled to find authors who write about women for black women my age i.e. in their twenties who aren't affected by Third World poverty or war, women who are navigating the job market, men and such. It is as if our stories have no value. 

I read a book recently, a romance, it wasn't particularly interesting by a white author, I found myself very angry at her description of a passerby as simple “a black woman”.  If a white man had walked past, would she have described him as “a white man”. Also her constant use of porcelain skin annoyed me. Her main characters had beautiful porcelain skin, like a tea cups. She found so many ways of describing white characters, but could only find one word to describe a black character. 

Anyway where are all the black female characters? 

The Newlyweds

Amina met George online. Within months she has left her home in Bangladesh and is living in George's house in the American suburbs. Theirs is a very twenty-first century union, forged from afar yet echoing the traditions of the arranged marriage.

But as Amina struggles to find her place in America, it becomes clear that neither she nor George have been entirely honest with each other. Both have brought to the marriage a secret - a vital, hidden part of themselves, which will reveal who they are and whether their future is together or an ocean apart.

Amazon

Marlon James wins the Man Booker Prize

Marlon James has won this year's Man Booker prize for A Brief History of Seven Killings. He is the first Jamaican writer to ever win the prize. Congratulations Mr. James!

Synopsis from The Man Booker Prize


On 3 December 1976, just weeks before the general election and two days before Bob Marley was to play the Smile Jamaica concert to ease political tensions, seven men from West Kingston stormed his house with machine guns. Marley survived and went on to perform at the free concert. But the next day he left the country and didn’t return for two years.

Inspired by this near-mythic event, A Brief History of Seven Killings takes the form of an imagined oral biography, told by ghosts, witnesses, killers, members of parliament, drug dealers, conmen, beauty queens, FBI and CIA agents, reporters, journalists, and even Keith Richards' drug dealer. The story traverses strange landscapes and shady characters, as motivations are examined – and questions asked. 

(http://themanbookerprize.com/books/brief-history-seven-killings) 

http://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/oct/13/marlon-james-wins-the-man-booker-prize-2015

The Daughter's Secret

My daughter is a liar. A liar, liar, liar. And I'm starting to see where she gets it from.

When Rosalind's fifteen-year-old daughter, Stephanie, ran away with her teacher, this ordinary family became something it had never asked to be. Their lives held up to scrutiny in the centre of a major police investigation, the Simms were headline news while Stephanie was missing with a man who was risking everything.

Now, six years on, Ros takes a call that will change their lives all over again. He's going to be released from prison. Years too early. In eleven days' time.

As Temperley's release creeps ever closer, Ros is forced to confront the events that led them here, back to a place she thought she'd left behind, to questions she didn't want to answer. Why did she do it? Where does the blame lie? What happens next?

First They Came

Marianne Jean-Baptiste was interviewed recently by Simon Hattenstone for the Guardian and at the end of the interview she quotes this wonderful poem. I thought the interview was intriguing and insightful. If you think so too, leave a comment below.

First They Came

First they came for the Communists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Communist
Then they came for the Socialists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Socialist
Then they came for the trade unionists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a trade unionist
Then they came for the Jews
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Jew
Then they came for me
And there was no one left
To speak out for me - Martin Niemoller 

Read full interview - http://www.theguardian.com/stage/2015/jun/15/marianne-jean-baptiste-secrets-and-lies-british-movies

""It’s not this sob story. I had a choice. I could have stayed and fought it out, but I thought you know what, this is madness, it’s like fishing in a river and seeing people grabbing fishes upstream and you’re still down there going, ‘This is where I need to be, this is my spot.’ You fucking walk up stream and you catch your fish. I’m a member of the African diaspora, my parents left the Caribbean and came to London for a better life. We moved. And you print that, with the expletives.

"I ask if she suffered because she wasn’t a conventional dolly bird.

“How dare you! ‘I’m not not a bloody dolly bird!’ I am!”"

The Woman Who Stole My Life

Synopsis

One day, sitting in traffic, married Dublin mum Stella Sweeney attempts a good deed. The resulting car crash changes her life.

For she meets a man who wants her telephone number (for the insurance, it turns out). That's okay. She doesn't really like him much anyway (his Range Rover totally banjaxed her car).

But in this meeting is born the seed of something which will take Stella thousands of miles from her old life, turning an ordinary woman into a superstar, and, along the way, wrenching her whole family apart.

