Intimations: Six Essays by Zadie Smith

Intimations: Six Essays by Zadie Smith. No Advance Reader Copy included. No affiliate links used. Read my full disclosure policy here.

Intimations by Zadie Smith is a collection of six essays written at the beginning of the pandemic and published last summer. It is very much a snapshot of life just before and during the initial lockdown. Or as Smith writes in her foreword, dated May 2020, she has tried to "organise some of the feelings and thoughts that events, so far, have provoked in me, in those scraps of time the year itself has allowed."

I know people won't want to read it simply because we are still in the middle of the pandemic, which I completely understand. That's how I feel about fiction and TV/film that is even remotely pandemic related. Yet I am finding comfort in reading essays about people's personal lockdown experiences. 

In less than a 100 pages, Smith explores the personal and the political - especially when writing about the impact the virus and the handling of the pandemic by both the US and UK governments  has had on people from already marginalised communities. 

The standout essays for me are Something to Do, Suffering Like Mel Gibson, and Screengrabs (After Berger, before the virus). 

Intimations: Six Essays by Zadie Smith is published by Penguin and is available in paperback, ebook and audiobook format.

The Crying Book by Heather Christle

The Crying Book by Heather Christle. No Advance Reader Copy included. No affiliate links used. Read my full disclosure policy here.

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"Most crying happens at night. People cry out of fatigue. But how horrible is it to hear someone say, "She's just tired!" Tired, yes, certainly, but just? There is nothing just about it." 

The Crying Book by poet Heather Christle is part prose poem and part longform lyrical essay. Christle blends memoir with cultural criticism and a scientific look at how and why we cry. Did you know that there are chemical differences between emotional tears and tears produced as a result of physical irritation? 

In the author's note at the beginning of the book, Christle informs us that The Crying Book has been five years in the making. It began as an idea to "make a map of every place I'd ever cried". The finished product is so much more than this. 

While Christle shares her experiences of depression, pregnancy and the abortion she had, her second pregnancy and motherhood, and her grief following the death by suicide of a beloved friend, she places these events in the wider context of a world which still hasn't reckoned with the stigma associated with mental illness and the racist history of white people using their tears as a weapon against Black people and people of colour. 

The Crying Book is a beautifully written and thought-provoking examination of the intersections between crying and art, feminism, politics and race.  

The Crying Boolk by Heather Christle is published by Corsair and is available in hardback, ebook and audiobook format.

Scenes of a Graphic Nature by Caroline O'Donoghue

Scenes of a Graphic Nature by Caroline O’Donoghue. Advance Reader Copy (eARC) from the publisher via Netgalley included. No affiliate links used. Read my full disclosure policy here. 

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Charlie Regan's life is complicated. Her career isn't going to plan leading to a side hustle selling intimate photos, her relationship with her best friend Laura is somewhat strained and everything is much harder to cope with because Charlie's father is terminally ill. 

When It Takes a Village the short film — based on her father's childhood on Clipim an (fictional) island off  the coast of county Kerry—  Charlie wrote and directed with Laura is accepted into an Irish film festival, things start to look up. 

There is just one problem, Charlie has never been to Ireland and she is terrified that everyone will hate the film and her portrayal of Irish people. 

Following the film's debut in Cork, Charlie decides to travel to Clipim in order to finally get some answers about how and why her father was the only survivor of the fire in the schoolhouse. Realising that this is a community full of secrets, with an inability to talk about them, Charlie soon wonders whether her life is in danger.

There were occasions when I thought the story was beginning to get away from O'Donoghue — that there were simply too many different strands to pull together into a cohesive plot — yet she proved me wrong. 

O'Donoghue writes great female characters, who happen to be queer, something that while we are seeing more of in fiction recently is still lacking in so many ways. Not every story with LGBTQ+ characters needs to be about coming out because gay, lesbian, bi+, trans, and non-binary people lead lives just as complicated as cishet people. Our sexuality is obviously important to us but in having it be one aspect of Charlie's life without being the only thing we learn about her, O'Donoghue provides the type of representation so many LGBTQ+ people — including me — crave. 

Scenes of a Graphic Nature is a novel about connection, love, family, and identity which balances the emotional with the humorous leading to a complex tale full of interesting characters. 

Scenes of a Graphic Nature by Caroline O’Donoghue is published by Virago and is available in hardback, ebook and audiobook format.

