Book reviews for January and February 2023

My monthly mini book reviews with a rating out of 5 – but no spoilers ??

You're being treated to a bumper issue for the February book review edition as this one includes everything I read in January AND February.

*Apologies for the poor quality photos. I've had some guidance from Vanda Szabo on how to resize my photos properly next time ??

Snow Country, Sebastian Faulks 3/5

Sebastian Faulks wrote one of my all-time favourite books, Birdsong. I’ve yet to find any other books written by him that come close to it. I loved the timeline and the way he punctuates poetic description with dialogue but was unconvinced by the ending.

Karla and the Sun, Kazuo Ishiguro 3/5

This is the first book I’ve read by Kazuo Ishiguro and I was disappointed by this one. I’m not sure if I’m out of practice reading dystopian stories or if it was just a rather dispassionate story.

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, Taylor Jenkins Reid 5/5

Taylor Jenkins Reid is the absolute queen of character and plot. The vocabulary isn’t particularly beautiful or emotive but I couldn’t stop turning the pages to find out what happened.

Ghosts, Dolly Alderton 3.5/5

After I was alerted to a new book club in my local town, I had 2 weeks to read the book. Fortunately, our library had loads of copies. I absolutely loved parts of the book but found much of it highly irritating. (The consensus from our book club was much the same!)

Dare to Write, Steph Caswell 5/5

If you’re an author, you need to read this book. It’s written with non-fiction in mind, but the chapters about writing motivation and habit-setting are applicable to fiction writers, too. Steph writes in a comforting and accessible manner: she even made me believe I could write a book one day! Most of my Post-It notes are clustered in chapters 5–7, as these are the points that are most useful to a book editor.

12 Hours to Say I Love You 4/5

I picked this up from Morrisons at some point last year when I was looking for an uplifting, cheery book. I started this book, then stopped to read Fly Away which had arrived from the library, then stopped reading Fly Away to read Ghosts for book club ?? I finally went back to reading this one once I’d finished Ghosts and Fly Away. Anyway, back to the book: I loved all the characters, and the plot had a great set of (believable) twists and turns. Interestingly, it’s written by a husband-wife duo.

Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men 4/5

It took me from October 2022 to February 2023 to finish this book. Not because it wasn’t any good, but because it was incredibly dense with data. It was a book I could only read a chapter at a time and would then have to leave for a couple of weeks. Plus, I had to make sure my brain was completely switched on to take it all in.

That’s the only reason I took off one star: I felt it could have been written in more plain English, or perhaps include a summary at the end of each chapter. However, even if you only skim-read it, it will open your eyes to the consequences of male data bias that is STILL permeating and impacting on our everyday lives.

Family Guide: Rome (DK Eyewitness Travel), 4/5

This was a brilliant guidebook for, um, families going to Rome! There were fun facts and quizzes on each page, which I found just as interesting as my kids did. I’ll definitely look out for others in this range for our next trip abroad.

I’m currently reading:

Bigger Than Us: Spiritual Lessons for Everyday Happiness, Fearne Cotton

Love Marriage, Monica Ali

The Power, Naomi Alderman (for book club on 16 March)

Of course, I’d love to know what you’re reading or whether you’ve read any of the books I’ve reviewed!

The March edition of this newsletter will be much shorter ????