Is this all because of one ill-advised act of goodwill? Was meeting Mr Range Rover destiny or karma? Should she be grateful or hopping mad?

For the first time real, honest-to-goodness happiness is just within her reach. But is Stella Sweeney, Dublin housewife, ready to grasp it?

The Girl On The Train

Synopsis

Rachel catches the same commuter train every morning. She knows it will wait at the same signal each time, overlooking a row of back gardens. She’s even started to feel like she knows the people who live in one of the houses. ‘Jess and Jason’, she calls them. Their life – as she sees it – is perfect. If only Rachel could be that happy.

And then she sees something shocking. It’s only a minute until the train moves on, but it’s enough.

Now everything’s changed. Now Rachel has a chance to become a part of the lives she’s only watched from afar.

Now they’ll see; she’s much more than just the girl on the train…

The Peacock Emporium

Synopsis

Athene Forster embraced the Sixties like few others. Nicknamed the Last Deb, she was spoiled, beautiful, and out of control. And within two years of her marriage, the rumours had begun again.

Thirty-five years on, Suzanna Peacock finds refuge from her mother's shameful legacy in her shop, the Peacock Emporium. Within its magical walls she discovers not just friendship, and an escape from her troubled marriage, but the first real passion of her life.

But the spectre of her mother still haunts Suzanna, setting in place a series of dramatic events. Only by confronting the past will she finally be able to face the future

Thoughts

The Peacock Emporium has a very slow start and a mediocre ending. The writing is not very exciting and as far as characters go Susanna Peacock is as memorable as watching paint dry. I would not recommend this book, not because it's uninspiring and draining but because Jojo Moyes is a brilliant author and The Peacock Emporium does not showcase her wit, cynicism and class.

For a great read from Jojo Moyes try - Me Before You - http://herbooklist.blogspot.co.uk/2013/09/review-me-before-you.html

The One Plus One

One single mum

With two jobs and two children, Jess Thomas does her best day after day. But it's hard on your own. And sometimes you take risks you shouldn't. Because you have to . . .

One chaotic family

Jess's gifted, quirky daughter Tanzie is brilliant with numbers, but without a helping hand she'll never get the chance to shine. And Nicky, Jess's teenage stepson, can't fight the bullies alone.

Sometimes Jess feels like they're sinking . . .

One handsome stranger

Into their lives comes Ed Nicholls, a man whose life is in chaos, and who is running from a deeply uncertain future. But he has time on his hands. He knows what it's like to be lonely. And he wants to help . . .

One unexpected love story

The One Plus One is a captivating and unconventional romance from Jojo Moyes about two lost souls meeting in the most unlikely circumstances.

Crikey Christmas is here already!!

Yikes! Christmas is nearly here. What on earth shall I do with myself? Presents, Puddings and of course Books! My favorite time of the year is upon us and I'm ready to make wish list starting with the two beauties below. Tali Roland never disappoints! I'm so excited *skips along the muddy, rainy wintry England roads* 

Marriage to Measure 

When Serenity Holland proposes to her long-time boyfriend Jeremy, she’s certain ‘forever’ is a perfect fit. As the wedding train steams forward, though, Serenity starts to wonder if they really are an ideal match. From a crusty old ring to a dilapidated house she’s left to renovate on her own – not to mention the appearance of Jeremy’s clingy ex-fiancée – engagement feels more like disengagement. 

Even worse, wedding planning’s like a bad hangover as Serenity juggles the wishes of family and friends with her bossy mother-in-law-to-be, resulting in a Frankenwedding nothing like the simple ceremony she envisioned. 

Can Serenity knit her relationship back together and fashion a celebration that suits, or will ‘I do’ become ‘I don’t’? 

Purchase

Married by Midnight 

Christmas is coming . . . and so is the biggest day of Kate’s life. 

While choosing a vintage dress for her Christmas Eve wedding, Kate finds a cryptic note pinned to the inside of a 1930s gown. As doubts about her own ceremony loom, Kate is determined to track down the dress’ owner and determine what became of her – and the marriage. 

Will Kate find the answers she’s seeking to propel her down the aisle, or will her discovery prompt her to call off the wedding for good? 