How Do We Know We're Doing It Right? by Pandora Sykes

How Do We Know We’re Doing It Right? by Pandora Sykes. No Advance Reader Copy included. No affiliate links used. Read my full disclosure policy here. 

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The subtitle of How Do We Know We’re Doing It Right? is essays on modern life, which sets the tone before you’ve turned the first page. In these eight essays, Pandora Sykes examines the lure of the wellness industry, the ethics of fast fashion, the pervasiveness of burnout, life as a “middling millennial”, and the distinction between our private and public selves in the age of social media. 

From the outset, Sykes acknowledges her privilege informing us that “many of the anxieties I write about are, somewhat inevitably, middle-class.” For many people this qualifier may be where they put the book down, never to return to it. But in telling us this, Sykes privilege becomes a tool in her examination of modern culture. 

This is most evident in Get The Look, which blends her experience as a former style columnist with a deep dive into the murky world of fast fashion and its impact on the garment workers and the environment.

How Do We Know We’re Doing It Right? is a thoughtful and well researched collection, written with warmth and precision. Sykes’ self-awareness ensures that each essay is more than a surface level look at the topics of the day. 

How Do We Know We’re Doing It Right? by Pandora Sykes is published by Hutchinson—an imprint of Penguin Random House—and is available in hardback, ebook and audiobook format.

Pretty Sane by Nicola Wall

Pretty Sane by Nicola Wall. No Advance Reader Copy included. No affiliate links used. Read my full disclosure policy here.  

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From an early age Nicola Wall's family told her she had an active imagination. Nicola couldn't understand why no one believed her when she told them about things like the peacock on the cushion jumping out at her or the photos and pictures in her grandparents' house moving around. 

As she realises that not everyone experiences the world like she does, Nicola is much more selective in who she tells. She mostly keeps everything to herself. This is easier said than done, especially when she is diagnosed with schizophrenia. 

In Pretty Sane Nicola writes about Freddie for the first time. Freddie is the primary voice she hears. He has been with her since the beginning.

From her time as an inpatient in a psychiatric ward, to getting to grips with outpatient care, different forms of therapy and the trial and error involved in finding medication that works and ultimately her decision to live without medication; Nicola shares her story in an approachable manner that is both informative and easy to read. 

Pretty Sane is an excellent look at what life is like when you live with schizophrenia and the impact it has on not only your life, but your family and friends as well. This is definitely a book to read if you are looking to learn more about mental illness beyond depression and anxiety. 

Pretty Sane by Nicola Wall is published by Mercier Press and is available in paperback and ebook format. 

handiwork by Sara Baume

handiwork by Sara Baume. No Advance Reader Copy included. No affiliate links used. Read my full disclosure policy here. 

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“This house is a house of industry.

It has four bedrooms, only one of which is devoted to sleep.” writes Sara Baume early in handiwork—her non-fiction debut—setting the tone for the exploration of creative process, grief and the migration of birds that follows.

Building the model birds—photographs of which are interspersed throughout the book—is the physical part of a process that, for Baume, includes learning about the migration pattern of the birds she is making. A learning that encompasses bird-lore and the lives of the men who studied birds, particularly John James Audubon and his book Birds of America which he illustrated. 

Baume’s grief is woven throughout handiwork, in the way that grief shows up everywhere following the death of a loved one.  

Speaking about her dad’s wake, Baume recalls a colleague of her mother’s—a man she barely knew—somewhat overenthusiastically informing her that “It hasn’t really hit you yet” and “It’s going to really hit you later.” A conversation familiar to many of us who have found ourselves in similar positions. 

The tellers of these truths mean it a kind way. They want to prepare us for what comes next. For what happens when the funeral is over and, later still, when people no longer ask how we are doing. The thing about grief is: it is different for everyone and it is not always possible to judge whether someone’s bereavement has “really hit” them or not.

handiwork is a tender and thought-provoking look at what it means to be an artist, in all its forms, written with all of the originality we have come to expect from Baume’s fiction. 

handiwork by Sara Baume is published by Tramp Press and is available in paperback and ebook format.

LARCs, Larks & Other Lovely Things Stories From Leitrim Aboriton Rights Campaign

LARCs, Larks & Other Lovely Things stories from Leitrim Abortion Rights Campaign. No Advance Reader Copies included. No affiliate links used. You can read my full disclosure policy here. 

