BOOKSIMO

Description The Radio 2 Book Club pick, perfect for fans of  The Flatshare 'This is the feel-good story, full of hope, that we all need to read right now.'  Woman & Home , Book of the Month ‘A joyous, funny read that leaves you all warm inside’  Beth Morrey, author of  Saving Missy Six strangers with one universal thing in common: their lives aren’t always what they make them out to be. What would happen if they told the truth instead? Julian Jessop is tired of hiding the deep loneliness he feels. So he begins  The Authenticity Project  – a small green notebook containing the truth about his life. Leaving the notebook on a table in his friendly neighbourhood café, Julian never expects Monica, the owner, to track him down after finding it. Or that she’ll be inspired to write down her own story. Little do they realize that such small acts of honesty hold the power to impact all those who discover the notebook and change their lives completely. Review I'm ...

Description This program is read by British actors Alison Steadman and Daisy Edgar-Jones, star of Hulu's  Normal People. A grandmother and granddaughter swap lives in  The Switch , a charming, romantic novel by Beth O’Leary, who has been hailed as “the new Jojo Moyes” ( Cosmopolitan UK )... When overachiever Leena Cotton is ordered to take a two-month sabbatical after blowing a big presentation at work, she escapes to her grandmother Eileen's house for some long-overdue rest. Eileen is newly single and about to turn eighty. She'd like a second chance at love, but her tiny Yorkshire village doesn't offer many eligible gentlemen. So they decide to try a two-month swap. Eileen will live in London and look for love. She’ll take Leena’s flat, and learn all about casual dating, swiping right, and city neighbors. Meanwhile Leena will look after everything in rural Yorkshire: Eileen’s sweet cottage and garden, her idyllic, quiet village, and her little neighborhood projects. Bu...

This Little Book is about being present to the wonders that exist around us At Ground Level, discovering all that we fail to see when we spend so much of our lives chasing bigger, better, faster, more, endeavouring to fly higher. Everything else seems much more desirable around us than ourselves, or our lives and loves, after a long day at the slug farm. When do we decide how to proceed with the life we have built thus far: Joy, Passion, Marriage, Divorce, Suicide, Enlightenment? Choices we have made. What if you built from a place of strength rather than always feeling diminished and unfulfilled? A life built upon the life you have, rather than the elusive life you imagine, yet fear. Build a great life in balance with your best self and your nurtured relationships. Transformation is seeing the hidden gems that truly exist in plain sight. We have all heard someone say, The grass is greener on the other side. Is it? Most of us were 4 or 5 years old when the belief structure we made with...

Description It takes a village... Cloverdale is known for its winding roads, undulating hills and colourful cottages, and now for its Library of Shared Things: a place where locals can borrow anything they might need, from badminton sets to waffle makers. A place where the community can come together. Jennifer has devoted all her energy into launching the Library. When her sister Isla moves home, and single dad Adam agrees to run a mending workshop at the Library, new friendships start to blossom. But what is Isla hiding, and can Adam ever mend his broken past? Then Adam's daughter makes a startling discovery, and the people at the Library of Shared Things must pull together to help one family overcome its biggest challenge of all . . . A heartwarming story about the kindness we can find when we least expect it, and the places we learn to call home. Review The first thing I want to say about this book is that it is not about a library for books! The second is it's not the cosy ...

BLURB  TV naturalist ‘Prof Leo’ Sanders makes it to his deathbed without a whiff of scandal — then confesses his career-defining wildlife discovery was a hoax.  A National Treasure shattering his own reputation on YouTube is enough to spark a media frenzy, and the curiosity of part-time journalism student Claire Webster who makes him the subject of her dissertation.  Her investigations lead to Prof Leo’s estranged family, and a high-flying advertising guru he also slandered in the video.  Ultimately Claire uncovers the truth behind the discovery of the Potley Hill Lemming — the first new species of British mammal in a century.  It’s a mystery spanning four decades; a tale of greed, obsession and long-forgotten murder at a lonely beauty spot.' A revered TV naturalist with a guilty secret, a cute critter, a brand of stout and a lovelorn personal trainer all collide with tragi-comic results in this witty whydunnit. The Last Lemming combines pathos, humour and myste...

