Set primarily in Multan, we follow our main character Ayesha navigate the pressures of a changing Pakistan. Ayesha is in her late twenties, unmarried and dating in a landscape where the elder generations enforce their traditions on a youth embracing new values. Highlighting violence against women and rape culture in a silent society will always get a high five from me.

However, this does feel like a book written by a man unfortunately.

There is no denying this book is full of plot holes. They are everywhere and they are glaring at you the entire time.

There's also no denying that our main protagonist, Kit the Carer, has zero common sense and you would worry leaving her in charge of a goldfish. Next door Bozo Kenny has more wisdom in him than Kit does.

However....

I couldn't put this down during daylight hours. I heard noises at night and at times felt pretty freaked out.

The US occupied Iraq from 2003 to 2011 under the pretense that they they were saving the world from weapons of mass destruction. We know now that the US obliged the UN experts to do their dirty work and only when they were certain there was no nuclear weapons in Iraq, they unleashed their military onto the Iraqi population for 8 long years.

With its cast of characters, this examines what drives a man living in a bedouin town into a human bomb.

When a man falls under a London Underground train and within hours his flat mate is water boarded with vodka, the local police CID are suspicious.

From there we follow a dark path to a man on a mission. A very dark mission.

As with most thrillers there's some plot holes on reflection but nothing too glaring to ruin the overall plot. On the whole this was gripping and I enjoyed the twists and turns.

We follow Kein whose job in the Vietnam war was to search for dead bodies in the jungle. In the years after the war ended, he would drink to excess and write down the things that kept him up at night. This is his story. It's jumbled and mostly out of chronological order which can be confusing however the last few pages address the issues.

This book is full of horrors. Pages full of broken dreams and broken spirits. Lost lives, lost souls.

This is as dry and long winded as you'd expect it to be (why would a politician use 5 words when they can use 50?), however Lammy is ultimately advocating for diversity and inclusion and I can get behind that (if he can get over his fat phobia - there's some odd weight comments floating around this book).

The Paris Wife is one of my favorite books. I'm not a fan of Hemmingways books, I'm obsessed with the women in his life.

Love & Ruin focuses on wife number 3. Martha Gellhorn, a woman considered one of the greatest war correspondents of the 20th century.

McLain creates a vibe that absorbs me fully. Smoked filled rooms, whiskey on the rocks, artistic types with deep feelings, daydreamers immersed in reality. Typewriters, affairs and hangovers.

The first timeline is set during the second world war. Operation Pied Piper has launched and all children living in London are to be sent to the countryside. As Hazel and her sister Flora board the train, they know their lives will change.

The second timeline is set in the 60's and for the last twenty years Hazel has though of her sister Flora every single day and what happened the day she lost her.

Got off to a good start but lost its way.

Our protagonist is a 12 year old boy who lives with his mum and younger brother in a little village in Vietnam while his Dad works away in the city.

This feels like a diary, his thoughts and feelings on day to day events. Through his thoughts we meet his friends and understand the society around him in what feels like an adventure.

I liked how this is tackling some big issues like domestic violence.

I'm not sure how I feel about the fact that door smut exists but regardless, it does, it's here and it's been getting some buzz.

I thought the personality of the door was quite entertaining. The overall plot was as you'd expect for a book like this, full of plot holes and eye rolls.

Will I be boarding the door smut hype train? Nope but no judgement here, I'm not here to yuck anyone's yum.

Set in the Sudan in the late eighteenth century, this was a real eye opener for me as I know nothing of Sudans history and next to nothing about the Ottoman empire.

While I've read alot on the slave trade in the Americas, I have never given much thought to that trade in the Middle East.

I didn't know how Egypt and Turkiye along with the British, had their noses poked into Sudan during this period and the impact of those occupations.

This is a book within a book. A true crime non fiction writern by an aging male journalist which gives us the lead up and behind the scenes of the night Joni, a teenager, is burnt alive by her classmates.
We've all read enough true crime books by now to understand that these are long drawn out dry affairs that never get rated well.
She set out to write a terrible true crime book to showcase that true crime novels are full of fabricated truths.

As all readers of American literature know, it all begins with a raft down the Mississipi River towards the unreliable promise of the free states and beyond.

This is James's version of his adventure with Huckleberry Finn.

