Book one was a real page turner and I'm happy to say that the momentum continued.

We continue to follow Ana in a world split into two. Two societies, one country. Those with mental health issues are segregated, medicated and regulated while the 'Pures' live a life of luxury and freedom.

This was a decent conclusion on the overall plot and while it felt very surface level, I think the author made her point well.

The fat phobia in these books is awful. Fat bodies are described in the most horrendous way. Double chin feature everywhere.

These are a feminists nightmare. The way these women project themselves, how the think about men and how they literally stomp all over other women is disgusting.

And don't even get me started on the flippant way domestic violence is handled.

This is utter trash, yet it's a four stars from me!

Here we follow Sarah, her elder sister left when she was in her teens, never to be seen again. It's decades later when she gets the call that her sister is dead, found on a compound, part of a cult, and leaves behind three children.

This is split into two timelines, one where we follow Sarah navigating these three ophaned children. The other, her elder sister and children in their cult life.

I was far more interested in the present day.

We follow our only protagonist Maya as she sits in a police interview describing her life in recent years. She been held in a garden by a man she calls The Gardener, she has tattooed wings on her back and she is covered in cuts and bruises.

In places this was a real pager turner, in others a slow pulse. I do think it lacked a second perspective, it would have been good to have chapters from the Gardener also.

Through the eyes of three women we follow the lives of those living on an estate in Sevenoaks, UK.

Like is fairly uneventful on the estate, just the usual neighbourly gossip. Until a big cat shows up.

I was really into this. It's a fabulous page turner, the characters felt alive and I genuinely felt I knew them. It's a very entertaining read.

Marguerite, a New Zealander, married a bedouin back in the seventies and lived with him in his cave raising their three children.
This was such an insight and very refreshing to read such an energetic and positive memoir from the region.

It was also interesting as the bedouin were telling me about their clashes in recent years with the authorities who have pushed them from their caves to housing units and how they have commercialised Petra.

Jayne and Barbara (Bunny) aren't particularly close sisters. Bunny runs away as a teen, she keeps in touch here and there but nothing is consistent. Then she repears years later with 3 children in tow which she abandons with Jayne.
Bunny is sad, broken, unstable. Jayne is put together., solid, reliable.
And without meaning too, with the best intentions, between them they are going to create 6 messed up children.
I couldn't put this book down.

A destination thriller set is Abu Dhabi - I was excited to read this however the most exciting part turned out to be getting to the final pages.
Can we please stop putting in sexual assault references that do nothing for the story. It does not advance the story in any way.
And, aren't we bored of the unreliable unstable female narrative now? It's been done over and over again and it becoming insulting.

We follow Sarah through two timelines. One where she is 15, the other in her forties. Both versions of this character felt silly, naive and sometimes damn right stupid.
The supporting characters aren't much better and the plot doesn't go anywhere.
The title feels like click bait to me, I thought I was in for a real deep dive into Slag culture of thr 90's but this wasn't it.
I'm just not sure what this book is meant to be.

We follow Evie whose in a relationship with Ryan and we quickly realise that neither one of them are being completely honest, but whose playing who?

I was fully invested in the lives of these characters. As much as I tried to guess the twist and turns, I was wrong every time.

If you're looking for a fast paced thriller that doesn't rely on sexual assault or unreliable female narratives to be thrilling, this is a good option.

Our main protagonist is Ana. She's 18 and lives in a future where society is pretty much controlled by the pharmaceutical industry and the people are split into two main groups.

Those with mental health issues are outcasts who are registered with the government and are force fed medication 'for their own good'. Their world is unsafe, unstable and damn right hard.

Meanwhile the 'pure' people live in a world full of luxury and safety.

Meet Julia, she's a synthetic and she's been made especially to win the heart of Josh in the reality show, The Proposal.

I enjoyed reading this, I was equally invested in both timelines. While at points you have to suspend your disbelief, overall I thought it was well thought out.

If you enjoyed Annie Bot by Sierra Greer, I think you will love this!

We meet Rachel as she's sitting in the passenger seat of the family car. Tom, her husband, is driving. Their two young children in the back. They had been at Tom's parents that afternoon, the drive home is just routine. Or it is until her husband apologises and runs the car off the road.
This wasn't an easy read yet I could have read it in one sitting. The grief and shock represented is very real, raw and ugly to look at.

