The Switch – by Beth O’Leary

18 05 2023

I’ve really enjoyed Beth O’Leary’s books so far, and this was no exception!

Leena is forced to take a two month break from work after a bad presentation, after which it’s noted that she hasn’t taken annual leave in forever.

Her grandmother, Eileen, recently split from her unfaithful husband, and doesn’t want that to be it.

They decide to swap places for the two months, Leena heading up to Eileen’s little village in Yorkshire and keeping up with Eileen’s social responsibilities there – and Eileen heading down to Leena’s flat share in London, hitting the dating apps, and revamping the communal area of the building to create a space for those who are lonely. And because it’s chick-lit, of course there are romantic storylines for both of them. There were some very sad parts too – throughout is the background that Leena’s sister died a year or two ago, and how Leena’s relationship with her mum has suffered since then.

You could see where some threads were going from pretty early on, but I don’t think that’s always a bad thing, and some still kept you guessing.

Overall it was a fun read, uplifting, and very sweet, I particularly enjoyed the neighbourhood watch gang up in Yorkshire.

A couple of silly quotes that made me fold page corners down from those people:

“And she’s vegan. Which is really annoying.”
“Oh yes, my friend Kathleen has that.”
“Has what, sorry?”
“Veganism.”

“She loves detective stories.”
“Most nosy people do, it’s good validation.”


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Hitman Anders and the Meaning of it All – by Jonas Jonasson

10 03 2023

I’ve enjoyed everything of Jonasson’s that I’ve read so far, so it was a no-brainer to read another!

Our main characters are a hitman, recently out of prison and staying in a cheap hotel, a hotel receptionist called Per Persson (at which, the author points out the name isn’t that weird, given his own!), and an athiest former priest who only went into the business ‘cos her father made her.

The receptionist and the priest (as the author mostly refers to them) hatch a plan to earn money, hiring him out to commit more minor crimes (broken bones, etc), but eventually this escalates and they end up on the run with millions of Kroner in a couple of suitcases.

The hitman has discovered Christianity, but not the most accurate form of it – his involves significantly larger portion sizes of communion wine for one thing – and the receptionist and the priest see a way to earn more cash, in having him preach generosity to a gently sozzled congregation.

I’m really not sure what genre I’d assign to this – comedic crime?! Whatever it is, it’s very engaging.

Favourite quote: “Sometimes the line between manliness and sheer stupidity can be razor-thin.”

The book is complete chaos and I loved it.


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Persuasion – by Jane Austen

3 02 2023

I didn’t manage to fit a Jane Austen into my reading last year, so made sure I got one in early this year!

The 1995 adaptation of Persuasion is my mum’s favourite, but not one I was ever that familiar with. I ended up watching both the ’95 (Amanda Room & Ciaran Hinds) and ’07 (Sally Hawkins & Rupert Penry-Jones) versions last year though, ready to try out Netflix’s version, so I was all warmed up and ready to give the book a go!

Anne Elliot was in love at 19, but persuaded to refuse an engagement proposal due to his being a naval officer. We meet her now age 27 (shockingly old to still be single!) as their paths cross again; he’s now a captain. Anne finds she still has feelings for him, but it seems his interest lies in her sister Mary’s sister-in-law.

Mary is probably the character who provides the most humour in the story; she is one of the main things I remembered from the ’95 adaptation because she is played so wonderfully by Sophie Thompson – “I am so ill!”. The problem with adaptations from the pre-internet era is that I cannot find you a clip of her in this role on YouTube, but it’s worth watching for her alone, I promise. (When looking for a trailer I could only find one for the ’07 version even then!)

There’s a relatively well known part of the story where some of them go to visit Lyme [Regis], and walk along The Cobb. The Cobb is one of the places where I had one of my worse reactions to heights, we were going to walk along it, but my legs went to jelly and I had to get down pretty quick and walk along the bottom while everyone else went along the top. I don’t understand how they still let people up there with no health and safety given the regulations applied to so many other things! Hah! (If you’re not familiar with The Cobb, do Google it or go on Google street view).

Of Austen’s six completed novels, I’ve now only got Mansfield Park to go! But have still got Sanditon etc to try after that.


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A Boy Called Christmas – by Matt Haig

24 12 2022

Last Christmas my parents got me the trilogy of Matt Haig’s children’s Christmas books. This is the first (although I believe they’re separate stories anyway), so once December came around it seemed a sensible time to read it!

It’s a Father Christmas origin story; Nikolas lives in Finland with his father, who is sent off on a mission to find the elves in the north. When he doesn’t return, Nikolas decides to see if he can go and find him, and the adventure begins from there. He meets a reindeer who he names Blitzen, who helps him on his way, he has his father old red and white hat – you can see the hints of where it’s going the whole way through.

It’s message is “an impossibility is just a possibility you don’t understand”, which isn’t really my way of thinking, but for a story about Father Christmas, of course it’s lovely.

And then the film version of it is on TV this afternoon, so I’m looking forward to seeing what they did with it!


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Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them, The Original Screenplay – by J.K. Rowling

5 12 2022

I picked this up in a charity shop last month. I haven’t yet seen the film, but have been considering a Harry Potter re-read at some point having not read them in years, this seemed like a fun way to head in that direction!

It’s certainly a quick read, not a lot of text on each page so you fly through. There are plenty of stage directions, but not a lot of description which is what often slows me down!

This is set in New York City, so it’s fun to hear a bit about the American equivalents of Hogwarts, and the Ministry of Magic – didn’t really think about that side of things before!

