Fiction-wise, February has been very varied, which has been a delight! I met a new favourite character, read two very different – but highly entertaining – thrillers and enjoyed a contemporary read around the pressures of trying for a baby. Trying is the debut novel by Grazia magazine’s Features Director and is that great combo of a funny book tackling a serious subject. Plus, I also hit my one-non-fiction-a-month-goal. So, my reads were:
- Trying by Emily Phillips – review here
- Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman – review here
- Cranberry Lane by Laurèn Lee – review here
- Everything is Lies by Helen Callaghan – review here
- The Diving-Bell and the Butterfly by Jean-Dominique Bauby – review here
Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine is one of those rare books that I’ll recommend to everyone and will stay with me for a long time. Eleanor is an exceptional character and she’s just so wonderfully written. A strong contender for my book of the year (I realise this is a bold claim with the year only being 2 months old, but that’s how much I loved it!)
The Diving-Bell and the Butterfly was my non-fiction choice and was truly inspiring. The author, Jean-Dominique Bauby suffered a stroke that left him only able to communicate by blinking his left eye, so that is how he wrote this book – blinking out each letter to his speech therapist. It’s an astounding achievement and, most importantly, a beautiful read.
I also had a little chat with Laurèn Lee, a fellow Harry Potter fan and author of the captivating thriller, Cranberry Lane. Take a look at my interview here and find out what inspired her book.
I had a great trip to the library last week, so have three books lined up for March – Himself by Jess Kidd (which I’ve started, loving it so far), The Thirty-Nine Steps by John Buchan and First Love by Gwendoline Riley, the latter of which was on the Bailey’s Prize 2017 shortlist, so I have high hopes for that one. I need to add a non-fiction into that mix, so let me know if you have any recommendations!
On a side note, today is World Book Day, so schools and nurseries encourage children to dress up as their favourite book characters to celebrate the joy of reading. I love this initiative and I love any excuse to dress my son up in a costume, so he’s gone to nursery dressed as his favourite book character – The Gruffalo! He loves reading his story books, wonder where he gets that from…
Books on the 7:47 