I love how the author has really tied this into the Twain novel and that it gives another side to Huckleberry's story by giving James a voice without tearing it down. It's a fantastic companion novel.

Now translated into English, this book is credited as the first Vietnamese middle grade book to talk about tragedies like death.

On the whole I liked the situations it tackled, be nice to people, remember details about people, share the love etc etc. I think the handling of death and grief was a bit wishy washy leaning on the Be Strong mantras which I'm not personally a fan of for any age group but nice to see death represented.

As a grief advocate I loved this book. I liked how it handled grief, dismissed the clichés, didn't shy from the reality.

But mostly I loved the acknowledgement that sometimes, those witnessing death close up, aren't the ones throwing caution to the wind and living life to the max. That while you know personally that life can be short, it's frightening to live that way. Fantastic representation.

Our time is split between two women. Beth whose husband has just left her for a work colleague. And Olivia whose son died age 8. Their stories entwine 68% of the way into the book and only for a few pages.

I'm not sure what was the project of this book, what the author was aiming for. It's flat, leads nowhere and for a book about Autism, it doesn't educate or enlighten at all.

Compared to her other titles this is weak.

Split into three timelines we follow three women of the Weyward bloodline. Altha (1619), Violet (1942) and Kate (2019) and how their stories all entwine.

I went into this expecting strong witchy girl power vibes and in that respect the book feels like a fail to me however the storyline were enough to keep me going and while in a years time I know I won't remember this, at the time of reading it was decent enough.

I'm too old for these kinds of books. The insta love of people in their early twenties is a total eye roll at this point.

I couldn't get behind the characters, the plot or most importantly the domestic violence which in real life I'm an advocate for.

There's better books out there showcasing these tropes in my opinion however if a book gets people talking about serious issues then high five for that.

This book is primarily about Tom and Ming and their relationship. Tom's coming out. His first gay relationship with Ming. Ming's feelings of not quite being in the right body. The transition. The aftermath.

It's a gritty read, getting down to the rawness of love in all it's forms. Like a microscopic view of individual strands of relationships.

Love, loss, grief, hope runs with fluidity throughout the book. I've laughed and I've cried (alot).

This book is such fun!

Vera is 60 and owns a world famous tea shop, except its not world famous and in recent years her customers are dwindling.

When she goes to open her shop one morning and finds a dead body, Vera takes it into her own hands to investigate.

This trots along at a decent pace and Vera especially is well rounded and her one liners made me smile. All round the character development is decent.

Set in the early 1900's in Kenya & Tanzania, we witness the invasion of the Germans and later the British.

There were parts of this I was totally absorbed in, while some chapters I struggled through. Some characters were really well done and interesting, while others flat and didn't really have a role anywhere.

Now reaching the end, I really like this story (which has been a theme for me with this author's work).

The way this book is structured has really left me in awe. It's incredibly thoughtful.

Each chapter of this book is told from a different family member and in each chapter we hop forward in time a couple of years. We see snippets of the Israeli 6 day war on Egypt, Syria and Palestine. Iraq invading Kuwait. Israel bombing Lebanon. We see moments but it's in the gaps, what's unseen and unsaid that it's going to keep me awake tonight.

Meet the O'Briens. There's Rosie and Joe plus their four adult children. JJ, Patrick, Meghan and Katie. Each character is individual and vibrant, the sibling relationships are hilarious and heartbreaking, the parent / children dynamics are raw, real, relatable.

Genova took me on a journey of science with well thought out characters which is assessable to my non medically trained brain and all the while breaking my heart.

An exceptional book.

Set in Vietnam this centres those children. The children born to Vietnamese women and Americans soldiers.

This in my opinion is a successful dual timeline. One during the Viet Nam war and the interactions between local women and the soldiers. The second one 40 odd years after and those children (now adults) dealing with the consequences. I was equally invested in both timelines and both trotted along in a nice breezy pace.

Does this book want to be a fictional account of the Greek / Turkish civil war in Cyprus or a Natural World non fiction by David Attenborough? It's seems to be both.

We primarily follow a young couple in Cyprus during the civil war. Defne is Turkish, Kostas is Greek, a dangerous combination during those times. We also follow a Fig Tree who wants to harp on about the natural world in all it's elements over and over again.

Not for me.

