All posts tagged: 50booksin2018

Every Book Ladies lit Squad Have Read So Far!

Published by

Here is a list of every book my book club Ladies lit Squad have read so far! So if you want to read along with us you can get going. All books are written by women (of course). How to Murder Your Life by Cat Marnell Living The Dream by Lauren Berry The Upstairs Room by Kate Murray Browne The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood A Little Life by Hanya Yanigahara Dead Girls by Abigail Tarttelin Riders by Jilly Cooper Circe by Madeline Miller Valley of The Dolls by Jacqueline Susann How to Murder Your Life Cat Marnell is a polarising character, by that I don’t mean your either love her or you hate her. I mean she changes your own mind about her several times in one paragraph. To give this context, Cat, is a drug addict. Her memoir How to Murder Your Life was written, we presume, under the influence so it’s raw, erratic and sometimes hard to read (she’s a fan of a !!!!!!!!!!!). On the flipside it’s this honesty and vulnerability that …

#50booksin2018 July

Published by

A little late but better than never. I started a new job this month, so I’ve been busy busy busy. Still found time to squeeze in a few books though, so here they are… The Cows by Dawn O’Porter I love DOP, as far as I’m concerned she’s a British institution (although I believe she now lives in LA with her superstar husband Chris O’Dowd) so, surprisingly, this is the first book of hers I’ve read. The Cows is the story of a woman who gets caught masturbating on public transport, admittedly far-fetched, but it’s more a comment on the shaming that comes after. I really liked the characters in this and found them all well-rounded, interesting women. A great beach read. Brit(ish) by Afua Hirsch A part memoir part comment on race in Britain by journalist and broadcaster Afua Hirsch, who is mixed English and Ghanaian. I enjoyed this because it turns racial stereotypes on their head. Afua is middle class and went to Cambridge, yet people assume she’s working class – such is …

#50booksin2018 June

Published by

June was a holiday month so I thought there’d be lots of reading but my holiday was a girls holiday so we were too busy having lots of hijinks for me to read too much. Plus, I had to read Riders for my book club and it’s a beast at over 900 pages, so that counts as two books. I’m definitely on track to read 50 books but I thought I’d be further along by now! Oh well, I guess life gets in the way – Anyway here’s June’s reads. So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed by Jon Ronson I’m such a big fan of Jon Ronson, I discovered him after listening to his fascinating Podcast ‘The Butterfly Effect‘ about the tech sector takeover of the porn industry. This book deals with an equally interesting topic – public shaming. Specifically in the modern, internet era. He talks to people whose lives have been turned upside down with just one ill-advised tweet or photo – and his writing style is so engaging and personal you’ll whizz through …

#50booksin2018 May

Published by

It’s the 5th month of my self-imposed #50booksin2018 challenge and it’s been a great month for reading. I’m a very lucky girl as I run a book club so lots of publishers send me books to review. This month I was inundated with some fab titles – I haven’t got through them all yet but the ones I did read were fantastic. Next month I’ll be on holiday so I’ve loaded up the Kindle and plan to read A LOT, until then, here are the books I read in May. Kismet by Luke Tredget I can’t believe this book was written by a man, the central character XXX is so relatable to me, the author really has the female psyche nailed. Kismet is a modern day anti-love story where most people find their mate via omnipotent dating app Kismet which assigns each person a compatibility score. XXXX is a journalist on the edge while looking for love. While this book is not a rollercoaster in terms of plot, the characters are incredibly well drawn and …

#50booksin2018 March & April

Published by

Full disclosure, I’ve done hardly any reading recently! Life gets in the way of even the most avid reader. In fact all the books I have read I’ve done so in a couple of days, rather than reading every day. In June I go on holiday to Italy though, so I already have the Kindle loaded and know I’ll make up for lost time. Here’s what I read in March and April… Red Clocks by Leni Zumas Red Clocks tells the story of a not too far-fetched America where abortion is once again illegal, as is IVF and single parent families. It follows five women with different issues around motherhood, pregnancy and abortion. I was really looking forward to reading this as I’m, you know, hashtag woke and all for women’s reproductive rights. However, I found the book really, really hard to get into at first. The plot is actually very interesting but I don’t feel I got to know any of the characters in any depth – it was like I was floating above …

2018 Reading Challenge #50Booksin2018

Published by

I love a challenge. I also love reading. I think you can see where I’m going with this… I oh-so-cleverly combined these two passions of mine to create my 2018 Book Challenge. I’ve decided to read (and document) 50 books this year. My best friend Ben did ask “why not 52?”, well, while there are 52 weeks in the year, I will most certainly have at least a couple of ‘lost weeks’ in 2018 where I’m either too hungover, ill or mentally inept to read. And to be honest, I probably won’t read a book a week. I’m a binger, I might go a month without reading, only to devour 10 books the next. Another great reason to write down every book I read is that I often forget what I’ve read in any given year. Last year I read loads of books (the perks of starting a book club) but I can only remember a few off the top of my head. I’m going to aim to review all 50 books I read this …