'Talking as Fast as I Can' by Lauren Graham

 

I'm going to preface this by saying that I'm no massive Gilmore Girls fan, or read many autobiographies. This book was something I picked up a few years ago and it's been staring at me from my shelves ever since, but I'm glad I read it. Everyone has an interesting life and I enjoyed seeing insights to the backstage of what Hollywood and actor life is really like.

Talking as Fast As I Can is Lauren Graham's autobiography that she released in the same year as the 'Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life' series. It tracks her early years from being born in Hawaii, to living in Japan with her father, to her moving towards a career in acting. It takes us through the trials and tribulations of trying to 'make it' as an actress, and how important Gilmore Girls was to Graham. There's a whole chapter at the end dedicated to the show's revival, that gives insights to acting around all the big names in the series and what it was like to bring the show back to life again.

If I'm honest, the final chapter was the bit that I enjoyed least out of the book. I've watched a lot of the original show, but not the revival series. However, for any Gilmore Girls fan I think this would be a must-read because it gives so many titbits of info about filming and the process leading up to it. The book was well written, and I loved hearing all about what Hollywood's like and how hard it is to get into the acting scene. It gave an insight into what it's like to be the real person behind things like audition rejections, the pressure to have a certain body in show business, and gossip columns.

I gave this three out of five stars, and it's reminded me that I do like to read autobiographies.

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Review of 'The Husband's Secret' by Liane Moriarty

 

Liane Moriarty feels like one of those authors that everyone's tried at least once and who has a real cult following. I've wanted to read some of her books for years: a bit of romance and a bit of a mystery is right up my street.

The Husband's Secret is told from three perspectives: Cecelia who finds a secret letter her husband has hidden, Rachel who is still on the hunt for her daughter's killer, and Tess who is reeling from the most shocking news she's ever received. Living in a suburb in Australia, the three are desperately trying to keep their lives together in the face of absolute turmoil. At the heart of the novel is the question of what happened to Rachel's teen daughter all those years ago. She was found strangled in a park, and her spectre haunts the whole novel and whole community as no one knows 'whodunnit'.

Sometimes I struggle with multi-perspective books, but I did enjoy this one. The three women all had distinct voices, and their stories interacted with each other, which is something that always makes me enjoy these types of books more. The book was filled with twists that I absolutely did not see coming and I was hooked. My one issue with the book (and the reason I've given it 4 rather than 5 stars) is that is was filled with fatphobic comments throughout. I found this very disappointing, and it did ruin the story a little for me. I'm hoping the same isn't the case in Moriarty's other books.

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Review of 'The Switch' by Beth O'Leary

 

I read The Flatshare last year and really enjoyed it, so I knew I wanted to read The Switch as soon as I realised Beth O'Leary had brought out another book. Both are the perfect easy-going book to read when everything else feels a little too stressful, and I've now been recommending The Switch to pretty much everyone I know. 

The book is told from two perspectives. One is Leena, a young woman working in London who's not particularly happy with her job or her relationship; the other is Eileen, Leena's grandmother who lives in Yorkshire and is just a bit bored of her life. When the pair decide to swap homes for a couple of months, neither quite knows just how big an effect this is going to have on their lives. 

It's rare that I love both perspectives in a book like this. Usually there's one set of chapters that I'm skimming through to get to my favourite narrator, but with this I loved both parts equally. Eileen is a feisty Yorkshire nan who puts everyone she meets in their place in London, which I LOVED. And Leena really does go on a journey of self discovery with the elderly friends of Eileen. 

This book was exactly what I needed when I was going through a bit of a reading slump to really make me love a book again. I was hooked on the plot, and even though it wasn't an overly dramatic read, or something crammed with twists and turns, I found I was looking forward to picking it up every time I got a chance.

I gave this five stars, and would snap up O'Leary's next book in a heartbeat. I'd recommend this for fans of Cecelia Ahern and Jenny Colgan.

