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Description FROM THE INTERNATIONALLY BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF  ESSENTIALISM  COMES A GUIDE TO MAKING THE MOST IMPORTANT TASKS EFFORTLESS The intricacy of modern life has created a false dichotomy between things that are 'hard and important,' and those that are 'easy and trivial.' Everything has become so much harder than it ought to be. But, Greg McKeown, bestselling author of  Essentialism , says, there is a third alternative. In  Effortless , he offers practical strategies for making the most vital tasks the easiest ones. Honed over the better part of a decade, these strategies include: · Asking 'What Step Can I Remove?' (accomplish more, in fewer steps) · Having the Courage to Be Rubbish (prioritize progress over perfection) · Deciding What 'Done' Looks Like (don't keep running after you pass the finish line) McKeown's philosophy of essentialism has helped thousands to eliminate nonessential activities and focus on the few that really matter. Wor

DESCRIPTION These are people you know, but not as you know them. Peel back the mask and see. CAN  YOU  FIND THE FAMOUS PERSON HIDDEN IN EVERY STORY? Dreamers, singers, heroes and killers, they can dazzle with their beauty or their talent or their unmitigated evil, yet inside themselves, they are as frail and desperate as the rest of us. But can you see them? Can you unravel the truth? ‘Oh, how I enjoyed these stories. A highly original and beautifully crafted collection that explodes into the reader’s consciousness like fireworks’ - Kate Horsley, award-winning author of The American Girl. ‘Tightly written, technically accomplished, light-footed, wryly ironic and genuinely affecting. Excellent stuff’ - Professor Graham Mort, Director of The Centre for Transcultural Writing and Research and winner of both the Bridport Prize and The Edge Hill Prize. This book is dedicated to the victims of violent crime, the struggle against discrimination in all its forms and making the world a better pl

  Description Kate MacDougall always knew her heart wasn't really in her job at Sotheby's. All around her, friends were finding their dream jobs and whooshing up career ladders. After yet another breakage, this time of two precious porcelain pigeons, she had enough, and walked out of her snoozy, back office existence into the unknown world of the then-nascent gig economy. London's No. 1 Dog-Walking Agency is the story of her next 9 years and the dogs (and people) she meets along the way. There's Winston, the Labrador, who isn't allowed to get muddy, even after his owners split up and then enlist Kate in their custody battle. There's the chic trio of Islington couples whose immaculately arranged dog walking schedule is thrown off when one of them gets off with the dog walker Kate has employed. There's Kate's long-suffering, dog-agnostic boyfriend Finlay, and her mother, who is always on the alert for wedding bells. Amongst all this, there's Kate herse

I'm so pleased to be on the blog tour for this book today. Description They say you can't choose your family . . . But what if they're wrong? Chloe lives a quiet life. Working as a newspaper archivist in the day and taking care of her nan in the evening, she's happy simply to read about the lives of others as she files the news clippings from the safety of her desk. But there's one story that she can't stop thinking about. The case of Angie Kyle  –  a girl, Chloe's age, who went missing as a child. A girl whose parents never gave up hope. When Chloe's nan is moved into care, leaving Chloe on the brink of homelessness, she takes a desperate step: answering an ad to be a lodger in the missing girl's family home. It could be the perfect opportunity to get closer to the story she's read so much about. But it's not long until she realizes this couple isn't all they seem. In a house where everyone has something to hide, is it possible to get  t

  Description Four people walked into the dining room that night. One would never leave. Matthew:  the perfect husband. Titus:  the perfect son. Charlie:  the perfect illusion. Rachel:  the perfect stranger. Charlie didn’t want her at the book club. Matthew wouldn’t listen. And that’s how Charlie finds himself slumped beside his husband’s body, their son sitting silently at the dinner table, while Rachel calls 999, the bloody knife still gripped in her hand. Review Who knew belonging to a book club could end in a murder? This book begins with the end - in that we know from the outset that Matthew is dead at the dinner table. What we don't know, although we might think we do, is who did it? and what led to this murder? Be prepared for some unsavoury spoilt privileged characters, who quite frankly I couldn't care less about more and more as the book progressed. What I did like was the impressive almost secret service Father - he's someone you need to know and have on your sid

Description Two best friends .   One missed chance .   And a night that changes everything . Eve, Justin, Susie and Ed have been friends since they were eighteen. Now in their 30s, the four are still as close as ever, Thursday pub quiz night is still sacred, and Eve is still secretly in love with Ed. Maybe Eve should have moved on by now, but she can’t stop thinking about what could have been. And she knows Ed sometimes thinks about it too. Then one night, in an instant, all their lives change forever. And, as Eve learns she didn’t know her friends as well as she thought, she also discovers she isn’t the only person keeping secrets… Review I've read all of Mhairi's books and loved them, this one is no exception.  I realise I've been reading Mhairi's books since the first one in 2012 - so it should come as no surprise that her writing style has evolved. It's still Mhairi that's for sure. Unable to pin her into a neat genre, she has one all of her own. Not really

  Description Dot Watson has lost her way. Twelve years ago her life veered off course, and the guilt over what happened still haunts her. Before then she was living in Paris, forging an exciting career; now her time is spent visiting her mother's care home, fielding interfering calls from her sister and working at the London Transport Lost Property office, diligently cataloguing items as misplaced as herself. But when elderly Mr Appleby arrives in search of his late wife's purse, his grief stirs something in Dot. Determined to help, she sets off on a mission - one that could start to heal Dot's own loss and let her find where she belongs once more... Review Strong trigger warning - scenes of attempted suicide, suicide, dementia, sexual assault This book wasn't quite what I was expecting. Whilst a lovely read in places, it is also very, very dark in a lot of others. I listened to the audio version of this book. Dot works in lost property at TFL and is, shall we say, a l