I am a part of everything I have ever read - Theodore Roosevelt

 

"You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view - until you climb into his skin and walk around in it." - To Kill a Mockingbird

 

My Will - Nicola Vivian

This memoir is told over a number of decades, detailing a variety of era’s in our lives that affect us. This is a raw and realistic representation of how tricky, varied and harrowing life can be and about trying to find peace or manage your demons. How love and addiction can be such a powerful determining and overriding factor in our lives and psyche and addiction can be manifest itself in many forms.

Something that happens to us in the present is rarely isolated in being the only factor that affects our response(s) and overall well-being.

Not only was ‘My Will’ relatable but also Nicola highlights a very real issue of how we need to educate our children on mental health and well-being. To help them understand their fears and emotions.

zuleika.london/product/my-will/

 

Don’t Hold My Head Down - Lucy-Anne Holmes

I love that whole concept of a book recommending a person, by which I mean seeing someone reading a book is a great window to who they are. This is why I love some of the more controversial titles and making them seen. This book hooked me quite quickly and I found myself reading while walking the streets (to get somewhere), on the train and lying on a low level wall while waiting for my boy to finish school, oblivious to passers by!

What an honest and funny journey. I particularly found the chronological timeline of Women’s liberation and subjugation a scary yet useful reminder.

Lucy-Anne nailed so much realism, it’s reminded me of some of my childhood (and up to mid-thirties) shenanigans. How boring is must be for those that don’t have an awkward history?! Bonkers and brilliant.

 

The Unlucky Ones - Kerry Wilkinson

Book no. 14 in the series and still going strong. When you’re invested in a series for this long, it kind of feels like going home. All fuzzy and warm, yet with violence, crime, sarcasm and lashings of kitkats.

The way Kerry Wilkinson writes Jessica’s character is an absolute delight to read. The mixture of policing politics and juggling crimes stories within each book is portrayed with ease and you rarely know which direction it’s going to land on.

The Unlucky Ones refers to so many different levels of what is happening in his latest Jessica Daniels book, where people are mysteriously dying in circumstances where they’d previously survived, the housing estate with the highest crime in the city suddenly has none and an unexpected delivery. Chop chop with the next one.

Read more about Kerry Wilkinson and the Jessica Daniels series here:

Kerry Wilkinson & The Jessica Daniel Novels

 

 

World’s Worst Teachers - David Walliams

With 3 World’s Worst Children books under his belt, it seems like a natural progression to create an array of world’s worst teachers. A selection of which; have a phobia of children, power crazed pocket-money stealers, sadistic dinner ladies and general nut jobs. Prolifically utilising word’s like poo, bogeys and made up words from the ‘Walliamsictionary’ satisfying my children’s (and many others I’m sure) requirements. As ever.

I’m still waiting for him to produce an adult version of World’s Worst Adults - Narcissistic Nicola, Jealous Jimmy, Toxic Tanya and Misogynist Marv. C’mon Walliams...

 

As ever, keep you recommendations coming in and do let me know if you want to be featured on my ‘Get Booked’ Radio show.

 

 

Previously Book Review Blogs:

Books about getting to know who you are...

“The book to read is not the one that thinks for you but the one which makes you think.” ― Harper Lee