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No one narrative will ever tell the complete story of the campaign to Repeal the Eighth Amendment to the Irish Constitution in May 2018. It is simply not possible due to the sheer number of people and groups involved. Which is why I think it is important for people ad pro-choice groups to tell their own stories. Write them down, even if just for yourself. 

LARCs, Larks & Other Lovely Things is the story of the Leitrim Abortion Rights Campaign, a regional pro-choice group who canvassed as part of the national Together For Yes campaign and who continue to be members of the Abortion Rights Campaign. 

This collection of essays, speeches, letters to the editor, and recipes —yes, it includes recipes!—is a brilliant look at what campaigning in the North West of Ireland was like. It also covers the incredible work that Leitrim Abortion Rights continue to do in pushing for proper free, safe, legal, and local aboriton access in Ireland—because our work is far from over—and their support for the pro-choice campaigns in Malta and Gibraltar.

As someone who co-founded Kerry for Choice—an another rural pro-choice group and members of the national Abortion Rights Campaign—and was their convener and spokesperson for three years, so much of this book resonated; from having difficulty finding venues for meetings, to being on local radion and speaking at public events, and the practicalities of canvassing in rural areas, where getting from point A to point B often took longer than the the time spent knocking on doors.

LARCs, Larks, & Other Lovely Things is written and published by the Leitrim Abortion Campaign. To purchase copy, contact Leitrim Abortion Rights Campaign at leitrimabortionrightscampaign@yahoo.com.

 

The Love Square by Laura Jane Williams

The Love Square by Laura Jane Williams. Advance Reader copy (eARC) from the publisher via Netgalley included. No affiliate links used. You can read my full disclosure policy here.

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Penny Bridges is enjoying life in London, but it is not without complications. The café owner and chef is a cancer survivor, which left her with fertility issues and difficult decisions to make when it comes to having children. 

While she would love a partner to build her life with, a series of disastrous dates shifts her focus away from looking for love. Enter Francesco, the handsome Italian chef. 

When her uncle becomes ill, Penny finds herself heading back to Derbyshire to run the family pub while he recovers. The timing isn’t great, but given everything he has done for Penny and her sister, Clementine, she is not in a position to refuse. 

But what does the move mean for her relationship with Francesco?

As she settles into life in the country, Penny finds herself drawn to Thomas—a man who doesn’t do monogamy. She enjoys their time together, which is all that matters. Right? 

Then there is Priyesh. 

Each relationship is completely different, but Penny soon finds herself having to choose between the three men.

Laura Jane Williams writes complex characters with ease. While I had some issues with the LGBTQ+ representation in Williams’ debut Our Stop, the LGBTQ+ characters in The Love Square are fully realised. 

The Love Square* is a thoroughly enjoyable rom com full of humour, compassion, friendships, familial relationships, explorations of what it means to live an intentional life, and, yes, romance. 

The Love Square by Laura Jane Williams is published by Avon Books and is available in ebook format from July 9th. The paperback and audio editions are available from August 6th.

The Scar: A Personal History of Depression and Recovery by Mary Cregan

The Scar: A Personal History of Depression and Recovery by Mary Cregan. No Advance Reader Copy included. No affiliate links used. You can read my full disclosure policy here. 

Content note: The Scar by Mary Cregan and my review deals with the death of a child, mental illness, suicide, psychiatric hospitalisation and electroconvulsive therapy.

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When her daughter Anna dies, shortly after she was born, Mary Cregan's life is changed forever. In the months following Anna's death, Cregan's grief becomes suicidal depression and she is admitted to a psychiatric hospital. 

Following treatment with medication that does not improve her symptoms, Cregan is given electroconvulsive therapy. Something that was becoming less common by the 1980s, when Cregan was hospitalised. The ECT has the desired effect and Cregan is soon on the road to recovery—I say on the road because, as becomes clear in the book, recovery is a process.

The Scar by Mary Cregan is part memoir, part history of psychiatry, and part critique of the ways in which psychiatric illnesses and electroconvulsive therapy have been portrayed in popular culture. 

This is not an easy read subject wise, but it is well researched, skilfully written and movingly told. 

It is not a reading experience that I will forget any time soon.