High Fidelity Quick Thoughts

Synopsos

Rob does. He keeps a list, in fact. But Laura isn't on it - even though she's just become his latest ex. He's got his life back, you see. He can just do what he wants when he wants: like listen to whatever music he likes, look up the girls that are on his list, and generally behave as if Laura never mattered. But Rob finds he can't move on. He's stuck in a really deep groove - and it's called Laura. Soon, he's asking himself some big questions: about love, about life - and about why we choose to share ours with the people we do.





Thoughts

So I finally read High Fidelity!! About time I hear you say. In my defense I started it a year ago but I couldn't get into it.  Nick Honby has never really been a favorite of mine, I'm a David Nichols kinda of "gurl", I find Nick Honby a bit too"guardian" too polished, like he's over thinking his jokes and failing miserably.  

But to my surprise once I picked this up again I couldn't stop! High Fidelity is brilliant. My opinion of Mr. Honby has improved, although I still find him a bit here and there, a Mike Gayle type of bloke with bits of funny escapism. 

I wont bother repeating the synopsis, that's a tedious exercise, read the synopsis above if you haven't already. What I would say however is that High Fidelity is funny, well written and not as self-obsessed as I originally thought.  This is one of his books I would recommend.  Now I'm off to eat crow. 

The Handmaid's Tale

Finally reading The Handmaid's Tale! It's getting me all excited about blogging again so here I am. Stay posted. I will try my best to Blog more..life willing.

Synopsis

The Republic of Gilead offers Offred only one option: to breed. If she deviates, she will, like all dissenters, be hanged at the wall or sent out to die slowly of radiation sickness. But even a repressive state cannot obliterate desire - neither Offred's nor that of the two men on which her future hangs. The Handmaid's Tale is a brilliant and astutely perceived evocation of twenty-first-century America.

It's Vintage's 21st birthday and we're celebrating by publishing twenty-one of our

most iconic books in a rainbow of beautiful colours. Treat yourself and make

your bookshelves happy.

This Family Life

Synopsis 

Things that might happen during your first year of parenthood: 

1. You’ll get covered in a ‘nuclear’ poo. 
2. You’ll be convinced your son is talking with a Japanese accent. 
3. You’ll worry that when your son waves, it looks like a Nazi salute. 
Of course, this might just be Harry Spencer. 

Taking up where This Thirtysomething Life left off, Harry Spencer and is wife Emily are back and trying to survive their first year of parenthood. It has its ups and downs (and a few bits in the middle), but along the way they begin to understand the true meaning of family and what it takes to be a parent. 

Featuring a hilarious cast of extras including Harry’s father-in-law Derek, who has a unique problem with Scotch, Steve and Fiona, the parents from children’s entertainment hell, and a yoga instructor with a prominent camel-toe, This Family Life is the ultimate comedy for anyone who is a parent, has a parent, or is thinking about becoming one. 

Purchase

Review

I read this a while ago, I loved it but for some reason life got in the way and I never got a chance to review it until now. Right, although The Family Life wasn't as funny as This Thirtysomething Life it left me with a cheerful and optimistic view of life especially as my view of marriage was skewed to begin with. I loved Spencer and Emily's relationship this time round, I thought he was a little bit more understanding and sexier.

I would recommend this as it's funny, lovely and the author does a good job of portraying a modern British family.  

Review: Broken #1

Synopsis

Caleb is perfect in every way, almost too perfect and Gwen has never felt so happy. He is hers and she is his. Life can't get much better and their love can't get any stronger. That is until mistakes are made and their world comes crumbling down. 

She's left alone with no money, no home and a growing person invading her stomach. How will she survive? 

Forced to leave culinary school, the job she needs and the home they made together. 

Gwen finds a knight in the most unlikely source. Caleb's brother Nathan. A complex man with a phobia she doesn't understand and mannerisms that aren't of this day and age, will she be able to melt his seemingly frozen heart and become his friend? Or will he forever push her away and wallow in his loneliness and self loathing? 

Review
Broken didn't have a great start. The beginning was a bit of a mish mash, a girl meets a boy on a beach and falls deliberately in loves, how gullible is she and how gullible does the author think we are that we would believe such nonsense? The beginning of this story would be a good story for a fifteen year old, its very unrealistically romantic, if not headache inducing. I was livid with the author for such a bad start.

However as the story progressed, I began to understand the characters. This author is good at characterization, in Lil Bits of Us, I loved Mia not because she was perfectly formed but because she was flawed, she was a young woman coming to terms with the death of the father and coming to terms with growing up. However in Broken Gwen is sappy, very weak and to a certain extent stupid. Towards the end I began to sympathize with her. Yes she needs to stand up for herself but I'm hoping she does this in the second book.