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Review of 'And the Mountains Echoed' by Khaled Hosseini

I read The Kite Runner a couple of years ago now and absolutely loved it. It wasn't quite what I was expecting (I had no idea that the big awful event in it happened), but the book was so moving and beautifully written that I knew I had to read Hosseini's other works. I've still got to read A Thousand Splendid Suns, and I'm excited to do so.

And the Mountains Echoed tells the story of Pari and Abduallah, two young siblings that are separated when their father is forced to sell Pari to a childless couple to help support the family. The book is told almost in a series of short stories, all from the perspective of someone connected in some way to the two families involved in the transaction. The book spans decades and a myriad of countries, moving on to characters more loosely and more closely connected to this story of sibling loss at the heart of it.

The book is hard to speak about in any detail without giving too many spoilers because of the way it is structured. It took me a while to work out what was happening with the different perspectives, but I really loved how everything tied back to the core story. I enjoyed working out how each new character at the forefront of a chapter was connected to Pari and Abdullah's story. This book made me WEEP at the end, and for someone who's never a fan of short stories, or books written in this kind of style, I was shocked I felt so connected to the characters.

I feel like Hosseini is an incredible writer, and gave this book four stars. There were a couple of chapters that I found I lost interest in a little because they were more tenuously linked to the rest of the book, but overall it was a great read. 

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Review of 'Nervous Conditions' by Tsitsi Dangarembga

 

This is the first book published in English by a black Zimbabwean woman and was only published in 1988, which really did shock me. I really didn't know what to expect from the book (it was a Kindle download with a vague synopsis), but I really enjoyed it, and can see why it's so highly acclaimed.

Tambu is desperate to go to school, but can't find a way to do so until her brother passes away and she goes to live with her aunt and uncle in his place. This extended family, including a cousin of hers, have been living in England, and Tambu must try to reconcile the life and traditions she's always known with how this family behaves. Tambu grew up in a rural village, and the book retrospectively tells her story of her teenage and adult years as being something more influenced by white people, particularly missionaries. 

The book touches upon so many key themes: loss, family life, traditional Shona life, postcolonialism, spirituality and missionaries, race and gender. I loved Tambu's character, and felt that seeing everything that happens in the book through a child's eyes made for an interesting perspective. I felt the section at the end where she finally gets what she's thought she wanted, and realised it's not quite what she expected (trying not to give any spoilers here) was especially poignant.

I really enjoyed this, and felt it taught me a lot about the Shona people. 

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Review of 'A Court of Frost and Starlight' by Sarah J Maas

 

This year I've worked my way through the whole of the ACOTAR series and loved it. I'm really hoping the new book coming out in January doesn't disappoint. This was my least favourite book in the series, and I *think* mostly because I'm not a big fan of novellas. It felt like a bit of a stepping stone between the end of the last book (which I felt finished really well), and whatever's in the upcoming one. 

It's nearing Winter Solstice and after finding out everyone buys each other presents, Feyre's determined to impress her new family. At the same time however, they're all struggle in the aftermath of the battle they faced: Feyre's unsure of her place as High Lady, Nesta won't talk to anyone, Rhys is keeping himself as busy as possible and Amren's adjusting to her new life. In the background of the festivities is the army's growing discontent that Cassian's trying to keep under control.

I still enjoyed this one - the writing was beautiful as always, but I felt with it being quite a short book that there wasn't *that* much plot. It felt like Maas brought out a Christmas special, but one that still had some really great elements. I loved the descriptions of some of the gifts, and having the chapters from a whole range of different perspectives was very interesting.

I gave this four stars as it's a nice addition to the series, but I don't think it's as powerful as the other books. 

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Review of 'Go Set a Watchman' by Harper Lee

 

This is hands down the most disappointing book I've read all year, or in fact for quite some time. I read it almost back to back with To Kill A Mockingbird, and if you're thinking of doing the same I would really recommend not, because it completely retrospectively ruined it for me.