The Scar: A Personal History of Depression and Recovery by Mary Cregan is published by The Lilliput Press in Ireland and by W. W. Norton & Company in the US. The Scar is available in paperback, audiobook and ebook format.  

I don’t use affiliate links, but if you like what I do and want to show your support you can buy me a coffee here. 

My Dark Vanessa By Kate Elizabeth Russell

My Dark Vanessa by Kate Elizabeth Russell. Advance Reader Copy (eARC) from the publisher via Netgalley included. No affiliate links used. You can read my full disclosure policy here. 

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Vanessa Wye was 15 when her relationship with her English teacher first began. So what that he was her teacher, they were in love. That counts for something, right? The answer for Vanessa is yes, their love counts for everything. At least it used to. Now she is questioning everything. 

Told across two timelines, her school days in 2000 and the growing Me Too movement of 2017, My Dark Vanessa* is an uncomfortable read, as it should be. Yet Kate Elizabeth Russell’s writing also makes it a compelling read. I can see why it is triggering for many people, particularly survivors of sexual assault, especially because Russell doesn’t shy away from depicting scenes of sexual abuse and rape. 

When a former student publicly states that she was sexually assaulted by Jacob Strane, Vanessa doesn’t know how to react. Strane insists the allegations are not true and Vanessa wants to believe him because the man she loved couldn’t possibly be a sexual predator.

Switching between the past and Vanessa’s present, we watch Strane groom Vanessa and see the hold he continues to have over her life 17 years later. As Vanessa rethinks their entire relationship her understanding of what really happened shifts, multiple times, as she grapples with the realisation that while she doesn’t see herself as a victim or survivor they may in fact be accurate descriptors for her. This evolution is really well handled by Russell and is as complicated and messy as you’d expect. 

It is difficult to discuss My Dark Vanessa without mentioning the controversy and discourse surrounding the novel’s publication. An essay in Gay Magazine by Wendy C. Ortiz explores the similarities between My Dark Vanessa and Ortiz’s 2014 memoir, Excavation. Ortiz’s shares her experience of the publishing industry and how some stories are considered too difficult when they are memoir, but are deemed worthy of large(er) marketing campaigns when they are fiction. 

In a note to readers on her website, published in response to Ortiz’s essay and the media coverage it garnered, Kate Elizabeth Russell says that “My Dark Vanessa, which I’ve been working on for nearly 20 years, was inspired by my own experiences as a teenager. I have previously discussed the relationships I’ve had with older men and how those relationships informed the writing of My Dark Vanessa. But I do not believe that we should compel victims to share the details of their personal trauma with the public.” 

Ortiz does not accuse Russell of plagiarism, which is how some news outlets reported the story, but she does ask us to interrogate not only whose stories get to be told but how they are told. These are necessary questions and should be welcomed, always. Nor does Ortiz insist that people who write fiction about sexual abuse must disclose their personal experience in order to do so. 

No one is calling for that. 

But there needs to be space to discuss disparities within the publishing industry, particularly when it comes to the voices of marginalised people, in a way that recognises the nuances involved.

I wish I knew how to achieve that. 

My Dark Vanessa by Kate Elizabeth Russell is published by Fourth Estate and is available in paperback, ebook and audiobook format. 

I don’t use affiliate links, but if you like what I do you can show your support by buying me a coffee here. 

Our Little Cruelties By Liz Nugent

Our Little Cruelties by Liz Nugent. Advance Reader Copy (eARC) from the publisher via Netgalley included. No affiliate links used. You can read my full disclosure policy here. 

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“All three of the Drumm brothers were at the funeral, although one of us was in the coffin.”

Liz Nugent has a well deserved reputation for giving us brilliant opening lines and Our Little Cruelties* does not disappoint. From the beginning we know that one of the Drumm brothers is dead, but which one and what happened is a mystery. A mystery Nugent delights in unraveling.

Will, Brian and Luke each have a complicated relationship with their mother Melissa, a once famous singer. Their relationships with each other aren’t much better. Told from each of their perspectives we follow their lives throughout childhood and adulthood. This use of multiple points of view and a timeline that switches between the past and present leads to a richly layered narrative that reminds us that people who share an experience do not always have the same memories of that experience. 