I was surprised by how invested I was in this book considering the protagonist is quite young and comes across very young. Also, it's the trope of naive girl locked up in the moon her entire life but once released can slay the baddies, I'd usually eye roll at this trope but I didn't mind it here.

This is a retelling of the Chinese Mid Autumn Legend. I know very little of Chinese legends but that didn't impact my reading enjoyment.

I think this is my first real climate change fiction and it's blown me away to be honest. This book felt so real that every blow of the wind, every beat of the sun, has confused me. My reality has mixed with this reading experience and now I'm so element aware I'm on the verge on turning into a prepper.

This version of end of the world as we know it is so female and I love it. I watched this from the pages, this is so adaptable for screen.

A family saga set primarily in Kuwait, yes please!

I love this book! I love a family saga generally but there's always extra points when they are set in the Middle East. I love the array of nationalities which is so common here, the unique histories, the displacements, the found family. The complicated love of a country.

Don't be put off by the number of characters, the author does a fantastic job of keeping everything straight in your mind.

Ireland is falling apart. The government is turning against its people and Eilish's husband has disappeared. As a mother of four, with a father slowly losing his memories, Eilish is in full survival mode.

This book is raw, intense and made my heart pound. Every scene here we've seen on the news. We know this story, but we're aren't used to reading about it affecting Westerners. Affecting white people.

And that's the point.

I'm not normally one for short story collections but I'd never read from Curtis Sittenfeld before and this seemed like a good way to sample their work.

And it was.

I really loved the writing style and will definitely be checking out the full length novels.

I enjoyed every story in the collection to varying degrees.

Stand outs would be A for Alone, White Women LOL and Patron Saints for Middle Age.

Book two in The Last Binding trilogy, and in this one, we are searching for the second object that forms part of the Last Contract.

I wish I'd learn from my mistakes and would read series without gaps. I read book one over a year ago, and it took me a fair few chapters to get back into this world.

I did, however, get back into it, and while I didn't love this adventure as much, it was a decent read, and it was nice to get to know Maud better.

Meet Emily who in her own words is as dopey as a potato. She has ditched her job as a Librarian in the US to go to Ireland and help her favorite author write the last book of her favorite childhood series.

Once in Ireland, Emily quickly meets the son of her favorite author and his bulging arms and deep eyes have her in full on giddy mode.

And so the romance begins

Average read.

I don't know what to say about this book. I've read five women's prize winners now and enjoyed them all, this is the first one that's disappointed me.

Or is it me?

This is described as a uncomfortable stream of consciousness but it feels like a word dump to me. Words at random dumped on a page and it didn't matter how much I concentrated, I had no idea what I was reading or what was going on.

It's a one star from me unfortunately.

Set in Sri Lanka we follow our protagonist Sashi from 1981 to 2009. She's sixteen when we met her, she has 4 brothers and the civil war between the Tamils and Sinhalese is brewing.

This book is brutal and unflinching as you'd expect war to be. The fact this is so recent, and still bubbling away makes this an important read.

Five stars. I couldn't look away.

We follow three children under the age of 13 who have witnessed the death of their mother at their fathers hands. They've been living with their grandparents since who have handled their traumas, the moods, the bed wetting, the fears along with daily life and life has slowly settled.

Then dad is released from prison.

This isn't a badly written book, it's just below standard to what I expect from this author.

Here we follow two main characters. Nick a young man with an addiction to Class A drugs and Henry, a middle aged therapist.

This book is a deep dive into the relationship between counsellor and client and how in many cases the lives of the trained are as equally messed up and toxic as those of their clients.

I think this book had real insight into these topics and has a good amount to say on it, however it was executed poorly in my opinion.

This is a short story collection featuring Vietnamese characters at home, abroad or returning home.

There are 8 stories in total, around 25 pages per story. I really loved this authors writing style so I'll definitely be checking out his full length novel The Sympathiser.

I'm not the best audience for short stories, I feel like I don't have enough time to get to know the characters and who they are.

Set in Syria during the uprising, we follow Salama, a girl in her late teens, battling day to day life under the Assad regime.