I did struggle to keep track of who some of the characters were, and what some of the beasts were, I wonder if this is because there aren’t introductions in the same way, because they’d rely on you seeing their faces on screen really.

There were good characters, fun moments, and plenty of drama and suspense too.

I hadn’t really been keen to see the film before as I couldn’t be bothered to learn a whole new set of characters, but I think I’d like to give it a go now!


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The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo – by Taylor Jenkins Reid

28 11 2022

People seem to RAVE about Taylor Jenkins Reid’s books, this one particularly, so I picked it up to give it a try.

Evelyn was a Hollywood icon from the 1950s to 1980s and now, approaching 80 years old, is ready to tell all. Out of the blue Monique, a random magazine reporter with no apparent connection to Evelyn, receives a request from her to write her memoir.

The majority of the book is Evelyn narrating her life story to Monique, of her films, her scandals, and of course, her many marriages. Monique asks her early on who the love of her life was, and that will be revealed in time. But while taking down her story, Monique doesn’t quite understand why she’s been chosen to do the job.

A book that needs to fit in seven marriages, I was concerned it might just read as a sort of list – seven shorter stories tenuously tied together maybe. But it flowed seamlessly and was such an addictive read!


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The ABC Murders – by Agatha Christie

8 11 2022

I watched an adaptation of this on TV years ago, and yet couldn’t remember what happened, so I was able to go into this completely free of spoilers!

Poirot received a letter from “ABC” telling him a murder is going to be committed in Andover on a specific date, it happens, and the victims name begins with A. So when he receives a follow-up letter threatening a murder in Bexhill, it’s taken as more than a hoax! You can see the pattern forming for yourself…

Thought to be the work of a maniac, Poirot is still keen to find reason, he insists that even a maniac will have a perceived logic behind what he or she is doing. So even when an arrest is eventually made, for Poirot the mystery was not solved until he had discovered why.

Obviously it’s a mystery, so I’m not going to tell you much more. I was worried it was going to be a bit sedate when something was revealed relatively early on, but not to worry, it’s as clever as any of her others that I’ve read so far!


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The Road Trip – by Beth O’Leary

8 10 2022

Having read The Flat Share at the start of the year, I was keen to read more of Beth O’Leary, and a friend completely raved about this one, so I thought I’d go for it next!

Addie and her sister Deb are driving from Chichester to Scotland for a friend’s wedding, with a randomer who also needed a lift, but very early on a car rams into the back of them. In the car are Addie’s ex and his friend, on their way to the same wedding, and so with their car not driveable, the girls agree to take them too. Thus we end up with five people in a mini for many, many hours.

The book then starts telling two stories in parallel, both the story of the drive, and the story of how Addie and Dylan met, fell in love, and eventually split about 18 months prior to this trip.

Only a couple of minor negatives: I didn’t like Dylan at the start, he was massively into poetry, something I’ve never quite understood and so just found him a bit pompous, but it wasn’t so much it was overwhelming and it soon settled down. My other apprehension at the start was whether they were falling in lust rather than love, but things did deepen over time, so I let them off.

But really they were nothing compared to the positives; it was really well told, it’s rare a book keeps me awake – normally I fall asleep when I read! But I found myself still awake at midnight reading 50-70 pages at a time and just flew through it, I enjoyed the relationships developing between characters, and some of the side characters were really fun too. A very enjoyable read.


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How To Kill Your Family – by Bella Mackie

13 09 2022

Grace was brought up by her mum, who had a fling with a stupidly wealthy businessman, who wanted nothing to do with her when he found out she was expecting, and neither did the rest of the family.

Grace is now an adult, her mother has passed away, and she’s ready to take her revenge, by killing off every member of the family she should have been a part of.

This isn’t just someone going on a random killing spree. Each member of the family is carefully considered as to the best way for them to meet their end: What does she know about them? How can she make it look like an accident? She is meticulous in her plans.

So when you hear that she’s writing her story from prison, you would assume it all went wrong, but surprisingly, she’s been incarcerated for a murder she didn’t actually commit!

I really enjoyed this, some bits were somewhat harrowing, but the creativity was wonderful!

There was one point in the book where a jump in the timeline wasn’t as smooth as it might have been, though while the way the ending was a little odd in the way it was told, the ending itself was good!


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Where The Crawdads Sing – by Delia Owens

12 08 2022

It was one of those books that everyone seemed to be reading, that was on the shelves at Tesco every time I went, that they were making a film about; and yet every time I read the blurb, it just sounded a bit dull. But so many people were raving about it and recommending it to me, I gave in, got a copy at my next food shop, and gave it a go.

The story is told as two parallel timelines across the 1950s and 60s, meeting up at the end of the book.

  • In the first, Kya lives in a shack in the marshes, just outside a small town. As a small girl, her family gradually leave, and she lives an isolated life, selling mussels to get by, and collecting feathers, shells and all sorts of things from the marsh.
  • In the second, a body is found by the old fire tower by two young boys, and the challenge is to work out if it was an accident or murder, and if so, who did it?

I really enjoyed that she included a map of the area inside the front cover, to help you keep track of things, I always appreciate a diagram in a book!

It’s beautifully told; to repeat the NYT Book Review quote from the back cover: “Painfully beautiful… At once a murder mystery, a coming-of-age narrative and a celebration of nature.”

A strange combination of keeping you guessing, but being warm at the same time. I guess the lesson is, don’t judge a book by it’s blurb!!!


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