‘Never trust anyone who has not brought a book with them.’ - Lemony Snicket
- Hazel Butterfield
- 14 June 2024
'The best moments in reading are when you come across something – a thought, a feeling, a way of looking at things – which you had thought special and particular to you. Now here it is, set down by someone else, a person you have never met, someone even who is long dead. And it is as if a hand has come out and taken yours.' - Alan Bennett, The History Boys
Things Don’t Break On Their Own - Sarah Easter Collins (Released 20/06/2024)
When a young teenage girl goes missing one day on her way to school, the family are left wondering for over 2 decades what actually happened on that fateful day that lead to her disappearance. The media speculation and the pressures we regularly see can be relentless and scarily judgemental, fuelling the media fire, but rarely helpfully so.
Indeed, things do not break on their own, there is normally a cause and honesty surrounding that is based on how a family or friends ‘operate’.
I found many areas of this fictional novel very metaphorical, how desperation and fear prophesizes repetition of cycles and mistakes in life and how preconceived perceptions are problematic and seldom accurate. But sometimes there are things we need to do to survive.
This thriller was incredibly gripping, right from the off.
Cursed Under London - Gabby Hutchinson Crouch (Released 04/07/2024)
A brilliantly fantastical look at an alternative Elizabethan London where ‘normies’, vampires, zombies, werewolf’s and everything else have all agreed to rules where they can all co-exist. But it is still London, and underground crime will always exist. However, when 2 seemingly quite different men find each other through sharing the same immortal affliction, an adventure ensues where they try and uncover what is going on and undo wrongs that are close to their heart. I really loved it!
Five Days - Zóe Folbigg (Released on 26th July)
Can you imagine going back to basics when developing a friendship? You don’t swap numbers or surnames, so there’s no googling each other, and you can’t just text to change plans you make. No false personas hiding behind a keyboard, it’s just face to face contact and being ‘IRL’. Sometimes going back to basics is what you need to remember who you are, especially after losing yourself. I’m a little bit Jealous of Minnie and Jesse. This was a one-dayer that I thoroughly loved devouring.
Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing - Matthew Perry
I decided to read following his death, like many did, hearing about what emerged about just how bad his addiction issues were and how much we took for granted having ‘Chandler’ when Matthew Perry spent over 2 decades narrowly avoiding death with his chronic addictions, until he didn’t. He is not the first major star to struggle with such issues and he won’t be the last, but he is part of a particular group of ‘famous people’ that were larger than life and were iconically funny who constantly fought a self-destructive battle that we knew very little about until it was too late.
It's not all about the problems he had, it tells a story of how he got to where he was and the incredible opportunities that he had, friendships that continually supported him, his creativity, mistakes and personality traits. He holds no punches in saying what he means and having an opinion. He talks honestly about the utter chaos that addiction brings to the psyche and those caught up in it.
It's sad and funny, eye opening, real, graphic and a great example of someone trying to help you understand the complexities of addiction for those of us who may be lucky enough to not be afflicted. To have more compassion.