Just Like You by Nick Hornby

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Just Like You

Just what we need right now

Just Like You by Nick Hornby provided just the kind of escape I’m craving right now. A sweet love story between a 42-year-old divorced English teacher and a 22-year-old butcher shop assistant. The former a woman, the latter a man (the opposite would have made the book a no-go these days). Hornby throws in the added twists of the woman being white and the man black, each of them from different social backgrounds. With the cards stacked against them, will their love survive?

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The Fortnight in September by RC Sherriff

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The Fortnight in September

For all fans of Stoner

As 2020 heads into autumn with no sign whatsoever of Covid relaxing its destructive grip on all that we know, this little-known novel provided me with a welcome distraction from the bombardment of grim headlines about Corona and Brexit. The Fortnight in September by RC Sherriff was first published in 1931. Sherriff was the author of Journey’s End; a First World War play that is often hailed as one of the greatest of its time. The Fortnight in September is vastly different in subject matter but shares its emphasis on real people living real lives. It charmed and delighted me with its simple yet moving narrative.

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More Than a Woman by Caitlin Moran

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More Than a Woman

Growing older with Caitlin Moran

More Than a Woman by Caitlin Moran comes nine years after her bestselling How to Be a Woman which I, and many of you, absolutely loved. Can she pull it off a second time? Yes, I think so! More Than a Woman is a slightly more serious book and has fewer scream-out-loud-laughing moments (or perhaps it’s me) than its predecessor but is still very funny. Life for Moran, as for most of us, has got a bit more serious with age. She too has got wiser with time and has some very worthwhile reflections around womanhood, parenting, feminism and marriage that are not only entertaining but ring true. Perfect comfort reading.

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Rebecca on the screen

This should be good! Netflix is releasing a new version of Daphne du Maurier’s gothic classic Rebecca on 21st October. There’s still time to read the book first. We loved it!

 

Hamnet by Maggie O' Farrell

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Excellent choice for the Women’s Prize for Fiction

Couldn’t be happier to see that Maggie O’Farrell has won the Women’s Prize for Fiction for the unmissable Hamnet. If you read one book this year, let this be it! Here’s our review. She beat Hilary Mantel’s The Mirror and The Light, Bernardine Evaristo’s Girl, Woman, Other, Jenny Offill’s Weather, Angie Cruz’s Dominicana and Natalie Haynes’ A Thousand Ships. Congratulations, Maggie O’Farrell!

Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo

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Girl, Woman, Other

Almost...but not quite

It’s a frustrating read Booker Prize Winning (2019) Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo. This book has so much going for it: the fun, effortless writing, the fresh, contemporary look at black women’s lives, even the punctuation-free writing works. Amongst the stories of 12 black women’s lives, there are some truly fabulous ones. Stories that bring you into other people’s lives in a way only the very best literature does. It’s a shame then that there are too many of them (how about 6 rather than 12, for example) and that some feel rushed leaving the reader craving for more while others snail along and fail to engage.

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The Discomfort of the Evening by Marieke Lucas Rijneveld

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The Man Booker International Prize 2020

The 29 year old Dutch author Marieke Lucas Rijneveld and the translator Michele Hutchinson ran away with the International Man Booker Prize 2020 yesterday for the book The Discomfort of the Evening. Rijneveld (who prefers to be addressed as they) tells the story of a boy who dies in an accident after his sister, following an argument, wishes he’d die instead of her rabbit. Loosely based on Rijneveld’s own experiences, they grew up on a farm in a deeply religious family and also lost a brother, the book deals with the piousness, loss and delusions. Haven’t read this one myself but sounds worthwhile if you’re ready for something serious. Here’s the best of the rest:

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