Go Set a Watchman takes place when Jean Louise is grown up. We learn that Jem has died (not a spoiler, this is shown right at the start) and that she's going back to her home town to see her dad and childhood friend. She's struggling to unite her modern life in New York with her understanding of what it's like to live in a small town again, and comes across challenges she never anticipated.

There are so many things that disappointed me about this book, and you can see why Harper Lee never wanted it published. For starters, Jem's death seemed like a bit of an easy write out? It was just announced and then Jean Louise never really mentioned that she missed him. Her love interest too was meant to be one of her best childhood friends and despite racking my brains over and over again I just couldn't remember him ever being mentioned in To Kill a Mockingbird. And then we have her relationship with her dad. The whole book basically works off the premise that Jean Louise finds out that Atticus isn't the good man she always thought he was, and this is really where I felt the original book was ruined. 

I have this one star and really wouldn't recommend reading it, especially if you're a Harper Lee fan.

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Review of 'Clap When You Land' by Elizabeth Acevedo

 

I've heard so much about how much of a tear-jerker/heart destroying book this is over the last year or so, and knew I had to read it. Whilst the book didn't *actually* make me cry (I was feeling particularly hard hearted at the time), I did enjoy it and can definitely see why it came with this reputation. The use of a verse narrative made it a quick read that was easy to dip in and out of.

Clap When You Land is told from two perspectives: Camino lives with her aunt in the Dominican Republic, and Yahaira lives with her Mum and Dad in New York City. Both are devastated when they find out their father was killed on a flight to the Dominican Republic and shocked when they find out they have a half sister in another country. With their world's turned upside down, Camino and Yahaira are faced with the tough decision of whether to learn more about their father's second life in exchange for getting to know a sister they never thought they had.

I always have a favourite when a book is told by more than one narrator and in this I felt much more connected to Camino. I enjoyed learning about Yahaira's story and life, but just not quite as much. The book obviously focused on loss, but it also focused on family, growing up and had LGBT elements. I felt like the two girls learning more about themselves and each other through the loss of their father was very poignant and I loved seeing them both really start to come into their own.

I would recommend this if you enjoyed the writing style of Girl, Woman, Other, or for fans of Beautiful Broken Things by Sara Barnard, as both books are YA but don't focus on girlfriend/boyfriend relationships at their core. 

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Review of 'My Sister Lives on the Mantelpiece' by Annabel Lee

 

This book has been sat on my shelf for YEARS waiting to be read. It's something that I just didn't feel that drawn to picking up and thought it would be a big tear jerker because the premise is that it's told from the perspective of someone whose sister has died. 

10-year-old Jamie's older sister was killed five years ago in a terror attack. He still hasn't cried. His whole life was turned upside down when Rose died: his parents aren't living together anymore, he doesn't know when he'll next see his mum, he's having to go to a new school AND everything anyone does is always about Rose. He struggles to understand why his sister Jasmine, Rose's twin, can't see things from his perspective. 

At his new school, Jamie makes friends with a Muslim girl and knows his dad would be angry if he knew: you see, his dad spouts hate about Muslims, blaming all of them for the attack that killed his daughter, even on the rare occasions he is sober. Jamie's torn, and is suddenly faced with understanding that perhaps not everything he thought was true actually is.

I found this a bit of a tough read, not really because of the loss of a sister, but because of the Islamophobia throughout. Although it's used to show how Islamophobic the parents are, it's something that was quite extreme in the book, and presented really as the only way the dad could understand his daughter's death. It kicks off in a shocking way, and if nothing else the book highlights how a parent's prejudice can easily be passed on to a child. There are a whole load of tough topics in this: the obvious ones are grief and loss, but it also looks into alcoholism, eating disorders and family break ups, all from the perspective of a child. I definitely think this was more of a teen book than YA. There were parts of it I did enjoy, but I struggled to connect with the characters, which is why I gave it three stars. 

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