Will is a film producer who cares only for himself. Brian seems unsure of his place in the world until he begins working for Luke. Luke is a popstar who is struggling to adapt to his dwindling career. The joy of a Liz Nugent novel is in not knowing what is coming, so I won’t give too much of the plot away other than to say your opinion about which Drumm brother is the worst will constantly change. 

As we’ve come to expect from Nugent, Our Little Cruelties leaves us with as many questions as it does answers, particularly around whether the actions of her characters are as a result of nature or nurture. 

Our Little Cruelties is a compelling read about the consequences of the awful things horrible people do to not only to their family, but everyone around them. 

Our Little Cruelties by Liz Nugent is published by Penguin Ireland and is available in trade paperback format now—in Ireland. Our Little Cruelties is published elsewhere on March 26th and will be available in paperback, ebook and audiobook format. 


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How A Woman Becomes A Lake by Marjorie Celona

How a Woman Becomes a Lake by Marjorie Celona. Advance Reader Copy (eARC) from the publisher via Netgalley included. No affiliate links used. You can read my full disclosure policy here. 

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It’s 1986 and Vera takes her dog for a walk on New Year’s Day in the local woods, like she always does. This time she never returns home. Before her disappearance she makes a phone call to the police telling them that she has found a young boy wandering in the woods by the lake. By the time the police arrive, both Vera and the boy are gone. Vera’s car, however, and her dog remain. 

Leo takes his two sons—Jesse and Dimitri— out to the woods, so they can write their New Year’s resolutions on paper boats and push them onto the frozen lake. But things don’t quite go to plan. 

Lewis pulls into the parking lot of Squire Point expecting to be greeted by Vera and the boy she found. Instead he finds an abandoned car and a dog left alone. What has happened to Vera and the boy? 

Vera and her husband argued the night before her disappearance, so naturally the police think he is involved. But when they discover that Vera made a phone call to a woman named Evelina from the same pay phone she called the police, focus shifts away from Vera’s husband, Denny.  

Told from multiple points of view, How a Woman Becomes a Lake* is a spellbinding novel about familial bonds, making mistakes, secrets and whether or not new beginnings can undo the damage of the past. 

How a Woman Becomes a Lake by Marjorie Celona is published by Virgao and is available in paperback, ebook and audio format.

I don’t use affiliate links, but if you like what I do you can show your support by buying me a coffee here. 

Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 By Cho Nam-Joo

Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 by Cho Nam-Joo. Advance Reader Copy (eARC) from the publisher via Netgalley included. No affiliate links used. You can read my full disclosure policy here.

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Kim Jiyoung is married and is a stay-at-home parent to her young child. Before becoming a mother Kim Jiyoung was a dedicated employee at a job she enjoyed, but was passed over for promotion. More than once. 

Kim Jiyoung begins to think she is someone else. She needs help. Help her husband seeks from the mental health system in South Korea. From here, we learn about Kim Jiyoung’s life from her childhood to the present day—more accurately 2016, the year the book was published in its native South Korea.

While focused on Kim Jiyoung’s life, the story is told from a distance. A distance that means we are observers of Kim Jiyoung’s life rather than experiencing it alongside her. As the novel progresses the reason for this distance becomes clearer. It is expertly done, but I can understand why this writing style won’t be to everyone’s taste. 

At under 200 pages, Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982* is written with razor sharp clarity and not a single word is wasted. This is one of those books that will have you thinking about it for weeks after reading, which is not surprising given the level of detail involved in writing this narrative of life in South Korea for women who regularly face casual sexism and institutional misogyny.

Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 by Cho Cam-Joo is published by Scribner UK, an imprint of Simon & Schuster UK, and is available in paperback, audiobook and ebook format. 

I don’t use affiliate links, but if you like what I do you can show your support by buying me a coffee here. 

How To Survive Death And Other Inconveniences By Sue William Silverman

How to Survive Death and Other Inconveniences by Sue William Silverman. Advance Reader Copy (eARC) included. No affiliate links included. You can read my full disclosure policy here. 

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This collection of thematically linked essays centres around Sue William Silverman's fear of death. Death is the ultimate unknown and Silverman has had good reason to fear the unknown throughout her life.

How to Survive Death and Other Inconveniences* does not shy away from the complexities of dealing with trauma in all its forms, particularly the trauma associated with sexual assault.

Silverman's writing is poetic and full of more humour than you might expect given the subject matter. But if there is one thing you should know about Silverman, apart from the fact that she is a survivor, it is that she isn't afraid of experimental writing. And she is bloody good at it.