Description A revised edition of the publisher’s inaugural publication in 1990 which won the Pandora Award from Women-in-Publishing. Inspirational in its original format, this new edition offers insight and motivation for budding writers from dozens of distinguished authors, celebrating the breadth of women’s writing in all its forms. Also includes the original writing workshops from the first edition plus quirky B/W illustrations as well as a foreword by Cheryl Robson, publisher and Managing Editor, who was a recent finalist in the ITV National Diversity Awards - Lifetime Achievement category. Aurora Metro Books was a finalist in the 2019 IPG Diversity in Publishing Awards and has a 30 year history of ground-breaking publishing, featuring both diverse and international authors. The complete list of contributors:  A.S. Byatt, Saskia Calliste, April De Angelis, Kit de Waal, Carol Ann Duffy, Sian Evans, Philippa Gregory, Mary Hamer, Jackie Kay, Shuchi Kothari, Bryony Lavery, Annee La...

Description She took 1930s New York by storm, working her way up writing copy for Macy's department store to become the highest paid advertising woman in the world. Now it is the last night of 1984 and Lillian, 85 years old but just as sharp as ever, is on her way to a party. It's chilly enough for her mink coat and Manhattan is grittier but the quick-tongued poet has never been one to scare easily. On a walk that takes her over 10 miles around the city, she meets bartenders, shopkeepers, criminals, parents, and parents-to-be, while reviewing a life of excitement and adversity, passion and heartbreak, illuminating all the ways New York has changed - and endured. A love letter to city life in all its guts and grandeur,  Lillian Boxfish Takes a Walk  paints a portrait of a remarkable woman across the canvas of a changing America: from the Jazz Age to the onset of the AIDS epidemic; the Great Depression to the birth of hip-hop. Based on the life of Margaret Fishback, a protofemin...

Description Ours is a society where many exploit the outrage of others in order to gain power - and we all too quickly take the bait. But by shouting about everything, we are in fact creating a world where outrage is without consequence. There is still much to be outraged by in our final frontier, but in order to enact change and become more effective online, we must learn to channel our responses. This is the essential guide to living through the age of outrage. Review I don't think I was really the target audience for this book. My idea of outrage is more along the Victor Meldrew vein, and I never engage in outrage on Twitter. However, I did like the style of writing, certainly humorous whilst getting the point across.  Mainly set around outrage on Twitter the book looks at people such as Katie Hopkins and Piers Morgan who often incite outrage and holds a telephone interview with Katie. She also looks at some past news stories and debates whether people are right to be outraged o...

Really happy to be a part of the Random Things Tour for this book today. Description ‘Awfully opinionated for a girl’ is what they call Hillary as she grows up in her Chicago suburb. Smart, diligent, and a bit plain, that’s the general consensus. Then Hillary goes to college, and her star rises. At Yale Law School, she continues to be a leader— and catches the eye of driven, handsome and charismatic Bill. But when he asks her to marry him, Hillary gives him a firm No. How might things have turned out for them, for America, for the world itself, if Hillary Rodham had really turned down Bill Clinton? With her sharp but always compassionate eye, Sittenfeld explores the loneliness, moral ambivalence and iron determination that characterise the quest for high office, as well as the painful compromises demanded of female ambition in a world ruled by men. Review ‘Awfully opinionated for a girl’ was the quote that made me want to read this book. I'm not really into politics and certainly n...

Description THEN 1976. Loo and her sister Bee live in a run-down cottage in the middle of nowhere, with their artistic parents and wild siblings. Their mother, Cathy, had hoped to escape to a simpler life; instead the family find themselves isolated and shunned by their neighbours. At the height of the stifling summer, unexplained noises and occurrences in the house begin to disturb the family, until they intrude on every waking moment . . . NOW Loo, now Lucy, is called back to her childhood home. A group of strangers are looking to discover the truth about the house and the people who lived there. But is Lucy ready to confront what really happened all those years ago? Review This book was chosen by a virtual library book club I've just joined, meaning I haven't chosen the book myself. It seemed like an interesting read, so I thought I would give it a go. The story flips between "Then" which is 1976 and "Now" which is present day (whenever that may be). Most...