With the recent fall of Assad, this felt like a timely read.

I want to read these books to understand some of what's going on politically in Syria and to see the everyday person having to life under these circumstances. What does survival look like for someone whose country runs in their veins.

Fantastic book.

"It is a pity you hate women so much" I tell him "because you are going to spend the rest of your life pissing like one".

What a line!

One of the things I love about historical fiction is that it introduces you to people we should know and Martha Ballard is one of those people and while this book doesn't stick 100% to the facts, it's pretty close all in all.

I was drawn into this book straightaway and loved every page.

It's 2031, Siberia. The snow is melting and bodies are being recovered, bodies defrosting along with their viruses.

This was an interesting concept and one I hadn't thought of before (and I've listened to many podcasts on the amount of bodies currently resting on various mountains globally).

The format of this novel is also interesting. It's almost like short stories. Each chapter features a different perspective of the virus spreading.

We follow our main protagonist, Penelope, whose middle name is Elliot which she just doesn't understand as Elliot is typically a boys name. This bothers 'Pen' so much that she digs into her parents past and finds a guy called Elliot Lennox who is now a famous writer so she sets out to connect with him.

If this sounds flimsy to you, I can assure you that it reads flimsy to me also.

All in all, this was a miss for me.

Ugh. I hate to end my reading year this way but what is this book.
I was expecting to cycle from the US to Vietnam but actually there's a few planes being boarded here and while that's OK, it didn't make a very interesting journey.
This centres around a young man whose family left Vietnam for the United States after the war and his epic return to the fatherland.
While the story of the family is interesting, the journey is a bit of a flop.

This is my second book my Mellors and I really like her writing. She manages to create fully dimensional characters with deep flaws in very few words.
She can also create a visual flash of lightening, the type of lightening only two characters can create who are entirely wrong for each other. The heady passion and intensity that is equally addictive and toxic.
My favourite kind of love story.

At this stage we all know what Israel is however reading a first hand account by a young woman is incredibly emotional.
We hear on the news that Isreal controls the water, but reading how that effects everyday life hurts my heart.
We know Israel had no respect for human life.
I'm glad we have so many resources to continue to educate ourselves and the message is getting out, eyes are being opened.
it's short and another voice we need to amplify

This is exactly what the cover suggests, a fluffy Christmas romance full of cheer.

We follow our main character Callie who is spending her first Christmas as a singleton after her long term partner ditched her for someone more exciting.

This book is cute and it was great to read a romance where the female character is smart and doesn't make stupid errors to drive the plot forward.

This is everything a 2024 romance release should look like.

Set in Kuwait, this covers the Iraqi invasion and subsequent occupation while getting into the nitty gritty of the Sunni / Shi'a divisions.

I know about and have read about the Iraqi occupation before and this book built on that knowledge but this was my first deep dive into the two interpretations within Islam.

This has definitely pipped my interest into this topic and I would reread this book once I'm more educated on the subjects.

This book is beautifully written. Reading this you do feel like you are weightless as you float around the spacecraft observing earth.
And the descriptions of the earth are mind blowing. As we travelled over each country and each sunrise and sunset, I could picture them all vividly.
In a time when leaders are calling war on the defenceless over man made boarders, the dialogue around those lack of lines on the earth from outer space is poignant.

I love the format of this book. It's colourful, it's broken down into logical chapters and sub sections. It's easy to pick up and put down. It has an encyclopedia vibe about it. Most importantly, it's full of first hand experiences from women everywhere!

There's no denying Davina is good at rallying the troops, getting the motivation going and generally making us all feel better about the battle that is Menopausing.

Dang Thuy Tram was twenty four when she joined the Vietnam war as a doctor. This is her diary.

This is a first hand account of the war, written during the war which is a rare find and I was excited to read this. Unfortunately, the translation here really let's this diary down. There's be instead of he. Closed instead of close. And while you can use your common sense to rejig the words and sentances, it's makes a tiresome reading experience.

Safiya grew up under a strict Rastafari father and this is her memoir.

There has never been a single leader followed by all Rastafari which makes everything a little complicated. Each father is ruling his own kingdom and in Safiya's case, her environment was unstable, isolating and the fear of Babylon was real.

