Work, Life, Balance

Summer is coming to a close and many people are returning to work after holidays, so it seemed an apt time to tell you about 'I Hope This Finds You Well' by Natalie Sue.

'Yinka, Where's Your Huzband?' by Lizzie Damilola Blackburn

As a book blogger, I'm fortunate enough to get sent both books and sample chapters from time to time.  One of these was 'Yinka, Where's Your Huzband?', and I remembered enjoying it enough to seek it out when it was finally published earlier this year.

Love Fools (Nearly)

'The Love Delusion' by Nicola Mostyn

Last year, I thoroughly enjoyed Nicola Mostyn's chick-lit-adventure-comedy-fantasy mash up 'The Gods of Love', so you can imagine how excited I was when a follow up was announced.  So, did 'The Love Delusion' leave me smitten all over again?

Frida McKenzie is the most cynical of all divorce lawyers, independent, self-assured and, above all, really great at her job.  So great in fact that she's rapidly rising through the ranks of 'The Love Delusion', a movement determined to rid the world of it's illogical obsession with love.  Frida's even become the lawyer of choice for new converts and been given the chance to meet the movement's founder, the elusive R. A. Stone. Everything looks rosy, until a chance meeting with a strange yet familiar protestor plants a seed of doubt in her mind. Where did the Love Delusion come from, and why can't she remember her life before it?  Who is this strange man and why is there a photo of them together hidden in her home?  Could it be there's something important that she's somehow forgotten?

Great Expectations

'Expectation' by Anna Hope (Transworld, 2019)

A few years ago, I read Anna Hope's 'Wake', a thoughtful novel set in the aftermath of the First World War and structured around the return of the Unknown Warrior.  This was followed by 'The Ballroom', also set in the early 20th century.  In the forthcoming 'Expectation', Hope arrives in the 21st century with a story of three modern women and the challenges faced when dreams don't become reality.

London, 2004: Hannah, Cate and Lissa are best friends, housemates with their whole lives ahead of them and high hopes for successful careers, fulfilling relationships and ongoing friendship.  But ten years on, they are not where they expected to be.  Despite their best efforts, things have not gone to plan - in work, in marriage or in motherhood.  As the gap between their twenty-something aspirations and the thirty-something reality dawns, they struggle to reconcile the two.  Faced with an overwhelming desire to salvage something of their youthful hopes and dreams, each acts desperately in a last ditch attempt to find the satisfaction they crave.  As obsession, lust and regret take hold, can their friendship survive its greatest test?

Mama, We're All Sweary Now

'Why Mummy Swears' by Gill Sims (HarperCollins, 2019)

I haven't read 'Why Mummy Drinks', but I did recently finish 'Why Mummy Swears', Gill Sims' potty-mouthed sequel, continuing Ellen's story of contemporary motherhood and family life.

'Why Mummy Swears' follows mother-of-two Ellen through another 12 months of ups, downs, wobbles and squabbles.  While her son Peter ignores her in favour of his tablet, her daughter Jane only speaks to her to demand an Instagram account.  Outside the house, Ellen's been suckered into chairing their school's PTA (because no one else will) and her father's Big News has got her pretentious sister Jessica tied up in knots. On top of this, her well of ideas has dried up and it's becoming clear that working from home on a new money-making scheme is not going to pan out.  Fortunately, Ellen's dream job comes up just in time.  But can she rely on her husband Simon to step up and do his fair share of the parenting so she can go back to work full-time?

More than Skin Deep

I've just finished 'The Illustrated Man' by Ray Bradbury, a collection of short pieces by the master story teller.

'The Illustrated Man' by
Ray Bradbury
(Harper Voyager, 2008)

When the unnamed narrator meets the Illustrated Man on a deserted Wisconsin road, he has no idea what secrets he has hidden beneath his thick shirt.  For the Illustrated Man's skin is tattooed with pictures that grow, move and tell stories of the future, cursing every moment of his life as they writhe beneath his skin.  Driven to despair and unable to hold down a job for more than a few days, the Illustrated Man keeps moving from place to place searching for a peace he will never find.  On this particular night, as he drifts off to sleep, the narrator becomes entranced as the tales of hope, beauty, horror and revenge come to life before him...

Mr Bradbury is most famous 'Fahrenheit 451', the novel about a dystopian future where books are banned and burned and a life lived through TV is the norm.  Similar themes of threat, dehumanisation and how we gain and loose from technological developments also run through 'The Illustrated Man'.

Sometimes technology turns on us and leads to disaster, as in 'The City' or 'Kaleidoscope', while 'The Rocket' is a story of how it inspires.  'Marionettes, inc' and 'Usher II', clearly related to 'Fahrenheit 451', show dashes of dark humour, while 'The Fox and the Forest' is a thriller that just happens to be about time travel.  'The Other Foot' explores racial hatred from a new perspective, while 'The Veldt' and 'Zero Hour' show a worrying distrust of children.

The best science fiction is always about humanity and this collection of stories is no exception.  It's probably a bit more niche than some of what I've read previously, as in there are stories actually set in space and on other planets, but overall this ensemble captured my imagination, without frightening me off with the 'sciency bit'.

I've never really understood why people dismiss science fiction.  Why write off a whole genre? A good story is a good story, whether it's set in the past, present, future or a space station somewhere to the left of Mars.  As is often the case, many of these stories can be filed under more than one category, which I think makes them easier to recommend to people who would normally baulk at the idea of reading science fiction.

Overall, if you're going to read science fiction short stories, Bradbury is where you start.  I also enjoy Asimov, but his stories are basically logic problems as he tries to find holes in the three laws of robotics.  But that's a review for another time!

Back to the Future

Although I like a variety of books and stories, there is one genre that I tend to shy away from; 'chick lit'.  I know I shouldn't be prejudiced to a whole type of literature because of its name, but I find it hard not to be when there's no 'bloke books' category.  As if anyone in the 21st century should choose what to read based on whether they're a boy or a girl!

Anyway, despite this, there are a few chick lit novels on the list and I've just finished reading one of them - 'Remember Me?' by Sophie Kinsella.

'Remember Me?' tells the story of Lexi, an ordinary girl who who wakes up from a coma to find she's

'Remember Me?' by
Sophie Kinsella
(Bantam Press, 2008)

forgotten the last three years of her life.  The last thing she remembers is being a disappointed 25 year old with a low grade job, absentee boyfriend and few prospects, although she does have a fantastic group of friends.  Now in 2007, she discovers she's a company director with a rich and attractive husband and more designer clothes and accessories than she could've imagined three years earlier.  Somehow, things have changed for the better, but as Lexi begins living her new life, it starts looking less than perfect...

This was a cheery, well written book which trundled along quite happily. The characters were easy to visualise and it had the lovely feel of watching the film equivalent of chick lit, a rom com.  It did make me laugh a few times and Lexi is a likeable character who is easy to root for - after all, who hasn't sometimes felt out of touch and as though everyone else knows something they don't?

'Remember Me?' is a breezy, holiday read that would cheer up all but the most hard hearted of readers.

One word of warning: This book contains strong language and scenes of a sexual nature.  Not the best present for your prudish maiden aunt, that's all I'm saying!

Now, what next..?