It's hard to review this as a book because it does feel like my life. The first years anniversary of my sisters death is very fresh in my mind so if you'd asked me how I think I'd find the sisters on the one year anniversary, I'd have a pretty good idea.

Considering the author hasn't lost a sister, Mellors has a great insight into what life is like. The ramifications of losing a sister, the rippling effect into your entire life and existence.

Doris (a white woman) was minding her own business in her sleepy English cottage when she was kidnapped, shipped off and sold into slavery to serve Black people.

This book takes all the justifications for slavery and racism and by turning them onto white people along with a slice of satire and silliness, really shows how ridiculous (and arrogant) us whites are.

I liked this, but I'd hoped to love it.

A family saga set primarily in Lebanon, yes please!

It took me a good 60 pages to ease into this but then I was more than comfortable surrounded by 3 messy adult siblings born and raised in the US and their mother (Syrian) and father (Lebanese) and their return to Lebanon to sell their grandfather's house.

Spanning over 40 ish years, we get to know our characters pasts and presents along with all their flaws, secrets, hopes and reasons.

I was in Vietnam in December. I did the Cu Chi tunnels, learnt about the war and the unification of Viet & Nam. I'll admit the first 100 pages of this book annoyed me, theres a lot of pro American savior BS going on here.

I should have more faith in this author by now.

"A silence fell between them, in it lay the ugly truth that none of them wanted to face. The village was in South Vietnam. And only the Americans had bombs".

An intense read.

Over 90,000 people have rated this book on Goodreads and it has an average rating of 4.11 and I just don't get it, clearly I'm missing something.

The characters felt the same. The same voice, no depth, nothing distinctive about them. The two time periods felt the same which is ridiculous considering the generational gap. The plot is far to convenient and ties up nicely with big pretty bows everywhere.

I don't get the hype.

We meet Alice at age 8 who sees people in colours, in auras. Her mother is unpredictable and is generally found either with dark tentacles hovering around her eager to suck people into the toxicity or surrounded by the sadness of blue.

As Alice ages, we watch her try to navigate the world trying to avoid the moods and colours of others and create a life for herself.

I love this idea but this book sparked no colour for me.

Disappointing.

Leni doesn't remember much of her father before the Vietnam war, but since his return to the US she has learnt to walk on eggshells.

When the opportunity arises to move to Alaska, she hopes for better, calmer but as summer ends and the 18 hour nights begin, danger lingers everywhere.

Kirstin Hannah is fantastic at fully rounded characters and creating an atmosphere.

An unforgettable read.

It starts with one college kid that goes to sleep and doesn't wake up regardless of the people around them trying to wake them up, they continue dreaming.

Then it starts to spread. The sickness.

I really enjoyed The Age of Miracles by the same author and here she is again taking an everyday occurance and using it to create an after to our before.

I do think the ending was rushed but overall I enjoyed this.

Sweet dreams readers.

Set in the Appalachian Mountains, we meet Damon Fields, a Melungeon, on his first day of life. Born in a trailer to an dead father and a drug addict mother, the future is not bright. Damon is literal trailer trash.

Having not heard of this region or Melungeons and only having a vague idea of 'hillbillies', I learnt so much reading this. I love a book that takes me into a culture I know very little about and educates me.

While women tend to live longer then men, women have far less pain free years. There's little medical research done that relates specifically to women and pain. What there is, is very bikini focused (breasts and reproductive organs).

I flew through this book. An easy breezy narrative (regardless of how heavy the top is), personal and relevant experiences shared, science written in laymen terms with a sprinkling of data.

I've just finished this novel and realised that I never knew our protagonists name, flicking back through the pages I don't think we are ever told.

We do know he is in his forties, he teaches in the UK and has a failing heart. We also know his family in Zanzibar have no idea he lives with an English woman and has a 17 year old daughter.

This feels very much like a character study, how silence can wrap itself around unsaid words and snowball.

The people on platform 5 are strangers. Every day taking the same commute to and from work. They have secret names for each other, have made assumptions about each other based on their clothes or how loudly they talk on the phone until the day comes when Piers chokes on a grape.

Beautifully heart warming, genuinely funny and filled with community hope. As someone who commutes daily to work on a train, this encapsulated so much.

Set in Vietnam we have one family, two timelines. One during the land reforms in the thirties and the other set in the seventies during the Viet Nam war.