How to Survive Death and Other Inconveniences by Sue William Silverman is published by University of Nebraska Press and is available in paperback and ebook format. 

I don’t use affiliate links, but if you like what I do you can show your support by buying me a coffee here.

Weather By Jenny Offill

Weather by Jenny Offill. Advance Reader Copy (eARC) from the publisher via Netgalley included. No affiliate links used. You can read my full disclosure policy here.

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Lizzie Benson’s life hasn’t exactly gone to plan, but she is doing the best she can. Having dropped out of university—to help her brother deal with his addiction—she secured a job as a university librarian without the requisite degree. 

When Lizzie’s former mentor—Sylvia Liller, an academic who hosts a climate change podcast— offers her an additional job answering the emails she receives from listeners of Hell and High Water, Lizzie can’t bring herself to say no. 

Lizzie soon finds herself taking on the worries of everyone who contacts Sylvia, which leads to a whole host of stress she could do without but can’t escape. As her climate anxiety grows, her marriage becomes more strained and Lizzie wonders what will be left of the world for her son to grow up in. 

Told as a series of vignettes, Weather sees Lizzie navigate motherhood, marriage and codependent familial relationships, while also worrying about the climate crisis and life in Trump’s America. Offill is a skilled writer, with an ability to make the seemingly mundane utterly compelling.  

Weather* is the first Jenny Offill novel I have read and what a brilliant introduction it was. I’ve already added Dept. of Speculation and Last Things to my towering to-read pile. 

Weather by Jenny Offill is published by Granta Books and is available in hardback and ebook format. 

I don’t use affiliate links, but if you like what I do you can show your support by buying me a coffee here. 

Our Stop by Laura Jane Williams

Our Stop by Laura Jane Willliams. Advance Reader Copy (eARC) from the publisher via Netgalley included. No affiliate links used. You can read my full disclosure policy here. 

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Nadia Fielding and her friends love reading the ‘Missed Connections’ column in the morning paper. One day a letter reminds her friends of Nadia, but it can’t be her. Can it?

The morning his letter appears in the paper, Daniel Weissman worries he has made a terrible mistake. Of course his plan for getting Nadia to speak to him won’t work. Will it? 

Full of laughter, friendship, and witty takes on modern dating, Our Stop* is a will they won't they story where, like all great rom coms, you know they probably will but the fun is in watching them get there.

Without giving too much away, I do have a little niggle about how one of the subplots was handled. Part of me was all *yay* representation!  Another part of me was disappointed by some of the language people used, or rather didn't use, to describe their sexuality. Like, I get it. Sexuality is a spectrum and people get to decide where they fall on that spectrum and how they identify. *raise your hand if you came out in your 20s as bisexual when you were previously out as a lesbian. Oh, that was me!* But it felt like a missed opportunity to explicitly name the largest group within the LGBTQ+ community. It won't stop me recommending the book, but it stuck out so I couldn't not mention it.

Our Stop by Laura Jane Williams is published by Avon Books and is available in paperback, audiobook and ebook format.

I don’t use affiliate links, but if you like what I do you can show your support by buying me a coffee here. 

Filter This by Sophie White

Filter This by Sophie White. Advance Reader Copy (eARC) from the publisher via Netgalley included. No affiliate links used. You can read my full disclosure policy here. 

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Ali Jones’ life isn’t exactly going to plan; her father is ill and her relationship with her mother can best be described as distant. Instagram provides a much needed creative outlet and a way to regain some control. She wants to be Ireland’s next big influencer, so when a misunderstanding leads her followers to think she is pregnant, she decides to play along. ‘Mummy Influencers’ are a big deal right now.

Shelly Devine has it all; the perfect husband, an adorable daughter, a lust worthy house, and all the important brand sponsorships. But Shelly’s life is far from what she portrays online, for one thing her husband isn’t as keen on their family being used as part of Shelly’s ‘brand’. 

Filter This* is a witty and poignant look at the people behind the perfectly curated Instagram feeds. In the hands of a lesser writer aspects of the storyline may seem far-fetched, but Sophie White’s writing is whip-smart. I can’t wait to read the sequel. 

Filter This by Sophie White is published by Hachette Books Ireland and is available in paperback, audiobook and ebook format. 