Safiya is an award winning poet and in her memoir each sentance is as beautiful as you'd expect, even when harrowing.

It was interesting reading this book this week. As Trump wins the US Election once again, it was a massive coincidence that this book written in 1993 has a plot line of a US president elected to "Make America Great Again".

I didn't love this book as much as I did the first one. I enjoy the diary entry format but the actual storyline and characters didn't grab me as much as book one.

I knew before picking this up that I probably wasn't going to be the target audience for this book however it's set in Dubai, a debut book by a Bangladeshi author.

We have two main characters, Sara and Zainab which read very similar which was tricky. Sara is our anti romantic and Zainab healing from a broken hearts.

It's always encouraging to see local authors getting published in the region, but this book isn't for me unfortunately.

I have no idea what this book is, it's full of everything and nothing
Everything:
Recipes, gardening, DIY projects, affairs, sexual assaults, promotions, sackings, legal cases, ambulances, secrets, lies, broken promises.
And absolutely nothing happens with any of it. It's all mentioned and fizzles out as fast as a sparkler on bonfire night.
And all around this nothing, we watch our main character bake.
A very odd book.

Set primarily in Multan, we follow our main character Ayesha navigate the pressures of a changing Pakistan. Ayesha is in her late twenties, unmarried and dating in a landscape where the elder generations enforce their traditions on a youth embracing new values. Highlighting violence against women and rape culture in a silent society will always get a high five from me.

However, this does feel like a book written by a man unfortunately.

There is no denying this book is full of plot holes. They are everywhere and they are glaring at you the entire time.

There's also no denying that our main protagonist, Kit the Carer, has zero common sense and you would worry leaving her in charge of a goldfish. Next door Bozo Kenny has more wisdom in him than Kit does.

However....

I couldn't put this down during daylight hours. I heard noises at night and at times felt pretty freaked out.

The US occupied Iraq from 2003 to 2011 under the pretense that they they were saving the world from weapons of mass destruction. We know now that the US obliged the UN experts to do their dirty work and only when they were certain there was no nuclear weapons in Iraq, they unleashed their military onto the Iraqi population for 8 long years.

With its cast of characters, this examines what drives a man living in a bedouin town into a human bomb.

When a man falls under a London Underground train and within hours his flat mate is water boarded with vodka, the local police CID are suspicious.

From there we follow a dark path to a man on a mission. A very dark mission.

As with most thrillers there's some plot holes on reflection but nothing too glaring to ruin the overall plot. On the whole this was gripping and I enjoyed the twists and turns.

We follow Kein whose job in the Vietnam war was to search for dead bodies in the jungle. In the years after the war ended, he would drink to excess and write down the things that kept him up at night. This is his story. It's jumbled and mostly out of chronological order which can be confusing however the last few pages address the issues.

This book is full of horrors. Pages full of broken dreams and broken spirits. Lost lives, lost souls.

This is as dry and long winded as you'd expect it to be (why would a politician use 5 words when they can use 50?), however Lammy is ultimately advocating for diversity and inclusion and I can get behind that (if he can get over his fat phobia - there's some odd weight comments floating around this book).

The Paris Wife is one of my favorite books. I'm not a fan of Hemmingways books, I'm obsessed with the women in his life.

Love & Ruin focuses on wife number 3. Martha Gellhorn, a woman considered one of the greatest war correspondents of the 20th century.

McLain creates a vibe that absorbs me fully. Smoked filled rooms, whiskey on the rocks, artistic types with deep feelings, daydreamers immersed in reality. Typewriters, affairs and hangovers.

The first timeline is set during the second world war. Operation Pied Piper has launched and all children living in London are to be sent to the countryside. As Hazel and her sister Flora board the train, they know their lives will change.

The second timeline is set in the 60's and for the last twenty years Hazel has though of her sister Flora every single day and what happened the day she lost her.

Got off to a good start but lost its way.

Our protagonist is a 12 year old boy who lives with his mum and younger brother in a little village in Vietnam while his Dad works away in the city.

This feels like a diary, his thoughts and feelings on day to day events. Through his thoughts we meet his friends and understand the society around him in what feels like an adventure.

I liked how this is tackling some big issues like domestic violence.