I learnt a lot reading this book. About the history, the culture and family dynamics.

With both tinelines handling heavy topics and featuring the same characters I did feel confused at times, I think a linear timeline would have worked better for me personally. That aside I did enjoy this.

Meg was 16 when her parents died. Her elder sister Sarah was 26 and had to leave her big career in London to return to her small home town to step into the role of 'Mum' for Meg.

Fast forward twenty years and the sisters haven't spoken for a very long time. There's a lot of resentment, bad memories and a well of grief between them.

This book had me between trying to swallow the lump in my throat and giggling like a school girl.

Firstly, don't be fooled by the cover or title. There's no Idol here, nor is there a glistening poolside lifestyle. All we see here is a sleepy town that's always cold.

The female lead is (probably intensionally) awful, she fluctuates between acting 40 and 4 and it's impossible to get a handle on who she is.

The second female lead is entirely wet.

They call each other mouse. Yes really.

All in all this is a rough read.

We meet Gopi in the aftermath of losing her mother. She's the youngest of 3 girls and Dad, in his quiet way, isn't coping. No one in this family is dealing with their grief.

Grief and loss open up massive spaces and Gopi fills her space by playing Squash at Western Lane every day.

This is a short book at less than 200 pages but I feel like it needs a good edit. I like what this book is trying to communicate but the execution falls flat.

This book is very descriptive and dilly dallies all over the place and we are given far more information than we would ever need however it does create an atmosphere which absorbs you. At times you could almost smell the scenes being described.

Set between Zanzibar and London, this is the story of Salim and his family secrets. I was pretty invested in the characters here and how their lives were playing out.

I liked this, it was a decent read

Set in Canada, this book explores the Jane Network. An underground network performing illegal abortions in a safe clean environment before the legalisation of the procedure.

I also learnt alot, while I knew backstreet abortions took place, I had only thought of that in terms of the dirty coat hanger type, not the clean surgery ones.

Firstly, the characters here are ridiculous. Flat, no personality, basic, stupid and every word they speak is dribble.

Secondly, there's no real plot and the timeline makes zero sense. When you get to the end you find out that you have to read book two if you want to find out what happens next.

And thirdly, there's smartphones and smart watches and an array for techy gadgets but the Internet is dial up.

Chanel Miller's victim impact statement went viral a few days after she read it out in court to her attacker. This is her memoir.

Chanel takes us though that night. The immediate aftermath. The nurses, doctors, police officers, lawyers, defense attorneys, judges. The media, the frat boys, the university board. The verdict. That speech.

A must read.

I didn't know that Japan controlled Korea for 35 years and the ramifications for the Koreans living inside and outside of Japan of which still exist.

I knew very little about the history and relationship between these two countries and I learnt so much reading this and it's tie in with Germany and WW2 really expanded what knowledge I did have.

Within these pages we travel from Korea to Japan through four generations of the same family.

I found this book a bore which is very unusual as it's set when Jack was in active military service and these ones are my favorites but the actual story line didn't grab me.

It was all desk work, no action.

We all now know that Lee Child had itchy feet with this series. I wouldn't be surprised if this book was being drafted while he was deciding whether to hand over to Andrew Child or to finish it up.

Not up to the usual standard at all.

Annie is an AI Bot, a cuddle bunny. Custom made for Doug, the man who owns her.

Through Annie's eyes we see her life with Doug. She's programmed to please him, to satisfy him. Through Doug, Annie learns what it is to be human. She learns our traits, expressions, social norms and about control, lies and deceit.

This book has so much to say about women, relationships and AI.

A fantastic book club book, a vibrant discussion is guaranteed.

This is the story of Nuri and Afra who we initially meet in the UK as they await their asylum hearing. From there we go backwards, to Syria where war rages on.

I really liked how the author showcased PTSD throughout this story, its an aspect that doesn't get much attention but an important one in the refugee experience.

Another book shining a light and giving a perspective that we don't see reflected in current media.

Javier was 9 when he migrated alone from El Salvador to the US and this is his story.

Going in I knew this was a memoir however I didn't expect it to feel like it was written by a 9 year old. I read a fair bit of Middle Grade but I'm not the biggest fan of non fiction for this age category however after a few chapters I was really invested in this.

If you have youngsters in your life this is a great resource on migration and displacement.