By Krista Madden
Go Set A Watchman
I’ve just started this one, I’ve got it on an audible version and Reese Witherspoon is reading it to me. I liked the idea of someone with her roots firmly planted in the deep South narrating this story set in Alabama.
Written in the mid-1950s, Go Set a Watchman is by the iconic author Harper Lee, who wrote the classic To Kill a Mockingbird.
“Maycomb, Alabama. Twenty-six-year-old Jean Louise Finch – ‘Scout’ – returns home from New York City to visit her ageing father, Atticus. Set against the backdrop of the civil rights tensions and political turmoil that were transforming the South, Jean Louise’s homecoming turns bittersweet when she learns disturbing truths about her close-knit family, the town and the people dearest to her. Memories from her childhood flood back, and her values and assumptions are thrown into doubt. Featuring many of the iconic characters from To Kill a Mockingbird, Go Set a Watchman perfectly captures a young woman, and a world, in painful yet necessary transition out of the illusions of the past – a journey that can be guided only by one’s own conscience.”
Buy Go Set A Watchman on Amazon.
Luckiest Girl Alive
I’ve just finished this one and can recommend this to anyone like me who likes a story set in NYC. It’s written in the voice of a young woman working in the publishing industry who seems to have the perfect life and all the boxes checked in her life, but she has a past that is haunting her and we find out if she can move on and put those memories behind her. It’s witty, sharp and a page turner. Reese Witherspoon has optioned it for a film, so read it before you see it.
“Ani FaNelli is the woman you love to hate. The woman who has it all. But behind the meticulously crafted façade lies the darkest and most violent of pasts..
When a documentary producer invites Ani to tell her side of the chilling and violent incident that took place when she was a teenager, she hopes it will be an opportunity to prove how far she’s come since then. She’ll even let the production company film her wedding to the wealthy Luke Harrison, the final step in her transformation.
But as the wedding and filming converge, Ani’s immaculate façade begins to crack, and she soon realises that there’s always a price to pay for perfection.”
Buy Luckiest Girl Alive from Amazon.
The Parrots
“Blessed with status, love, wealth and connections the Tennisons seemed the most enviable of families – until Antonella and Matteo Fullardi, dangerously attractive Italian siblings and offspring of an Italian fashion dynasty, enter their well-managed lives.
Calligrapher Katherine, gallery owner Rick and their student son Josh discover that the Fullardis are just as unsettling and alluring as the exotic parrots that now inhabit their tranquil London garden.
But this damaged pair are the catalyst that propel the Tennisons into a spiral of chaos, calling into question their place in a changing world of new money, new morality and new menace.”
Gut
Now this might look a bit of an unusual choice, and it’s hardly a juicy summer thriller > but I figured this sounded really important knowledge to have and it has lots of great reviews.
“The key to living a happier, healthier life is inside us. Our gut is almost as important to us as our brain or our heart, yet we know very little about how it works. In Gut, Giulia Enders shows that rather than the utilitarian and let s be honest somewhat embarrassing body part we imagine it to be, it is one of the most complex, important, and even miraculous parts of our anatomy. … Her message is simple if we treat our gut well, it will treat us well in return. But how do we do that? And why do we need to? Find out in this surprising, and surprisingly funny, exploration of the least understood of our organs.”
Do No Harm: Stories of Life, Death & Brain Surgery
“What is it like to be a brain surgeon? How does it feel to hold someone’s life in your hands, to cut through the stuff that creates thought, feeling and reason? How do you live with the consequences when it all goes wrong?
DO NO HARM offers an unforgettable insight into the highs and lows of a life dedicated to operating on the human brain, in all its exquisite complexity. With astonishing candour and compassion, Henry Marsh reveals the exhilarating drama of surgery, the chaos and confusion of a busy modern hospital, and above all the need for hope when faced with life’s most agonising decisions.”
Selfish Little Cow
Disclosure: Jenny is my facialist and I was fascinated to read her story. This is a look back at how much attitudes and generations have changed, set in 50’s London her story is an inspiration to anyone who needs to get themselves into a better place. She has been through so much hardship and come though the other side as one of the kindest, loveliest women I know.
“When Jenny Harding lost her parents in tragic circumstances just days before her seventeenth birthday her world fell apart. Blaming herself for their deaths, she suffered a breakdown and tried to take her own life. In the years that followed, convinced she had no right to happiness, she became engulfed in a harrowing cycle of violence and abuse. In her searing autobiography, Jenny recalls the good, the bad and the bizarre … including an unlikely friendship with the notorious gangster, Reg Kray.”
Buy Selfish Little Cow on Amazon.
You’re Never Weird on the Internet
“The Internet isn’t all cat videos. There’s also Felicia Day – violinist, filmmaker, Internet entrepreneur, compulsive gamer and former lonely homeschooled girl who overcame her isolated childhood to become the ruler of a new world . . . or at least semi-influential in the world of Internet geeks and Goodreads book clubs.
After growing up in the south where she was ‘homeschooled for hippie reasons’, Felicia moved to Hollywood to pursue her dream of becoming an actress and was immediately typecast as a crazy cat-lady secretary. But Felicia’s misadventures in Hollywood led her to produce her own web series, own her own production company and become an Internet star.”
Buy You’re Never Weird on the Internet on Amazon.
One Small Act of Kindness
“Libby and her husband Jason have moved back to his hometown to turn the family B&B into a boutique hotel. They have left London behind and all the memories – good and bad – that went with it.
The injured woman Libby finds lying in the remote country road has lost her memory. She doesn’t know why she came to be there, and no one seems to be looking for her.
When Libby offers to take her in, this one small act of kindness sets in motion a chain of events that will change many people’s lives..”
Buy One Small Act of Kindness on Amazon.
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