I don’t use affiliate links, but if you like what I do you can show your support by buying me a coffee here. 

Adults By Emma Jane Unsworth

Adults by Emma Jane Unsworth. Advance Reader Copy (eARC) from the publisher via Netgalley included. No affiliate links used. You can read my full disclosure policy here. 

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Jenny is 35, writes a weekly column for an online feminist magazine and owns her own home. Sounds like she has her life together, right? Not quite. Jenny and her partner Art have recently broken up, a decision that leaves Jenny wondering whether their relationship meant anything at all to Art.

She may own her house, but she cannot really afford it now that she is living alone. Her job isn't going so great, either. Add to that an obsession with social media, specifically Instagram, and the fact that she doesn't give her friendships the attention they deserve and, well, Jenny's life begins to spiral out of control.

Then her mother comes to stay, which Jenny is convinced will only make matters worse.

Adults* is a witty take on 30-something life, trying to curb your social media usage and figuring out who you really are.

While there are elements of the story that were not for me—the endless drinking and references to alcohol, for one!—Adults is an enjoyable read even though you'll likely want to yell "get a grip" at Jenny on more than one occasion.

Adults by Emma Jane Unsworth is published on January 30th by The Borough Press, an imprint of HarperCollins, and is available in hardback, audiobook and ebook format.

I don’t use affiliate links, but if you like what I do you can show your support by buying me a coffee here. 

The Five: The Untold Lives of the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper by Hallie Rubenhold

The Five: The Untold Lives of the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper by Hallie Rubenhold. No Advance Reader Copy included. No affiliate links used. You can read my full disclosure policy here. 

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How much do we really know about the women who were murdered by Jack the Ripper? For many of us, we know that they were sex workers, but not much else about their lives is mentioned in the true crime coverage of Jack the Ripper. The Five by Hallie Rubenhold sets out to rectify this by telling the stories of Mary Ann “Polly” Nichols, Annie Chapman, Elizabeth Stride, Catherine Eddowes, and Mary Jane Kelly with compassion and nuance. 

Rubenhold dismantles the narrative that Jack the Ripper targeted sex workers who clearly deserved it. The truth is, most of these women were not sex workers and, unlike most Ripper coverage, Rubenhold makes clear that where women are sex workers, that does not mean they deserve to be murdered. No one deserves that. 

I've been thinking a lot about how we consume true crime content and The Five deals with an aspect that I continue to struggle with; when we focus on the killer, what are we not learning about the victim(s)? I mentioned in my newsletter last year that reading I’ll Be Gone in the Dark by Michelle McNamara and The Fact of a Body: A Murder and a Memoir by Alexandria Marzano-Lesvenich in quick succession left me questioning whether our consumption of true crime as entertainment can ever be ethical. 

I still don’t have the answer, but The Five is another piece of the complicated puzzle and it is a must read for true crime fans.

The Five: The Untold Lives of the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper by Hallie Rubenhold is published by Doubleday, an imprint of Penguin Random House, and is available in hardback, paperback, audiobook and ebook format.

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Inheritance: A Memoir of Genealogy, Paternity, and Love by Dani Shapiro

Inheritance: A Memoir of Genealogy, Paternity, and Love by Dani Shapiro. No Advance Reader Copy included. No affiliate links used. You can read my full disclosure policy here. 

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When Dani Shapiro took a DNA test through a genealogy website in 2016 she wasn't expecting to find out that her dad was not her biological father. Yet that's what happened. As she grapples with the many questions this leaves about her family and her Jewishness, both she and her husband set out to find her biological father. Thanks to the same genealogy website it doesn't take long.

With her biological father found, Shapiro must now try to understand the small pieces of information he shares with her about the circumstances of her birth and his insistence that his privacy and that of his family be respected at all times.

Shapiro’s writing is engaging and situates us in the heart of the story rather than giving us a removed overview of her life-changing experience. 

While Inheritance: A Memoir of Genealogy, Paternity, and Love is one woman's story, I suspect it won't be the last we read about people discovering family secrets as a result of DNA tests/genealogy websites. 

Inheritance: A Memoir of Genealogy, Paternity, and Love by Dani Shapiro is published by Daunt Books and is available in hardback, paperback and ebook format. 

I don’t use affiliate links, but if you like what I do and want to show your support you can buy me a coffee here.