This isn't a story that rings true, it sounded as though the author thought about how great it would be to meet someone on the beach and she went for it. But Gwen and Caleb are not the kind of people I would have a drink with, they characters in a book and don't translate to real life. But I still think this author has potential,  the story is captivating enough, funny and there are elements of brilliance and I was entertained but I think the author needs to go back to the drawing board. Sort out the dialogue for example and create characters as great as Mia.

Question: Does anyone know an English Caleb, the name is very American. Sigh!

Ps. I was sent this book by the author. 

How To Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia

Synopsis

The astonishing and riveting tale of a man's journey from impoverished rural boy to corporate tycoon, it steals its shape from the business self-help books devoured by youths all over 'rising Asia'. 

It follows its nameless hero to the sprawling metropolis where he begins to amass an empire built on the most fluid and increasingly scarce of goods: water. 

Yet his heart remains set on something else, on the pretty girl whose star rises alongside his, their paths crossing and re-crossing in a love affair sparked and snuffed out again by the forces that careen their fates along.

Can Anybody Help Me?

Synopsis

It was crazy really, she had never met the woman, had no idea of her real name but she thought of her as a friend. Or, at least, the closest thing she had to a friend in Dublin. 

Struggling with a new baby, Yvonne turns to netmammy, an online forum for mothers, for support. Drawn into a world of new friends, she spends increasing amounts of time online and volunteers more and more information about herself.

When one of her new friends goes offline, Yvonne thinks something is wrong, but dismisses her fears. After all, does she really know this woman?

But when the body of a young woman with striking similarities to Yvonne's missing friend is found, Yvonne realises that they're all in terrifying danger. Can she persuade Sergeant Claire Boyle, herself about to go on maternity leave, to take her fears seriously?

Purchase

The Girl Who Was Saturday Night

Synopsis

At birth, Nouschka forms a bond with her twin that can never be broken. 

At six, she's the child star daughter of Quebec's most famous musician. 

At sixteen, she's a high-school dropout kicking up with her beloved brother. 

At nineteen, she's the Beauty Queen of Boulevard Saint-Laurent. 

At twenty, she's back in night school. And falling for an ex-convict. 

And it's all being filmed by a documentary crew.

Purchase

Ghostwritten - Review

Synopsis

She listens to everyone else’s story, but can she find her own?

Perfect for fans of Tenko and The Railway Man

A childhood mistake. A lifetime of regrets.

Jenni is a ‘ghost’: she writes the lives of other people. It’s a job that suits her well: still haunted by a childhood tragedy, she finds it easier to take refuge in the memories of others rather than dwell on her own.

Jenni has an exciting new commission, and is delighted to start working on the memoirs of a Dutchwoman, Klara. As a child in the Second World War, Klara was interned in a camp on Java during the Japanese occupation – she has an extraordinary story of survival to tell.

But as Jenni and Klara begin to get to know each other, Jenni begins to do much more than shed light on a neglected part of history. She is being forced to examine her own devastating memories, too. But with Klara’s help, perhaps this is finally the moment where she will be able to lay the ghosts of her own past to rest?

Gripping, poignant and beautifully researched, Ghostwritten is a story of survival and love, of memory and hope.

Purchase

Review 

Ghostwritten is a well written, well researched and generally its a well thought out book. It is a story of Jennie and Klara. When Jennie agreed to ghost write Klara’s memoirs she find herself dealing with her own memories and dealing with her own failing relationship. It's too nice, there were surprises, no sense of doom, this book is like chocolate, nice and unoffenisve. 

Having said this I should point it I found it extremely hard to get into it. I receive a lot of review requests and this has meant that if a book is slow, I switch off and pick up another. This was slow to start. So slow I stopped reading and came back to it a week later. Admittedly it was the fact that I didn’t care enough about Jennie and her issues and her decision not to have children. She wasn’t a character that stood out as such, she very easily forgettable and Klara is a stereotype of a character I’ve read before.

Although this book is technically good, it’s not captivating. I found myself switching off and thinking of food. I’m saddened to say this but I just didn’t enjoy it as much as I thought I would.  I tried but ultimately I forced myself to finish it and that’s never a good thing.