I had such a good response to sharing some of my recommended reads, I thought I would share my latest reading list...

I thought I would share them in case people are looking for inspiration or have read them. I would love to hear people’s thoughts if they have read them or decide to read them.

Reading has always been important to me since I was a child and it is one of the key things in my life that that brings me escapism and calm. My full list of calm is: reading, the sea, animals, running and mindfulness

I cannot remember a time as a child that we were not making fortnightly trips to the library, and I loved picking what books I was going to take home with me. I also remember being so determined to carry on reading after my parents said it was lights out, that I took my book to my bedroom door and read by using the tiny bit of light that came through the bottom of the door from the landing. Long before you could use the light of a smart phone! #90'schildproblems

Here are the reasons behind my current reading list:

Kelly Holmes: black, white, and gold, my autobiography – I am a massive athletics fan and have admired Kelly Holmes as an athlete for a long time. It was only recently I listened to Fearne Cotton’s Happy Place podcast with her and heard her speak about her life and her struggles with mental health. This made me want to learn more about her.

Bryony Gordon: Mad Girl, a happy life with a mixed-up life – The back of this book states in bold letters Bryony Gordon has OCD. Having only recently felt brave enough to share with people I have OCD. I wanted to learn more about others experiences of living with it.

Mary Portas: Work like a women – I read this book about a year ago on my kindle and loved it. So much so I wanted to read it again but to be able to make scribbles, fold pages etc. It is not a women v men book, quite the opposite. It is all about how men and women need to come together to form a more authentic way of working, that makes the world of work better for everyone in it.

Reni Eddo-Lodge: Why I’m now longer talking to white people about race – This was a recommendation from https://www.allyship.co.uk/ I wanted to educate myself so I could understand the discrimination faced by black people, and be in a much stronger place to support and be an Ally. I deliberately chose this book as it talks about race relations in Britain.

Noel Fitzpatrick: Becoming the supervet, listening to the animals – This man is one of my heroes. To me animals have the kindest souls. Noel says animal people are the best type of people and I cannot agree with him more.

Fearne Cotton: Calm – I read her other two books Happy and Quiet at the start of lockdown and loved them both. Quiet ibeing my favourite of the two. Fearne has a very clever way of writing that feels you are having a comforting chat with a good friend.

Christopher McDougal: Born to run - My Dad has passed me this and said "it will change everything I think I know about running". What else needs to be said, other then my Dad is a legend who ran his first half marathon at 60 and is still running regularly at 65 and he kicked my butt in the Great North Run. Proud does not even sum up how I feel about him!

Karen Brady: Strong Women, the truth about getting to the top – I grew up not knowing I had dyslexia (if you are still reading this, from my writing this will probably not be a surprise). By the time I got to year 10 of secondary school I had kind of given up and just thought I was stupid. My amazing mum took me to the library and showed me Karen Brady’s first biography. Probably a good time to explain my family support the one and true Birmingham Football club and are Blue noses. I read her book and it sparked something in me, I was going to be a businesswomen, not just any businesswomen the next Managing Director of Birmingham City FC. I found a college course in business and knew I needed to get a C in English and Maths at GCSE. I worked day and night to catch up in all my subjects and managed to get my GCSE’s. I went to college then Uni, the latter was where my dyslexia was finally discovered. Whilst I did not become the Managing Director of BCFC (Yet!) I did become a businesswomen. This is an updated version and now feels like a good time to revisit that inspiration!