Opening sentence: “Does it have any scaffolding around the bust?” To give it its full title: The Importance of Being Aisling: County Roads, Take Her Home is the sequel to Oh My God, What a Complete Aisling. I recently spotted it in the airport on my way back from a trip to Dublin and I just […]
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Why Mummy Swears by Gill Sims Opening sentence: “I have one week till the summer holidays begin.” Why Mummy Swears is a year in the life of exasperated mum of two, Ellen Russell. I had a smile on my face from the first page, put simply: It’s just really, really funny. It might be because […]
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Not Working by Lisa Owens. Audiobook narrated by Tuppence Middleton. Opening sentence: “There is a man standing outside my flat wearing khaki greens and a huge ‘Free Palestine’ badge.” Read by the wonderfully named Tuppence Middleton, I listened to Lisa Owen’s debut novel on audiobook and laughed out loud more than once on the train, […]
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Who is Tom Ditto? by Danny Wallace Opening sentence: “The evening of June the 12th was unusual for many reasons in the end, of course, but it was unusual mostly because the evening of June the 12th was the evening my girlfriend did not leave me.” This was an impulse library pick up that I’m […]
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Oh My God, What a Complete Aisling: Just a Small-Town Girl Living in a Notions World by Emer McLysaght and Sarah Breen Opening sentence: “Your one Aisling is absolutely gas, isn’t she?” You may have got a hint from the title, this book is very Irish. What I mean by that is it’s jam-packed full of Irish […]
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Dear Mrs Bird by AJ Pearce Opening sentence: “When I first saw the advertisement in the newspaper I thought I might actually burst.” Set in London during the Second World War, we meet Emmeline Lake, she dreams of being a Lady War Correspondent, so accepts a job at Woman’s Friend magazine to start her journalism […]
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Trying by Emily Phillips Opening sentence: “‘Maybe we should try some porn?’ I say lightly into my husband’s exasperated face.” This is the debut novel by Grazia magazine’s Features Director, Emily Phillips. She has been open about her struggle to conceive a baby and, as she put it: “to channel my emotions, I wrote a book, […]
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